1 | Dee

March 25th, 2009 at 3:51 pm

Tescos

Are doing really good value on head and shoulder and herbal essesnce shampoos buy one get one free and like Dunnes a sure roll on reduced to about 2 euros.
Three uncle bens rice sachets for 4.5o euro and ready meals such as lasagne and strogonoff for half price.

Happy saving!

2 | cbb

March 25th, 2009 at 3:58 pm

Stock up on all of you spices, coconut milk, soy/fish sauces, curry pastes in Asian shops. Particularly good for big fat chillis, rather than prepackaged skinny ones in Tesco at twice the price!

3 | Ciara

March 25th, 2009 at 3:58 pm

Add beans or lentils to soups, stews and casseroles. They are inexpensive, nutritional, low fat and bulk up any meal.

4 | Michelle

March 25th, 2009 at 4:02 pm

Great blog )
My frugal cooking tips ….

Cheats carbonara – mix cream cheese into the spaghetti whilst it’s hot and add chopped up ham (either leftover bacon from dinner or sliced ham when you buy the 2 for 1 packets and have too much )

Bruschetta – Tesco reduce their ciabatta rolls (4 pack in the bakery section) regularly on Sunday evenings so I buy them and freeze them. When friends are round for dinner I defrost them … slice them at an angle and toast, then brush with cloves of garlic and add chopped tomatoes (good way of using up ‘soft’ tomatoes) & spring onions … lovely starter.

Pizzas – rather than buy expensive pizza bases use tortilla wraps – you can get EIGHT wraps for the price of just one pre-made pizza base. Use tinned chopped tomatoes (drained) as the base and sprinkle with mixed herbs (cheap as chips in Lidl) and then add whatever toppings you want i.e. mozarella, chorizo slices, cooked chicken, chopped peppers (all from Lidl) and bake for about 10 mins. Fabulous!

I could go on … and on … and on .. )

5 | Carol

March 25th, 2009 at 4:17 pm

Do a monthly check of all the “eat by dates” in your cupboard and move older items to the front.

6 | Dawn

March 25th, 2009 at 4:37 pm

Cook At Home, Buy in Bulk, No Processed Food

7 | SJ

March 25th, 2009 at 4:44 pm

I like this site and would love this book, am always trying to make the tastiest food possible without anything from a jar .. Its so much cheaper to make everything from scratch and tastier and i would imagine healthier … Fiona is to be applauded.

8 | Aaron

March 25th, 2009 at 4:46 pm

Check out the price comparison tables on consumerconnect.ie
enough said

9 | rach

March 25th, 2009 at 5:00 pm

Would love this book-it’s hard to be a foodie when you’re cooking for one and I always get left with loads of leftovers! Hate buying processed stuff and throwing things out so it’d be great to know how to use everything up!

10 | Geraldine

March 25th, 2009 at 5:30 pm

Freeze your chillies – wash, remove all of the stem and freeze. Ue them whole from the freezer or thaw in boiled water.

Homemade chilli sauce with a real kick, (great to add to you meals or sandwiches )
Puree 2 tomatoes, 2 garlic cloves, 1/2 onion, 1/2″ ginger, 1 scotch bonnet chilli and salt

11 | John

March 25th, 2009 at 6:09 pm

Make sure you use every last scrap of beluga caviar when you open a tin or a jar, so that none is wasted.

12 | Sarah

March 25th, 2009 at 6:33 pm

This sounds great – I always seem to be throwing out mouldy food from the fridge. It’s a very bad habit! Would love this book.

13 | Kate Murphy

March 25th, 2009 at 6:45 pm

always make soup after a roast to use stock… free bones from the butchers to make stock too…

14 | Grace

March 25th, 2009 at 8:24 pm

Freeze leftovers, you mihgt not feel like eating them the next day but you’ll be so delighted to find it in the freezer some night when you cannot be bothered cooking!

15 | Pete Clarke

March 25th, 2009 at 9:13 pm

Make your own soup and bread from scratch. Easier to make large batches for next to nothing and it can all be frozen for later use.

16 | Aidan

March 25th, 2009 at 10:01 pm

Don’t worry too much about following recipes to the tee, as so many of my friends do. Use recipes for inspiration or guidelines only, and that way you (a) learn to cook by instinct, and (b) won’t end up with half-used ingredients that you don’t know what to do with. It’s much more fun and satisfying (for me, anyway) to come up with a meal idea myself depending on what I feel like at the time and what I have in the house.

