How to save on food without compromising on quality: 11 proven tips

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

Cook for the season, use delivery, and try to skip the portioned meals.

1. Analyze the residuals

According to 8 Facts to Know About Food Waste and Hunger / World Food Program USA of the World Food Program Founded in 1963 as the food aid agency of the United Nations., up to a third of all products in the world are unclaimed for so long that they spoil and go to the trash heap. People massively forget bread, cereals, vegetables, fruits, and meat in kitchen cabinets and refrigerators.

Perhaps this is not about you. But still, regularly revise the leftovers. It may turn out that you overlap the menu with the discovered buckwheat, pasta, cheese or potatoes for a few days in advance.

2. Prepare new dishes based on yesterday's

Here are some simple examples:

• Stale bread can be soaked in sweet milk, dipped in a beaten egg and fried in a pan - you get a simple dessert for tea. It's also a great base for delicious pudding and Spanish migas.
• Yesterday's side dish (rice, pasta or potatoes) is enough to fry with vegetables or an egg to get a full-fledged fresh dish.
• From the leftover salad leftovers, adding greens to it, you can make a hearty smoothie: just grind everything together with a blender.
• From the remains of fried or boiled chicken, you will get a delicious soup or croquettes.
• And instead of throwing away half-eaten semolina or oatmeal, make fancy muffins.

3. Use food to the last drop or bite

Not everything that seems unusable for further use is in fact. For example:

• An inconvenient tail of sausage, which can no longer be cut into sandwiches, is perfect for pizza or hodgepodge. You can also grind it and add it to an omelet.
• A small piece of cheese is easy to freeze and grate. This powder is also useful for pizza. Or omelet, pasta.
• Sour milk is an excellent base for pancakes or homemade cottage cheese.
• If you add a tablespoon of apple cider vinegar, your favorite spices to a jar, where mayonnaise is only on the walls, and shake well, you get an interesting salad dressing.
• You can do the same with the remaining chocolate paste. Pour hot milk into a jar from it, and you will have a full serving of cocoa.

4. Focus on seasonal products

A classic example is zucchini in August. They cost a penny, and you can make pancakes and vegetable cutlets, rolls with garlic and mayonnaise dressing, an original spicy salad with soy sauce and many other dishes.

The same applies to cucumbers, tomatoes and other summer vegetables and fruits. But in the cold season, it is worth switching to dishes made from long-lasting products, for example, cabbage, beets, potatoes, carrots. Borscht and cabbage soup are inexpensive and will keep you hungry.

5. Make a menu for the week

Knowing exactly what you have for dinner every day will save you from spontaneous spending on dumplings, prepared meals, or anything else that ends up in the supermarket. Usually, such visits to the store lead to the fact that you leave more at the checkout than you planned.

How to quickly and easily create a menu for a week, Lifehacker wrote in detail. Use a proven algorithm.

6. Shop at wholesale stores once a week

As a rule, prices in such points are much lower than in small shops near your home or office.

It is advisable to go to a large weekly purchase with a list of products: you will make it on the basis of the expected weekly menu. In this case, you will not forget anything and reduce the risk of buying too much.

7. Order groceries with delivery

This is a piece of advice for those who constantly make a common mistake: popped into the store for bread, and left it with apples, sausage, cookies, batteries … And without bread!

After a certain amount of the order, delivery is often free. At the same time, you will definitely buy only what you need, and do not throw in the basket anything superfluous like chocolate bars or gum at the checkout.

8. Check promotions for products

Supermarkets often print paper brochures announcing next week's promotions. You can find very advantageous offers in them: for example, two packs of spaghetti for the price of one, chicken fillet with a 30% discount or cookies as a gift for tea packaging. Such information leaflets are usually placed on a table or stand at the entrance to the trading floor.

But there is another option to find out about sales. You can install special applications that will inform you about promotions in supermarkets of your favorite chain or collect offers from several stores. Here are examples of such programs:

9. Pay attention to products with yellow labels

Stores label the goods that they want to sell as soon as possible. For example, products with an expiration date. Usually, the cost on yellow price tags differs from the standard one by 30% or more.

10. Give up purchased semi-finished products and sausages

Quality dumplings or sausages are often more expensive than meat. Moreover, they can hardly be called healthy food.

The advantages of semi-finished products are speed of preparation and ease of use. If this is important to you, bake the meat in the oven with spices: it is also convenient to cut it for sandwiches. Or prepare meals on the assumption that they should last for 2-3 days - then you will not need to run for dumplings.

11. Use culinary life hacks

They help to significantly reduce the cost of food, while maintaining (or even improving) the taste and nutritional value.

• If making cutlets, add finely chopped vegetables with a neutral taste to the meat: cabbage, zucchini, carrots. They will add juiciness to the dish. And besides, you will increase the volume of minced meat and get more workpieces at the output.
• Try to make a la carte meals less often. The same cutlets or chops hungry household members quickly grab one by one. It is better to make combined options that combine both meat and a side dish: for example, pilaf, naval pasta or meat pie.
• Bake or steam, not fry. This will save on oil and eat healthier food.

This material was first published in March 2015. In September 2021, we updated the text.