Tips for saving on food shopping without buying junk

[dzara]

Hi everyone,

Do you have any tips to share on how to save money on groceries shopping without having to necessarily buy junk stuff?

For example:

• which supermarket has an overall good quality food for a reasonable price?
• is it better to buy fresh fruit and veg from open air markets? Supermarket fruit and veg taste awful
• what about organic food? It's sometimes only slightly more expensive but is it worth the price?

I am generally suspicious of all the chemicals they put in our food. It's a struggle not only price wise but also to actually find something nutritious and wholesome to eat.

Any thoughts?

I prefer Tesco click and collect to going into the 'budget' supermarkets, I find wandering around I add things which look interesting to my basket whereas a repeat online shop I only buy what I need as I'm in the kitchen at the time and can check, also if we then pick something up through the week you can add/remove as necessary.

I don’t think it’s more expensive really to eat fresh.

We will have homemade pizzas tonight

€2 pizza flour 1kg. We use 500g for 4 pizzas (so €0.25 cents per pizza)

Tin chopped multi tomatoes €1.20 (on offer), dried herbs, dried garlic, salt and pepper (30-40 cents per pizza)

Mozzarella - organic ball, plus some diced artichoke (from jar), and red pepper , works out €1.50 each pizza

So around €2-2.50 per pizza average depending on toppings. That’s using high quality ingredients and organic usually.

I couldn’t buy a semi decent frozen pizza for €2. And local pizza place it’s €14-18 per pizza

I'd say Aldi are good for quality/price on meat, milk and other regular needs. Less sure about veg as some seem not to last and others are in pre-packs too large for a couple.

Market fruit veg is pretty good around here but a bit more effort than in the supermarket.

I don't think supermarket organic is worth the extra or indeed tastes any better than the regular stuff.

I agree. I too found that online shopping results in a less expensive bill. But Tesco's vegetables don't taste good, especially the packaged ones, they also smell mouldy, especially potatoes.

Also cooking at home definitely saves money, but when you don't have time it's tricky.

I also noticed that meat goes off quickly, even you you apply storage instructions. 🙄

Haven't tried Aldi. I usually shop at Tesco or Sainsbury's. Morrison's was recommended to me today, I will give it a try.
Yes finding an open air market isn't easy, they are not as common as before unfortunately. There used to be one every weekend.

Some of it depends on where the supermarkets are in relation to home. From here Sainsbo's and Tesco are both on the ring road our side of town. Aldi (& LIDL) have a couple of places we can get to nearby as well.

Morrisons is in the town centre and a PITA to access.

The best compromise we found was getting the bulk of the routine stuff from Aldi and then nipping over to Waitrose for a tenner's worth of treats.

Aldi has regions and some offers are region specific. We're on the boundary where three regions meet. A couple of years ago they had lovely Mexican wine but only in Daventry not Towcester or Northampton.....

I buy rice and frozen vegetables but I have a sauce with it so I can tolerate it

Definitely try Aldi. Loads cheaper than the main supermarkets. Quality is fine, if you're finding meat going off within the use by date, check your fridge temperature, I've never experienced that.

If you're 'suspicious about chemicals' then avoiding processed food is probably what you should be aiming for as a priority. The 'time' problem can be largely solved by batch cooking, also get as much veg into each meal as possible, also helps with the cost. Eg instead of making chicken curry, make a chicken, chick pea, spinach and potato curry. Look up tray bakes or slow cooker recipes that, while might not be any quicker overall, you don't have to stand and stir them like you do hob recipes.

Morrisons has got expensive now. Although someone on another thread mentioned that they do fresh ready meals that are basic ingredients, eg fish and vegetables that don't have a lot of processed ingredients, but it depends how many you are cooking for. Would be good for 1 or 2, but no good for a family.

Frozen veg definitely helps reduced prep and cost, and waste. But not all of it that nice. We like spinach, edamame beans and green beans best. Also the steam fresh frozen packs of veg/rice.