The exception to my ‘no rules’ approach is when baking. The relative proportions and ingredient substitutions do make a difference to the chemistry of it… but even then I like to experiment and figure out how it comes together.

17 | Ann

March 25th, 2009 at 10:05 pm

Pour 1 cup of black tea over 3 or 4 slices of bread, 1 to 2 tsp of mix spice 2 tsp sugar 1 pk of sultanas
Mix well, roll out 2 sheets of pastry to fit a flat oven tray, sandwich the filling mix between them ,and bake in a medium oven for 30 minutes or until golden
brown allow to cool and cut in squares.

18 | Kathy

March 25th, 2009 at 10:17 pm

I never buy tins of beans or pulses. By buying dried beans, planning ahead and soaking them overnight, then boiling them for about 10 minutes in the morning and continuing to leave them soak in the hot water, they cook very quickly when you are ready to use. They are much cheaper and actually much better than the tins of beans, which I think are always undercooked.

19 | Mark Murphy

March 25th, 2009 at 10:31 pm

Hi There,

Frugality is what it’s all about these day’s.

However, this “recession” has got it’s upsides

I have started a vegetable patch in my back garden.

I am reading “frugal” style cookery books, enjoying the simpler things in life, no longer reaching for the prime cuts of beef but getting the cheaper cuts and cooking them for longer and at lower heat.

Unfortunately some friends of mine are out of work, but the are spending a lot of quality of time with their family.

People are cooking recipies from “Frugal” like cookery books, inviting friends over for dinner and drinks at home.

We have more time for each other now than ever before.

Lets try to enjoy it and remember that this “recession” will be over before we know it. Try to forget this doom and gloom as much as possible.

Cook good food for yourselves, your family and friends.

Get back to grass roots.

Make a dish on a Sunday and make Monday’s dinner from the leftovers.

We have become too greedy and forgotten about the important things in life.

Being Happy Healthy, our Families and our Friends,

And a healthy veg patch out back

20 | Frances

March 25th, 2009 at 10:49 pm

keep the stock from the veg for soup its so tasty

21 | julie

March 25th, 2009 at 11:06 pm

hi. A recent offer in supervalue enabled me to get 2 dinners and 8 afterschool lunchs for my 6 year old. A chicken at 2.49 provided a roast dinner for 3, the left overs i used the following day in large vol-u-vents(with onion sauce& whatever u have in the fridge). i then used the bones to make fab homemade soup which my daughter loves and means i can HIDE numerous nutritous veg. i froze the soup intoindividual portions.

22 | Orl

March 26th, 2009 at 12:38 am

If you go to a supermarket on a tuesday night, you can get great deals of things that the best before date is approaching. if you can cook them straightaway or freeze them.

23 | Therese

March 26th, 2009 at 8:20 am

Make your own tomato sauce and freeze it in batches. Stock up on tins of chopped tomatoes and plum tomatoes in lidl or aldi and keep them in your cupboard so that you can make a huge batch of tomato sauce at a time (I make a batch every week to 2 weeks) and freeze in freezer bags. I use the sauce for everything, pizza topping, pasta sauce, ordinary ketchup, soup. Take out a bag in the morning before going to work and when you get home it’ll be defrosted and ready to use. To make the tomato sauce:

3tbsp olive oil
2 cloves of garlic, chopped or crushed
(half a chopped onion – optional)
4 tins chopped tomato (or 1 chopped, 1 plum, use passata if you have it also)
salt, freshly ground pepper,
teasp sugar (v important – the tins can be bitter)
handful fresh basil – torn

Sweat onion and garlic in the oil on a low heat. Add all the tomatoes and half the torn up basil. Season and add sugar. Stir and bring to a simmer. Leave to simmer until reduced for 30-45 mins. Half way through taste and season again if necessary. At end of cooking add rest of torn up basil. Blitz with a hand blender or in a liquidiser if you want it smooth. otherwise leave to cool. When cool, separate into freezer bags and enjoy!!

24 | Elaine

March 26th, 2009 at 9:28 am

Tins of tomatoes and garlic. Hard to beat as the essential ingredients in a good tasting and cheap meal!

