NOW CLOSED: Tell Sainsbury's your top tips for cooking on a budget - you could win £200 of Sainsbury's vouchers

[AnnMumsnet]

Mumsnet have been asked by Sainsbury's to find out your top tips on cooking for your family on a budget. They have put together a basics range to help families who are looking to cut back on costs without compromising on quality and taste.

Sainsbury's want to know what are your tips for cooking good food for your family and watching the pennies.

Please post your tips below. Everyone who posts a tip on this thread will be entered into a prize draw where one lucky winner will receive £200 of Sainsbury's vouchers.

Many thanks and good luck!
MNHQ

Avoid costly convenience foods.

Buy your veg from a market.

Look on the supermarket discount shelf for reduced price goods, especially meat.

Eat more tinned fish and cheese as the protein content of a meal.

Experiment with Value lines - sometimes the quality is fine.

Serve smaller portions on smaller plates - many people eat too much anyway .

I shop online where it's easy to see all the special offers together and base my weekly shop on them. I regularly have a £30 saving on a £100 shop - brilliant.

Cook several things together in the oven to save on its use - or switch to a slow cooker.

Batch cook on the hob to save gas.

Homemade soups are cheap and filling - can use leftovers.

think i may repeat a lot of tips already. Online shopping is great to avoid being tempted by stuff you don't need BUT kinda loses the benefits when substitutions or missing items mean you still need to go to the shop.

I try to get any reduced/on offer meat. Always have frozen veg. I buy fruit on BOGOF and freeze some of them (grapes are lovely frozen, apples can be cored and sliced then it's ready for snacks, lunchboxes or puddings!)
Never shop with DC or DH - especially if they have a habit of adding to the trolley!
I always have staples for quick meals in cupboard - pasta and rice are so useful and versatile!
Tins of condensed soup are great for quick sauces/pasta bakes.
Always freeze leftovers (I put a tub next to the plates when serving so I'm not tempted to just aplit the extra on to plates!)

Can't think of any others just now. :)

feetheart DH has always made fun of me for having a list on the freezer of what's in it! Glad I'm not alone :) I always think it must save on power as not having to keep opening the door to check! :)

Meal plan and online shop. Swap supermarket own brands for leading brands. Buy loose fruit and veg not prepacked - the price per weight is usually significantly cheaper and you only need to buy what you need.

split meat up from package into smaller "portions" and bulk out a meal using extra veg and less meat.

rather than buying pre-made coleslaw I make my own, we eat more of it as it is very tasty and the price of a pre made tub will buy enough veg, mayo and salad cream to do 3 jumbo helpings.

Basic range products have replaced some branded lines in my shopping basket, I'll give them a try and if I like them well enough , the branded product gets the heave ho.

Personally I don't meal plan before shopping because 1) we fairly often have people round last minute and 2) I like to see what the current offers are and shop around these.

I buy offer stuff which can be frozen or is longlife in packets/jars. I only buy enough fresh stuff for a few days at a time so it doesn't get wasted.

I have done the changing down a brand and found there is a lot of basics stuff which is very good and I can't tell the difference. (I have a bit of addiction to basics chocolate I was surprised how nice it is.)

Dont shop when you are hungry.

Batch cook and freeze meals so you can make most of bulk buying ingredients.

Try value ranges- you may be surprised

I am sure most of my tips are mentioned already.

1. leftovers can be used in many ways; I make soup, stirred fried rice, rosti etc.
2. I buy less meat and when I buy, I choose big packet then split them in portions so they can be frozen
3. Once or twice a week, I make things in bulk like chilli/curry/lasagne/fishcakes etc.
4. We now eat less meat. Change was made to have healthier diet and turned out to be cheaper as well. Likewise to the many above, I use lentils/beans/pulses a lot.

5.I keep a food stock list for the fridge and freezer. I have a list of things in the fridge and cross out as they run out. This is also very useful when making weekly shopping list. I just go through the list and replenish. I know it sounds anal but it works very well.

1. I do look out for bargain section for things can be frozen. You can pick up some good bargains towards the end of sunday shopping hours as the supermarket tend to off load lots of soon to be out of date products.
2. When I cook a whole chicken, I do keep bones to make stock. that is invaluable.

Wow.. it went to No.7 impressed myself.

Don't eat meat everyday. It makes the shopping much chaeper

1, Meal plan and get the family involved. one evening once a month everyone in our house decides what meals they would like included in the following months dinners and puddings.We find this gives children a head start in having a healthy understanding into what goes into they're meals and cooking.It's also a good way of getting any little one's that can be fussy eaters to try different things.

2,We have a roast dinner every sunday and so allways buy a slightly larger joint or chicken so that we can make 2 meals instead of one and have some lovely carved meat or chicken for in the fridge to go into sandwhiches,salads,stirfrys,omelettes to make quick and easy lunches.

The children in our house go through stages of eating lots of one sort of fruit to another so if I find I have some bananas are going over I'll use them to make a pudding.1 recipe I found made a large enough cake to cover two puddings for all 7 of us and you could freeze it.So once cooked I cut in half and used half for that nights pudding and wrapped the other half up and put into the freezer for a pudding another time.And it only cost me about 80p for a pudding that would feed 14.The same with apples,nectarines, crumbles, strudels,homemade Ice cream.

