Food Shopping for Pensioners 9 December 2022 at 9:51AM in Food shopping & groceries 24 replies 1.4K views

jacko220

Because of my eyes, I can no longer drive, I cook for myself, up until last year I used to go to Sainsbury's and M&S, this was about two or three times a week, I live near a bus stop and each journey took about 2 hours. The bus service which was every quarter of any hour became irregular and indeed became every three quarters of an hour. I then looked for alternatives, decided on one of the home supply firms that supplied cooked meals, they where good but did not taste like home cooked. I therefore went for Ocado cannot rank them highly enough, generally arrive at the beginning of the one hour slot and not bad at £2 a slot. The selection is good and I am able to have fresh ingredients to cook with every day. Cost for my food is between £40-60 depending on the menu that I derive from BBC Food website. Having read and seen on television the crisis in the cost of living, I count myself lucky, I do not see how anybody could survive on just the Old Aged Pension alone. Does anybody use Ocado for shopping, it is useful, for semi-house bound pensioners like me and allows me to send a barrage of e-mails about energy conservation to my supplier, yes I do have ginger puddings, would like to know how this effects the Fanger equation,

Farway

I'm in similar, not as mobile as I once was position, but having tried a few home delivery / online shopping I have settled on Asda or Waitrose depending on what I need, or on offer.

Both kept going during Covid and made extra efforts for those registered as older or infirm, unlike Ocado who just stopped delivering to many loyal customers, including my daughter.

I find Asda, or at least my local one, has most items and especially like the substitution policy of trading up at the same price, unlike say Morrisons who charge for the upgrade

I have not tried Tesco

jacko220

I did not know that Ocado stopped delivering during Covid, Not really that many substitutions with Ocado, like the M&S food. 

Katiehound

Please can I politely suggest you break your posts into paragraphs? It just makes things easier to read!

Fortunately I drive and am able to shop where ever- locally: Aldi, Morrisons, Coop or for further afield my go-to is Tesco. I have always cooked for myself and am experimenting with a slow cooker, but also using a Remoska rather than the big oven. I have been really pleased with Aldi: good products and good prices too.

For recipe suggestions I would suggest that you just google - lots & lots of different ideas- some from BBC Good Food but lots of other sites worth a look.
One of the things you might do is to batch cook a meal and then divide it into several meals and freeze them .
Bolognese type sauce/meat will make great dishes with pasta, or cottage pie , or lasagne. I freeze the meat in individual portions & then decide what it will become!
Most of these could be reheated in the microwave which is the cheapest way.

lots of ideas on this board for thrifty delicious meals / cooking.

calleyw

jacko220 said:

I did not know that Ocado stopped delivering during Covid, Not really that many substitutions with Ocado, like the M&S food. 

they didn't stop delivering during covid.  They got over run with new customers who had never used them before.  Thus making it harder for people who had used them in the past to get delivery slots.  There was was queues of hours long to acess the website.   People panicked and just tried every delivery service possible.

Murphybear

Katiehound said:

Please can I politely suggest you break your posts into paragraphs? It just makes things easier to read!

Fortunately I drive and am able to shop where ever- locally: Aldi, Morrisons, Coop or for further afield my go-to is Tesco. I have always cooked for myself and am experimenting with a slow cooker, but also using a Remoska rather than the big oven. I have been really pleased with Aldi: good products and good prices too.

For recipe suggestions I would suggest that you just google - lots & lots of different ideas- some from BBC Good Food but lots of other sites worth a look.
One of the things you might do is to batch cook a meal and then divide it into several meals and freeze them .
Bolognese type sauce/meat will make great dishes with pasta, or cottage pie , or lasagne. I freeze the meat in individual portions & then decide what it will become!
Most of these could be reheated in the microwave which is the cheapest way.

lots of ideas on this board for thrifty delicious meals / cooking.

Morrison’s often has large pieces of beef on special offer, recently it was £5.99kg.  I bought a big piece and cut some into chunks for curries, casseroles etc and minced some for chilli, Bolognese etc.  It then goes into the freezer.   It works out much cheaper than buying it ready prepared and you can see exactly what goes into it.  

