Help me save on my shopping bill

carlos700

I am trying my best to cut shopping bill by at least half and i have been advised by dept free wannabees that this is the place to come.

I am trying to make a list of items that i can go to Asda with and just buy what is on my list but i am finding it really hard to think what we eat.I will give you an idea of what kind of things we like and i am hoping you can help me out with receipes.

We like pasta bakes i usually just buy the jars from asda and use chicken & bacon is there any other variations to a pasta bake i can use ?Thinking of it we do only seem to eat chicken ,i buy chicken fillets.I do make lots of stir frys with chicken and again i buy jars of sauces from asda.What do you make with your chicken fillets any ideas?So basically if i could have any ideas from you that could save me money i will be forever grateful.

kittycat07

Carlos

How about making some of your own sauces for the pasta bakes - the'll probably be cheaper (and tastier) - use a tin of tomatoes (generally the value tomatoes are good) and maybe an onion and pepper. Or some bacon and a white sauce with some cheese.

Do you buy chicken breasts? They tend to be more expensive than diced chicken so maybe look at that....

It's hard to suggest things without knowing more about what you eat LOL

Generally we buy a whole chicken, then have roast one day, left overs the next, then cook some of the chicken in a sauce - use any extra for sandwiches and boil up the bones and make a stock for soup.

Also - do you have old shopping bills? We found it really useful to look through and see where the extra money went over a period of about 6 weeks and then worked out from there where we could cut back. Generally home cooking is cheaper than sauces though

freda

My list would be:

whole chicken
tinned toms
onions
garlic (real one)
dried herbs
worcestershire sauce (optional)
bason

Roast the chicken for a lovely roast dinner on day 1. Keep all the spare meat you can pick off the carcass. Make stock with the bones.

To make pasta sauce:
chop onions and garlic, fry gently till soft.
Add tin of toms, herbs, splash of worcestershire sauce
simmer v gently (stir occasionally) till reduced anf thicker.
If you prefer smooth sauce, let it cool and blend.

At this point, freeze what you're not going to use in portion sizes.

To make pasta bake:

Cook pasta till slightly cooked only, drain.
Fry bacon.
/Mix pasta, bacon, bits of cold leftover chicken and your sauce.
I like to pu grated cheese mixed with breadcrmbs (blend any stale bread as and when you have it and freeze.) on top to make a crispy topping.

Bake till pasta is cooked and topping is browning (c.20-30mins @180 or so)

Yum yum.

You can vary the sauce, adding mushrooms, chillis, basil etc as you wanrt to your froen base sauce when you defrost it.

Use up your cooked chicken in stir fries, home made pies, chicken in white sauce on rice etc etc etc

MrsTinks

How about starting with what meals have you and the family eaten for dinner in the last week or two Is there anything you WON'T eat (I don't eat fish, OH refuses to touch liver/kidneys unless it's a Pate... then it's not "offal" *sigh* oh and pulses.. unless I hide them )
Grab a pen and paper and write a FULL list of what you have in the cupboards, fridge and freezer. The peeps on here will be able to give you loads of ideas of what you can make out of what you have We call this a cupboard challenge
Write a menu plan for the month (or week to start with - small steps) Then check what you need to buy that ISN'T on the cupboard list. Add this to your shopping list (if you want to avoid any impulse buys then shop online. There are free delivery codes for both Asda, Ocado and Tesco about at the moment I believe if you look on the vouchers board).
Chicken is a fantastically versatile meat so can be used for lots of dishes. But try to make the meat of the dish the "treat" and bulk out with pasta, rice, noodles, veg, spuds and pulses where-ever possible.

gazza975526570

kittycat07 wrote: »

Carlos

How about making some of your own sauces for the pasta bakes - the'll probably be cheaper (and tastier) - use a tin of tomatoes (generally the value tomatoes are good) and maybe an onion and pepper. Or some bacon and a white sauce with some cheese.

Do you buy chicken breasts? They tend to be more expensive than diced chicken so maybe look at that....

