Every time I hear that food has got more expensive, we slightly adjust where we shop. As money becomes ever tighter, the food retailers are fighting for our business. You will never find all the bargains in one shop and more than ever, you have to shop around.
I no longer have an online shop from Asda or Tesco, they are just not competitive enough. There is fresher and better to be had but you do have to search around for it. I also don't shop every week, or have a shopping routine. I now shop very differently.
I buy from Approved food once or twice a year. I buy the long life goods from them such as cous, cous, soup mix, dried beans, granose mix for veggie roast or sausages and sauces such as sweet and sour cook in sauce. These are the 'nice' kinds of foods that I can't grow, can't make and can't get any cheaper any where else! I do a big order as they charge for postage and I always do the maths to check that it's worth it.
You would be surprised what's on offer in Poundland. I often buy tinned food here, such a three tins of pineapple, three mandarin and two tins of tuna for a pound. I get my toiletries here too. I get shampoo and conditioner, usually Timotei at a pound a bottle. I also use 'Savers' for toiletries and personal hygiene, hair colouring and beauty products and can get branded goods much cheaper than the supermarkets or Boots. I stock up on these products once every couple of months which is easy for me as I work close to them and don't make a special trip. I also have a utility room full of cupboards which I use as a massive store room for all non perishable goods.
I use a local shop called Mole Valley Farmers, who supply, funnily enough, farmers. Farmers here often run a bed and breakfast from their farm and Mole Valley sell household cleaning products on an industrial scale. I buy laundry liquid in a massive 15L box which is very similar to a massive wine box, with a tap. I then use a 50ml for each wash and it lasts for eight months. I haven't found it cheaper any where else. It's also only one mile from where I live.
My cat and dogs eat dried pet food and I buy it once a month here at Pets at Home, I shop around on line, I check Trago and any where else and get it from the cheapest place. They are an expense but I still come in on budget. It's on my way home, so again, I don't make a special trip.
I use Lidl and Aldi for all of my fruit, veg, loo rolls, biscuits (29p a pack once in a while) fruit squash, frozen veg, yogurt, UHT milk, flour, margarine, cheese, bacon, gammon joint, eggs, tinned and frozen fish (never buy fresh too expensive) and quite a lot of meat. I keep an eye on prices between the two and they are next to each other, on the same street and again on my way home. The parking is also free, so if I call in and buy nothing it's not a problem. They are also close to my work and on my route home so no expense of shopping trips.
They both compete against each other, have an online sign up to a twice weekly newsletter and inform you of offers. They have no extras to tempt me, there is nothing fancy, they just have what I need and nothing else. Their coffee, tea and bananas are fair trade, I can buy a free range chicken for under £5 and half a dozen free range eggs for 99p. I will often buy their meat (British red tractor from both) when it's on offer and freeze it.
I have a very simple repertoire of dishes I cook over and over and we're happy enough to have veggie meals every other day. Here is my menu for this week.
Today.
Breakfast - toast and jam.
Lunch - Leftover veggie bolognaise and pasta. Half a tin of mandarins and pot of rice pudding each (both Approved Food)
Dinner - Roast beef, roast veggies (onions, parsnips, carrots and potatoes) gravy. Tinned pineapple.
Monday.
Breakfast - toast and marmite.
Lunch. (100g) ham salad - celery, tomatoes, cucumber, lettuce. Yogurt, apple.
Dinner - Roast beef, roast veggies (onions, parsnips, carrots and potatoes) gravy.(I'll dish up four meals on Sunday and heat two up on Monday. Tinned pineapple.
Tuesday.
Breakfast - Toast.
Lunch - (100g beef) salad - celery, tomatoes, cucumber, lettuce. Yogurt, apple.
Dinner - Spinach and feta pie with grated carrots and celeriac (mix both with a tablespoon of mayonaise and stir through) - pot of rice pudding.
Wednesday.
