Ingredients you save on or splurge

mrsberries

Everyone is feeling the pinch and trying to make savings were they can. Im certainly taking more time to shop around for our food, but there are some things that I wont scrimp one..just wondering what you all splurge on save when it comes to ingredients. heres mine

Splurge
tomatoes - very hard to get a flavour from cheap ones, even if cherry or on the vine
peppers - as above
meat -not talking organic here, but I wont choose the cheapest economy brand when it comes to chicken and beef

Save
all other fruit and veg
smoked salmon/parma ham/cheeses from aldi

mrsdewinter

Good thread!

Splurge
Meat - trying to cut down on meat intake but when I do opt to buy, I can justify the extra expense
Stock cube - hate the way soups, stews, etc, end up tasting pretty much the same as the stock cube, so I try to have an array on hand to give dishes a slightly different feel

Save
Spices - buy them in slightly bigger portions in Middle Eastern of Asian shops in town rather than in supermarket

mrsberries

what stock do you use then? I use bouillon, is there better ?

mrsdewinter

Let's see what's in the cupboard... Okay, there's Tesco Veg stock cubes, Just Bouillon Chicken stock cubes, Knorr's Organic Chicken Stock Cubes, Kallo Organic Vegetable stock cubes, Just Bouillon Beef Stock Cubes, Oxo Chicken stock cubes (plus a second packet of Kallo veg stock cube). I used to love the Marigold low-salt Veg Bouillon - but then everything started to taste of Marigold low-salt veg bouillon. Anyway, as you can see, it's not so much splurge as something I throw in the trolley whenever I panic about whether I'm about to run out of stock. Have to say, though, I still like having variety.

bonkey

Splurge
Salt. I use himalayan for most stuff, and fleur de sel for almost everything else. I also have a chunk of different "salt with bits in", and am still looking out for somewhere nearby which stocks Kalahari rock salt.

Also...not an ingredient...but we have seriously splurged on our cookware and knives.

Save
We buy some spices in bulk (i.e. 500g bags from the local asian store), rather than going for something fancy.

Other than that...the big saver for us is felxibility. We often go shopping, see whats on special in the meat section (cause meat here in Swissland is shockingly expsensive) that takes our fancy, and then work dinner around that.

mrsberries

Salt!!! Thats interesting I use rock salt, but after that Im completely ignorant to the different types...