Eating a healthy, varied diet does not mean that you need to purchase the most expensive foods.
The market is full of varied cuts of meats and products that can meet your budgeting needs, especially as the cost of living rises.
By forward planning meals we can reduce our waste and cut down on costs.
When it comes to fresh products go 'Wonky', many supermarkets sell 'imperfect' fruit and veg at discounted prices, also buying directly from Farmers Markets or Farm Shops works out cheaper and as fresher they last longer.
Frozen fruit and veg whether you buy fresh and freeze yourself after prepping or buy from the frozen section of the shops, you can limit waste as just defrosting or cooking directly from frozen the quantity required.
Special offers
Sometimes special offers can be our friend, especially on long shelf-life products.
Pasta, Rice, Noodles
Dried pulses - beans, lentils
Tinned tomatoes, beans
Passata, tomato concentrate
Cereals
Tinned fish and meats
Tinned fruit
These items can bulk meals out adding carbohydrates and proteins to our healthy diets.
Buying cheaper cuts of meats
Buying a whole chicken can be good value, especially if we use it for more than one meal. Mince is versatile and inexpensive, a small amount goes along way.
Buying cheaper cuts from the butcher can save money compared to the more expensive cuts, they just need longer cooking times i.e. better in the slow cooker. These cuts can also be the tastiest pieces of meat.
Eat in season
Seasonal fruit, veg, meat and fish always work out to be cheaper, as there is a glut of produce at appropriate times around the seasonal calendar.
Batch cooking
Whether its freezing the extra portion for another days lunch/tea or cooking meals in batch to use up products that are coming to the end of their best, this reduces waste saving on cost.
What other cost saving exercises do you do
Freeze fresh bread
Buy excess herbs for recipes as work out cheaper then chop up the extra to box and freeze
Buy in bulk and divide up and freeze
Resources
Seasonal Food Cheat sheet for you to print off or save
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