Breakfast - Toast
Lunch - (100g beef) salad - celery, tomatoes, cucumber, lettuce. Yogurt, apple.
Dinner - Home made falafels (from tinned chick peas) with carrot and celeriac from yesterday. Tinned pineapple.
Thursday.
Breakfast - Toast
Lunch - Boiled egg salad - celery, tomatoes, cucumber, lettuce. Yogurt, apple.
Dinner - Beans on toast with grated cheese (we always have one 'on toast' meal a week.) - pot of rice pudding.
Friday.
Breakfast - toast
Lunch - cheese and pickle sandwich, apple, yogurt.
Dinner - Homemade chips, quorn sausages and veggies. - fruit and rice pudding.
Saturday.
Breakfast - Toast
Lunch - homemade veggie soup with home made bread
Dinner - same a lunch, I need a break from cooking once in a while.
Sunday.
Breakfast - Toast
Lunch - Veggie soup and bread
Dinner - Roast chicken, stuffing, roast potatoes and parsnips, mounds of veg and gravy. Tinned apples and custard.
We eat a well rounded, nutritional diet, with enough of all the food groups and we eat simply. We might eat a lot of something for a week, such as homemade soup and we might get bored and freeze it and eat it at another time. I always have something in the freezer. I still have 'Christmas pie' with turkey if we want a change. It certainly is easy to eat very cheaply and healthily and not spend much. If you're fussy? Well pack that in and be glad you can eat at all!
This blog is amazing, read it and count your blessings as single mum with a baby has to live without heating and feeds herself and her baby for £10 a week. Here's the link . I wonder if we could send her a love bomb of non perishable food? I'll try and get in touch with her and we'll set off our blogging magic xxxx
Where are the bargains where you live? What do you buy in bulk? Any other bulk buyers? Where do you store it.
Until tomorrow,
Love Froogs xxxx
I find it fascinating when you provide this type of information about your life and habits, thank you for being such an open book!
ReplyDeleteMy husband and I spend comparably on a weekly basis. We're in Ireland, and spend about 50 euro/week to eat and feed our dog. We shop around as well, checking for the best prices at Aldi, Dunnes, and Tesco. I actually find the food here to be much cheaper than in the US, where we're originally from (or maybe my buying habits have changed as I've become more frugal....) When possible and the sales are good, we buy in bulk and store or freeze it. Our fridge/freezer is quite small and we have no chest freezer but we do the best we can. We are fortunate to be renting a house with a good deal of extra space for storage - I have an entire unheated "cold storage" closet for large bags of potatoes and other root veg, and additional space for bulk sized paper products, etc.
I also try to check the discount veg and meat sections (where they put the food that's near its "sell-by" date) and stock up if there's something really great on offer. Recently I got 1500 g of parsnips/carrots for 36 cents. They were starting to go a bit soft but I made about 6 meals' worth of soup from them that same day and froze it. I get great satisfaction from a delicious warming meal that costs less than 10 cents!
It sounds like you have similar options to what we have in the US.
ReplyDeleteOne of the things that I do shopping here (US) is shop at a cash and carry restaurant supply. I buy flours, beans, rice, barley, sugar, corn meal, oats, and onions in 25 to 50 lb sacks. Butter comes in 30 lb cases. Cheese in 5 lb blocks or bags. I buy canned goods like tomato paste, in 1 gallon cans. I cook mostly from scratch, and we tend towards a simple meal plan.
Our version of Poundland is the dollar store. We buy toothpaste, deodorant, laundry and dish detergent, crackers and the occasional box of dry cereal there.
We receive ads for the different grocery stores in the mail (some folks get them in the newspaper or onlin), and I look over the front page for the loss leader items. I stock up on things we use frequently, when I find it on ad at it's very lowest price.
