Basics....

I am gona kick this new forum off with a post. This is gona sound obvious to most so bear with me.

Purchasing food. Learn to look for the buy one get one free options. I dont think I could eat so cheeply without these.

Reasonably good food can be purchased in Iceland for very little money. I used to live on a fiver a week at the very start and a fiver will get U 5 meals. They are not wholesome and most will be boil in the bag but hey.

The real problem with eating very cheeply is its usualy limited to one portion of something. Like frozen ribs. A quick way of increasing a meal to 2 portions is add bread. A couple of slices of cheap bread (I am talking blue and white stripe (37P) here) adds an extra portion.

The other thing to add is rice. U can buy rice realy cheap. I am talking pence. And half a cup is just enough for one person. The boil in the bag chinky stuff is a bit low on rice anyway. And U can sex up a dish with a bit of rice and a slice of blu and white. Lovely

Believe it or not U can eat just rice. Add some frozen peas and and boil this lot up. Its do at a push.

Noodles. I am not talking the packet stuff. But the raw stuff in the big bags. When U get fed up with rice (rice + Pea, Rice with tinned carots la la la). Try the noodles. They are a bit bland so add some suace to them and after being on rice for a month, they will taste wonderful as they are.

But Iceland shepards pie with rice tastes orible. Its better with a bit of bread. Sheperds pie and noodles. Dont even go there!!

Once U are over the hump and have a bit more than a fiver (I hope U do) dont live on ready meals. They are expensive and full of salt and preservitives.

Chicken. This can be a staple diet. It can do lunch, (not breakfast) and tea. If U cook a whole chicken and save the breasts for yr sarnies, add a bit of cheap pickle and it makes great sarnies. Whats left can do stews and so on.

The carcas can be boiled and reduced to make a great chicken stock.

Keep a bit of soup in a sealed container in the freezer. If you come home to late to cook, you can whip the frozen soup out and have a meal in about 10 mins. U can freeze bread also. In fact the cheaper the bread the better it freezes for some reason. And cos yr single U can eat this in yr pit and no ones gona moan at you.

Hunger. This was a problem for me in the early days. So I used to drink lots of water. Water surpresses yr appitite. Mind you I used to walk up that escalator at waterloo and the people in front of me would turn into mars bars

Lastly if you are trying to cut down on costs, dont shop as often and but bigger quantities. Take mince as an example. If you buy in large quantities, then its cheaper than buying 250G packs. When U get it home, shop it up into 250G portions and freeze them seperatly. U cant cut frozen mince. Ok U can but the mess a chain saw makes has to be seen to be believed.

Very lastly. Take a list with you when U shop. Stick to it. If U dont U will wonder round and have 1 of them, 2 of them, 4 of them and so on. And this will cost U a fortune. Its realy embaresing to count yr coppers at the checkout and have to give things back. Ask me how I know

I know this sounds a bit grim. But U can have a laugh mixing odd boil in the bag items and U can make great goulash (mix the lot together). I used to have a good laugh cooking this way and it was one in the eye for the ex that thought I would come crawling back starving.

So get with it. Get creative. Its not hard if done right. And do it with a smile on yr face. C.

Ill add a couple in.
Be cruel with your electricity and gas supply.
Get some cheap low voltage power saver bulbs, and go around switching everything off. Hot water wise, just 2 times a day. . Once if you can take it.
Make the kids bath in the same water one after another
Regulate your central heating settings so its off at 10pm in the winter, and throw on extra blankets.

Get a freezer, then you can buy when there is a glut of something and it is cheap.

If the freezer is empty save on running costs by filling the empty spaces with news paper.

As Marshy says chicken is excellent: roast, sandwiches, curry, casserole,pate with the liver, make stock with the carcass and the bits you chop off veg to throw away. Freeze the stock when you are really skint get end of shelf life mushrooms at half price, your frozen stock and a handful of rice great risotto!

Pulses, dried peas, chick peas, pearl barley, lentils etc bulk out any soup to make stew.

Pea and ham soup - in the slow cooker so costs pennies in electric, peas, pepper and a ham hock (£1.39 my last one in Morrisons) soup thick enough to stand your spoon up in did two of us three meals each, very filling and cheap - including electric less than £2 for six meals: 34p a dinner!

Ham ends in Sainsbury's, all mixed up bits of ham - I buy it for the cat, my Mum makes quiche.

Cheap butter is cheap because they add more salt - if you like salt buy the cheap stuff. Get an insulated butter dish from Lakeland then you don't wast big chunks because you can't spread it when it's cold.

Do NOT make your own bread, it's too delicious and you eat twice as much!!

This could be a popular forum.....

I would add to shopping with a list - DON'T shop when you are hungry and (if you can) don't shop when you're tired.

Cook from scratch rather than buying ready meals. (Then freeze as individual/family szed portions) Much cheaper (and better for you) than ready meals. Also, hjhaving some tasty, frozen meals available means you are less like to buy a ready meal or take away when you are too tired to cook.

Most recipies which use mince you can replace some of the mince with red lentils (start with 25% meat/ 75% lentils and gradually adjust until it is 75/25) The lentils give bulk and protein, the meat means it still tastes meaty (if that's what you like)

If you have the storage space, buy things which will keep (tins, dry goods etc) in bulk.

Buy own brands not brand names.

Join 'moneysavingexpert.com' - as well as advice, if you are on their mailing list you get notified of all sorts of money off and other offers!

If you are on a water meter put a brick in the cistern to reduce the amount of water on each flush
Collect rain water to water your garden

If you have space grow some fruit and veg

LB

This is a great topic as any moneysaving tips gratefully received.

Slow cooker is a godsend as can throw any cheap meat and veg in it for filling casseroles and soups. Slow cooker itself was cheap to buy as managed to find one for £10 and definitely had my money's worth.

usually cheaper to buy veg frozen as well.

Can also get some good bargains by shopping nearer closing time when prices are reduced to clear. Got a cooked chicken for 50p and pies for 10p by doing this.

Lovin it. More more more. This is so useful. I thought I was resourcful. I am surpised that the blokes post stuff. I was expecting women to post. Women have been doing exactly all this stuff for years. Us men can learn loads from the opposite sex. We may know about oil and shelves and directions. But women know the important things. Like survival.

Yea I shop when tired and spend to much now. Esp when I dont take a list. Keep um comming. C.