- Instead of fresh spinach, mangetout, green beans etc try Frozen Green Beans or Frozen Spinach, generally a lot cheaper and not a massive difference.
- When cutting lemons, any leftovers freeze immediately otherwise you end up with a rotten lemon at the back of the fridge. Failing that consider leaving the lemon open to the elements in your fridge, it will help to reduce odour. If you’re only buying lemons for a splash of lemon juice in a recipe consider bottled lemon juice instead.
- Salad Dressings are expensive, instead make your own from olive or sunflower oil, a dash of lemon juice or white wine vinegar and some mustard. You can find loads of other alternatives online.
- Don’t buy pre-made bread mixes, instead just buy the ingredients (often flour, sugar, baking powder and oil) and combine it yourself. Easily save 50p-£1.50 per batch.
- Flavoured Oils – Chilli, Basil, Garlic etc oil does taste good but instead you can infuse your own oil in a hot pan for 3-5 minutes with your choice of herbs/spices etc. Be extremely careful adding raw garlic, chilli etc to bottles of oils you can end up getting botulism!
Want to try fresh homemade meals at home without the faff? Try these:
- When buying herbs/spices never buy them from the supermarket, instead, go to your local Asian supermarket and buy large bags for a fraction of the cost, also for things like Thyme, Rosemary, Sage etc use a cheap mixed herb pack instead.
- Instant porridge can be made by blending, some normal oats, some powdered milk & some sugar together. Store it and use it like your expensive packet versions.
- Cooking chocolate – Remember to compare prices in-store with value chocolate found in the Baking Aisle & found in the confectionery aisle! Often they will have two varieties that have the same ingredients/cocoa ratio but will be different prices!
- Fresh Pineapple often gets the majority of it thrown away due to it being too hard, instead buy canned/tinned pineapple.
- When adding cream to dishes like curries etc, try Yoghurt instead. Often it will be cheaper & you’re more likely to use Yoghurt in other things.