25 | Nanazolie

March 26th, 2009 at 9:33 am

Don’t throw parmesan rinds: use them to flavour a risotto (just throw them in, then fish them out before serving)
Bulk up mince with grated carrots or chopped mushrooms when making bolognaise or lasagna
Put the last slices of bread in a blender, and freeze in small bags for ready to use breadcrumbs
Buy large slabs of cheese, grate them and freeze in small bags: much cheaper than bags of ready-grated cheese
A pancake party looks like a real feast but is actually much cheaper than cooking a real meal for friends. Flour, eggs, milk: staples that most of us have at home. Add ham and cheese to garnish and hey presto! A 5 euros crepe at the farmers’ market won’t do any better!

26 | Ciara

March 26th, 2009 at 9:46 am

Leaving meat out of your weekly shop is the most economical and healthy thing you can do. It sounds extreme but your body and your wallet will thank you!

It used to be that people rarely ate meat- just a roast on Sunday, and then stretching the leftovers for soup, sandwiches, etc.- and they were healthier for it!

It could be the most painless cut from your shop. Also, don’t get conned into buying “finish” brand- or any other brand- dishwasher salt at €6 a bag. IT IS JUST SALT! Tesco do an own-brand one for much cheaper.

27 | Joanne

March 26th, 2009 at 9:54 am

Boil up a big pot of rice, divide into freezer bags and freeze. Then when you need rice quick, take it out of the freezer and into the microwave. It’s much better than buying those overpriced microwaveable rice sachets.

Have a ‘fridge night’ once a week, (or more often) where you make an effort to eat all the leftovers and odd things in the fridge. It means that you won’t be throwing out old food and it makes you get creative.

28 | Marno

March 26th, 2009 at 10:57 am

Have started shopping in Lidl since last summer and I cannot believe the savings that I make. My husband keeps asking me where I am getting the endless supply of money! Our best buys: Brie cheese and their organic eating apples (reduced this week from 2.49 to 1.59).

29 | Katie

March 26th, 2009 at 11:32 am

Grow your own!!

This year I have started this wonderful hobby.

It’s so easy and so cheap, all you need is a few packets of seeds and a bag of compost. It doeen’t matter if you have a massive garden or a balcony, you can still dramatically reduce your food bill, and have a relaxing pastime at the same time. Here are my tips for doing it on the cheap:

-Choose heavy cropping varieties that will do well in the Irish climate and give you more for your time and money, for example, tomatoes.
-You don’t even need to fork out for seed trays etc, collect baked bean cans, fruit punnets, etc… even an old welly boot can be used to grow things in!! Just make sure you make drainage holes.
-Your kitchen windowsill acts as a great mini greenhouse to get seedlings started.
-Planting marigolds around your veg plants deters pests, as they can’t stand the smell! Also, start washing out and collecting your eggshells. You can then crunch them up as a cheap and organic preventative measure against slugs ( place the eggshells around the plants on the soil)
-grow strawberries in hanging baskets as they are then protected from slugs, snails and rabbits.

Even if you do nothing else, a few herbs in pots will save cash and add fantastic (and cheap) flavour explosions to your meals.

30 | Marie

March 26th, 2009 at 1:17 pm

My hubby likes a bacon dinner every so often which the rest of family are not mad about, so I buy a nice ham hock from butchers. Cook the ham hock as normal in pot and save the water. Use small amount of the water for cooking cabbage for cooking cabbage in for extra flavour. Save ALL water.

I invested in a slow cooker recently and have to say it’s been one of my best buys to date. Place all the water from ham hock and cabbage in slow cooker, I throw some mustard seed, barley, lentils, ground ginger, leeks, any potatos left over from dinner (this thickens the soup) a couple of OXO veg cubes and leave on high for several hours. The great thing about the slow cooker is you can leave on and go away and forget about it and it just gets on with making soup for you. The smell drifting around the kitchen of soup is divine. You can throw in anything really that you have in your fridge (veg) or spices in your store cupboard. HINT: a dash of curry powder or garam masala adds a lovely kick to the soup and no need to add salt either.

