Spending far too much money on food - Advice please

Pyrrhic

Hi
I just moved out of my parents house and I really need to learn how to cook properly and to budget for food a lot better.

I have a canteen in work and can spend €10 a day on breakfast, lunch, snacks coffee etc. I'm wasting a lot of money on takeaways, frozen pizzas, picking up expensive things in spar or garages as opposed to doing a full shop.

Advantage for me is that I will eat anything and don't mind eating the same meal every day so I plan to prepare dinners for during the week and I'm starting to snack on nuts and fruit in work (fruit is free).

Problem is I can't cook.
Sure I can cook eggs and fry a steak, boil pasta and other general things but I don't really know how to cook meat properly, freezing, defrosting etc. I don't know how to cook a whole chicken or do a sunday dinner.

Essentially guys, would appreciate some advice for a total novice in the kitchen like me and some tips/tricks on saving money for when I do a big shop next.

Thank you.

cutthegrass

A Philips Airfryer might be handy. You can cook a 1.2kg whole chicken in 30 minutes; a piece of fresh cod (in sauce) wrapped in tin foil with some par-boiled potatoes in 15 minutes or a medium steak, onions and french fries in 15 minutes.

Uses air rather than oil to cook so healthier.

Loads of cooking tutorials on YouTube.

Amazon, DID, Powercity, etc all sell it.

Quick nutritious meals. It would be a good starting point.

B0jangles

Get hold of a copy of Delia Smith's Complete Cookery Course -

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Delias-Complete-Cookery-Course-Classic/dp/0563362499

It's been teaching people the basics of cookery and guiding them onwards to more complex things for literally decades. You can probably pick it up used for a quid or two

(also 100% recommend the phillips airfryer - incredibly useful - but accept no substitutes, the knock-off versions are apparently nowhere near as good!)

Cheshire Cat

Airfryers are great but rather expensive. I'd say get yourself a beginners' cookbook and start experimenting. You will soon learn!
https://www.amazon.co.uk/How-Boil-Egg-Essential-First-Time-ebook/dp/B00CZB9H1K/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1488646317&sr=8-1&keywords=how+to+boil+an+egg+cookbook
Alternatively attend an evening or weekend cookery course.
There are also loads of recipes online (e.g. BBC food or Jamie Oliver) or you can watch YouTube videos showing you how stuff is cooked.
Best of luck!

ankles

For beginners, the one lesson you will need to get at the very start is timings. Basically everything needs to ready at roughly the same time. It can be a bit intimidating at the start but once you get the hang of it you'll be fine. Get the basic cookery book, give yourself a Saturday or two and soon you'll be rustling up decent basic meals, and the odd shepherds pie (2 dinners from one recipe if you make enough!)

beechwood55

It would also be useful to keep all your receipts for all the food you buy for maybe 2 or 3 weeks. That will show you how much you are spending on convenience type foods..

As a single guy who was in your position trust me when I say that you don't even save that much when cooking at home when you take into account the time that it takes to cook (that could be used productively elsewhere), the time it takes to go shopping, the cost of actually cooking the food in an oven/pan and wastage that incurs from inevitably throwing gone off food out.

Loveinapril

Pyrrhic wrote: »

Essentially guys, would appreciate some advice for a total novice in the kitchen like me and some tips/tricks on saving money for when I do a big shop next.

Thank you.

Buy seasonal veg as it is cheaper, like the deals in Lidl/ Aldi. Buy in bulk (4 chicken breasts, pack of stewing beef, minced beef, etc.) And you can make a big curry, lasagne, shepherds pie or stew that will do for a few days. Pick the thing you want to make and google a recipe with "basic" in front of it. Try two a weekend as to not overwhelm yourself. If you make a curry or stew, it should feed you for a week. To mix it up so you don't get bored you could have beef stew with mash one day and the next, put a puff pastry (premade) lid on it ir have it with brown bread. I make homemade burgers and have them on buns one night, and the following, have them with mash and gravy. Cooking a full chicken is handy enough if you follow the instructions on the packet and you can have it with mash and veg, use it for fajitas, sandwiches etc.

iLikeWaffles

What I would cook fairly regular.

