Feeding on a budget without a freezer!!

Toonie

I would imagine that shopping for two on a regular basis will help cut down on wasted food as you can just buy what you will use over a few days, rather than buying for a week or longer and forgetting things. If you do need things for a longer amount of time, make sure you check dates and make a note of them so you can see when things need using up.

Even though I have a freezer (actually two) I find that some tinned sweetcorn, tinned fish/meat and dried pasta are good standbys to have in a cupboard for an easy meal if you've nothing fresh in the fridge.

Good luck with your move!

Pitlanepiglet

Having lived in a town in Gloucestershire, I wonder if you are perhaps overlooking how costly things often are in small village shops? Whilst it's lovely to be able to support local stores you may find the cost of doing so is quite significant plus there is often quite limited choice. I couldn't have lived without a freezer as the local shops were either pricey (but very nice - the wealthy weekenders keep the prices up to some extent) or manky (the local Somerfield) and at the time Mr T's was a 22 mile round trip which added cost and took time that I didn't have.

Good luck with the move, whereabouts are you going? I was in Tetbury for five years.

cuddlymarm

Hi

When I say a village I mean that it has quite a few shops and it is more expensive than here but not too bad. Theres also a small Mr Ts and a Coop so there is enough competition for the shops not to take advantage.

We're moving to Wotton under edge. I've been down for a few days but haven't explored enough to have got my bearings yet.

I'm not particularly enjoying packing but the move will now soon be over

Cuddles

Pitlanepiglet

Hi Cuddlymarm, not far from my former neck of the wood. Wotton is a reasonable sized town rather than a village so it shouldn't be too bad, it's a nice part of the world and I'm sure you'll enjoy it.

My Dad has a Co-op and a small Mr T and his Mr T has virtually none of the offers that my larger one has. Might be worth checking whether you can get a Mr T delivery that comes from a bigger store, we've discovered that Dad can get a delivery from the "big store" 30 mile away which has a better range and other supermarkets to compete against!

miss_cupcake_2

Hello OS'ers! I'm new here, although I've been lurking for a few months now. I love this board and read it most days, the advice is so helpful!

I have one question which I hope you'll be able to help me with. I'm 24 and live in a small rented flat with my boyfriend. We both work full time and earn decent wages, but I'm still determined to live as OS as possible. I find this quite difficult when it comes to food though, because we don't have a freezer. Our fridge has a tiiiiny frozen compartment, but I can't even fit a loaf of bread in there We try to eat as healthily as possible so I'm always spending a lot of money on fresh fruit/veg. We don't eat much meat because it's expensive and we can't bulk buy & freeze. Does anyone have any tips for food shopping/cooking the OS way without using a freezer?

ellawood

Do you have a anyone who would split large buys with family or friends I am going to ask one of my friend if she would like to go halfs on a large sack of potatoes which I think she would but you could do that with other large packs HTH

miss_cupcake_2

Unfortunately I live quite far from most of my friends and family (they're in scotland, i'm in south england!) so I don't really know anyone who I could spilt stuff with. I guess I'll just have to do the best I can until we move somewhere with a freezer. Thanks for the suggestion

absolutebounder

This may come as a surprise to you but not so many years ago people didnt have freezers. OS people learnt to preserve food in other ways

ellawood

absolutebounder wrote: »

This may come as a surprise to you but not so many years ago people didnt have freezers. OS people learnt to preserve food in other ways

That is a very good point We did live in a very tiny flat for about 2 years we had a small fridge and cooker but that was it no room for a washing machine it was that small we used to shop every 3 days or so but we used tins packets and dried things quite a lot but I was not very os then and a lot was junk which we do not do now though oh loves smash and things like that yuck but there are other ways of course like drying and salting pickleing (sp) so I hope someone will have more ideas for you and I will watch as now I do have a large freezer and out of the fishing season a chest freezer I still run out of space:D

bigbeff

Hi,

I am currently saving for a deposit for a house and wanted to cut down food expenses. A lot of advice on here seems to be cook in batches and keep in freezer but we rent and don't have a freezer (its a nightmare) but will hopefully only be for another 6 months or so. Has anyone got any advice that doesn't involve freezing foods?

Thanks