General grocery savings tips?

moggins

Haven't seen one that big, that sounds like a really good deal. Don't Tesco have a money back guarantee? You could always get one and send it back if you don't like it.

Curry_Queen

moggins wrote:

Haven't seen one that big, that sounds like a really good deal. Don't Tesco have a money back guarantee? You could always get one and send it back if you don't like it.

I never thought of that to be honest and as I usually get a weekly delivery from Tesco (although won't be for the next 2-3 weeks as I'm all stocked up!) I could always hand it back to the driver the following week to return if I didn't like it

I'll email them first, or call CS, to check this is ok to do and stick it on my list for the next order

Cheers :A

student100

OK, this is going to be a controversial post, feel free to ignore me...it's just a suggestion.


How about some Jamie Oliver tactics? Try having a week where you cook "proper meals" (a main meat or veggie protein, potatoes/rice/pasta etc, plus two or three types of fresh veg, a small pudding of some sort) from scratch and sort of force yourself to eat them. (You can cook the main meal in multiple portions and freeze the leftovers). If you don't eat the meal, you don't allow yourself to eat anything else. For lunch stick to sandwiches, fruit, yogurt, and possibly a piece of homemade cake/flapjack etc. Try to cut out snacking between meals.

If you have a glass of orange juice at breakfast (with cereal or whatever), a piece of fruit with your lunch, and three portions of veg with your dinner you should get all the vitamins you need. While you're at it, learn to drink tapwater - it's not harmful, microbiologically it's probably cleaner than bottled water, and as far as metals etc. go it's got a lot less wrong with it than the pre-packaged meals you're currently eating. Pretty much most tapwater I've tasted tastes perfectly fine to me, if yours is really bad then get a filter - but I would argue that water straight from the tap tastes better than water that's been sitting in a plastic jug in your fridge for a few hours.

I know this is probably not something you'd relish doing, but I think you really can teach yourself to like eating some food, if you force yourself to eat vegetables for a while you will probably get to like them after a while. You'll be a lot healthier too and feel so much better, and you probably won't need the yakults or whatever the things are that are supposed to make you feel better if you eat a proper healthy diet in the first place.


As I said, it's probably a controversial post, and you probably won't agree with me.

Spendless

Hi

Just seen this thread. Do you genuinely not like fruit and veg? Or do you mean you last tried it years ago (possibly as a child) and didn't like it then?

Our tastebuds develop over the years just cos you didn't like something some years ago it doesn't mean you won't like it now.

heather38

heather38,

A built in water filter for £25? I've found a filter and tap on the MFI web site for £56, is this what you got? Did you buy this separately? Is it easy to install?


the one we got was by a company called pozanni (think thats how it's spelt)
bought and installed when we fitted the kitchen but very easy, drill a whole next to sink in the counter top and the attach the water pipes to it and you're done!!
mind you we did get it two years ago and i was very cheeky with the sales man as i had to ask for it to be included, oh and it was a cash sale.

freda

freda,

Ye, learning to cook spag bol sounds a good idea and will definitely do that. I suppose I could use the base with rice too??

I hate raisens, sultanas, yuck. Any other snack alternatives? Yep I think I could swap the cereal bars for something better.

A few people have mentioned soap and I did have the idea a while ago. But not done anthing about it. I do have a good quality food processor (which was bought when I have a lot os spare time) so will get that out after the move and play around with soaps. Any books or web sites with good soap recipes?

What type os bread machine might I get, how long does this take? How much is it? Sounds interesting, but a few here have said that I should cut out bread altogether from my diet.

Spag bol with rice would be fine, yes. You could also think about stir fries - if you use a sauce you wouldn't notice the veggies, and they are dead quick and REALLY easy to make (chop veg, fry meat, fry veg, add sauce, eat).

You can make flapjacks with any thing in them, or just plain. I've discovered coconut flapjacks are nice, or add some glace cherries, or you can also make them with a layer of stewed apple, which is *really* nice, makes them all soft and yummy. You could try making home made cakes - find a sponge cake recipe and get some muffin tins and paper cake cases and take a couple to work each day.

Soup - I get most of my recipes from https://www.deliaonline.co.uk or https://www.sainsburys.co.uk (look for the recipes section) Also the covent garden soup cook books are great. You don't need a food processor, though, you can cook them in a pan and simply use a hand held blender if you want to make it smooth.

Bread machines - the best one out there is meant to be the panasonic, but I have a random one that I was given as a present. Making dough for rolls takes 1 hour, plus 40 mins raising and 20 mins in the oven to cook. Making a loaf takes about 3 hours, but the joy of it is you can fill it up and set a timer for when you want the bread ready, so you can set it to cook just in time for you to have warm fresh bread for breakfast! You can also get recipes for wheat free, gluten free, dairy free bread etc.

Good luck. I promise you, not only will your purse feel better for learning to cook, but so will you!

Galtizz

If you don't like vegetables when you can see them try grating them into things. You won't see them, you probably won't really taste them but at least you'll be getting some veg into you. Onion, carrot and courgette grate really well and most things that are hard will grate, just use the cheese grater. Grated stuff can go in everything, spag bol, lasagne, chilli, burgers, flans, everything.

Also, I'd say have a look at cheaper supermarkets such as Lidl or Aldi. Most people don't shop there because it doesn't sound as posh as Tesco or Sainsburys. In europe (especially Germany) Lidl and Aldi are the Tesco and Sainsburys equivalent.

There fruit and veg is excellent quality and soooo much cheaper than the others. Their prices are the same as value ranges but the quality is better. You are limited on choice but it is worth going and trying everything you would normally buy then, if you don't like it buy the bits you don't like or can't get from Tesco's.

I can stick well within my £80 per month budget for 2 people by meal planning, cooking everything from scratch and shopping at Lidl, local butchers and, the bits I can't get I get from Tesco's.

I also occasionally set aside a weekend as a cooking weekend where I cook Flans, chilli's, bolognese etc.. that I can freeze then bung in the oven if i'm in a hurry to go out and haven't got time to prepare a meal.

I only get to shop and do things at the weekend so time is not an excuse. It is about your frame of mind. To become a fully fledged MSE you have to change a few things in life, I think they are changes for the better, I have more quality time, I enjoy cooking and eating and I am not in the red and don't have to worry about money all of the time.