When soup is fully cooked adjust to your own thickness after you have used hand blender. Your can add a small amount of cornflour to thicken without affecting taste of soup or more boiling water to thin. I usually add a spoon or two of cream to soup when serving in bowl and stir ( this makes a nice cream of veg soup out of it), but this is optional. DON’T add cream to larger amount of soup if you are planning on keeping to serve later or freezing it as it could turn the soup off. You will gets loads of soup to freeze for lunch or just to have one or two sized serving portions. It’s delicious and nutritious and at least you know what’s in it. It’s also very cheap to make.

Forgot to add when using barley in soup don’t be too heavy handed as this expands quite a lot and thickens soup when blended. Also I don’t measure anything just use your own judgement.

When storing soups I use strong freezer bags and pour soup in when cooled and lay flat in freezer, this way they don’t take up as much space as tupperware type containers.

You can also use your leftover chicken and full carcass to make a very delicious nutrional soup in slow cooker. Place the whole lot in cooker, I just add the spices at this stage. When stock is made remove carcass from crock using holed lifter, pick chicken from carcass and reserve. Strain any grease from top of soup, handy hit for doing this let stock cool slightly and place some ice cubes on top – the grease will graduate towards the ice and can be removed solidly and easily. When all grease is removed proceed the throw in whatever veg you choose and just leave to cook. Near the end of cooking you can replace your chicken and leave to finish cooking. Another cheap and tasty meal for several days. You could also use this soup as a base for making a delicious chicken cassarole and add some cheap cut/portions of chicken to it and some small baby or cut up potatoes to it.

31 | Mihaela

March 26th, 2009 at 3:46 pm

Learn to cook everything from scratch – it takes time, but it’s for your own good.

32 | Lou

March 26th, 2009 at 4:00 pm

When cooking pasta, rice dishes and soups cook a little extra to take into work the next day for lunch.

Make your own (cheats) marmelade using the tin of prepared seville oranges. You can adjust sugar (down ) and add whiskey or other posh ingredients.

33 | Lisa

March 26th, 2009 at 4:59 pm

my best tip for keeping prices down is to make from scratch!!

it amazes me that people buy premade when it is AS EASY to make it yourself, the ones that always astonish me are things like Pancake batter in a bottle, Just add milk Soda bread mix and things like that!! It is a quarter of the price to make your own and just as easy…

34 | Lisa

March 26th, 2009 at 5:00 pm

i’m still laughing at the beluga comment…

35 | Sue

March 26th, 2009 at 5:29 pm

Make sure you have lots of old jars and containers to store leftovers in!

36 | Sean McIntyre

March 26th, 2009 at 7:29 pm

Buy fruit and veg that’s in season.

37 | Joanne

March 26th, 2009 at 8:17 pm

Whenever there is a bottle of wine open in our house, I always fill 2 or 3 slots in the ice cube tray with wine. Very handy for stews or casseroles, just pop them into the dish while they are still frozen and they will melt while it’s cooking.

38 | Suse

March 26th, 2009 at 8:23 pm

I’m all about the frugality this weather, and don’t do my shopping all in one supermarket; get all my fruit and veg in Lidl; way cheaper!
That and making more stuff at home now I’m getting to be a pro at making soup and baking buns and cookies etc, much cheaper than buying fancy ones!
Soups are so easy to make, and I usually make a batch at the beginning of the week to do me right through to the weekend. Tastes much nicer than the carton ones too, and are better for you! Win-win-win

39 | Jen

March 26th, 2009 at 9:49 pm

I find doing grocery shopping on line saves a lot of money, as you’re not too tempted to buy all the things that you really don’t need!

40 | Eoin

March 26th, 2009 at 11:51 pm

A lot of the supermarkets have been doing special offers recently. Depending on the product in question you can either store in the freezer or in the cupboard long-term. Just keep an eye on the expiration dates/how long they’ve been kept.

41 | Paul Gallagher

March 27th, 2009 at 11:00 am

When chopping up veg to eat, keep the off cuts and use them for stock or soups!

42 | Gavin

March 27th, 2009 at 11:38 am

Constantly trying to reduce the amount spent on foor for me and my house mates.

43 | Tree

March 27th, 2009 at 12:44 pm

In an attempt to cut down on oil used in cooking and without resorting to buying spray oil, put some kitchen towel over the top of your oil bottle, invert it and then use the oil damped kitchen towel to rub your pans.

44 | Bob

March 27th, 2009 at 12:45 pm

Don’t go shopping when you are hungry. It makes it easier to make better choices about what you should be buying.

