Money-saving meals

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Posted at 12:02PM, 04 October 2011 by Rejina Sabur-Cross - Food writer

How often do you go into a shop, pick up an overpriced fruit salad, add up the unripe cubes of melon, the meagre, mushy strawberries and the distinct whiff of rip off and realise you could do a far better job for a fraction of the price?

If you're anything like me you'll find yourself sat in front of the telly on a Sunday night chopping gargantuan piles of pineapples and peaches into Tupperware in order to have a fresh fruit salad for the week ahead without resorting to remortgaging the flat.

Convenient they may be, but sandwiches, smoothies and salads are all bought with the greatest reluctance, knowing how much better my own would be. I've been known to carry around a Thermos of green tea rather than cough up for an overpriced cup with an inferior teabag. And I'd much rather make my own soup, seasoned just the way I like it, than fork out for a bland, homogenous, under-seasoned shop-bought version any day.

Those titchy pots of edamame beans that cost the same as a proper bag of frozen ones (usually about four times bigger) are guaranteed to get my goat, as is overpriced sushi made with old fish and bad rice. Yes, it takes a bit longer, but life is definitely not too short. Not when you sit down and actually work out how much it costs long term and the appalling profit margins being marked up on some cheese and pickle sarnies and bottles of fruit juice.

So much about eating well on a budget is the planning.

Tip offs
It's not just about frugality. There's something intrinsically satisfying about knowing exactly what you're consuming. So much about eating well on a budget is in the planning. Making lists of what you already have in the kitchen and the meals they can be transformed into, making friends with your freezer, working out what you're going to eat depending on when things will go off, getting creative with leftovers - these are all ways of avoiding the dreaded telephone call to the local pizza place after a hard day in the office.

Eat excellently
Letting meat be the flavour and allowing vegetables to take centre stage means you can stretch out cheap cuts and do yourself a world of good in the process. It's a massive error to think that being thrifty equals rubbish grub. If anything, with a little imagination it can often be quite the opposite - it's all about perception.

That old loaf isn't stale ciabatta, but the makings of panzanella. It's not leftover chicken but with a few extras, the basis of a Vietnamese salad. Those carrots and onions are in fact the backbone of a hearty miso soup and that slowly softening beetroot is the perfect pairing with a bar of dark chocolate for some decadent brownie goodness.

So what tips do you have for saving the pennies but still eating well? And which pre-packaged meals wind you up the most?

Tuck into more delicious cheap eats here.

Comments

Maxine

5 October 2011, 11:08AM
Maxine

I agree wholeheartedly, I live in Cape Town where, in this country we seem to eat many more home cooked meals although I do think that may be changing as more convenience foods become available. When I am in England, I find it difficult to actually buy raw food that has not been tampered with in some way, ie seasoned. I like food but do want to decide myself how it is cooked and flavoured.

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Tricia

5 October 2011, 12:11PM
Tricia

Even when I worked full time, my Sunday afternoon was usually spent preparing 2 or 3 meals for the week ahead just to make life less frantic in the evenings. Many home made meals are not as time consuming as you may think, but are certainly cheaper and probably better for you too. Especially when you can hide healthy veg or blitzed tomatoes...

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Catherine Noble

5 October 2011, 12:19PM
Catherine Noble

I resent buying convenience food, and only do so out of poor planning. My best tip would be to batch cook and freeze! Home made soups, bolognaise sauces, fish pies... you don't have to sacrifice on quality either. Those brownies look fab...

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scrummy

5 October 2011, 2:32PM
scrummy

my hub and i both run our own business and have 3 teens plus visitors! so for the last 3 years every other sunday has been cooking day. i cook prob 7 to 10 meals. and freeze them allowing for an "on toast" night and a pasta night a fortnight and them or us going out! it saves me a fortune and they know dinner will be there. 5 mins in the morning taking stuff out of the freezer and programming cooker and bread machine and proper food daily. we are also teaching our kids essential life skills not just cooking but planning and budgeting. any visitors get the benefit of learning how to peel too!

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Globetrotting Wife

6 October 2011, 12:09PM
Globetrotting Wife

I agree with Maxine's post. I lived in Cape Town in my 20s, and am currently living in Italy, and every time I return to the UK I really notice that everything (including bananas!) is packaged and often fiddled with. There are too many pre-prepared options available and this takes the pleasure out of food prep. Too much choice is also not as helpful as it may appear at first - in some ways people opt out of the pleasure of meal preparation because of it. People in Italy and SA work long hours and live on tight budgets just like in England, yet still manage simple, healthy, cost-efficient and tasty meals every day. Planning is vital, of course, but it's not impossible. On the plus side, I do miss that in the UK one can cook with ingredients from diverse cultures, which is like travelling whilst staying at home!

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Boucles D'Or

6 October 2011, 6:30PM
Boucles D'Or

Totally agree with this thread! As I'm a coeliac, I can't eat many of the prepackaged meals and anyway, they are so expensive. I've always cooked a lot of things from scratch and frozen them and now I'm a student (again!) it's even more important to keep costs down. I've been looking up meals that can be batch cooked and frozen and use less meat/poultry in meals too. I recently started buying my fruit and veg from the market (in Bham) and find it's at least half the price of supermarkets and I can even buy 'better' eg baby plum tomatoes cost the same as cherry toms in Tescos and things like aubergine and butternut squash are much cheaper. Have been recommending it to all my student friends! :o)

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Nicola

7 October 2011, 8:45AM
Nicola

I can't stand pre-prepared food...it is expensive and full of all sorts of thing you would never put in your own cooking. Therefore, everything is made from scratch in my house. We often buy cheaper cuts of meat to cut costs, or use the good cuts, but less of them, bulked out with veg, beans etc. The other week a Â£10 chicken fed two of us for a whole week! And to those who have mentioned pre-packaged veg in the UK...the supermarket is not the place to go for fruit and veg (or meat) - it is far better bought at markets, farm shops or greengrocers and is rarely pre-packed there.

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Gilli

8 October 2011, 8:36PM
Gilli

I agree with Nicola - making your own is cheaper and gives you the peace of mind of knowing exactly what you are eating. It also means that you can give people exactly the size portion they want - my husband finds that most ready meals are rather meagre for him. It isn't really that time consuming either - a joint or chicken for Sunday lunch will usually provide another nights simple tea of cold cuts for the four of us. If I make spag bol, casseroles or chilli it takes no extra time to make double (or even triple) and freeze the extra ready to reheat in the week when theres not so much time. A little planning can really make sure you eat better and cheaper, I think.

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Didge

6 November 2011, 2:35PM
Didge

We never buy sandwiches. We make our own and put them in the freezer in individual freezer bags. If you take them out in the morning they will be defrosted and ready to eat by lunch time but allow a bit longer for tuna or salmon sandwiches to defrost. As well as saving money you will save time as there is no need to prepare them every morning before going to work.

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