5 top tips to eating well on a budget
It’s February, the weather’s gross, and Christmas is definitely over. The workload is picking up again and even worse, we’re skint. I mean, money doesn’t buy happiness but it sure does make things a lot easier. Being skint not only means no more treating ourselves to fancy underwear sets, or Starbucks in the morning, but worse than that, it’s goodbye tasty meals and hello beans on toast. Or is it?
Eating good food never fails to make us happy so here's my five top tips for managing to eat well on a budget.
1. Food shops.
It’s easy to get caught in the routine of buying your food daily but this can get expensive. A meal deal for lunch and a quick stop off at Tesco for your dinner, all begins to rack up, and before you know it, you’re spending nearly £10 a day on food.
Putting aside half hour of your day to do an online food shop or a trip to the supermarket itself, is a huge money saver. It’s such a stress buster knowing you already have dinner in your cupboards and don’t need to stop off somewhere to buy some food. So list your favourite meals, then go get the ingredients! #domesticated.
2. Bulking.
Pack out your meals with healthy, colourful, yummy vegetables. Meat is often expensive so if you are going to have it, use a little less than you normally would, and freeze the rest. Then pack out the meal with extra vegetables which are cheaper than meat, and extremely healthy. So you’ve saved some dollar, you’ve got meat left over or your next meal, and you’re getting your five-a-day. WINNING.
3. Dupes.
*This is not a tip to add a Kylie Jenner lip-kit dupe to your food basket.* Own branded food doesn’t always mean bad tasting food, so if there's a cheaper version of a branded product, why not give it a go? Hello food dupes! Cereal, soups, yogurts, and sauces always have dupes, and even if they don’t taste as good as the more expensive versions, you can jazz it up to suit your taste buds!
The average price of Heinz Tomato soup is 90p, but, Asda do their own tomato soup for a measly 32p meaning you can get nearly three tins for the same price. I CANNOT taste the difference between the brands so go for the cheaper one and save some dollar. Tesco do an extra value curry sauce for and it’s basic but tasty. If you want to make it tastier, get crafty. Add your veg, some chilli, a little bit of garlic and voila, you’ve got a banging curry sauce for next to nothing! Don’t be worried to try out the cheap stuff, you’ll be surprised!
4. Freeze things.
Get into the habit of freezing anything you aren’t going to be using in the next few days. This will reduce food wastage and also give you a chance to be a little more organised with your meal choice and portion sizes.
5. Find a food friend.
Whether it’s a housemate or a partner, its always cheaper to do food shops together. Call it bulk buying! Plan your meals out, work out your fave snacks, and half that food bill!