45 | aileen

March 27th, 2009 at 2:15 pm

when buying fresh cream for cooking there is usually lots left over. freeze the remainder in ice cube trays for the next time you need it for cooking …

46 | Gillian

March 27th, 2009 at 7:14 pm

Are you my sister?

I’m also still laughing at the beluga comment!

47 | Jill

March 27th, 2009 at 7:21 pm

If you work in Dublin city check out the value on Moore
Street at lunchtime. This week:
2 punnets grapes €1.50
punnets of strawberries €1 each
2 cauliflowers €1.50
2 aubergines €1.50
Scallions, 2 bunches €1
and more, including live lobster (didn’t check the price)

48 | Ellen

March 28th, 2009 at 12:28 pm

This tip is for disorganised people who forget to keep their store cupboard full. My mother and I both discovered that a half teaspoon of Vegimite or Marmite can be used as a substitute for a beef stock cube in shepherds pie, soup, etc. A splash of Worcester sauce is also good : )

49 | Barbara

March 28th, 2009 at 10:57 pm

Shop around for cheap staples and don’t go for ready meals, they’re expensive and often not the best option nutritionally.
Buy in bulk when products are on offer – for this you need space to store tins, jars etc.

When cooking, rice doesn’t need to boil to be cooked. Bring water to the boil, add rice, put lid on and turn off heat or turn down very, very low.

50 | Anne

March 29th, 2009 at 11:36 am

Home made tomato pasta sauce is really easy and far superior/cheaper than nasty jars. You only need tins of tomatoes, onions, garlic and dried herbs or dried chilli flakes for arrabiata. Do up a big batch and freeze in containers for lates nights home from work!

51 | Sonz

March 29th, 2009 at 12:11 pm

Always give something a go when doing a meal, add an extra spice or herb to, chop in another veg, try a dollop of cream to mak it richer or even a splash of wine!

I mix these kind of ingredients into stews, soups, casseroles, stirfrys, tapas, salads, even your basic rice, pasta or potatoe dishes!

52 | Megan

March 30th, 2009 at 10:20 am

A good saver must be one with their freezer. These days, it’s not uncommon to find half-price deals on meat, so stock up and freeze right away as opposed to buying only what you’ll use that week. Plus, the more you have in your freezer, the less work your freezer has to do, so you’ll save a little on electricity, too!

Also, keep any kind of bread fresh longer buy popping it in the fridge. A half pan costs more per slice than a full loaf, but if you won’t use it before it gets moldy, just keep it in the fridge – you’ll get much longer out of it. Great for wraps, too.

53 | Lil

March 30th, 2009 at 10:49 am

try to win a cookbook that gives guide on how to be a frugal cook?

54 | Evelyn

March 30th, 2009 at 11:20 am

Plan ahead, cook at home, and keep track of special offers.

55 | Lian

March 30th, 2009 at 11:43 am

Invite friends over! Cooking for a handful of people is much cheaper than all of you cooking separately. And more fun. You can round off the frugal evening with a good board game for cheap home based entertainment!

56 | Tammi O'B

March 30th, 2009 at 11:52 am

Eat more eggs! Eggs are cheap and nutritous – and very filling. From breakfast (scrambled, poached, fried) to dinner (tortilla omelette, frittata) not forgetting lunch (hardboiled egg mayonaise with salad) there is an egg dish for every meal.

57 | Paul

March 30th, 2009 at 11:53 am

Reduce waste. Plan ahead. Cook in bulk. Buy fruit & veg in Lidl – superb quality, great choice, amazing value.

58 | Jerry

March 30th, 2009 at 12:15 pm

Eat less

59 | Ciara

March 30th, 2009 at 1:45 pm

make your own brown bread and scones, there’s nothing lovier than the smell of baking wafting through your house! And it’s cheaper than buying bread and scones.

I always cut the bread when it has cooled and freeze the slices in 2′s so that I don’t have to hack at the bread when it’s frozen

60 | Danni

March 30th, 2009 at 1:53 pm

Go to your local tesco’s on your way home from work everyday. The going out of date section is usually full of little treasures. And always have a bag of spuds in the house.

