Fabulous Frugal Food Bills
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Fabulous Frugal Food Bills By Amanda Fazani www.glamumous.com Published by Glamumous under the Creative Commons Attribution- Noncommercial 2.0 UK: England & Wales License Some rights reserved. Under the terms of this license, you are free to copy, re- use and distribute this work, provided you give attribution to the original author and do not use this document for commercial purposes. The right of Amanda Fazani to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Design and Patents Act 1998. First edition: 2009 Other photographic works published with permission from the Flickr Community under the terms of their respective Creative Commons licenses. Attribution is presented alongside each image used. For further information, please visit www.glamumous.com or email [email protected] Contents Introduction................................................................................1 What happened to our food bills?.................................................2 What caused these increases?..........................................................3 So what can we do to reduce our food bills?................................3 A note from the author .................................................................4 Organize your food supplies!.....................................................6 Make food storage areas work for you!.........................................7 De-clutter!...........................................................................................7 Organize.............................................................................................7 Become a mistress of lists!.........................................................12 Store Cupboard Staples...................................................................14 What to keep in your fridge/freezer..................................................15 How to reduce food waste..........................................................16 Portion Control.................................................................................17 Freeze leftovers to create your own ready-meals.............................19 Use leftovers as the basis for another weekday meal......................19 More ways to reduce waste..............................................................20 Frugal Foods ...........................................................................23 Processed food is rarely economical..........................................24 ...But there are exceptions!...............................................................24 Seasonal fruit and vegetables....................................................25 Spring foods ....................................................................................26 Spring recipes..................................................................................27 Summer foods..................................................................................32 Summer Recipes..............................................................................33 Autumn Foods..................................................................................36 Autumn Recipes...............................................................................38 Winter foods ....................................................................................40 Winter recipes..................................................................................41 Thrifty cuts of meat and fish .......................................................44 Chicken............................................................................................44 Pork..................................................................................................46 Beef..................................................................................................47 i Lamb................................................................................................49 Turkey..............................................................................................51 Fish...................................................................................................52 Saving money in the dairy aisle..................................................54 How to save on Bread, Pasta and Dried Foods .........................59 Thirsty? Be thrifty!.......................................................................62 Ethics vs. Economy....................................................................65 Plan your menus in advance...................................................67 More reasons to plan your menus..............................................68 How to plan a week of dinners ...................................................69 What do you already have in stock?.................................................69 Consider your family schedule.........................................................69 Family Favourites and New Ideas....................................................70 Plan meals around a main dish........................................................71 Take note of special offers................................................................72 Consider your budget carefully.........................................................72 Two Week Meal Plan Examples.................................................74 Week One........................................................................................75 Week One Recipes...........................................................................76 Week Two Menu Plan.......................................................................88 Week Two Recipes...........................................................................90 Creative lunches and lunch boxes............................................103 Leftover lunch ideas.......................................................................103 Bento (Japanese style lunch boxes)...............................................104 Let's go shopping!..................................................................106 Be prepared!.............................................................................107 Write a shopping list.......................................................................107 Collect vouchers and look out for promotions.................................108 Create your own “price guide” notebook.........................................109 Deciding where to shop..................................................................109 Shop alone whenever possible.......................................................112 Time your shopping trip well...........................................................113 Non-food products at the supermarket......................................115 Products which are cheaper at the supermarket.............................116 Products which are cheaper elsewhere..........................................117 Know your way around the supermarket...................................118 Go against the flow.........................................................................119 Plan your routes.............................................................................120 Calculate everything!................................................................121 Work out the true costs of your choices..........................................121 ii Leave your cards at home..............................................................122 At the checkout.........................................................................123 Stay focused!..................................................................................124 Using vouchers...............................................................................124 Don't be afraid to ask for a discount on imperfect goods................124 Use your own bags.........................................................................125 Check your receipt.........................................................................125 Shopping on-line.......................................................................126 Which supermarkets offer on-line shopping?.................................127 What you need to know about pricing.............................................129 Check before you sign!...................................................................131 Grow your own!......................................................................133 What you will need to get started..............................................133 Growing Indoors.......................................................................135 Windowsill salads...........................................................................135 Kitchen herbs.................................................................................137 Growing Outdoors....................................................................139 Easy Ideas for the family to enjoy...................................................140 More easy-growing vegetables.......................................................143 Learn more about growing your own........................................144 25 more money-saving tactics...............................................146 Save even more at the supermarket.........................................147 1. Join loyalty card schemes..........................................................147 2. Join email lists............................................................................149 3. In-store magazines.....................................................................150