Save Money on Cheese

d3mon4ngel

Good morning all,

I'm not sure if this is in the right place, and may have already been discussed, but I'd like to share my tip for saving money on cheese. Me and my boyfriend are both cheese-monsters and can go through ridiculous amounts at times. One of our best purchases ever has to be Culinare One-Touch Automatic Power Grater. We bought it for £10.99 on offer in TJ Hughes about 6 months ago. You fill it up the bottom with the cheese cut into blocks, press the button, then go and get on with doing something else for the meal until the jar is filled up. You can also grate directly over your meal, e.g. spaghetti bolognaise.

I went back to TJ Hughes a few weeks ago to see if I could get one for my step-mum, but they have stopped doing them. I've just found some on offer at Tesco Direct though, and thought I'd share this with you. They are currently £14.99 (usually £19.99).

http://direct.tesco.com/q/R.207-0069.aspx

I highly highly recommend it - it's saved us a fortune on cheese, and pretty much paid for itself in the first few weeks of having it as we're using roughly half the amount that we were before.

Plus you can use it to grate other stuff of course

Enterprise_1701C

Thanks for sharing - unfortunately if I had cheese around ready grated or even easy to grate I suspect I would be using more of it!!

Just one thing I would like to ask - how well does the cheese keep after it's grated?

ClaireLR

Jane_Blackford wrote: »

Thanks for sharing - unfortunately if I had cheese around ready grated or even easy to grate I suspect I would be using more of it!!

Just one thing I would like to ask - how well does the cheese keep after it's grated?

We keep grated cheese in the freezer, stops me picking at it! Seems to keep very well in there for about 3 months

d3mon4ngel

I don't know about ready grated to be honest. We just cut it off the block when we need it. The amount we are actually cutting off it each time is about half though. It certainly seems to make it go further

Clowance

asda have it for £13 but delivery is £4.95 unless order over £25

deebee

£14.90 on amazon, think there's free delivery

kippers

If you don't mind 'value' cheese then Tesco sell ready grated value cheese which is cheaper per kg than the value cheese. I buy the bags and split them in usable amounts and then freeze them. I just take out a small bag when needed. It doesn't take long to defrost and cheese is fine when defrosted.

Clowance

deebee wrote: »

£14.90 on amazon, think there's free delivery

No, Amazon have it at £19.25 with free delivery, Amazon marketplace have it from £14.90 with £4 delivery .

berniesmaster

thanks op, i allways grate a huge block for the week by hand, I HATE THAT JOB!!!!

maman

kippers wrote: »

If you don't mind 'value' cheese then Tesco sell ready grated value cheese which is cheaper per kg than the value cheese. I buy the bags and split them in usable amounts and then freeze them. I just take out a small bag when needed. It doesn't take long to defrost and cheese is fine when defrosted.

I do buy value cheese when feeling very idle but it's not the same as 'real' cheese because of potato starch added. I don't split the bag, just take out what I want when needed.

Definitely the best way is to buy mature cheddar (don't need so much for same flavour) when it's on offer and grate it yourself. I have a Mouli but it's still not my favourite task. Thanks OP I'll investigate treating myself to one of those. Do you put yours in the dishwasher?

Agree about cutting back on amount of cheese used. Paramount for me was limiting amount of cheese OH was eating for health reasons. I've cut back hugely this year, we have Philly Light (stock up when it's £1) to have on crackers and cheddar for grating in sauces etc. I cut up a big slab and freeze so that there's never much 'fresh' cheese around for him to eat!

DirtPoorGuy

maman wrote: »

I do buy value cheese when feeling very idle but it's not the same as 'real' cheese because of potato starch added. I don't split the bag, just take out what I want when needed.

Ready grated cheeses use anti caking agents to stop the cheese sticking together, potato starch, calcium carbonate and cellulose are all used as anti caking agents, it makes no difference wether it is value or 'real' cheese they will all have at at least one of these ingredients.