Pasta easy to cook: couple that with half a small onion diced, clove of garlic, tin of plumed tomatoes some pepper super simple. In a pot add small bit of oil Sunflower or Olive add salt black pepper add the diced onion and garlic (you can crush the garlic with the flat part of a large knife and dice if you have no mincer for it) add that and just soften the onion, add the tin of plumed tomatoes bring to simmer and put on low heat with a lid on, stirring every so often (3-4 min) so it doesn't stick to the bottom of pot. After first few minutes I usually add a spoonful of sugar to take the bitterness out of the tomatoes. While that's doing stick on the pasta. 20 minute sauce! You can add lots of other stuff to that sauce also, diced carrots (with onion) small enough so they will cook, rasher, herbs fresh is better. Usually get a basil plant every so often but growing your own on the window from seed is 1000% cheaper and you can use it in salads not just for pasta dishes. Add the mince to the pasta sauce yummy. Could also add tin of john west or cooked chicken.

Mince meat is so easy to cook 1lb in a pot with some water and an oxo cube 30 minutes medium heat done. Drain saving the juice for gravy make paste out of bisto add to the warm juice heat up yum. Add some mash and a tin of peas to that, warm you up on a Tuesday night! You could also make burgers out of the mince instead of buying frozen burgers. The burgers made can be cooked from frozen. Could plan ahead and get 2lbs of mince cook half make 4 burgers and have 4 nights dinners out of it with all of the above.

Chicken Breasts are probably easier to cook than a whole chicken but if its the flavour of the whole chicken you like the breasts on the bone are delicious. 15-20 minutes on 180° in oven for both breast on/off bone, add the chicken to a shallow dish add water so it submerges half the breast cover with tinfoil. Picked up a cooking thermometer a while back in Tesco €8 it was a good investment! Also shows what temperatures other cooked meats should be. You could add dried Cajun to the top of the breasts also for a bit of kick. Also saving the water for gravy is a must.

Mentioned gravy twice so might as well lay it out. Stock heated with bisto that's it. There is a little bit of technique to it but once you do it a few times its easy. What you should know is when you add cold to heat it reacts and thickens the gravy basically. So heating the stock to boil and leaving off the heat for a couple of minutes, while you add cold water to one - two spoonful's of bisto in a cup (whatever) so it makes a syrupy sauce but not extremely thick. When you add the cold paste (for argument sake) to the hot stock it will thicken for a nice gravy. If you manage not get a thick sauce there is a trick for thickening any sauce called a Beurre Manie sounds fancy right! Its basically a reverse roux This explains it better than I could. Can be used in any liquid that needs thickening.

Omelettes are incredibly easy to make. 4 eggs dash of milk equal dash of water whisked salt/pepper. ½ an onion fried in pan add 2 tomatoes whatever way you like to cut them throw in the whisked eggs medium to low heat can add cooked rasher/bacon or ham on top of that with some grated cheddar throw the half cooked omelette under the grill medium heat to cook rest of the way. (with the pan handle sticking out unless its not made of plastic.) chips with that?

Now I'm Hungry....

Would recommended what was mentioned above in other posts too. Best advice I could give you is try out recipes but if it doesn't turn out as you expect from the book don't worry about at worst you made a new recipe that nobody has yet tasted. I would look a recipes as a guide mostly!

Some sites:

http://allrecipes.com/ - Some great recipes on that that are simple.
http://www.supercook.com/#/recipes - search recipes by ingredients you have. Should mention some of the pictures do not look appetising but the side bar on the left gives you some idea's of recipes from ingredients you have.

On the Freezing/Defrost. Germs are only present if the food defrosts too quickly so if you have a couple breasts of chicken in your freezer put them in the fridge overnight they should defrost comfortably because the temperature doesn't go above 4/5°.

Dunnes do €10 off your next shop when you spend €50 but you have to spend €50 on that next shop to get €10 off!

Davidth88

When I was a single bloke living alone what I would do is something like a curry.... have it for 2 days and freeze a portion or two for another time .