We have a store in the western US named Trader Joe's. They have their own label on just about everything. This is the place to go for organics, dried fruits, nuts, natural peanut butter, tofu, and my favorite, bananas. I say they're my fav because I mention their bananas in my blog from time to time. They price their bananas at 10c each, regardless of size. If I pick through the bananas and only buy the very largest I can find bananas well over a half pound each, meaning about 35c per pound when I do the math. For our area, that's an exceptional price on fresh fruit in winter.
Just before the fall and winter holidays here, the supermarkets put whole turkey and hams on ad for a very low price. I buy several and keep them in our spare freezer, to use for meat throughout the year.
By taking advantage of all these strategies, I'm able to keep our grocery bill to about $200 to $230 USD per month. It is work to manage the grocery shopping in this way, but I see this as part of my overall role as primary homekeeper. Is it worth it? I believe so. I work very part time, and have extra time for our kids, for volunteer work, and for my hobbies. That makes my work at shopping frugally well worth it.
Hi,firstly thankyou for introducing a girl called Jack,I think it will be an interesting read.
ReplyDeleteWe shop once a month for our essential basics.I monitor the offers and our menu is flexible.We bulk buy any non perishables and store in the linen room in a built in floor to ceiling cupboard.Pondstretchers and quality save/home bargains are places I visit once a fortnight on my way to work.Take a look they have some quite good bargains.(vimto,tinned toms,toiletries,loo rolls,wul etc)
I pop into supermarket on my evening shift once a week and pick up any reduced bargains and our milk etc for the week.(I have uht but the little ones have full fat milk)I have shopped at approved foods and I am still ploughing through the purchase. We bulk buy when things are on offer,cook from scratch,freeze extra and never waste as my famous bang in a pan demonstrates on a regular basis.All my shopping trips are done on route rather than extra trips saving time and diesel.I do not think we could survive as a girl called Jack does( I have a lot of respect for her) but we are very careful and never go over our budget.
Love as always Leebee x x
Oh sorry forgot to say in earlier post,we grow in the garden as much as is possible.We have a fruit producing garden predominantly.
ReplyDeleteLove as always Leebee x x
Excellent post - I was really pi**ed off with Tesco as their value dried fruit was 64p before Christmas and is now 98p!! Other things that I used to buy there have gone up by not 1 or 2 pence but again by an average of 28p. I'm also looking for other places to shop now and I think I'll follow up on Approved Foods and Lidl. I went to Lidls once with a so called "friend" and she would not park in their car park as she didn't want to be seen with poor people.
ReplyDeleteI have found Zooplus.co.uk to be competitive for cat food. I absolutely refuse to shop at Pets at Home because of their cruelty to small animals in their care in their shops. I've seen the evidence personally but that's a whole different story.
I've never heard of Granose so will investigate that too.
Linda xx
Tesco's prices have gone up ridiculously, their custard was 35p a tin a few weeks ago, today I saw it at 50p a tin. I have seen various items that have been increased.
DeleteMy hubby has a botle of whisky once a month,this had increased in price from £12.00 before xmas to £18.00 after. Could not believe it,so i visited bargain booze.If tesco continue in this manner they will loose my custom altogether. x x
DeleteThe Skint Foodie is amazing!! thanks for the link.
ReplyDeleteI have a routine as well. And the US Dollar Tree chain is where I always buy our soup stock (when I'm not making it) and condensed soup (like cream of mushroom, etc. that I can use for sauce base). It is convenient now that I can peruse all of the sale circulars on line then decide where to go.
ReplyDeleteI shop at Aldi and Farm foods, I saved up for a chest freezer and find that my shop at farm foods is cheaper than Aldi. I have built up food storage by just popping a few tins say of fruit in my shopping basket at a time and if we are really feeling the pinch one month, I know that there is always food stored there if we want it. I also shop at Approved Foods and their couscous and rice are part of the food storage along with an amazingly large box of noodles that will keep me going for ages.
ReplyDeleteI have found with the Tescos store near me (I don't know if anybody else has noticed?) but certain items of value say for instance a large bag of spuds (the ones in the brown bag that need washing) are no longer stocked and my hubby likes their own brand lucozade but they have stopped this aswell. Obviously trying to boost their profits again! by hoping we will buy the dearer instead.