61 | CalKen

March 30th, 2009 at 3:09 pm

When mince is cheap (Aldi doing 450g for €2.99 at moment and Dunnes doing large tray for €6) buy extra then make up a huge pot of bolognese using up whatever veg you can to bulk it out (Dunnes doing two courgettes for 79c this week and Aldi always have some 49c specials every month). Have bolognese one day then add cans of beans or cooked dried beans to the rest with some chilli powder for a lovely chilli for another day. There will be loads left so put into a lasagne dish, top with frozen peas then a layer of mash (make out of potato and parsnip for extra veg) to make a spicy cottage pie. All these dishes can be frozen so make as much as you like when the offers are on. Aldi also doing medium free range chicken for just 4.99 which is very good for free range – buy two, roast as normal then use leftovers to make chicken curry (just add enough chicken for four people to some sauteed garlic, onion and courgette, add some thai curry paste (three tablespoons)or regular curry powder, a pint of chicken stock from a cube and a can of coconut milk – simmer for a few minutes then add a drop of lime juice (bottles available cheaply in tesco) to finish. If you have any chicken left, sautee some veg (mushrooms, courgette, pepper etc) and add the chicken with a jar of cheap pasta sauce and a can of chopped tomatoes (tesco or Lidl good value for both) and a can of kidney beans and some chilli powder to taste and simmer for a while for chicken chilli. Again these can all be frozen.

62 | Ann-Maria

March 30th, 2009 at 10:47 pm

Go to Moore Street for fruit and veg,its ridiculously cheap!

63 | Zoe Fitzgerald

March 31st, 2009 at 11:55 am

Cooking dinner for a gang of friends at home….would love a few tips on tasty food for a group, sounds like just the book.

64 | Lanie

March 31st, 2009 at 12:10 pm

Always try to have frozen peas and/or sweet corn in your freezer. They can be used for almost any dish you cook including pasta, rice (esp fried rice), risotto, noodles, cuscus, pastry pies, Sheppard’s pie or fish pie (especially delish) and a meat potato dinner. They are nutritious and colourful so help to brighten any meal. They are incredibly easy to prepare and always handy if you don’t have much fresh veg left in your kitchen. And a very cheap alternative to the fresh variety which I find difficult to buy and if I do buy them, I end up eating them straight out of the pods are they are too hard to resist.

65 | bjg

March 31st, 2009 at 12:41 pm

Eat bread. A good loaf means:

- fresh bread on Saturday
- toast or bruschetta on Sunday
- a trencher on Monday: a thick slice of bread with stew on top of it means no need for spuds or other stodge
- French onion soup on Tuesday, with a thin slice of bread carrying the cheese to be melted on top
- a salad with croutons on Wednesday
- pasta with herbs and crumbs on Thursday
- Welsh rarebit, to use up any leftover bread and cheese, on Friday.

66 | rob

March 31st, 2009 at 1:24 pm

Eat smaller portions! It’s healthy for both you and your pocket

67 | Liana

March 31st, 2009 at 3:46 pm

Buy what’s in seaso and cheap, the use it in soups and casseroles and always make some extra to freeze away for later.

68 | jane

March 31st, 2009 at 5:07 pm

- make breadcrumbs from stale bread and freeze them.

- make your own delicious granola with porridge oats and seeds – mix in some honey and toast in the oven. Add dried fruit such as apricots and raisins.

69 | Sinead

March 31st, 2009 at 9:58 pm

make friends with your butcher instead of buying expensive supermarket meat.

70 | Frank

April 1st, 2009 at 9:14 am

Take away moratorium!

71 | Una

April 1st, 2009 at 4:37 pm

I have no tips..thats why I need to win this book.

72 | Sorcha King

April 1st, 2009 at 5:09 pm

Nearly all the supermarkets these days have a section where their stock is nearly out of date and is reduced.

I buy about 4 or 5 packets of meat at a time, usually i cook one that day and freeze the rest for another time.
Great food at a fraction of the price!

73 | Mary

April 1st, 2009 at 9:50 pm

I love the fresh zing of ginger but used to resent buying a fresh root of it every time I needed a hit. Now after I’ve chopped an inch, or whatever is required, I pop it into the freezer ready to grate over stirfries when it’s called for again.

74 | Joanne Lynch

April 1st, 2009 at 10:58 pm

Spar and Londis’s frequently charge 70c for Cadbury’s fudge bars. Dunnes sell them for 40c. A steal!

