Shoestring Cottage

Money Environment Home & Health

  • Home
  • New to Shoestring Cottage? Start here
  • About Me: My best life on a shoestring
  • Fifty Ways to Save Money Now
  • Favourite Frugal & Healthy Recipes
  • My Frugal Bookshelf
  • Work with Me: Shoestring Cottage Media Pack
  • PRIVACY POLICY

Not cooking from scratch: confessions of a failed frugalista

14th April 2019 by shoestringjane@outlook.com 15 Comments

Share on Facebook Share
0
Share on TwitterTweet
Share on Pinterest Share
0

cooking from scratch

The first rule if you want to save money is to stop eating takeaways and convenience foods and start cooking from scratch. It doesn’t take a genius to realise this. However, there are times when cooking from scratch is almost impossible for some of us. Maybe we have no time between work and taking the kids to their swimming lesson, have to work overtime, have caring responsibilities or are suffering from illness.

Some folk have long term chronic conditions that zap them of energy or give them constant pain. They are usually the people that would benefit most from food that is cheap and nutritious.

It’s not always easy cooking from scratch

Take my recent bout of disc problems. Most days I was in so much pain I could barely warm up a can of beans, let alone make a roast dinner. I battled on for ages, somehow producing something cheap and edible and cooking it from scratch. After all, I managed it most days working full time, so why not when I was off work?

After a time, I realised that not cooking from scratch wasn’t an admission of failure. It didn’t mean we had to bust the budget on takeaway pizzas every night or develop malnutrition eating junk food. I have found ways for us to eat healthy, budget friendly food without taking more than 15 or 20 minutes to prepare our meals.

So how do you eat a healthy diet and save money without having to make everything from scratch? Here are a few ideas.

Not cooking from scratch: staying healthy, sane and within budget

Eat salads

cooking from scratch

I have taken to buying really large, family sized bags of pre-cut salad to save time. This makes a good, healthy base to a meal. You can add hummus, cheese, tuna, eggs or tinned meat for protein and either a big chunk of bread or a can of spuds mixed with mayo to fill you up. I don’t mind having salad several days in a row and it saves cooking.

Let them eat beans

Beans on toast is a balanced meal, containing protein, carbohydrate and fibre. Some grated cheese on top or a fried egg makes it even better.

You can also buy cans of mixed beans in tomato or chilli sauce, which are nice over rice or a jacket potato.

Buy good food cheaply

Easier said than done, I hear you cry! But it is possibly to buy good food cheaply if you know where to look.  Approved Food is always good for basics at cut prices, including lots of canned food and sauces in jars (this is my recommend a friend link). Lidl and Aldi do lots of fruit and vegetables on their weekly specials. Watch out for things that can be cooked quickly or chucked in a stir fry.

Fresh ready meals can often be found with yellow sticker reductions at the end of the day in other supermarkets. If you freeze them or eat them the same day they can provide quick and easy dinners.

Excellent eggs

cooking from scratch

Eggs can be very quickly turned into an omelette or tortilla with minimal preparation or energy. They are cheap and nutritious. Hard boil them and throw them on your salad leaves or have them fried or poached with chips (oven chips if you can’t be bothered to make them). Have some tinned peas, sweetcorn, grilled tomatoes or fried mushrooms too so you have at least one of your five a day.

Jars aren’t an admission of defeat

A jar of sauce is a marvellous thing. Chuck one over your chicken or vegetables and serve with rice for a super easy dinner. I also find stir fry sauce sachets an absolute godsend when I am lacking energy or motivation with a pack of supermarket chopped veg (preferably yellow stickered, obviously).

Ready made sauces are the type of thing you can pick up mega cheaply on Approved Food or in shops like B&M or Home Bargains.

Consider frozen

cooking from scratch

Iceland is brilliant for frozen food at great prices I find. Packs of frozen veg needs no prep, you can pick up chicken breasts and other meat already cut and ready to use, sausages and all kinds of vegetarian fayre.

And, of course, Iceland sell a lot of ready meals. Choose some with vegetables built into the recipe or make sure you serve with salad or vegetables so you get some of your five a day.

Frozen fruit is also nice with custard or yogurt for a healthy pudding.

In the can

Tinned veg is full of nutrients and can be served with pretty much anything.  I buy a lot of tinned ratatouille when I see it as it makes a nice easy dinner with pasta or rice and grated cheese on top.  Tins of curry are good too.