3,When making fishermans pie I now use Pollock and mix in with something like mackeral or salmon trimmings,super cheap super yummy and really good for you.

4,We make our own bread now in the bread maker it only costs us 50p for a large loaf.We also use the bread maker for making our own pizza bases and realy gorgeous garlic bread.

5,Mince is a really cheap way of making different meals,we now make cottage pie,lasagne,bologneise,tacos,spicy mince wraps,moussaka,beefburgers,meatballs,and my partner makes a really gorgeous curry with mince and broccoli in it it sounds strange but tastes amazing and is mild enough for the younger one's to eat to.

6,We've found since budgeting not only have we saved alot of money but we've also tried alot more dishes there's a wealth of recipes out there.More than I could cook in a lifetime!

7,And the best bit is since we've started making everything ourselves the children all clear they're plates which was a huge rarity in this house before!And now all the children want to get involved in the cooking which is great.We've got 5 children rangeing in age from 14 down to 3 and one of our children is disabled and so am I now,but cooking is great because it's something we can all do together,no matter what age or ability there's allways a job suitable for everyone,even if it's just chief taster :) x

Ignore "best before" dates on fruit and veg -they are fine to use in soups and casseroles or cooked puddings for weeks

Eat more veggie food.

If you eat meat, buy a whole chicken and it will do several meals, finishing up with soup. Much more economical than buying a packet of chicken breasts.

Don't buy ready meals. Buy mince, bacon, sausages etc when they are on offer & fill the freezer with bol, cottage pies and so on.

Grow your own salads and herbs on the kitchen windowsill.

Breadmakers - make cheaper nicer bread and pizza bases - the kids love decorating their own pizzas.

Buy own brand or basics ranges.

Most definitely meal planning and making a shopping list. Also, I find making a big pot of soup a great way to feed hungry kids (and adults), it's cheap, easy to make and very nutritious.

Plan meals and have a shopping list. Buy large packs of meat and then freeze into portions.

Cook a roast and use the leftover meat for the next couple (leftover roast chicken can be made into chicken pie, or put with pasta or rice or gnocchi).

Slow cook so you can buy the cheapest cuts of meat.

I buy really big bags of carrots & onions from the farm shop for only a few pounds.
I dice & blanch the carrots & freeze in batches, I also dice & freeze the onions.
Saves money & time.

I drop a brand & use shop brand baked beans for bulking out a shepherds pie.

mumsnet - you have updated this thread with a prize, and you've missed my comment off this post

so here goes again

when we are broke we eat lots of eggs....scrambled, poached, omlettes, pitza. they've cheap, healthy and quick. 18 eggs=£1.99 which feeds a family of 5 for 2 meals, ie £1 per meal

sorry dreamingofsun - thanks for updating it

mumsnet - thats OK. Nice to see they took the other posters comment on board and are providing a prize

I avoid doing a large shop - I try and do it twice weekly instead as I find this reduces waste. It stops veg rotting in the bottom of the fridge drawers!!

Buy in season fruit & veg.

Plan husband's packed lunches - otherwise I run out of stuff and it's too tempting to just tell him to buy his lunch at work!

Make fairy cakes/flapjacks instead of buying "treats."

Meal planning is essential. Think about how to make a sauce cheap and healthy. I cook mince in passata, lots of grated carrot and garlic - children and adults love it. I also use the cheap ranges of fruit jiuce to cook with. Pork mince cooked in value apple juice is great.

Grow herbs from seed in pots and keep on your windowsill - way cheaper and last longer than buying pots from the supermarket

We keep naans and onion bhaji type 'extras' in the freezer as it makes us feel our homemade curry and rice feel a bit special (and stops us resorting to a takeaway)...

Don't do all your shopping in one shop. Look round and shop the offers. I shop twice weekly once in Tescos and once in Sainsburys after checking prices online.

Meal plan, make a list and stick to it.

Make your own cakes and biscuits.

Use the market for veg.

This may have been mentioned, but I take advantage of the "buy two for £x" offers, such as 2 x 500g of mince for £6, then split each pack into 2 before freezing it in freezer bags. Same with multi packs of chicken thighs etc.

Then, when I'm making a bolognese, chilli, curry or whatever, I bulk each one out with a tin of beans or lentils. So I feel like I'm getting at least an extra meal or two out of the original purchase.

And the dried beans / lentils are even cheaper, but you have to remember to soak them for the day.

I've found a slow cooker was a brilliant purchase as I can do all of the above in the morning and by the time we come to eat it in the evening, it tastes like I've spent far more time and money on it than I really did!

-Buy frozen veg as there's no waste and my kids like little portions to be thawed in the fridge to munch on - peas, sweetcorn etc.
-stock up on meat when there are offers on, Sainsburys do buy 2 for £5 often as well as 3 for £10 or half price. Even if you dont need them that week you can sepaerate and freeze in individual bags.
-Have a meat free day: vegetable curry, chickpea stew etc

• Always make twice as much as you need and freeze the remaining half.
• buy shopping online and monthly. It saves on buying random items.

I do my shopping with sainsburys online for £120 a month for 4 of us so consider myself an expert

Flavoured mustard (do Sainsburys still sell this?) is a great way to jazz up a simple pasta dish. Just cook some basic pasta and some mushrooms, and add a bit of creme fraiche and flavoured mustard. Delicious and cheap!!