Pyrrhic

I really appreciate the quick replies everyone! I will pick up a beginner cook book for sure. I find when I watch things on youtube I don't really asorb the knowedge or memorize it.

I done a shop online with Tesco and picked up a lot of pasta, brown rice, lentils generally stuff that isn't going to expire. A lot of seeds, nuts, peanut butter and reduced salt/sugar beans for snacking.

I bought a protein pack from a butcher which includes, steaks, chicken breasts, turkey breats, mince and a load of eggs. I threw all the meat in the freezer because it intimidates me, haha!
I also picked up a lot of frozen brocolli, cauliflower and green beans.

Now problem is, I picked up a lot of sweet potatos and a huge big 7.5kg bag of rooster potatos, I wasn't thinking and I know I'm going to waste a lot of the potatoes (Thought that buying bulk was better at the time but just realised I'll never consume that much before they expire)

Lesson learned I suppose, now just waiting on a lot of plastic containers from Amazon to get going! 

Loveinapril

I boil and mash potatoes and freeze them in freezer bags. When i defrost them, I then add the milk/ butter when heating them in a pot. You should look up blanching, and cut some of the sweet potatoes into wedges and freeze them. Or make a big pot of sweet potato soup. Its delicious!

Shenshen

Anything that comes in the shpe and form of a stew is your friend: Chilis, curries, chunky soups, things like that.
Have them with rice, with bread, with pasta, if you fancy even buy some puff pastry and put them into a pie (provided they're not too wet).

The ingredients are cheap, you can cook them will in advance (most are better the next day anyway), and they're very very easy to do.

Cakerbaker

make a meal plan for the week and do a shopping list for what you need and stick to it. I've saved so much doing this as I've stopped throwing random bits in to the trolley that just didn't get used. Try to plan a few meals aroubd the ingredients that you're buying so you don't end up with a fridge full of half used ingredients at the end of the week.

Aldi and lidl are your friends, although local butchers and fruit and veg shops can do good deals too. Asian shops can be cheap for certain ingredients too.

Cheap and cheerful (and easy) meals are bolognaise sauce, chilli con carne, 5 veg pasta sauce from the BBC website, and soups with veg, chickpeas, lentils etc. They can all be frozen. Mince based dishes can be bulked up with finely chopped veg like carrot and celery which helps with making them healthier as well as cheaper!

Penelope Petra

I'm in a different situation than you (married with kids) but with regards to not having a clue about cooking I can totally identify!!

Firstly I used to be a terrible shopper, I'd fill my trolley, spend a fortune and still not have anything to cobble together a meal when I got home!! I would highly recommend planning your meals a week in advance and then shopping with a list, that way you will only buy what you need and will throw away very little.

The book that I found really good is Jamie Oliver's "Anyone Can Learn to Cook in 24 Hours", really handy recipes for homemade burgers, spaghetti bolognese, stir fry, soup etc, and I work full time so i just don't have the time to spend hours cooking so lots of the recipes are really quick. I never cared much about cooking but now that I've started making a few things I'm feeling really proud of myself, especially if it means we're eating homemade stuff rather than processed stuff.

Most meals like curry etc will hold in the fridge for 2 days, so if you really don't mind eating the same thing you could say cook something on a Monday, have something different Tuesday and the eat Mondays leftovers on Wednesday or else bring some to work, €50 is a lot to spend on food!

Everyone has to start somewhere - who knows you may end up loving cooking!!

Damien360

B0jangles wrote: »

Get hold of a copy of Delia Smith's Complete Cookery Course -

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Delias-Complete-Cookery-Course-Classic/dp/0563362499

It's been teaching people the basics of cookery and guiding them onwards to more complex things for literally decades. You can probably pick it up used for a quid or two

(also 100% recommend the phillips airfryer - incredibly useful - but accept no substitutes, the knock-off versions are apparently nowhere near as good!)

That's our house bible. Great book.

Do not try reading front to back. Decide on beef, open the book on beef and get some ideas. Roast etc is a great start. Easy to do and will give you confidence.

