Written in conjunction with Panasonic
As you’ll know, if you read my recent post, we’re in the process of trying to find somewhere new to live, which means we’re trying to save as much money as possible to put towards all of the associated costs. This means adjusting how much food waste we have and learning to use our fridge freezer more efficiently.
The first thing we’ve started doing is buying our meat in bulk. Husband has a friend who buys meat from a wholesaler and sells it on at relatively low prices. Last time we made an order, we bought 3kg of beef mince, a whole pork loin cut into chops and 5kg of chicken, which cost us £60 and made over 20 meals. We froze the meat into meal-sized portions and have saved a bunch by not going to the supermarket so often, where we usually end up buying things we don’t really need.
I must admit, one thing I’m terrible at is portioning – I tend to love my family with food, which means far more being piled on the plate than really needs to be. I’ve been working really hard lately to adjust how much food I serve up, thereby leaving us with less waste at the end of the meal.
Leftovers don’t always have to be bad news, as this recent post shows. There are some great meals to be made with leftovers and sometimes we deliberately cook in bulk so that we can save portions for another day. One of these Food Savers is a brilliant way to preserve food for longer, making leftovers go even further. They’re also great for making ‘chicken dump‘ bags – before you freeze your individual portions of chicken, add seasoning, herbs and veggies to the bags, giving you a full meal that you can just chuck into the oven once defrosted – simple, mess free cooking with minimal waste and effort!
If you’re a super bargain hunter, you can also work out when your nearest supermarket rotates it shelves and moves the near-date items to the bargain bucket. Things like bread and meat can be frozen, while ertain veggies could be prepped and frozen for a later date, saving you a bunch and allowing you to eat good food at bargain prices.
Do you have any great tips for getting the most out of your fridge freezer or finding food bargains? Leave me a comment below!
I’m like you, and am very conscious about how much I spend on our family’s food each week because i hate to see waste. So, we budget meal plan EVERY week so that I know exactly what I have to buy and when. We waste very little and it also means I don’t have to keep revisiting the supermarket to buy more stuff that we don’t need. We eat good food – nice food, including fresh fish etc – and I only spend an average of £50-55 a week on food for our family of 4, including all household stuff and nappies for the little man.
The freezer is amazing for everything – I could do with another one in the shed to store more stuff! You can chop and freeze onions, you can freeze thumbs of ginger, you can freeze strawberries and raspberries (great for smoothies), and you can freeze herbs (which, although they’ll be a bit soggy, are great for chucking into recipes for flavour). My freezer is crammed with stuff like this that I can just pull out when I need it, instead of wasting half a bag of herbs cuz I only needed a ‘pinch’.
Loving the chicken dump recipes that you have linked to – totally gonna do these! Han x