PLEASE HELP !

[FRUGAL MASTER]

I have recently bought loads of plastic tubs with making cheap meals in mind , to keep in the freezer to help with saving money and helping with time what with a young family of 3 and my wife.
I hear alot that this saves you money , my wife looks at me with disbelief ,
has any body got some good tips for moving forward on this one .

[mell]

hi there ,imake a large stew and freeze up whats left over,tubs up fine.if i see any reduced veg at the supermarket,i buy it and freeze it all.saves a packet.hope tis helps.mellx

[Bollybarb]

i try to make a big bolognase, stew, or soup in my slow cooker which i then freeze. Some in 1 adult /2 child portions and some family portions but i often use old marg containers which are good 1 portion size. That reminds me i must freeze the beef cassarole i made yesterday, will be having it with dumplings tonight.

[Meanqueen]

It's a good idea to freeze food if you have too much, but it's not very frugal to buy your plastic tubs. There are lots to collect which are free, margarine tubs as mentioned. Anyway it's done now, and you have learnt your first lesson, don't buy if you can get it for free. A lot of people make that mistake.

You can make big pans of stew, soups, etc, and freeze portions, but you wouldn't be saving money if you paid normal price for your ingredients. You need to shop late, 6pm to 9pm, and get the reduced price, last date items, that have been knocked down to pence. Or visit a market on a Saturday afternoon as they are closing, and buy the veg that the stall holders need to get rid of. Or, if someone offers you a load of veg for free, because they have too much.

You have to be inventive with your recipes, to follow a conventional one would mean buying the ingredients required to make it, that is not saving money. But if you make up your own recipe using whatever you happen to have, then you can make cheap meals and freeze them.

Ilona

[Mallard]

I usually have one day a week filling containers for the freezer.
Pastas, cottage pies, shepherds pies, stews, soups, fruit fillings, whatever is on offer or from the lottie at the time!

[Homemade]

As above.
And I always use the chicken carcass to make stock. One bird's bones, an onion, a carrot, and a stick of celery and enough water to well cover. Simmer gently for an hour or so then pick off any meaty bits for the cats. Strain the stock into tubs to freeze. Makes a good base for loads of recipes - and have you seen the price of fresh stock in the supermarkets

[Sunny B]

Just cooking double the amount you need and then freezing half gives you a meal for another day without all the hassle of cooking and washing up.

Be careful to label your containers in a way that won't fade over time. I have a habit of just throwing stuff in the freezer not labelled at all, then a month later my hubby will ask what it is and I will have no idea! And lots of things look similar when frozen!

[manda]

Also if you have any veg, or bits left over after a meal pop them into a tub - put it in the fridge and if you don't use it the next day freeze it- you can always get them out later and stick them in something like a bubble and squeak.

Chicken stock I put in the taller containers - unfortuantely our cat food comes in them so I have loads - I give them a good scrub and then I stick my chicken stock in those and freeze.

Can't remember if you have your own chickens (sorry) but if you do and you get e glut of eggs rather than them going off or giving them away freeze them, then when the chickens are in moult you still have a supply of eggsyou can use for things like frittatta's or for baking.

I make big Lasagne's (Like 2 large roasting tin size ones) and then put individual portions into them so they can be grabbed for a quick meal.

As has been said before I too make double the amount when I'm doing something like Bolognese or at least make a basic mince and onions and freeze half, which can be added to later - then carry on with what ever I'm making. I don't think I ever make just for that meal because it doesn't take any more effort really but it saves heaps of time through the week.

Use seasonal stuff when you can and farm shops - both are often cheaper.

Fruit picking (probably a bit late for that for you now) but then if you get berries etc and get more than you need they will freeze and you will have a supply over winter and a lot cheaper than you have to pay for the frozen ones in the supermarkets.

If need be (if you don't have much in your freezer at the moment) freeze water in cleaned out milk cartons just to fill your freezer up - it's more economical than having spaces.

[liskeardjane]

I do all my cooking on Saturday - I shop only for what is on the meal plan and make: 10 loaves, 6 meals, 2 cakes for lunch boxes, veggie spreads such as butter bean pate or butter nut squash spread, I freeze the bread and food, in the containers I cooked it in, such as a casserole dish. I cook everything together in the same oven and fill up the freezer. There's four of us and I'm still doing all of the shopping and that's all of it, not just food for £50.

this week's meals

veggie lasagne X 2
fish pie X 2 (tin of tuna, tin of salmon, 99p pack of smoked mackerel and 99p tub of cooked prawns, in a cheese sauce, topped with mash)
chicken casserole X 2 - (2.49 pack of chicken pieces, one onion, tin of toms, chicken chasseur sauce mix 25p ASDA, two stick celery, quarter of bag of frozen swede) - we'll eat this with cous cous and steamed brocoli and cauli.
Sunday this week - we had roast belly pork (£1.70), stuffing, apple sauce, gravy, apple crumble (I have jars of cooked apple kept in the dark from the 'harvest') and custard 9p instant from ASda - just mix with boiling water and it's lovely

We also have bakewell tart, veg/onion and cheese quiche and a fruit cake to have with our lunches and coffee if we get peckish.

the offers I picked up this week were 8 low fat yoghurts for £1 and satsumas for £1 a bag - oh and we have porridge, done in the microwave with a dash of syrup for break fast and usually some bread with our tea.