Go to your butchers and don't be afraid to ask for a piece for one or two people and then ask for suggestions on how to cook or what to have with it. Use the book as your cooking guide and the butcher might give you ideas for sides with that dish or other ideas out of the ordinary.

Jamie Oliver is great for doing odd things easy. He is great for just chucking it on the plate and add a bit of this and that. Watch his programs. His books are a bit hit and miss with weights and timing compared to Delia's which is very exact in the weights and timing. But he is better for sides or something different.

mikewest

1. Plan your meals and then shop for them
2. Spend a few extra euros on some good condiments the first few weeks e.g Worcestershire sauce (Lea and Perrins only) Dijon and/or Coleman's mustard, light and dark soy sauce, salt, black and white pepper, curry powder, mixed herbs, and chilli flakes. Everything after the mustard buy the cheap stuff in Aldi/Lidl etc. If you like any other flavours get those spices also. If you like Italian food buy the dear olive oil in Lidl or Aldi (it's cheap but decent).
3. Get Delia Smith's book as advised earlier
4. A good non stick frying pan and take care of it, makes life easier for the beginner, small and medium heavy base sauce pans added to the collection later make life easier also.
5. Don't be afraid to use things like butter, cream and sugar when cooking, they do make food taste better

When you badly burn food to the bottom of a pan or dish, scrape out the worst and pour in some Coca Cola leave to sit for a few hours and the burnt stuff will scrape out easily.

Some food takes a long time to cook - allow for that.

You can have an omelette cooked in the same time it takes for the toast or the kettle to boil for the tea - ditto for fried or scrambled eggs.[

miezekatze

I learned how to cook with the help of Jamie Oliver's books, only really knew the basics before that. I would recommend Jamie's 15 minute meals to start with, each recipe is for an entire meal in the order you need to do different steps. So you don't have to worry about getting the timing right for different components of your meal.

Hani Kosti

As many mentioned, plan your meals in advance in order not to spend too much on food you won't use, wasting money and getting bored eating the same over and over.
I am a huge fan of slow cooker (crock pot) as you simply throw ingredients in, turn on and voila, amazing meal is ready (over night or when you arrive from work)
Bulk cooking is your friend so chilli, curry, stir fry, chunky soups, lasagna, cottage pie, spagbol, meatloaf, dhals are your go to. All of these are versatile (you can use different seasonal veg) so don't have to be the same.
Good luck with it, cooking is fun (and yes, all of us cooked something inedible in the past!)

kylith

My advice is have a notepad with you while watching telly one night and draw up a menu for the week. Monday - spag bol, Tuesday - chicken curry, etc. Use this to plan your shopping list. Make a shopping list and stick to it.

Then go to Youtube and search 'Easy spaghetti bolognese' 'Easy chicken curry' etc. There is pretty much nothing you can't find a video on how to cook.

Cook a load of meats-in-sauce and freeze extras (I like Lidl 1l freezer bags). Then all you need to do is cook some pasta or rice and put your defrosted and heated meat sauce on top.

Stuff I like to batch cook:
Chilli
Spag Bol
Curries
Soups of all types (throw in some brown rice and you have yourself a meal)
Vegetable ragu (2 tins of chopped tomatoes, one veg stock cube, salt and pepper, as much of whatever veggies you can get hold of, simmer)
Beef stew
Basically anything with a sauce

I like doing it this way because if I can motivate myself to cook every day for a week I don't really have to cook for the rest of the month. And all the work you have to do is to take a bag out of the freezer in the morning, reheat it when you get home, and add a carbohydrate.

topmanamillion

OP just YouTube how to cook your favourite things.
It may well be an unmitigated disaster the first time or even the first couple of times but even Gordon Ramsey didn't whip together the perfect Risotto the first time he tried.
Cut out all the expensive garage food and takeaways and stick with cooking for yourself.
You`ll improve or starve!

B0jangles

Pyrrhic wrote: »

I really appreciate the quick replies everyone! I will pick up a beginner cook book for sure. I find when I watch things on youtube I don't really asorb the knowedge or memorize it.

