budget cooking

Tracey04

what are your best money saving tips when it comes to cooking food and planning meals for the week/month/
Thanks

Cazzdevil

My best money saving tip:

Tinned tomatoes, rice and pasta are cheap as chips and you can do a WHOLE lot with them!

Raspberry_Swirl

as much money as i have saved through meal planning, you can't overlook the random yellow-stickered purchase from the supermarket reduced section. if there's a bargain there then buy it and shove it in the freezer. then incorporate it into a meal plan the following week/month.

Jayar

Seems obvious but, Throw away as little as possible. There is something so satisfying about making a tasty meal from leftovers.

Elliesmum

Big bag of spuds If you can get hold of one from a farm shop or the like (I appreciate not everyone can get to a farm shop). Endless uses for meals - cheap as chips (:o sorry pardon the pun).

HTH's

EM x

Bogof_Babe

Serve every main meal with bread and butter/spread. You can cut down on the expensive ingredients because people will fill up with bread (or in our case make most things into a butty ).

A chip butty and salad is very nice, and people won't notice that there isn't a meat type item in the meal.

singlehouseholder

Lentils, lentils, lentils!! Thay can me made into soup, curry, casserole, veggy burgers, as a base for pasta sauce, there's loads you can do with a bag of lentils and a few basic storecupboard ingredients. I use my lentils every other day, and its an added bonus that they're good for you and filling!

KarensKraftyBits

Cheese and potato pie
bag of potatoes
grated cheese
tin of beans
1 tomato
pack of bacon or gammon

Make the mash potato add a little butter and the cheese, mash till creamy .
Put the mash in a oven tray then sprinkle a little cheese on top and add sliced tomato, cook intill lightly brown.
Serve with beans and bacon.

LJM

most of the meals i cook are served with either hm bread/hm breadrolls i make most of our own munchies so having a store cupboard loaded with the basics is a must,i always make sure i have a good supply of tinned toms/pasta as has been said you can make so much from.plus i also like to try and do my meal planner at the same time as my shop list as i find its easier and i tend not to forget as much

mrsmortenharket

Make an inventory of the food you already have in the house.

Try & make as many meal plans out of that as possible.

You might need to buy the odd onion etc etc!

You'd be amazed at what meals you already have before actually going shopping.

Lisa x

newlywed

Buy bigger packs of mince when on offer and either split into sections and freeze or else make double/three times the amount of the meal you were going to make and freeze the extra. Saves time later and saves money. Plan to have those extra meals once a week or so - so you don't get bored of the same thing.

Also add in lots of extra veg to things like lasagna, s/pie, curry etc. Means you get extra vitamins, you don't have to cook too much extra veg if you don't fee like it and you can stretch the meat much further!!

Buying bigger cheaper packs of onions and chopping and freezing works too.

Buy a large whole chicken instead of chicken breasts. After you've roasted it rip all the meat off and freeze in portions to use later. Works out much cheaper.