If you love cooking but you're on quite a tight budget

[foxessocks]

Have you got any tips? I love to cook but a lot of fresh ingredients are expensive, I've switched to a lot of frozen veg recently as I find it cheaper some times (depends what it is but it also equals less waste). I already cook a lot of vegetarian meals so only cook with meat a few times a week really. But we do love fish and all seafood which is expensive but it is so good for you. I love salmon but it costs us £7 for all of us for one meal. Also fresh herbs are more expensive than dried but taste better.

It got me thinking because I wanted to try a Jamie Oliver recipe next week but it needs so many fresh herbs, vine ripened tomatoes , posh potatoes etc!

I usually shop at Asda and I budget £50 a week including toiletries, cleaning products etc basically everything. And then I do a couple of top up shops usually about £20 in total over the week I suppose (more when school holidays and my dd comes along!!). Top up is just bread milk fruit usually. We are a family of four but my children are young so don't eat huge amounts yet.

Jack Monroe is brilliant for inexpensive recipes.

Can’t think of anything else that you wouldn’t be doing already ...

You do have a stick blender? It’s the second most loved thing in my kitchen after the coffee grinder/filter combination. I almost never have to throw out unused food (was brought up in an anti-waste household) and probably make some sort of soup most days from autumn to early summer.

I have bought the small potted herbs reduced in add a and grown them on. Basil has thrived since April (in a greenhouse, but a light windowsill works just as well) thyme, and I have rosemary in the garden. At the moment my courgettes, tomatoes, cucumbers, French and runner beans are all producing more than I can use. I freeze surplus tomatoes and they're great for passata or pasta sauce. I have a small garden, 80% grass, a smallish greenhouse and three raised beds made from leftover wood.

Flavoursome cut-and-come-again salad leaves like rocket and sorrel may also be worth a try in the garden, but I've had mixed success against the slugs.

Yes to stick blender although I don't make soup that often - what kind of leftovers do you put in soup? I often get very sprouty potatoes, brocolli stalks I could use maybe?

Never thought to freeze slightly old tomatoes! Great idea.

I use the big stalk of broccoli if I'm making a chunky mixed veg soup - peel off the tough outer skin and dice the core of it. MIL used to cut them into batons and steam along with the florets long before expensive tender stem broccoli was available. She reckoned it was nicer than asparagus... I really should try that myself (I'm not cooking on a budget, I like it in soup.)

Buy lots of things reduced price in the supermarket, in the evening. Meat & fish, bakery goods, fruit, veg & herbs are all good & most can be frozen. I often get bags of fresh herbs for less than 10p.

Slow cookers are great for cheaper cuts of meat. I pad meals out with lentils (esp mince meat) where ever possible.

I've never put leftovers in soup, I do put lentils and white beans in them though, but a stick blender is essential.

With leftover we do this cheaptastyandeasy.wordpress.com/leftover-bread/
and this cheaptastyandeasy.wordpress.com/bubble-and-squeak-in-the-hole/
Both are seriously tasty, and the DC ask for the L.O.B so much I have to make bread for it!

I make bread every couple of days, it doesn't need to be time consuming and a pita.

Buy your herbs, spices, pulses, lentils, rice etc from global food shops as they're much cheaper than the supermarket.

a stick blender is essential.

Not if you like chunky soup! red lentils pretty much mush down by themselves with sufficient cooking. I do blend some soups but there's loads you can do without one.

Following as I have the same issue OP, need to budget more but we enjoy 'good food' and when you enjoy cooking it's difficult to cut back on some recipes.
I might be repeating previous posts here -
Do you have a market nearby? I've just bought a huge bag of local F&V including nice vine toms for less than 7 quid (although the grapes weren't local)
Have you used your first few shops at Ocado, Waitrose etc? They're quite competitively priced these days but with the discounts it works out cheaper than Asda et al. Then they send additional vouchers when you haven't shopped for a while.
I saw someone earlier mentioned tinned fish, I use mackerel quite a lot, DD loves it on toast and it's great in pasta. Also frozen fish can work out economically especially for fish pie, fishcakes etc.

gruffalo you've reminded me I'm sure I had a Morrisons voucher for spending over a certain amount...have to see if I can find it. We do have a market nearby I've never tried it though - good idea. I do go to a local farmers market specifically to buy strawberries in the summer as they sell them half the price and much nicer than supermarket! But the rest of the stuff there is expensive and posh!

