Save Money on Food Shopping
Save Money on your supermarket shop with our top tips.
We have teamed up with ‘Cooking Good!’ to provide our community with information to help reduce the cost of shopping, cook straight-forward meals from scratch and learn to cook nutritious meals on a budget.
This week we are sharing some top tips for shopping smarter. Careful planning can help you change habitual shopping and cooking behaviours. Shopping carefully will help you make healthier choices and will reduce the cost of your shop.
Top Tips
- Do a quick stock check of your fridge and freezer.
- Read use-by dates to see what products need to be used first.
- Meal plan for the week planning around the food you already have.
- Stick to seasonal fruit and veg, it is likely to be cheaper.
- Make a shopping list of food you don’t have and stick to it.
- Only buy what you need.
- Don’t be tempted by ‘end of aisle offers’ or the ‘treat aisle’!
- Choose fresh and whole foods over pre-prepped and ready made.
- Choose value food brands.
- Batch cook your food and freeze meals for the following week.
Advice from Cooking Good!
When you shop, pick meats carefully and buy whole fruit and vegetables. Pre-prepared fruit, veg and pre-seasoned meat and fish are more expensive. A whole chicken for example can be cooked to make a casserole with fresh potatoes and vegetables which will make enough for more than one meal. In contrast pre-prepared breaded chicken strips, would cost the same amount and would likely only stretch to one serving.
If cooking feels overwhelming to start with, set the intention to cook just one new meal from scratch a week, until you get the hang of it.
Slow-Cooked Chicken Curry
Makes approximately 4 servings
Preparation time is approximately 5 minutes
Cooking time is approximately 6 hrs in a slow cooker
Ingredients:
Ingredients
- 8 small chicken thighs
- 2 large onions, diced
- 2-4 garlic cloves, diced
- 6cm piece of fresh root ginger, grated
- 2-3 teaspoons of curry powder
- 1 can chopped tomatoes
- 2 tablespoons tomato purée
- 1 can full fat coconut milk
- Sea salt and black pepper
How to make chicken curry
1. Put everything in a slow cooker or (the liquid should just cover everything), season, stir,
2. Cover with the lid
3. Set low to cook for 6 hours. If you prefer a thicker sauce, remove the lid from the slow cooker and cook uncovered for the last 20–30 minutes so the liquid reduces down.
4. At the end of cooking, taste for seasoning.
HINTS & TIPS
Serve with cauliflower rice or broccoli for a balanced meal
Make double ( if you have a large slow cooker ) and freeze
Coconut milk can be replaced with water or stock
Or you can use half water and ½ coconut milk to save on cost., the remaining coconut milk can be placed into a container of freezer bag and frozen for use later.
Find more recipes to inspire you HERE.
Harvest For Hope
Harvest is an important time for Northampton Hope where we build up our Food Club Warehouse in preparation for winter. This year we are seeing a significant decline in the numbers of those able to donate this year because of the cost-of-living crisis, and a rise in those that need our services. If you would like to donate food to Hope during harvest please follow THIS LINK for information.
Many thanks to the team at Cooking Good! for working with Hope and their advice on food and cooking.
