Mother Hubbards cupboard!!!

good afternoon!

so it has got to the point in the month where i am skint and clubbing together bits for lunch and dinners from my freezer and cupboards!

I find I spend a fortune on this diet, so really going to try to plan plan plan thru may, and avoid supermarkets as much as i can (i tend to go to tesco most days - ADDICT!!)

anyone got any good money saving tips? I have found a few threads so far - but all info is useful hey!

Nattymo x

Hi Nattymo

We buy 3 x 800g packs of lean mince from Asda for £10, this mince does count as syns but we brown it and drain the fat off so we don't actually count it (naughty)... but it's really good value for money and you can cook up batches of bolognese, chilli, burgers etc and freeze them for times like this! We also buy frozen veg out of Morrisons, you get big bags of onions, sweetcorn, swede, peppers for £1 each and they're already chopped too so its just a case of throwing it into the pot, really good for bulking out those batches of mince Buying in bulk is helpful too, I get a 3kg bag of penne pasta and it lasts weeks and costs £3 from Asda, rather than costing £1.50 a 1kg each week so you do save a little bit by doing it. Are you eligible for Costco membership? They're good for tinned tomatoes - works out about 25p a can (compared with 35p in Asda) and they do 5kg tubs of rice much cheaper than the supermarkets. B&M is good too for tins and packets. I buy almost everything own brand too so that does help save some pennies

Hope this helps x

I buy frozen fruit which means I only get out what I want to eat.

Look out for the special offers in store & buy them even if you don't need them non perishable items will keep for ages.

Use potatoes, pasta & rice as a base for meals just adding veggies/meat/quorn.

Someone mentioned this site
www.approvedfoods.co.uk for out of date goods.
Very cheap, although i have not bought from it yet.

Try & bulk cook your meals & freeze left overs. You can use them for lunches or evening meals.

I make casseroles & that & bung that much veg in they really do bulk out & you get much more out of what would have been just the one meal.

I get my meat from a mobile meat van - you know those that do bulk buys for bargain prices. We have regular ones here & as of yet (touching wood here!!) have never had a bad buy.

I also get all my fruit & vegies & that from the supermarkets with the best offers. Eg, morrisons often have their 30p offers, as does aldi, think theres are the super 6 savers or something.

Don't forget to keep an eye out on the bargain sticky thread too!

Don't buy things like Muller lights, buy natural yoghurt instead (a big pot is less than 2 mullers!), don't buy out of season veg or fruit (I also use frozen berries and frozen veg - very cost effective).

Don't buy packets of anything (if you do) or sauces or ready meals, or convenience things like oatsosimple.

I plan my week's food and buy what I need - always making enough for a couple of lunch portions as left overs. Last night we had jacket spuds and I cooked a couple extra to ping today for lunch.

Green days are much cheaper, I buy a 25kg sack of spuds and it lasts ages!

Think about things you throw away and don't buy those things again, or use them up quickly! I always used to waste cottage cheese, so if I buy it now I eat it the next day or if it's going to go out of date, I make a quiche with it. Same for bananas, I used to buy loads but then when they go brown I won't eat them, so I'd rather just buy a few and then eat apples instead!

Hope some of these tips are useful, you really shouldn't have to spend a fortune.

What is this carb self control of which you speak!!!
Green days = free carbs.

Wonderful

I plan my meals on a 2 week basis. work out what ingredients are needed in everything and only buy what I need. this is a lot cheaper, it also means you can buy food that will do 2 meals etc. e.g. a whole chicken slow cooked so that it drops off the bone will do 2 meals, then you can also make a chicken soup with the stock and the smaller chicken bits.

maybe try planning your menus for a week or 10 days, then ordering your food online - this way you only buy what you need.

I tend to shop online and use Ocado and Waitrose (waitrose deliver free over £50 and Ocado deliver free over £75), but find I spend the same as trotting round Tesco, as i am not buying impulse buys all the time, and i prefer some of the waitrose lines to Tesco ones....not all the time mind!!!

also - get staple foods from the bargain shops like Home bargains, poundland etc - they are so much cheaper but you cant do your shop from there unfortunately as they dont always have what you want!

x

many thanks for all of your ideas. I have done a planner for the next two weeks and a list of only things i need to buy.
also switching back to Red / Green days - so I can have a few more greens and save a few more pennies!
I wish the pounds from my body would shift as quick as the pounds from my purse! lol!

Excellent tips ladies!

I also find that by going to the supermarkets quite late -7pm onwards - you can often pick up reduced items that you can throw in the freezer for next to nothing. The Asda by me is terrible for overstock and you can often pick up large bags of sweetcorn (maybe a kg or so) for 10p as it's leftovers from the pizza counter! (although I doubt this is freezable) and a lot of the time you can get super cheap pieces of fish which you can freeze for less than £1. It's worth a look as this is how I save a fortune.

Also, what is the best way to slow cook a chicken as I haven't ever done it this way and I like the idea of no waste.

Thanks