It's hard to suggest things without knowing more about what you eat LOL

Generally we buy a whole chicken, then have roast one day, left overs the next, then cook some of the chicken in a sauce - use any extra for sandwiches and boil up the bones and make a stock for soup.

Also - do you have old shopping bills? We found it really useful to look through and see where the extra money went over a period of about 6 weeks and then worked out from there where we could cut back. Generally home cooking is cheaper than sauces though

Can you really make a chicken do four meals?!???

lynzpower

One tip I found useful was to have a look on your old recuipts. Anything with a little star next to it ( tescos definately do this) they are the ones you pay vat on.

try to beat the taxman and only buy non vatable goods

I use creme fraiche, or cream for pasta sauces sometimes. Its much cheaper to buy a carton of cream at 40 odd p than a jar. If you get a book from the library or charity shop it would tell you how to make dishes, pasta dishes are very easy!

Also Grow your own veg, easy & cheap!

Shortie

gazza975526570 wrote: »

Can you really make a chicken do four meals?!???

Hi Gazza

It depends how many you're feeding and the size of the chicken, but I usually get a decent roast for 2/3 adults and a littlie on the Sunday. The left over meat I strip of and bag up for the freezer. I usually get 3, maybe 4 bags out of it (as I say it depends on the size of the chicken and I never buy a tiny one I admit). These bags are a really decent, 'ready chopped' size for either cuuries, stir fries or pasta bakes.

I'll admit I don't do the stock thing yet though

I don't do rubber chicken each week, but I do this if I'm cooking a roast one weekend

scheming_gypsy

kittycat07 wrote: »

Do you buy chicken breasts? They tend to be more expensive than diced chicken so maybe look at that....

where do you shop? anything diced is usually more expensive. In Asda diced chicken breast is more expensive, or less value, than the smart price chicken breasts.

angelatgraceland

The best value chicken breasts are the frozen ones in Iceland. A bag of five (at least)for about £2.50 or £3 Fresh is more expensive and tend to not keep so well in the freezer if you don't want to use them all at once. I bought a 55lb bag of spuds today for £6. Same weight in polybags in the shops would have worked out at 11 bags costing £1.25 per bag(Iceland who are cheap)so £13.75.Straight away Ive saves half of what I could have spent.
Also bought a sack of carrots at the market for £2.50. Not sure of weight but there are a lot for £2.50! Saved about same amount again. Tesco had lean mince for £1 instead of the usual £1.45 so I bought 3 packs. Each pack will serve about 8 portions as it will be mixed with soya mince which is extremely cheap.This will either be used in chilli or spag bolognaise.

belfastgirl23

If you like pasta lasagne is also good and can be cheap depending on what you put in it. Also freezes well.

Think about shopping in Lidl or buying value goods
Use mysupermarket.com to check out what your shopping costs and which shop is cheaper (tesco def for me)
Do you need to eat meat as often as you do? Veggie pasta dishes are good
Don't buy convenience food (eg stirfrys) - consider using your local chinese supermarket instead.
Shop online if you get tempted instore. Also means you can take time to compare prices and work out the 'real' best deal. The coupons and vouchers board nearly always has a voucher for £5 off which means you get free delivery.
Consider baking if you get through a lot of sweet things and bread. You don't need a breadmaker either
Pizza home made is a very cheap option - there are some great threads here if you do a search.
You don't need half the cleaning products you have. Buy stardrops and use it in place of almost everything. I only use bleach on top of this for cleaning tea stains on kitchen sink and (for hygiene reasons) the toilet.
Bulk buy when items are reduced etc
Make sure other family members understand what you're trying to do and support it. Don't go shopping with them if they can't.
AND FINALLY keep coming on here. Some of the tips will make you smile, some will seem totally insane, but most are duh why didn't I think of that

Good luck! I've managed to keep my bill down by about £100 a month and that's without making any quality of life cuts really at all

THIRZAH

I make the basic pasta sauce (tomatoes, onions etc) in bulk and freeze it.