Katiehound

Murphybear said:

Katiehound said:

Please can I politely suggest you break your posts into paragraphs? It just makes things easier to read!

Fortunately I drive and am able to shop where ever- locally: Aldi, Morrisons, Coop or for further afield my go-to is Tesco. I have always cooked for myself and am experimenting with a slow cooker, but also using a Remoska rather than the big oven. I have been really pleased with Aldi: good products and good prices too.

For recipe suggestions I would suggest that you just google - lots & lots of different ideas- some from BBC Good Food but lots of other sites worth a look.
One of the things you might do is to batch cook a meal and then divide it into several meals and freeze them .
Bolognese type sauce/meat will make great dishes with pasta, or cottage pie , or lasagne. I freeze the meat in individual portions & then decide what it will become!
Most of these could be reheated in the microwave which is the cheapest way.

lots of ideas on this board for thrifty delicious meals / cooking.

Morrison’s often has large pieces of beef on special offer, recently it was £5.99kg.  I bought a big piece and cut some into chunks for curries, casseroles etc and minced some for chilli, Bolognese etc.  It then goes into the freezer.   It works out much cheaper than buying it ready prepared and you can see exactly what goes into it.  

ah, but that only works if you have an easy  way of mincing the meat!
I don't fancy chopping raw meat in the food processor, such a fiddle to wash....( and ensure that it is clean).

sarah1972

Katiehound said:

Murphybear said:

Katiehound said:

Please can I politely suggest you break your posts into paragraphs? It just makes things easier to read!

Fortunately I drive and am able to shop where ever- locally: Aldi, Morrisons, Coop or for further afield my go-to is Tesco. I have always cooked for myself and am experimenting with a slow cooker, but also using a Remoska rather than the big oven. I have been really pleased with Aldi: good products and good prices too.

For recipe suggestions I would suggest that you just google - lots & lots of different ideas- some from BBC Good Food but lots of other sites worth a look.
One of the things you might do is to batch cook a meal and then divide it into several meals and freeze them .
Bolognese type sauce/meat will make great dishes with pasta, or cottage pie , or lasagne. I freeze the meat in individual portions & then decide what it will become!
Most of these could be reheated in the microwave which is the cheapest way.

lots of ideas on this board for thrifty delicious meals / cooking.

Morrison’s often has large pieces of beef on special offer, recently it was £5.99kg.  I bought a big piece and cut some into chunks for curries, casseroles etc and minced some for chilli, Bolognese etc.  It then goes into the freezer.   It works out much cheaper than buying it ready prepared and you can see exactly what goes into it.  

ah, but that only works if you have an easy  way of mincing the meat!
I don't fancy chopping raw meat in the food processor, such a fiddle to wash....( and ensure that it is clean).

Absolutely agree although I don’t always used minced beef for a chilli, I love a chilli with diced beef x

jacko220

Sorry Ladies but I have been buying mince for nearly 50 years, the time spent mincing, would be a time I resent, will being uplifting, I have better things to do with my time. I am fortunate to have worked for a very good pension. Sorry.

Katiehound

jacko220 said:

Sorry Ladies but I have been buying mince for nearly 50 years, the time spent mincing, would be a time I resent, will being uplifting, I have better things to do with my time. I am fortunate to have worked for a very good pension. Sorry.

 Me too
It wasn't me who suggested mincing! a faff too far...

Should I ever have spare cooked beef I might chop that in the food processor... but I don't think I have done that for many many years! (in fact I can't remember when)

jacko220

I find Ocado very good for deliveries, not being able to drive anymore, it gives me access to a supermarket, I have used other websites other than the BBC Food but find Auntie very good.

Exotic ingredients can be bought from Amazon, I must say that Ocado and Amazon have never let me down.

Will have to make a trip across town on Monday for Morrison's Puff Pastry minced Pies, will try to bake some myself in the New Year, also the only place that sells Sponge Flans a through back to the 60's that my mum made.

About to make Mexican Spicy Bean Soup for Lunch, have not been out since Monday morning to the Doctors about my Balance,

Will try tomorrow when the temperature rises. Happy Christmas everybody,