I also buy bulk flour, store in freezer first to kill bugs and then store in a large food bin.
I have noticed that at my Tesco that quite a few of the Everyday items have disapeared and their middle of the range items are the cheaper option. As in a previous comment, the prices have also increased. They seem to think no-one notices !
DeleteWe have Kale and Leeks in the garden. Runner and Broad beans grown in the summer safe in the freezer. Need only to buy potatoes. Toms were turned into soup for the winter also in the freezer. Now busy planning what to grow for next year.
ReplyDeleteDianne - Hereford
We shop in morrisons as my mum works there and we get family discount 10%. If I know I can get things cheaper in town I will will tell DH that I will get it when I have my Saturday with my mum. Then we will buy the things from either Home Bargains, b & m's, fulton foods and Heron frozen foods. We sometimes go to Farmfoods and bulk buy if the offers are really good.
ReplyDeleteWe used to use approved foods, buy the prices have gone up I think, so I will only use them once a month, I buy toiletries from boots [if the offers are really good] also I save their points for xmas sales. Superdrug, savers and bodycare. Pound shops are a bit hit and miss. And I dont like the 99p store, that is rubbish!
Meat we get from a wholesale butchers for the carnivores! I am a veg as well as DD. We also go to a really good farm shop on the A66 called mainsgill, it is very popular.
Also we live on yellow stickers and damages. We buy pet feed from maddox's as a hay bail only costs £3.50!
So there u have it, how to feed a family of 5 on about £65 a week. I get gluten free on perscription which saves me a lot of money as well.
I must admit I have noticed certain things I used that were cheaper have crept up a lot. I am going to try and go to lidls on my way home from work on a short shift. I am going to have a look at approved food and suss out what they have. We throw nothing away now. I have worked out buying a smart price bag of grated cheddar works out cheaper than a block and lasts longer. My foruteen year old is a huge mouse and my other half think nothing of a lump of cheese as a snack. The grated cheese lasts at least two weeks for meals sarnies etc. It is scary how much some people spend. I work with people who spend 90 + pounds a week on food for two. we are now spending between 20-30 pounds a week on food now. I buy meat when it is reduced, bake more to fill the kids up. We are having homemade chinese tonight which is costing less than a fiver including a bag of prawn crackers. I am on weight watchers now which I have done before so I have books without paying for a weekly meeting.
ReplyDeleteJan x
I also have a teenage mouse in the house and cheese goes very quickly, so I buy a bag (Aldi) and divide it into smaller snap lock bags and hide them under the vegies or freeze. I make sure that there is always a small amount available but never alot so the hand doesnt go in.
DeleteI have one too. He is now at uni and feeding himself. He goes through a large bag of grated cheese in just a few day. Now he has to buy it himself,,
DeleteYou said you get toilet rolls from Aldi or Lidl. Can I just mention that occasionally the Co-op sell really good quality toilet rolls at £3.00 for about 18, or two of them for £6.00 depending on offer. I only buy reduced stuff at Co-op, only if it is cheap enough as I think it is very expensive, even though it is ethical etc and I get vouchers as I'm a member through my building society but I do stock up on the toilet rolls when I see them. Other than that I shop mostly at Aldi and Home Bargains, and they're building a bigger on in our local shopping centre too, I wonder what that will be like. I only very seldom buy anything from Asda.
ReplyDeleteA brilliant blog post, it shows that it CAN be done, to eat healthily and well on a limited budget AND with lots of variety.
ReplyDeleteI'm off to look at the Link now, thanks.
Sue xx
Timotei was my favourite shampoo. Sadly it is no where to be found in my part of Canada.
ReplyDeleteGreat post as usual.
We shop at Tesco and spend about £30 a week. (No cats and dogs to feed though). We usually only buy value stuff. The Value fruit and veg has become a lot better, plus they sell off all of the "misshapen" stuff that would otherwise be thrown away.
