After my last post detailing the extravagance and opulence of three Michelin Star dining it's time to come back down to earth a bit. Much as it would be lovely to eat like that every day (not to mention have the talent to be able to cook like that) it is simply not practical. With the global financial crisis/recession/depression never being far from the front pages of most newspapers, many people are opting to try and save a bit of cash on their food bills. The question is, can this be done without sacrificing the quality of your food and the enjoyment of eating it or does cheap food always taste of cardboard?
I think cooking cheaply but well is possible and what's more, it can be quite fun too. If you look at it as a challenge, creating a meal for minimum cost can be very rewarding too. So what is the best strategy to do so?
For the sake of a slogan, I'm going to call my outlook the Three Ps: Planning, Preparation and Pasta.
Let's look at planning first. Planning a week or so ahead with meals is an obvious choice. That way you can take advantage of larger quanities at more economical prices/multiple buy offers.It also means that you're less likely to shop while you're feeling peckish and so will stick more strictly to your list. Fewer visits to the supermarket also means you are less likely to get seduced by the glitzy offers they put on to catch your eye (or will get seduced less often - either way it's a saving). The really motivated among you might also plan according to special offers and multi-buy savings in different supermarkets although for me, this takes just a wee bit too much planning! Some big shops will also give discount vouchers so they can, in essence, match the prices of their competitors. These are well worth using in the future. From a shopping point of view, planning what to eat will also mean you won't be distracted by multibuy offers that you don't need and are just buying because they're there.
Plan to cook in bulk as well. When I lived on my own I struggled with cooking for one. Packaging is designed to hold more than one person can use and despite my best efforts, I often found I could not use all the food I had bought. Wasting food is a big no-no in my book too. Not only is it a needless waste of money but at a time when the world's food resources are being ever more stretched, it is horrendously unfair too. Cooking in bulk is a good way round this. Leftovers can be consumed later in the week, frozen and used much later or had for lunch in the coming days. It's always a bit of a moarale boost when you find a portion or two of something nice at the back of the freezer when the bank account is running on empty and the prospect of living off cornflakes until payday is looming large.
Planning will lead naturally on to preparation. Prepare your meals to ensure as little waste as possible. Got a sauce that needs half a carton of something? Have something later in the week that will use the other half. This goes for vegetables too.
Also covered by preparation; be prepared to try new things. The most obvious example of this is different cuts of meat. A rump steak is about a third of the price of a fillet steak and, if treated carefully, still bloody good. Experiment with new ingredients that can be obtained more cheaply and be prepared to spend more time preparing food to utilise these. To return to the meat example; some cuts of meat such as oxtail are delicious but need to be cooked slowly in order to maximise the texture and flavour.
If you're prepared to put in a bit of effort, growing your own will also be a net saving. I have friends that grow almost all of their vegetables and now that they are over the startup costs, they are saving a fortune. Now I appreciate that not everyone has a garden but remarkable amounts can still be grown in pots. Even if you don't opt for veg, herbs can be cultivated on a window sill. Again start-up costs are more than standard packets but long-term the savings should be greater. The same can be said of small vegetables like chillis.
Finally, be prepared to think on your feet and be creative. This especially applies when you find ingredients that might be on the cusp of going off. Rather than throw them out, use them and even if you don't need the result right away it can be frozen. Milk that's about to go off can quickly become macaroni cheese. Mashed potato can be frozen and is a good way to store potatoes that are on the turn. Finally, every student will tell you, pasta sauces can take just about everything and still be tasty.
This brings me neatly on to pasta. A repertoire of pasta sauces will ensure that you rarely, if ever, have to throw out food. It also means that small amounts of ingredients can be made to go much further (returning to the point about bulk). Dried pasta also has the great advantage of lasting for a long, long time so it can be bought in bulk and stored for ages (and if the massive bags supplied by the supermarket are good enough for an Italian I used to live with, they're good enough for me).
Pasta aside, other forms of dried carbohydrate such as rice, oats, barley, cous cous and polenta are great ways to bulk out a meal to make the more expensive ingredients go further. Recently I have been looking into various forms of cooking from around the world as a way of adding flavour, interest and variety to some of my standard bulk-cooking dishes and making the whole process a bit more exciting.
