Budget Recipes and Cheap Cooking Ideas

Budget Recipes and Cheap Cooking Ideas

• aussie_meat_pie 15 years ago
  Many people with tight grocery budgets find it is often easier to eat cheap frozen foods like generic brand chicken nuggets, fish fingers etc but you can make good nutritious meals for the family on a budget too. Some tips that may help:
  
  * Most supermarkets have a time of day they mark down meat and bakery items. These foods usually have a day or two left on the use-by date and can be frozen too. You can buy a weeks worth of meat like this if you know when to shop. Usually the best time is late afternoon / early evening or first thing in the morning.
  * Don't be afraid to try generic brands, most are just as good as popular brands and so much cheaper. You will learn fast which ones are okay. Because I am used to shopping this way I still buy them even when I can afford better. Particularly with staples like flour, rice and pasta you can rarely tell the difference.
  * If you have the money and space to buy in bulk then do it. Same goes for when something is a good special, as long as it is something you normally buy.
  * If you are on a budget because you are out of work then you could do more cooking in your spare time. Cakes and biscuits are cheaper home made most of the time. There are so many lunch box snacks that would be cheaper and healthier if you made them yourself.
  * Try to shop only once a week and buy everything. Even milk usually has an expiry date of a week or more and bread can be frozen. This prevents buying extra when you go to get milk and bread. If you can organise shopping fortnightly or monthly even better! We once changed to fortnightly shops and saved a lot of money.
  * The cuts of meat which go well being stewed or slow cooked are often cheaper.
  * Frozen veges are often cheaper than fresh and are apparently as healthy because they frozen at optimum freshness.
  * For quite some time, at our supermarket, turkey mince has been cheaper than beef. We often use it many recipes that use beef mince. The added bonus is it is much lower in fat.
  * Having some meals without meat each week can help save money and make for some variety.
  
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