75 | miriam osullivan

April 2nd, 2009 at 9:10 am

my granny made “lucky bag pie “for us as children and we loved it , simply add some left over chopped ham or rashers, chopped scallions, grated cheese ,a little butter , milk and seasoning to mashed potatoes and mix well, turn into a pie dish ,score with a fork and cook in the oven for 25mins, serve with a runny egg, delicious!any combinations of left overs works well thus the name “lucky bag pie”

76 | Jenny

April 2nd, 2009 at 11:45 am

I buy special offer meats, like 2eur salmon in superquin at the moment – and freeze them. You just have to remember to take the meat out the night before you intend using it to defrost, which I often forget!

77 | David

April 2nd, 2009 at 3:17 pm

Make huge pots of thick vegetable soup and freeze in portions. There’s no limit to what you can throw in to vary the taste. A green apple works great with squash and carrot, for example.

Best of all it takes no time or skill.

78 | Catherine

April 2nd, 2009 at 3:25 pm

I find buying ingredients like rice and herbs (meaning mint, coriander etc) in ‘ethnic’ supermarkets is a lot cheaper than getting them in supermarkets. You get a lot more for your money but most freeze pretty well and if you’re just adding them into a curry or something like that I don’t think there’s a lot of difference in taste. In Italy a lot of herbs are sold in supermarkets in frozen form.

79 | Ruth

April 2nd, 2009 at 4:05 pm

write little, eat less, think more

80 | Sinead

April 2nd, 2009 at 10:17 pm

The best way to spend less when shopping is to eat before you go, plan your meals for the week ahead and write up a list. While it’s important to stick to it, I always pick up one or two special offers which are either not very perishable (e.g. 3 cans of tomato reduced) or can be frozen in portions (e.g. €6 dunnes mince). Great to fall back on when having a lean week near the end of the month!

81 | ConfitDuck @ ConfitdeFrance.com

April 3rd, 2009 at 12:51 pm

Be more imaginative with your cooking, buy what’s on special offers and design your meal around that rather than sticking and buying you favourites irrespective of the price.

82 | Sarah Gostrangely

April 3rd, 2009 at 2:11 pm

Make cheapass hummus-style bean dip even cheaper by using Tesco butter beans (56c per can), olive oil, lemon juice, garlic and olives, salt and pepper.

Serve in sangers, dips, on toast, mix with leftover rice to make rissoles, whizz together with cooked cauliflour to make low gi “mash”…endless!

83 | moomaq

April 4th, 2009 at 4:21 pm

Left over ham and cabbage from the ever popular bacon cabbage and potatoes, can be used to make a very tasty quiche lorraine. all you need is easy to make pastry and eggs.

84 | Tracy

April 4th, 2009 at 10:39 pm

Any leftover wine, yes I did say leftover wine, can be poured into ice cube trays and frozen and used for cooking at a later date.

85 | Fiona

April 5th, 2009 at 4:10 pm

Scoop leftover creamed potatoes onto a tray and open freeze, then pop into a freezer bag. You can always grab a few scoops, zap in microwave, lash on a chop/fishfinger/sausages and a tin of peas/beans and voila dinner for kids in a few mins.

86 | breda

April 5th, 2009 at 11:10 pm

For great pizzas which my kids adore make the base using dried yeast,strong flour,olive oil and water not forgetting a pinch of salt and sugar.Top off with Lidl Passata and toppings of choice,fab!

87 | Claire Shanahan

April 6th, 2009 at 3:08 pm

Buy all your meat in the butchers and buy everything else in Lidl

88 | Catherine from Carlow

April 6th, 2009 at 3:46 pm

Frugal to me means you cut spending on food items. I think we should think outside the box and my tips are … Buy good quality food at the best price you can get, but we all have our portion sizes too big. Eat something good & tasty is better than volume. Feeling hungery and empty, then try looking at the GI diet suggestions, eat porridge for example, it is a great filler and lowers cholestral. I think we should think what do we want from our diet? we want and need to feed ourselves with food that keeps our mind and body healthy, thus cutting visits to doctor, buying medcine and not feeling well enough to get the most out of our day! Variety is important so try and buy one item of food that you have never tried / tasted before (replacing something else) a different veg or fruit. I think it is important to enjoy cooking and a good varied diet and also to pass this healthy view of food on to your children