I doubt the market food knows it’s posh! It really might be worth investigating further - surely relatively local food will be better value and more enjoyable (nebulous I know) than whatever Jamie O. has flown in from across oceans?

There are loads of great suggestions on this thread - love it!

Mine would be more of an attitude adjustment. I found moving from meat/fish as the focus to being more of a garnish really really helped with the budget. So I'll do a big broccoli, chilli and green pepper stir fry and if I can do it within the budget I'll either put in cashew nuts or peanuts or strips of cheap steak marinated in soy and ginger (1 wee steak amongst four is plenty if is just a garnish).

I buy and freeze herbs where I can get them cheap so there's no waste. Same for ginger. Don't buy fresh chillies, just the crushed flakes, they don't go off and you can judge how much to use because there's less variation.

I tend to buy frozen fish and use it in curries with whatever veg are seasonal.

I make pasta salads with pulses and eggs and if I've got cash a few rashers of shredded crispy bacon (amongst four) or some tinned tuna or mackerel.

If you're Costco inclined they do huge tins of premade chickpeas that I use for a chickpea salad, chickpea & spinach curry and (MN horror) homemade houmous. If I give it a few days between them nobody notices chickpea obsession.

And my last one: buy liver. Nobody else seems to.

Using those and others I decreased our family spend from c£170 pw to £45 two years ago. The only thing I really missed was roast chicken.

Definitely buy dried pulses and spices from Indian supermarkets.

I have made that Jamie Oliver recipe. You definitely don't need EV olive oil, any old oil will be fine. I used ordinary olive but sunflower or vegetable wouldn't make any difference. You could make it with dried herbs, but it will be different with fresh if you have them.

I always find farmers markets are generally expensive and full of themselves 😂
The one in my local town is great, if you can time going towards the end of the day on a Saturday they practically give stuff away. Today that huge bag I bought today was vine cherry toms, 2 punnets strawbs, carrots, big bag of kale on the stork, box of grapes, a leek, bunch of breakfast radishes and some new pots. Not bad for less than £7
I also like that you can buy most things loose so handy if you only need a small amount for a recipe and less plastic as most things come in brown paper bags

This is my go to cheap meal It says soup but its more like a stee if you do the veg chunky.

allrecipes.co.uk/recipe/29686/simple-lentil-and-bacon-soup.aspx

Pork chilli is also another cheap one for us (having a very well stocked herbs and spices help)
Pork Mince 12% fat
tin toms
pasata
onion
pepper (frozen will do)
Cumin
paprika
ground coriander
chilli flakes
kidney beans
Worcestershire Sauce
Stock cube

Fry onion add mince and peppers cook until browned off add cumin, ground coriander, paprika and chilli flakes A good shake of each keep tasting until you feel you have the "chilli taste" add tin toms then kidney beans and pasata stock cube and dash of Worcestershire sauce. Cook for about 30mins done.

This is another excellent site for meal plans & recipes on a small budget.

Thanks everyone for the wonderful tips and recipe ideas!
I'm definitely going to shop around a bit more and check out the local market see what I can do better!

If you have any Indian or Chinese supermarkets nearby, go and investigate them. Cheap rice and pulses and so many different spices.

I'm using the Doctor's Kitchen cookbook lately, which isn't particularly aimed at people on a budget but is aimed at eating a lot of veg - mostly cheap ones like cauliflower and broccoli, and other easy to get cheap ingredients. Doctor's Kitchen

Year ago when I was really poor, I used to go to the market at the end of the day on a Saturday. The stall holders would be packing up and they used to sell a big carrier bag of fruit and veg for a £1. Loads of random fruit and veg that you could make something with.

Also put fresh herbs in ice cube trays with a tiny bit of water and freeze, just take a cube out when you want some.

Is it Morrisons who are selling 'ugly' fruit and veg cheaply?

Sorry - wonky not ugly:

groceries.morrisons.com/webshop/getCategories.do?tags=%7C104268%7C171277&viewAllProducts=true&Abutton=3

I second the tinned fish as we eat that a lot (mackerel, sardines, pilchards etc. for the Omega 3s).

The family members who eat carbs eat a lot of pizza and they're unbelievably simple.

I don't know about baking your own bread - I'm a very keen bread baker but I know that it can take a lot of oven fuel depending on how often a week you need to do it and how much you're prepared to bake at the same time.