You need the Farms To Feed Us database:

https://farmstofeedus.org/database

(It may completely change the way you shop.)

Hello,

This looks interesting, how does it work?
I think getting closer to our food sources is important. Thanks.

@BarbaraofSeville

Thanks for the tips. By batch cooking you mean cooking big quantities and storing them in the fridge?

I tried it a couple of times but I had to spend the entire Sunday cooking. Exhausting. I thought maybe making a batch of base sauce and adapting it each day by adding veggies etc would perhaps be more practical.

I think batch cooking ragu is a game changer as can freeze in whatever size pots and it's there ready to add to your spaghetti bol, lasagne, meatballs, chicken pasta, pizza topping base etc etc and it's basically just tinned Toms, tom puree, garlic, onion and whatever veg you want to add (I use mushrooms, courgettes, peppers and carrots) dash of balsamic, fresh or dried herbs and a bit of sugar cooked down and blended - or can leave chunky!
Better, cheaper and far healthier than a jar of Dolmio.

I tend to make double or triple what's needed for a meal and freeze in portions- things like bolognaise, curry, that sort of stuff. Rather than spending a day cooking which I definitely don't have time for or interest in! I often air fry chicken thighs for dinner and do quite a few, so can freeze for packed lunches etc.

On the supermarket quality veg, I've found in descending order of quality (size, taste, longevity) - M&S > Waitrose > Aldi/Tesco > Sainsbury's.....

Meat and fish we get from Costco in bulk and freeze.

We rarely buy junk or pre-prepared foods as we can't afford to. I cook from scratch for three or four nights at a time, freezing the fourth portion if more than three nights worth.

@dzara Open the website and maybe read their introduction. (Ignore invitation to donate.) Click on the Database. (Experiment to see which device it reads best on.)

Then just browse the list - going all the way across the page for each entry.

Honestly, I’ve shared it with people who previously expressed scepticism at my faffy ways. Now they’re on the phone for hours, enthusing about online meat suppliers and comparing chickens. We all mostly use supermarket deliveries for non-perishable / frozen / cleaning products but order fish, meat (which I don’t eat) cheese, vegetables, fruit, bread, wine, whole foods (and coffee!) from separate sources. (AKA the way I grew up with, just online.)

I’ve spent most of my life living in places where face to face shopping was reasonably joyful and rewarding - but right now this is the easiest way for me to buy food I actually want to eat.

I cannot claim this will necessarily be a cheaper way to shop. Possibly it won’t. But if discovering new varieties of flour makes you more inclined to bake cakes every week rather than buying mass produced ultra-processed biscuits - it’s all to the good.

We make fresh pizzas too!
I’ll overcook all curries/bolognaise/pasta sauces and freeze the excess, not necessarily with meat in.
Have you looked at dump bags? Instead of batch cooking and freezing you put all the raw ingredients into freezer bags and then take one out in the morning and dump it into the slow cooker to do it’s thing all day.
I don’t rate any open air fruit or veg stalls where I am, the produce doesn’t taste any different to supermarket stuff. How about the fruit and veg subscription boxes? I haven’t used this before but I know there’s a few of them around and pretty reasonable mostly.
I like to bulk buy meat from the butcher.

Do you have any tips to share on how to save money on groceries shopping without having to necessarily buy junk stuff?
My tips:

• I compare the pricing per kg/lt/etc when I am buying, so that I can pick the cheapest. It's often the largest quantity of that item, but sometimes there are offers that make some other random quantity the cheapest.
• I tried really really hard to like Lidl and Aldi, but I now just buy some few random items there, generally household items.
• M&S is by far the best supermarket where to buy fresh fruit and veg.
• I do buy organic as much as I can. I don't see a difference taste-wise but I really don't want to ingest the pesticides/chemicals produce is sprayed with (I know the farming industry very very well).