Chinese takeaway with all the sides on payday but flavourless unbranded instant noodles three weeks later? We’ve all been there. In fact, most of us are probably there right now.
When it comes to rationalising how much money you’re spending, food is both our best friend and our absolute pain in the ass of an inconvenience. On the one hand, it’s the one expense that we’re all a bit more lenient with because a girl’s gotta eat. But at the same time this also leads to ordering the most expensive or unnecessary thing on the menu and filling our shopping trollies with pricey things that won’t last the walk home as rationalised by being hungry even though, well, girl’s also got no dollar.
It’s a pain. And also, a difficult thing to try and make sense of because as we’ve spoken about before, everything really is getting more expensive. Even food. So, we’re going to try and help you make sure that you’re not needlessly spending your hard-earned cash.
1. Meal-prep everything
I know, you saw this one coming right? Good! It’s cheaper, more efficient and if you’re anything like me it’s time for some tough love, my friends. You stop pretending to yourself that you don’t have enough time to do it, buy some Tupperware from Poundland and get prepping. There isn’t really any excuse for spending £7 a day on lunch from the sandwich shop across the road. You could spend about that much on feeding yourself for a few days at least! Here’s how to do just that.
2. Make your own takeaway
Okay, well, kind of. What I mean by this is making sure that you’ve got takeaway-ish things in the house to reach for before you log into Just-Eat as soon as you get a craving. Not the healthiest thing in the world but if you’re a fiend for Dominos and Pizza Hut, you’ll save loads by having a couple of pizzas in the freezer on the regs. You can get them for super cheap at literally every supermarket, we’re talking £1 a pizza instead of £17.99. My personal fave is Chicago Town which gets put on offer quite frequently so keep an eye out for those yellow labels.
3. Get to know the reduced aisle
Speaking of yellow labels, it’s definitely worth getting really friendly with your local supermarket’s reduced aisle. And if they don’t have a dedicated space for their products that are either damaged or about to go off (hence all the reductions), get super friendly with their staff instead. They’ll be able to tell you where to find the cheaper produce and at what time (but it usually tends to be towards the end of the day after 7pm-ish. The thing is, food literally has to be reduced periodically throughout the day. So, do some investigating and find out when. There is no shame in asking, my friends. Especially when it means you could spend a fiver on that last minute weeknight shop rather than £20.
4. Frozen is your friend
There’s a reason why mums went to Iceland. Ever find yourself stuck in a vicious cycle of buying fresh food and then throwing it away two days later because you haven’t used it? The trick here is to just be really honest with yourself about whether or not you’re going to cook with it before the best before date. If in doubt, put it in the freezer. On a similar vein, I've found that frozen veg is often so much cheaper than the fresh packaged stuff. Things like peas, broccoli, peppers, sweetcorn etc? Get 'em in the froze aisle instead.
5. Do your research, get an app
It may sound like a bit of a bore, but when you’re scraping the pennies at the end of the month trying to find a way to feed yourself without stealing from your friends/family/housemates (probably best not to do that, btw), it’s worth taking a bit of time to check you’re buying the cheapest option on the market. If you download the mySupermarket app you’ll be able to work out where it’s cheapest to find all the things on that handy shopping list you made ahead of time, or, if you forgot to make one, scan stuff at your supermarket and see how it compares elsewhere. So savvy.
6. Shout about being a student
That NUS card will take you further than a falsely rationalised ASOS order, don’t you know? If you have an NUS card you can save 10% at most Co-op stores, which is handy. Sadly none of the other big supermarkets off a student discount at the moment but if ever you and your mates are trying to arrange a nice dinner out at an actual restaurant, their list of discount-friendly restaurants might be a good place to start.
7. It’s all or nothing with meat
Okay, so one super easy way of reducing your supermarket bill by a significant amount is to cut out all the meat. Just leave it alone. It's always the most expensive thing on the grocery list and there's very little you can do about that. Also, we should all probably try and eat a little bit less meat for the good of the planet and stuff. I recommend swapping your usual lamb or beef mince for some sort of Quorn-like substitute - I PROMISE IT'S JUST AS GOOD. I once made a bolognese with Quorn for an old boyfriend (who's a big meat eater) and to this day has no idea it wasn't beef.
If you can't face cutting it all out though, go make friends with the guys over at the meat counters rather than buying all of that pre-packed stuff - they'll be able to give you a whole lot more (because bulk is better), portion it up for you (so you can freeze some for later) and advise on which of the cheap cuts actually taste different. And for the love of god, leave the pre-sliced and diced chicken breasts alone! You can slice and dice yourself and save money for it too.
9. Sell by date, schmell by date
I know many people who live in fear of sell by dates, and I understand. No one has time for food poisoning, it's not very fun. But if you're one of those people who is forever throwing out 'gone off' food, trust me when I say that you are more reliable than the label. When food's gone off it will almost always start to look, smell or feel gross, so if in doubt, open it up and check it out before you throw it in the bin. Particularly things like fruit, veg, bread and cheddar cheese. You'll find that more often than not, you can get away with using it for a few days after but obviously, that doesn't apply to everything.
If it helps - a sell by date is literally when that product has to be sold from a shop. That's when the yellow 'reduced' labels come out. Best before dates are more about quality than safety. So the food is totally still edible, but just might not be as good as intended. And then use by dates are all about safety. The Food Standards Agency advises that it's the most important one as it means eating it probably won't be good for you. Should probably take this date seriously when you're dealing meat and eggs. Salmonella is not the on.
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How To Buy Healthy Food When You’ve Got No Money Left Before Pay Day
Follow Jazmin on Instagram @JazKopotsha
This article originally appeared on The Debrief.