grocery shopping on a budget - Forum

Private
National star

Sylvan wrote:
What do you usually get?

I have like 2 weekly breakdowns when I go shopping because everything is so expensive now.

The veggies I always bought went from 0,87 to 1,79 in just 4 months sad

Kaylee
International star

Kaylee wrote:
if im low on money I usually stock up on chickpeas, tofu, lentils, coconut milk and spinach and do lots of different curries or dahls, either with pasta or with rice or couscous
and also tomato pasta i usually make the sauce with tomato puree, lots of paprika, garlic powder and mixed herbs and then a splash of oat milk to make it creamier and then whatever else u can put in it like peppers, onion, different protein like tofu or meat subs (or meat if u eat it)
also you can make lots of really filling salads with roasted veggies like potatoes, carrots, cauliflower etc ontop of a bed of spinach and then for dressing i do soy yoghurt with roast garlic and peas and then blend it all together
that was alot of typing but i hope its helpful lol

Private
National star

Sylvan wrote:

Kaylee wrote:
if im low on money I usually stock up on chickpeas, tofu, lentils, coconut milk and spinach and do lots of different curries or dahls, either with pasta or with rice or couscous
and also tomato pasta i usually make the sauce with tomato puree, lots of paprika, garlic powder and mixed herbs and then a splash of oat milk to make it creamier and then whatever else u can put in it like peppers, onion, different protein like tofu or meat subs (or meat if u eat it)
also you can make lots of really filling salads with roasted veggies like potatoes, carrots, cauliflower etc ontop of a bed of spinach and then for dressing i do soy yoghurt with roast garlic and peas and then blend it all together
that was alot of typing but i hope its helpful lol

those are really expensive here

Kaylee
International star

Kaylee wrote:

Sylvan wrote:

Kaylee wrote:
if im low on money I usually stock up on chickpeas, tofu, lentils, coconut milk and spinach and do lots of different curries or dahls, either with pasta or with rice or couscous
and also tomato pasta i usually make the sauce with tomato puree, lots of paprika, garlic powder and mixed herbs and then a splash of oat milk to make it creamier and then whatever else u can put in it like peppers, onion, different protein like tofu or meat subs (or meat if u eat it)
also you can make lots of really filling salads with roasted veggies like potatoes, carrots, cauliflower etc ontop of a bed of spinach and then for dressing i do soy yoghurt with roast garlic and peas and then blend it all together
that was alot of typing but i hope its helpful lol

those are really expensive here

oh really? thats the cheapest stuff i can get here most either under £1 and a few under £2

Private
World famous

Babel wrote:
We buy all the dry ingredients in bulk. Lentils, chickpeas, beans and similar stuff is usually cheap in the nearest Middle Eastern/Asian market, and usually makes for a filling meal. It's good to make dahl out of, if you already have a lot of spices, and if you don't own a ton of spices it's usually a nice investment. We usually also stock up on oat milk when it's on sale because it doesn't go bad as quickly as milk, which has become quite expensive.

Buying things in season and on sale is usually our go to as well. Butter is cheaper around Christmas, so we usually stock up and freeze some of the packs down for later use. Vegetables in season are usually possible to get for cheap, like cabbage atm. We then use the vegetables in different ways throughout the week if we have any leftovers (most cabbages are big), for instance we got cabbage salad Monday and today we're using the rest of the cabbage in egg cake, but it's also possible to blend with some potatoes and make a mash out of. Does it taste particularly nice? No, but it's usually a nice filling side for something else.

We usually stock up on chicken when it's on sale, but primarily eat a vegetarian diet, so buying 1 kg of chicken breast usually last us a few months. Getting rid of all meat substitutes is also nice, and you can switch most meat out with other kinds of vegetables in most dishes. We love to blend chickpeas, add some egg, some spices and some nuts (almonds are cheap atm some places. I got 1 kg for 40 dkk last week) and make vegetable balls out of them. If no nuts, then making lentil balls usually does the work. Adding more beans to a chili instead of minced meat is usually also nice, and adding some beets is 10/10 for colour usually.

A leftover day is usually also a good thing to add to your meal plan. We usually eat any leftovers throughout the week as lunch, but you can just as easily eat it for dinner later on. We usually use our leftover day to be creative with whatever ingredients we have left, which usually makes for some nice soup, some nice pasta dish or similar.

Pasta dishes are usually cheap to make as well, because it requires few ingredients and pasta is cheap. We enjoy lemon pasta and aglio e olio. Any cheese used for pasta dishes is either bought in bulk or bought when it's on sale in the store. Cheese can usually be frozen down, unless it's soft, so our go to has been to buy it from the Netherlands and buy 4-6 kg at a time, which usually lasts us a few months. Sometimes we also interchange between the cheeses recommended, because parmesan is usually easy to substitute with its cheaper brother pecorino.

Private
Popstar

autism wrote:
I always keep big amounts of basic stuff like rice beans etc stocked so if im on a budget ill buy less basic important stuff more yumyum but not super expensive stuff like carrots, 1 sweet potato, cauliflower, milk, bread, and cheese
although cheese expensive but very important !!!

Cherrycobble
Streetmusician

cherrycobble wrote:
i usually buy lots of microwaveable foods because im lazy, but my family buys a lot of grapes and spinach