I done a shop online with Tesco and picked up a lot of pasta, brown rice, lentils generally stuff that isn't going to expire. A lot of seeds, nuts, peanut butter and reduced salt/sugar beans for snacking.

I bought a protein pack from a butcher which includes, steaks, chicken breasts, turkey breats, mince and a load of eggs. I threw all the meat in the freezer because it intimidates me, haha!
I also picked up a lot of frozen brocolli, cauliflower and green beans.

Now problem is, I picked up a lot of sweet potatos and a huge big 7.5kg bag of rooster potatos, I wasn't thinking and I know I'm going to waste a lot of the potatoes (Thought that buying bulk was better at the time but just realised I'll never consume that much before they expire)

Lesson learned I suppose, now just waiting on a lot of plastic containers from Amazon to get going! 

Two somewhat comforting things to note:

1. Don't stress about not remembering how a recipe works after watching a youtube video - I've been an enthusiastic amateur cook for years and I never remember the process of making any new recipe until I've made it a few times. You learn a lot faster by doing than by watching

2. Potatoes will keep well for months as long as you keep them dry and DARK.

Good luck!

Diablo Verde

Miller Attractive Numeral wrote: »

As a single guy who was in your position trust me when I say that you don't even save that much when cooking at home when you take into account the time that it takes to cook (that could be used productively elsewhere), the time it takes to go shopping, the cost of actually cooking the food in an oven/pan and wastage that incurs from inevitably throwing gone off food out.

Lessons in life no: 1 - Don't be this guy.

daisybelle2008

Shenshen wrote: »

Anything that comes in the shpe and form of a stew is your friend: Chilis, curries, chunky soups, things like that.
Have them with rice, with bread, with pasta, if you fancy even buy some puff pastry and put them into a pie (provided they're not too wet).

The ingredients are cheap, you can cook them will in advance (most are better the next day anyway), and they're very very easy to do.

OP, I would recommend getting a slow cooker, they are super cheap (15-20 euro) and great for making stews, soups, curries, casseroles etc. It's a very forgiving piece of equipment for novices. Hard to go wrong just chuck everything in and go about your business. Great for batch cooking and freezing. Baked potatoes, pulled pork, I even baked bread in it...with ideas/recipes I got here from boards foodies. I rarely use my oven anymore. Did roasted cubed rosemary potatoes in it last week. Tonnes of great recipes on line, basically just what combinations of ingredients to chop and chuck in and leave, it couldn't be easier.

Also start yourself off with a good selection of spices,herbs (cumin, paprika, turmeric, thyme, etc.)...Tesco have a good range for .59 cent each. Ultimately the Asian shops are better place but wait see what you like first with the little jars from Tesco.

Call me Al

Please bear in mind and take some comfort in knowing that some of us who have been cooking for years still need to have cookbooks out. Even for the basic stuff. The trick when you're learning is to choose one food item at a time and practice with that.
If you're not too comfortable with veg yet then maybe try some beef/chicken. Practice for a while with a few cooking types. Hopefully you've tolerant friends/family who will humour you while you're learning.
If you're cooking for one then you don't need to have mountains of food in the house. Maybe do stir-fries if you've a decent pan, or maybe some Bolognese.
Use your cookbook as a guide and start modestly and realistically.
And then just practice practice and practice some more. :-)

Shenshen

Pyrrhic wrote: »

I really appreciate the quick replies everyone! I will pick up a beginner cook book for sure. I find when I watch things on youtube I don't really asorb the knowedge or memorize it.

I done a shop online with Tesco and picked up a lot of pasta, brown rice, lentils generally stuff that isn't going to expire. A lot of seeds, nuts, peanut butter and reduced salt/sugar beans for snacking.

I bought a protein pack from a butcher which includes, steaks, chicken breasts, turkey breats, mince and a load of eggs. I threw all the meat in the freezer because it intimidates me, haha!
I also picked up a lot of frozen brocolli, cauliflower and green beans.