ReplyDeleteThank you for such an interesting article. I live in the East Midlands, in a small village about a 25 minute drive to the nearest (small!) town and 45 minute drive to the city. I always get my shopping delivered, as with two small children I could never justify either the stress of going to the supermarket or the cost of petrol! Now they are both at school and nursery, I have been wondering if it would be worth my while to head into town occasionally to shop around. The only shops we have in the village are very expensive, and we rarely use them.
ReplyDeleteOn another note, I too have bought several of the granose mixtures from Approved Food. I'm wondering if you would be willing to share your recipes for veggie roast and sausages, as my family are not too keen on soup!
what happens if somebody breaks out and wants a boiled egg on Thursday for breakfast....duh, duh, duh............
ReplyDeleteDont know if you have a home bargains near you - but they often have things cheaper than £1 shop - again good for foods/toiletries/household cleaning stuff bins liners etc.
ReplyDeleteThanks for all your hints as to where to find bargains. it would help if you could mention the town where your aldi, or home bargains or cheap shops are so other dear readers can use the information.
ReplyDeletelove froogs xxx
hi froogs,
ReplyDeletetrying vey hard this year to take control of the of the amount of food & money we waste. i looked at approvedfoods ( i heard about through your site )this week i have placed an order. I have started to shop at aldi & farmfoods. I work 12 hour shifts & have found that if I make the effort to batch cook on my days off we are eating much better meals every day,especially when I get home exhusted from work. You have given me the incentive to do something positive instead of moaning about my 'lot', i can't thankyou enough for the help you've given to me. Carry on the good work,did you know you are really addictive!!!!! take care, helen.
I chased the links for Girl Called Jack but do not understand how this situation could arise. She once had a comfortable home, a garden, TVs (plural), expensive appliances and more. How does a person go from all that to poverty and ill health? Why is she so poor? I thought the UK had a welfare system to catch people in need and provide support. How much does it pay? She said she lodged more than 300 job applications unsuccessfully. Was she ineligible for assistance in her job search? Is the story genuine or a compilation of several people by a hopeful journalist?
ReplyDeleteHi Louise, her story is not uncommon. There is not work for single women with children who can not afford childcare. You need a very good job and a two income home to afford that. Welfare here stops people from starving, that's all. There is no assistance in job hunting. Her story is true. She will get about £120 a week to live off, pay her bills, pay towards her rent, feed and clothe herself and her baby. She gets housing benefit which does not cover her mortgage and she has to pay the rest out of her welfare payment of £120 a week. Most people on welfare in the UK and people on minimum wage live in dire poverty.
DeleteI love falafel. Have you tried adding grated carrot. Simmon Rimmer the chef on TV does in his packet mix. It defo adds something. I like mine with a lot of cumin.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad that even though you try to buy cheaply you still buy free range chicken and british meats! Well done.
ReplyDeleteI now buy my toiletries from Sainsburys..there own brand is cheap and have a leaping bunny sign on them which means they are cruelty free...this is important to me..M & S doing lovely perfume ISIS is lovely and they also have the leaping bunny sign as to their toiletries. Also The Body Shop while they may be owned by someone else they maintain their cruely free status...and in the sale and with a Body Shop Card I got some great bargains. This is not for everyone but as a vegetarian with a strong conscience the products are great and work just as well if not better than their more expensive counterparts. Great post Froogs.
ReplyDeleteWould love your recipe for spinach and feta pie if you have a moment and it's not a family secret. Thanks x
ReplyDeleteAll of aldi's toiletries and cleaning products are cruelty free and have been since 1992 so go ahead and use their stuff
ReplyDeleteBrilliant thanks for this will do. x
DeleteAfter putting up with some ridiculous stuff at work, my husband has just resigned and is going back to self employment through consulting. He's already got a bit of work lined up for later in this year, but the immediate future is looking, shall we say, interesting.
