These Are Your Top Money-Saving Food Tips

We all like to get the most bang for our buck, but we’ve been hearing from members of the SORTEDfood community that making your food and cash go further is now more important than it’s ever been.

Our recently launched Best Value Meal Packs have been designed to do exactly that - but we know that they are only a tiny step on the long journey to helping people cook and eat better for less.

The launch of these Meal Packs prompted a ton of conversations about how else we can all save money. We’ve collated a load of the SORTEDfood community’s top tips and listed them below - how many of these do you already use, or could you adopt?

@KatiiTusa

Keeping spare tortilla, pizza dough and pasta:

Super cheap in bulk & makes a great use of whatever is left over in your fridge.

You can mix and match almost anything: fridge clear out, leftovers, etc to make a quesadilla, pizza toppings or pasta sauce.

@Cof56506198

For me the big thing is that fruit and veg in the west are often usable long past when many people think they've gone off. If you're serious about budgeting, learn to pare down your fruit and veg, cut off the bad bits and use the good bits.

@FreshFoodieGeek

Just as clothes shopping, the clearance stickers are often your best friend, clearance doesn't have to mean bad. A lot of times new items or ingredients haven't sold as much as initially thought; impossible burger patties always go on sale & of course buy produce seasonally.

@MeatSafe_Weasel

Get to know the ding and dent corner of your local shop! I'm always eagle-eyed for those slightly damaged bargains. It can also be a great place to find exotic ingredients on the cheap when they go on clearance :-)

@Seaofragirl

1 thing to help with budget is discount grocers, coupons, and discount cards. Also, I buy off brand instead of name brand items.

@kerenhappuch

Most of my meals if doubled up to feed 4 would come under £5 because they’re vegan. Pulses, beans and vegetables are all so cheap- especially tinned pulses and beans and frozen veg. Spices cost next to nothing to give flavour and depth to the dishes to finish it off.

@Cabe_Bedlam

Tins and frozen veggies.

You can make mince go quite far with a couple of cups of peas, broccoli and carrots.

Mash on top, always a crowd pleaser, but I am going to try soda bread "dumplings" at some point.

@MumTo3Sons

'Fillers' - porridge oats in beef mince to make more burgers , chickpeas, lentils or any kind of legumes in a veggie stew and if you want meatballs in it.. see what I first wrote about fillers in beef mince.

This is very much the first step in making sure that the work we do is focused on helping us all cook better and spend less. With that in mind, we are keen to speak to schools, charities, media partners and businesses who can join us on this journey and help more people, quicker. If you have any thoughts or ideas, please get in touch with Value@SORTEDfood.com.