Naturally all these ideas are simple enough on paper (well screen) so over the coming weeks I will be posting up some of the recipes I use to cook in bulk and try to save a bit of cash.
In the mean time, I would love to hear the ideas and strategies used by anyone reading this to save a bit of money on food.
TFB
I think cooking cheaply but well is possible and what's more, it can be quite fun too. If you look at it as a challenge, creating a meal for minimum cost can be very rewarding too. So what is the best strategy to do so?
For the sake of a slogan, I'm going to call my outlook the Three Ps: Planning, Preparation and Pasta.
Let's look at planning first. Planning a week or so ahead with meals is an obvious choice. That way you can take advantage of larger quanities at more economical prices/multiple buy offers.It also means that you're less likely to shop while you're feeling peckish and so will stick more strictly to your list. Fewer visits to the supermarket also means you are less likely to get seduced by the glitzy offers they put on to catch your eye (or will get seduced less often - either way it's a saving). The really motivated among you might also plan according to special offers and multi-buy savings in different supermarkets although for me, this takes just a wee bit too much planning! Some big shops will also give discount vouchers so they can, in essence, match the prices of their competitors. These are well worth using in the future. From a shopping point of view, planning what to eat will also mean you won't be distracted by multibuy offers that you don't need and are just buying because they're there.
Plan to cook in bulk as well. When I lived on my own I struggled with cooking for one. Packaging is designed to hold more than one person can use and despite my best efforts, I often found I could not use all the food I had bought. Wasting food is a big no-no in my book too. Not only is it a needless waste of money but at a time when the world's food resources are being ever more stretched, it is horrendously unfair too. Cooking in bulk is a good way round this. Leftovers can be consumed later in the week, frozen and used much later or had for lunch in the coming days. It's always a bit of a moarale boost when you find a portion or two of something nice at the back of the freezer when the bank account is running on empty and the prospect of living off cornflakes until payday is looming large.
Planning will lead naturally on to preparation. Prepare your meals to ensure as little waste as possible. Got a sauce that needs half a carton of something? Have something later in the week that will use the other half. This goes for vegetables too.
Also covered by preparation; be prepared to try new things. The most obvious example of this is different cuts of meat. A rump steak is about a third of the price of a fillet steak and, if treated carefully, still bloody good. Experiment with new ingredients that can be obtained more cheaply and be prepared to spend more time preparing food to utilise these. To return to the meat example; some cuts of meat such as oxtail are delicious but need to be cooked slowly in order to maximise the texture and flavour.
If you're prepared to put in a bit of effort, growing your own will also be a net saving. I have friends that grow almost all of their vegetables and now that they are over the startup costs, they are saving a fortune. Now I appreciate that not everyone has a garden but remarkable amounts can still be grown in pots. Even if you don't opt for veg, herbs can be cultivated on a window sill. Again start-up costs are more than standard packets but long-term the savings should be greater. The same can be said of small vegetables like chillis.
Finally, be prepared to think on your feet and be creative. This especially applies when you find ingredients that might be on the cusp of going off. Rather than throw them out, use them and even if you don't need the result right away it can be frozen. Milk that's about to go off can quickly become macaroni cheese. Mashed potato can be frozen and is a good way to store potatoes that are on the turn. Finally, every student will tell you, pasta sauces can take just about everything and still be tasty.
This brings me neatly on to pasta. A repertoire of pasta sauces will ensure that you rarely, if ever, have to throw out food. It also means that small amounts of ingredients can be made to go much further (returning to the point about bulk). Dried pasta also has the great advantage of lasting for a long, long time so it can be bought in bulk and stored for ages (and if the massive bags supplied by the supermarket are good enough for an Italian I used to live with, they're good enough for me).
Pasta aside, other forms of dried carbohydrate such as rice, oats, barley, cous cous and polenta are great ways to bulk out a meal to make the more expensive ingredients go further. Recently I have been looking into various forms of cooking from around the world as a way of adding flavour, interest and variety to some of my standard bulk-cooking dishes and making the whole process a bit more exciting.
Naturally all these ideas are simple enough on paper (well screen) so over the coming weeks I will be posting up some of the recipes I use to cook in bulk and try to save a bit of cash.
In the mean time, I would love to hear the ideas and strategies used by anyone reading this to save a bit of money on food.
TFB
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