Now problem is, I picked up a lot of sweet potatos and a huge big 7.5kg bag of rooster potatos, I wasn't thinking and I know I'm going to waste a lot of the potatoes (Thought that buying bulk was better at the time but just realised I'll never consume that much before they expire)

Lesson learned I suppose, now just waiting on a lot of plastic containers from Amazon to get going! 

Here's a recipe for just about THE nicest thing I know to make with sweet potatoes and peanut butter : http://cookieandkate.com/2013/west-african-peanut-soup/
Where it says "collard greens" in the recpie, I use kale, but any kind of cabbage would work. I put the sweet potato chunks into the stock first, and I usually also throw in some broccoli.
It's very, very simple to do, and believe me it's going to taste amazing.

Fighting Tao

Many of the ingredients in recipes last a long time (spices, dried herbs etc.) The outlay for the spices may seem large at the start but you only ever use a small quantity so it works out cheap in the long run especially if there is an Asian supermarket near you.

Here's the first curry I ever made from scratch. Daunting at the time but it is actually quite simple. I have it every few weeks now.


Indian Prawn Curry (I'm sure you can use chicken but I've never tried) - takes no more than 30 minutes
2 servings


INGREDIENTS FOR CURRY
300g of peeled king prawns
1 tin chopped peeled tomato
1 tsp Colmans English Mustard powder
1 tsp nigella seeds
0.5 tsp turmeric powder
0.25 tsp chili powder
Pinch of Salt
Pinch of pepper
1 tsp brown sugar
Any veg you have around (helps with bulk)
Vegetable/Olive oil

INGREDIENTS FOR RICE
1 cup Basmati white rice
4 cups water
2 black cardamom pods
0.5 tsp cumin seeds
0.5-1 tsp dried dill
Vegetable/Olive oil
Pinch salt

Method for Rice
1. Heat 2 tbsp oil in a deep saucepan - add cumin seeds and cardamom and wait for them to fizz then add the rice and mix into the oil
2. Add in the water and simmer until almost dry.
3. Add dill and a pinch of salt and stir.
4. Put on a tight lid and take the pot of the heat.
5. Leave for 15 minutes while you cook the curry

Method for the Curry
1. In a large wok or frying pan, add two tbsp oil and heat. Add nigella seeds and chilli powder.
2. Add tomato, sugar and turmeric. If sauce becomes too thick add a little water
3. Add the mustard, salt and a pinch of black pepper.
4. Add the vegetables and leave simmering for 10 minutes.
5. Add the prawns and once they are cooked you are ready to serve.

B0jangles

Another thing to remember is to always read through a recipe a few times before you start making anything - more than once I've been caught out by a recipe doing something like:

Step 9. Take out the meat you previously marinaded overnight and...

(maybe not quite that bad but you get the idea )

kylith

Shenshen wrote: »

Here's a recipe for just about THE nicest thing I know to make with sweet potatoes and peanut butter : http://cookieandkate.com/2013/west-african-peanut-soup/
Where it says "collard greens" in the recpie, I use kale, but any kind of cabbage would work. I put the sweet potato chunks into the stock first, and I usually also throw in some broccoli.
It's very, very simple to do, and believe me it's going to taste amazing.

:eek: You stole my recipe!

(Delicious, isn't it?)

Clazbeag

The BBC good food website is really handy. You can pick categories (vegetarian, type of ethnic cuisine, one pot wonders etc) and then further select cooking times eg less than 30 minutes. Usually no hard to find ingredients and usually loads of tips from other people in the recipes eg you can use spinach instead of kale. Everything I've tried has gone down well.

ellejay

I can totally identify with feeling like you can't cook, spending to much money and wasting time shopping and preparing it all.

Making out a meal plan really worked for me and calmed things down.
Eg, instead of of buying a small chicken to do for 1or 2 meal's I now buy a large chicken.
So I can have a chicken meal the evening it's cooked.
Chicken sandwich for lunch, then freeze the rest of it in portions.

You might consider a slow cooker.
It's lovely to come in from work and your dinner is ready to eat..

Also Tesco do a click and collect service.
I find it great for busy weeks, really saves on time and you can see all the bargains.
Eg 3 different meats for a tenner.

Best of luck with it all.