We all take a sandwich, yoghurt, piece of fruit and bit of cake for our lunch and we have tea or squash to drink and a bottle of wine on a Friday and I fed the dogs and cat and bought loo rolls, soap, shampoo and soap powder in the £50 too - so tight that we squeak but we will pay off everything we owe by 2011 and then we'll start to save for retirement (which can't come soon enough!)

I have a rolling menu and it'll be different next week - but still as cheap - sometimes it's all veggie sometimes it isn't.

[lancashire lass]

I agree with Meanqueen about the containers - save all your margerine tubs and use those

I don't have ready meals made up but I do freeze all my own grown fruit and veg (trying to be as self sufficient in that area as I can). I don't intend becoming a vegetarian but with the price of meat starting to get too expensive, I've been adding legumes to dishes to bulk up for the protein. After saving the dried seed from runner beans and climbing beans I've grown, I soaked them as normal and boiled them for just over 10 minutes which you should to destroy the toxic enzymes that can make you ill if eaten raw, then divided the lot into portion sizes and froze them. So if I ever decide to make say a chillie con carne, the beans just need to be taken out of the freezer to thaw and added in the cooking - and apart from the cooking has cost me nothing

The downside with freezing stuff is that you suddenly decide your current freezer is not big enough and you'll be looking to buy another. Should that happen, look out for the most energy saving ones on the market (chest freezers are better than uprights BTW as cold air drops) rather than take on a second hand one otherwise the running costs can tip the balance of what seems like a good frugal idea at the time.

[aparker155]

As well as getting the late night bargains you also get economies of scale by buying larger packs of things (also less packaging!!). We go to the cash n carry every couple of months and buy huge packs of mince and then spend the weekend making lasagne, burgers, cottage pies etc

It's not just about eating cheaper it's also about having good home cooked meals during the week when you may not have time to do so from scratch!

As already mentioned you can also take advantage of seasonal produce (and growing your own) - it's better if possible to jar things like tomatoes, fruit etc if you have space to store them as you don't then have the freezer running costs - we decided to start jarring when we'd got up to 3-freezers just to make the most of all our fruit and tomatoes!!

[Meanqueen]

With all this freezing going on, you have to think about how much you actually need to freeze, and when will you ever get round to eating it. I like to have a clear out every so often, stop buying and eat everything in the freezer. If you dont you find you have got stuff that is a couple of years old because you have piled food on top of it. There is no point of paying out on running a fridge just to store food forever.

Ilona

[4pigs]

Ditto what Meanqueen says - keep an eye on your freezer and make sure that you rotate the contents. We have some weeks where the freezer is packed and will then take a look at the freezer and the cupboard and plan meals around what we already have.
We make our own bread and slice it up. We also make some rolls for lunches or to have with soup etc. Lidl bread fllour is a good price. We only take bread out of the freezer for what we know we will use - no waste.
We freeze anything that we dont eat. A few spoonfulls of mashed potato soon add up and you can make fishcakes (buy tinned tuna or salmon when its on offer at the supermarket) - remember to keep and freeze breadcrumbs. Or (as somebody has already said) keep cooked potato and veg until you have enough to do a bubble and squeek.
We use odd bits of leftover tomato/chilli/ or bolognaise sauce - make a pizza base. put your leftover sauce on the bottom and add any "bits" you have as a topping.
Never refuse an offer of fruit or veg and always look at reduced items in supermarkets - freeze it, make jam, pickle it - you know what you and your family eat.
It's a great way of life
Jo x

[Meanqueen]

You sound really enthusiastic about that Jo, I can just see you busying yourself in the kitchen, sounds like you have this frugal food lark well and truly sussed. Very resourcefull

Ilona

[smallholderwannabe]

Question for liskeardjane:

Sunday this week - we had roast belly pork (£1.70), stuffing, apple sauce, gravy, apple crumble (I have jars of cooked apple kept in the dark from the 'harvest') and custard 9p instant from ASda - just mix with boiling water and it's lovely

About that cooked apple kept in the dark.... Can you expand on this please?Do you bottle it in Kilner jars? Or in jam jars? Or what do you do?

We do a good line in making double portions and freezing the extra for another day The trouble is that my freezer is rather full (I don't mind having this problem really ) If you have some cost-effective hints for storing things outside of the freezer, then I would love to hear them. Please?