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Best tips for frugal cooking

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    c4rvc4rv Posts: 29,625
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    mirabelle wrote: »
    Eating a veggie lifestyle doesn't work out cheaper, people always think this but you eat twice as much if not more veg in each meal, it soon adds up

    What are you talking about ????????

    You don't eat any more food then you would as a meat eater and AFAIK veggies, pulses, lentils are all cheaper then the cheapest meats and healthier then the cheapest meats.
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    [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 1,238
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    Visit your local market, the prices are a lot cheaper then supermarkets and the quality a lot better in general. A large punnet of grapes from the market costs a quid, its 3x as much in Sains.
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    Ella NutElla Nut Posts: 9,030
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    c4rv wrote: »
    What are you talking about ????????

    You don't eat any more food then you would as a meat eater and AFAIK veggies, pulses, lentils are all cheaper then the cheapest meats and healthier then the cheapest meats.

    This. I was about to say something myself regarding that rather ludicrous statement.
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    [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 2,640
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    Ella Nut wrote: »
    This. I was about to say something myself regarding that rather ludicrous statement.

    Well in my house there are 2 of us I can spend £30 on veg and have to top it up mid week
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    stud u likestud u like Posts: 42,100
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    Visit your local market, the prices are a lot cheaper then supermarkets and the quality a lot better in general. A large punnet of grapes from the market costs a quid, its 3x as much in Sains.

    £1.75 for white. Only 3.5 times as much for red.
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    stud u likestud u like Posts: 42,100
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    mirabelle wrote: »
    Eating a veggie lifestyle doesn't work out cheaper, people always think this but you eat twice as much if not more veg in each meal, it soon adds up

    Why would you eat twice as much? You would eat the same.
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    molliepopsmolliepops Posts: 26,828
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    mirabelle wrote: »
    Well in my house there are 2 of us I can spend £30 on veg and have to top it up mid week

    Surely that depends what veg you buy I spend less than that but still eat a lot of veg, if I bought expensive veg rather than carrots/cabbage etc I could easily spend £30.
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    [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 240
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    Avoiding the cost of being a vegetarian debate, I recently discovered that you can buy huge sacks of onions for £1-£1.50 if you visit independent shops rather than the supermarkets.

    I recently bought 4kg onions from a local Indian cash & carry at a cost of only £1.50. I would normally spend that on a quarter of the quantity in Sainsbury's. I also bought 2kg of lentils for £2 and with a serving being equivanlenty of 50g dried, that £2 has bought me 40 servings!

    So if nuclear war hits, I'll be feeding myself on onions and lentils for several weeks...
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    smudges dadsmudges dad Posts: 36,989
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    Echo Zulu wrote: »
    So if nuclear war hits, I'll be feeding myself on onions and lentils for several weeks...

    A nuclear war may be preferable......
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    EspressoEspresso Posts: 18,047
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    Echo Zulu wrote: »
    So if nuclear war hits, I'll be feeding myself on onions and lentils for several weeks...

    Nah, you've got that backwards. If you ate that diet for a few weeks, you would cause a nuclear war.

    You're right though, about the sacks of onions. I buy those and rice and lentils and spuds and carrots at my local Chinese warehouse, along with all manner of other interesting spices and sauces. All for a teeny weeny fraction of what the same amount of any of those would cost in a supermarket.
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    CowieCowie Posts: 1,279
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    The key to freezing onion is to get it into the freezer as quick as possible after chopping.
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    ShrikeShrike Posts: 16,609
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    I used to buy the big packs of spices at the asian foodstores - until I realised I wasn't using them up in time:(
    I'd rather buy a small pack that I use up whilst its still fresh than waste most of a bigger one. The big packs of lentils/beans/chickpeas are good value though.
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    [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 48
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    One of my favourite cuts of meat is belly pork and it's very cheap. Very versatile too. You can fry, roast or stew it. Some people have an aversion to fat though but I see it as adding taste.

    I buy mince a lot. Pork and turkey mince are quite cheap and just as nice as beef mince.

    I normally buy in bulk and freeze in individual portions. Today I got 3 beef roasting joints for £10 simply because the butcher left it as a whole and I cut it into 3 myself. Last week I bought a sirloin joint for £30 and cut it into 30 steaks myself.

    For me being frugal is also about ignoring use by dates etc. If it looks and smells ok then I'm not going to throw it away
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    [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 240
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    Echo Zulu wrote: »
    Avoiding the cost of being a vegetarian debate, I recently discovered that you can buy huge sacks of onions for £1-£1.50 if you visit independent shops rather than the supermarkets.

    I recently bought 4kg onions from a local Indian cash & carry at a cost of only £1.50. I would normally spend that on a quarter of the quantity in Sainsbury's. I also bought 2kg of lentils for £2 and with a serving being equivanlenty of 50g dried, that £2 has bought me 40 servings!

    So if nuclear war hits, I'll be feeding myself on onions and lentils for several weeks...

    That teaches me for typing one handed while eating!
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    diablodiablo Posts: 8,300
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    I got a couple of turkey legs in Tesco tonight to cook in the slow cooker.

    They aren't bad at all, quite tasty. And at £2.44 per kilo are pretty cheap. :)
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