ReplyDeleteFrugal shopping shall now be a very committed way of life. As someone who hates shopping at the best of times, bulk buying has a great deal of appeal. We have an outlet here in our town of one of the biggest canneries in the country, so we can get scratch and dent tins of goodies at a fraction of the supermarket price. As someone who has got used to buying only what I needed for that particular period, I shall now have to look ahead and buy cheaply and probably in bulk where there is a price advantage.
Another store we have here is called NQR - Not Quite Right - a lot of its stock is close to best before dates and the occasional dented package. Lots of savings there. NQR and the cannery outlet are nextdoor to each other. I wish Aldi were in the same complex, but they are not, so there is a bit of a trip to be had there. Neither of the Aldis in our town are near any other shops for food (apart from takeaways), which is a bit sad. However, I don't think the big two we have here in Australia would be happy to have Aldi near either of them. As it is, most shopping malls will have the two of them in the same complex. They probably send each other secret shoppers regularly for a bit of one-up-manship and spying on quality, quantity and $$$.
Your blog is about to become a whole lot more important to our whole household. Up til now, it's just been me! :)
Thank you for being here.
Dear Froogs,
ReplyDeleteDay care here is $92, that's right, $92 a day. 'Spensive. And a Nanny is a LOT more. The going rate is about $220 a day which frankly is prohibitive.
I LOVE your inspiring posts. I wish I could fly you to Oz so you could see with your own eyes the cost of groveries- my friend has just been to a fancy ski resort in Switzerland which is allegedly an expensive country and the groceries are signifigantly less than what we pay here. God only knows why....
On a happier note Mr FF cut my hair the other day thus saving ne $100.
I love your blog. As always you are an Inspiration.
I admire your strong sense of self.
x
Dear Froogs. Thanks for your post and like you I have for many years planned our weekly menus. I live in Australia and so different things are perhaps available but I wonder why you don't cook more Asian style food for variety and also for economy. You can make a little beef or chicken go a long way, sliced and marinaded in soy or hoisin sauce and then added to stir fry vegetables and cooked for a few moments. With rice or Singapore noodles this is a delicious and filling economical meal. The vegetables don't need to be exotic; onion, shredded cabbage, carrots, celery and capsicum is a good basis for a stir fry with garlic and ginger. Chicken wings are often cheap here and I buy in bulk, chop off the wing tips and joint the rest of the wing into two parts (sometimes one part is sold separately as 'drumettes' because they look like little drumsticks) and then marinade and freeze in batches. My marinade is honey, soy sauce or teriaki sauce, garlic, ginger and sesame seeds. These are then delicious cooked the BBQ (for speed you can partially precook in the microwave first before the BBQ) and served with fried rice. Fried rice is also great to use leftover rice and vegetables and is best when the rice is left to dry out in the fridge overnight. Cook onion, garlic and ginger with a bit of diced bacon, stir in the rice, the diced vegetables, add drained tinned corn, sliced omellette made from a couple of eggs, soy sauce a bit of chicken stock powder, a dash of water and again a yummy meal made mostly of leftovers. If the budget allows, tinned baby prawns are good to add. I also like this with beef or chicken satay which again is a good way to make a little meat go a long way. Thread strips onto skewers and sprinkle with satay powder. You can leave them overnight before cooking on the BBQ or grill. Serve with a peanut sauce. I make mine by gently frying ginger and garlic for a few moments, then stirring in a spoonful or two of honey, a good a amount of peanut butter, a spoon or two of desiccated coconut, a tsp of satay powder, a slurp of soy sauce and water to thin. Heat gently for the flavours to come together and it will thicken more as it cools. It freezes well too. Feel free to try these if you think you'd like them! Best wishes.
ReplyDeleteGreat recipe ideas LJDVictoria, will write them down for future reference, thanks.
