Grocery Shopping budget thread

paulabear

Best way to start would be by having a look at all the recipe ideas for eating cheaply that are at the top of the Old Style board. Then you need to start planning your meals for the week; if you're anything like I was as a student then your life is probably pretty unpredictable so you might want to look into getting some containers to freeze stuff in, so you can defrost stuff when you get in instead of having to cook, or end up getting quick, easy, expensive stuff from shops or takeaways!
I so wish I'd got a slow cooker and used it when I was a student; you can leave stuff in it on low and just eat it when you get in; there are loads of great recipes on here, again

Anjelika

my slow cooker is so useful. i make soups most days. lentil and carrot soup, curried parsnip soup, spicy pumpkin soup to name a few. bubble and squeak is good made from left-over vegetables mixed with beaten egg and fried.

poppy-glos

what foods do you like?

if you like chinese or indian alot of these meals are cheap to make, also buying ingredients cheaply helps, going to an ethnic supermarket in a city means really cheap deals on spices, staples and veg. If making chinese chow mein the 9p noodles from most supermarkets with veg and soy sauce, oil and sugar tastes fab.


Another thing we love which is cheap and filling is pancakes and yorkshire puddings, equal quantities by volume of egg, milk and plain flour, for pancakes melt a knob of butter in a pan then swirl round (to grease it) then tip into pancake mix and mix, no need to grease the pan for the second pancake, it won't stick as mix has the butter in, or for yorkshires i now spray a ceramic dish with onecal spray (to nonstick it) , put about 15ml oil in dish (for the flavour of the fat!) then put in pancake mix with dish cold and put in a hot oven for half an hour.

ooh, another thing,, the two for one in supermarkets of spreads like utterly butterly, good value to buy them, they last ages so don't go off, and the containers are great for freezing single portions when they're finished with.


Good luck with your cooking and studies

jamespir

you could feed your self on £10 but it all depends on what you eat

abby1234519

jamespir wrote: »

you could feed your self on £10 but it all depends on what you eat

Now if Icould feed myself on a tenner that would be a challenge worth taking up, but how to go about it?

abby1234519

poppy-glos wrote: »

what foods do you like?

if you like chinese or indian alot of these meals are cheap to make, also buying ingredients cheaply helps, going to an ethnic supermarket in a city means really cheap deals on spices, staples and veg. If making chinese chow mein the 9p noodles from most supermarkets with veg and soy sauce, oil and sugar tastes fab.


Another thing we love which is cheap and filling is pancakes and yorkshire puddings, equal quantities by volume of egg, milk and plain flour, for pancakes melt a knob of butter in a pan then swirl round (to grease it) then tip into pancake mix and mix, no need to grease the pan for the second pancake, it won't stick as mix has the butter in, or for yorkshires i now spray a ceramic dish with onecal spray (to nonstick it) , put about 15ml oil in dish (for the flavour of the fat!) then put in pancake mix with dish cold and put in a hot oven for half an hour.

ooh, another thing,, the two for one in supermarkets of spreads like utterly butterly, good value to buy them, they last ages so don't go off, and the containers are great for freezing single portions when they're finished with.


Good luck with your cooking and studies

I live in Leeds, I think the markets quite good for meat and food. I love pancakes but mum always told me off for eating too many!

abby1234519

Anjelika wrote: »

my slow cooker is so useful. i make soups most days. lentil and carrot soup, curried parsnip soup, spicy pumpkin soup to name a few. bubble and squeak is good made from left-over vegetables mixed with beaten egg and fried.

I adore soup.....I need to buy a soup cookbook, think we've got a slow cooker, I guess I could cook a weeks worth and freeze it? Then again I'd have no idea where to start

jamespir

abby1234519 wrote: »

Now if Icould feed myself on a tenner that would be a challenge worth taking up, but how to go about it?

its not hard and you dont have to use all smart price stuff
theres lots of places like iceland and farmfoods that do top name brands and theyr around a pound each so for instance you bbrought a 12 pack of birds eye burgers for 1.50 in farmmfoods 1.75 in in iceland they could last you six meals if you eat two burgers at a time

but as i said it all depends on what you eat and how much


in tesco's they have thyre value lasagne's for 21p now ive had these and a well known brand and apart from the sauce is slightly more runny on the value theres absoultley no difference in taste or anything

poppy-glos

abby1234519 wrote: »

I adore soup.....I need to buy a soup cookbook, think we've got a slow cooker, I guess I could cook a weeks worth and freeze it? Then again I'd have no idea where to start

i was a cookery book addict for about 25 years, last 3 or 4 i rarely use one (unless i want a specific recipe i can't find reproduced on the web). i now go to google, type in what i remember of the recipe i want, ie leek and potatoe soup recipe
and up pop thousands of them. click through they will all be similar. that will save you a pound or two in books and some space too!

my favourite pud of all time is this one, http://uktv.co.uk/food/recipe/aid/536253,the recipe is for six big wineglasses full, but i make it and serve it in shot glasses (does about 20), and guests who want a little pud have one and the sweet tooths may have 4 or 5. I have the recipe book somewhere, i think its in a gary rhodes book i have, but easier to do a recipe search than find an exact book in this house!!

SailorSam

poppy-glos wrote: »

what foods do you like?

if you like chinese or indian alot of these meals are cheap to make, also buying ingredients cheaply helps, going to an ethnic supermarket in a city means really cheap deals on spices, staples and veg. If making chinese chow mein the 9p noodles from most supermarkets with veg and soy sauce, oil and sugar tastes fab.


Another thing we love which is cheap and filling is pancakes equal quantities by volume of egg, milk and plain flour, for pancakes melt a knob of butter in a pan then swirl round (to grease it) then tip into pancake mix

Jamie Oliver made some nice pancakes the other day, he grated a pear and added it to the mix, i didn't have any pears so i chopped up an apple, it was lovely. I suppose you could add anything.