Tightening the belt

PasturesNew

Know how much everything's really costing you - then ask yourself if that's really necessary.

e.g. making a chilli from scratch you can go all the way from buying organic beef steak at Waitrose and hand-mincing it ... to buying Strathmore steak mince at Lidl for £1.75 500g.

And, looking at that chilli recipe again, where it says 2 bell peppers - which will cost you nigh on £1 - and wonder "does it really NEED those, or will they simply not be noticed by the time it's cooked?"

Then portion size/control.

Don't heap up the chilli on the plate with an expensive side dish - think about what else you could serve it with that's cheaper. e.g. some people might use two pouches of microwave rice, a brand name, costing £1-2 .... -v- picking up some nice, regular, basmati rice (also lovely) and making your own rice for 30p. Grating raw carrots for it to sit on is bright and cheery and cheap (and healthy) too.

Lots of small savings to be had by asking yourself: "Do I need it? Is there a cheaper alternative? Am I being sucked into the marketing man's advertising by believing I HAVE to have this, when I really don't"

Just price awareness - the £/100g you're paying for things - and the cost of one ingredient that could be dropped - all adds up.

And, while we're on the subject of my theoretical chilli ... you know that last scoop? The one that you plonk on somebody's plate to "use it all up"? Freeze that - it'll make a nice baked potato topping when you need a meal for one (or, freeze/wait until you've got enough dollops to serve everybody).

Tink_04

Great advice again - I love this OS section as it's practical advice!

I'm just tweaking my budgets (I'm up to October) Xmas will be harder but I don't want to buy and stash like I usually do as we will hopefully be moving house - think I'll just add extra to the Xmas savings pot ( I have xmas - uniforms/shoes & yearly bills pots) Thanks again for all the advice xxx