DeleteMy husband's parents were here (from the UK) for a couple of months holiday last year, they loved this sort of meal, so much so, mum-in-law asked for all my recipes, she helped to prepare the evening meals just so she could see what sauces etc I use. Filled a note book with all these ideas.
DeleteGreat comment LJDVictoria. (Hope you're safe from the bush fires).
being self employed, with variable income, has meant we have always maintained a well stocked store cupboard. We buy flour, rice, golden syrup , milk powder and other staples in bulk from a wholesaler. We also have a stash of wholewheat kernals which DH hand grinds to mix with the flour for bread making which we use a Kenw..d chef for.
ReplyDeletewe use Aldi, Lidl and Morrisons generally. However, Morrisons recently has gone a bit upmarket and so have the prices. On Saturday, we bought mixed beans in tomatoe sauce at 44p a tin. Morrisons wanted 68p for the same size beans which taste exactly the same, The tinned rice pudding was 12p a tin and is now 28p. Ive stopped buying it. We cycled to Asda so there was zero costing getting them we got exercise into the bargin
I do so wish that the Yellow Label idea would take off in France...Very few stores do this (or at least, I've found very few stores that do it!) and so the cost of food is getting higher. I still need to be more careful on what I cook though - I can get a bit extravagant sometimes!
ReplyDeleteWe live in New Jersey in the States and shop at Wegman's, Whole Foods, Trader Joe's (who is owned by Aldi) and Shop Rite. You can get deals at any of them, especially if you are not prone to name brand shopping. We do buy mostly organic and thankfully most supermarkets have their own organic lines now. Wegman's and Trader Joe's are our primary food suppliers and there are excellent deals to be had. We buy our toiletries at Trader's because their products are cheap and excellent. They also have the best deal on Dr Bronner castille soap. The huge bottle for only 9.99!!!
ReplyDeleteI also grow some veggies, kale being a hardy favorite, and go to a local farm in the summer season.
As for buying bulk, a friend of mine is a farmer in PA and we put in on orders with her for flour and flax seed and oats. I get a 50lb bag of King Arthur flour for $21.00 which is a STEAL!! The 50lb bag of oats is about $15-$20 and lasts over a year. The flour lasts about 4-6 months, depending on how much baking I do. I have a new bag waiting for me at her place and I am about to order a 50lb bag of whole wheat flour as well. I have icing buckets from the local Shop Rite to store them in. All you have to do is go in and ask for them and they will give them to you. You need to clean them, the residual icing is industrial strength and hard as heck to get off, but once you do, you have free sturdy storage. I line the buckets with mylar bags to keep flour safe.
My husband goes to the Indian Market by his workplace and stocks us up on bulk bags of nuts and lentils and rice because they are infinitely cheaper there than the regular markets. I have a bunch of mason jars that I use to store all of this stuff.
Todays post was so interesting. I have just started running down my freezer and store cupboards and then will do a big re-stock approved foods order, I do find their postage expensive but like you say if you do a couple of big orders a year it counter acts it. Hadn't thought about Mole Valley before (I live about half an hour from you) will have a look next time I'm passing. I also find Macro good for certain things.
ReplyDeleteFroogs, I usually have a weekly menu, there's only hubby and myself to cater for,only thing we don't really have is puddings and desserts but a slice of homemade cake with a cuppa is often our after dinner sweet treat. I'm a very basic cook, like the meal to be quick and easy to prepare, your menu's a great guideline, thanks for sharing it.
ReplyDeleteyou have really inspired me since I started following your blog a few months ago, this is the first time I have commented and have now started my own blog so I can share and track our progress. Totally agree regarding cost of food and food shopping. Trying to run down our freezer & cupboards over January and will start to look at the most cost effective options for restocking :)
ReplyDeleteHi Froogs
ReplyDeleteWe now do a weekly shop at Aldi and pop next door to Home Bargains for toiletries and a few other bits and bobs. When I shopped online from Tesco my grocery bill was £40 per week higher - I'd never go back to shopping at the large supermarkets again, never !!
Twiggy x