Batch cooking is a great way to help you stick to Slimming World on a budget. Not only does it save you money, but you’ve always got something healthy ready to microwave on days you can’t be bothered to cook! You can bulk buy ingredients to get them cheaper and cook them up straight away so nothing goes out of date. You can also bulk out meals with tons of SP ingredients to make them more filling, and get a lot more for your money. I just made 12 portions of SP friendly chilli for £4! Chopped tomatoes are brilliant for this as they only cost a few pence per tin but add more volume to SO many meals.
Buying frozen fruit and vegetables can be a lot cheaper than buying fresh. You can also keep an eye out for reduced items such as meat. Stock up when they’re discounted or on offer and stick them in the freezer until you need them!
Every week Aldi has 6 different items of fruit and veg mega cheap. Get creative and see what meals you can make with these ingredients. The Slimming World website has a section where you can search for recipes by ingredient! It actually makes cooking more interesting trying to come up with meals based around a random assortment of stuff!
We don’t eat much meat in our house anymore and the difference in our shopping bill is huge. Quorn mince and quorn pieces are both free foods on Slimming World and they’re a lot cheaper than the meat versions. Foods like beans and lentils are super cheap to buy, SP friendly, and can bulk out meals like casseroles and chilli to make them go further. Even going meat free for a few meals a week could save you money.
If you do eat a lot of meat, buy cheaper cuts. I know it is quicker and easy to just buy a tray of chicken breasts or thighs, but you could save quite a bit of money by buying a whole chicken instead and cutting it up yourself. Whole chickens are often on offer too. Admittedly you have to remove the bones and skin, but for the money it can save you, it is worth it. Also I love doing slow cooker chicken as the meat literally falls off the bone and then youcan shred the meat and place in a tub in the fridge for adding to salads, curries, soups etc.
One of the great things about Slimming World is foods like pasta and rice are free. If you’ve got the space, buy bigger bags to save money. It might only be a few pennies each time but if your family eats as much pasta as mine it soon adds up!
Sometimes markets can have great deals on fruit and veg. Try going near the end of the day too, when they are likely to do you an dealon a box of fruit or veg to get rid of stock if there is no market scheduled for the next day.