I am a big fan of tinned fish such as sardines and tuna. Both make good ingredients for pasta bakes and sardines are good on toast. Very cheap and full of good omega oils.

Ready made pastry

I used to always make my own pastry and I do prefer it. However, once in a while I will buy ready made and will used it as a cheat ingredient for a tuna plait or an apple pie. You can also buy tins of pie filling, although it’s probably just as cheap and easy to buy ready made pies!

Pasta

cooking from scratch

Who doesn’t like pasta? This is where I will happily use a jar of bolognese sauce, mixed with some lean mince or Quorn. I love tuna penne as it is pretty quick and easy to make, but if I can’t even be bothered with that I will mix up a packet of tuna bake and serve with salad.

Jacket potatoes

A large jacket potato with a can of chilli beans, ordinary beans in tomato sauce, tuna mayo or just plain cheese is such an easy dinner. Again this is good with a pack of salad.

The odd ping meal won’t kill you

If all else fails, a microwave meal every now and again won’t kill you, especially if you serve it with some vegetables. It’s not often I give into one, but if I do it will be a curry!

None of the above is likely to be news to you. It’s all just common sense really. The point I am trying to make is that I beat myself up for taking short cuts for far too long. Sometimes you need to. Hopefully now that I am starting to feel better I will do more scratch cooking, but if I don’t feel like it then I won’t!

What about you? Are you a slave to cooking from scratch or do you like some convenience meals?

This post contains affiliate links.

 

Share this:

  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Tumblr (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on WhatsApp (Opens in new window)

Related

Filed Under: FRUGAL FOOD

Privacy & Cookies: This site uses cookies. By continuing to use this website, you agree to their use.
To find out more, including how to control cookies, see here: Cookie Policy
« Saving pennies where we can #fivefrugalthings
A vaguely money saving week #fivefrugalthings »

Comments

  1. Linda says

    14th April 2019 at 23:30

    Well said. There is a time and place for everything.

    I almost gave up on frugal lifestyle blogs because for a while it was like reading poverty porn, I grow everything, cook batches and more.

    Jarred sauces are your friend on a busy night. Bagged salad? Well where I live a lettuce will set you back $3-4. Mixed salad bags are $2.99 and they work just as well in sandwiches as lettuce leaves.

    Yellow stickers (or in my case pink triangles) buy them, use right away or freeze them. I look for the cooked chicken breasts for fast and easy curry night.

    I stick to my budget and we eat well.

    Reply
    • shoestringjane@outlook.com says

      14th April 2019 at 23:48

      Glad it’s not just me then . ‘Poverty porn’ – great phrase!

      Reply
  2. Liz says

    15th April 2019 at 01:45

    We look for bargains, and I am certainly not against a quick meal! Not every meal has to be gourmet quality, as long as it’s nutritious and filling who cares if you worked for 3 hours or poured a jar of premade sauce over it! I’ve cooked dinners every night for maybe 50 years (I’m 70) and if I want to take a shortcut I have no guilt whatsoever! I always use bagged salad, a whole lettuce would go bad before the 2 of us could eat it…and bagged salad (or coleslaw) is so versatile.

    Reply
    • shoestringjane@outlook.com says

      15th April 2019 at 07:51

      Totally agree

      Reply
  3. Mo says

    15th April 2019 at 07:44

    Hi, what do you mean when you say mix up a packet of tuna bake ? xx

    Reply
    • shoestringjane@outlook.com says

      15th April 2019 at 07:51

      Colman’s tuna pasta bake mix, or similar. Cheaper than the stuff out of a jar. You add oasta, Tina and cheese. So easy

      Reply
  4. Constance says

    15th April 2019 at 07:51

    As much as I love cooking but for me it also exhausting especially since I do it on the daily basis which sometimes feels like a chore.

    Reply
    • shoestringjane@outlook.com says

      15th April 2019 at 13:10

      I agree. Mr S is useless at cooking so it’s all down to me. He makes up for it in other ways, bless him. It does get tiring, especially after a full day at work!

      Reply
  5. Tanya says

    15th April 2019 at 15:00

    Over the last year or so my cooking/eating habits have gone through a real mix -from eating as much homegrown and homemade as I possibly could to all sling and pings, pot noodles for days when even boiling a kettle feels like so much effort, cup a soups etc. I now seem to have reached a happier compromise for me – on days when I can cook I make extra portions of whatever it is and put them in the freezer as home-made ready meals but I also don’t beat myself up about the bought in instant meals either. I have also headed down the road of frozen fruit for quick desserts/breakfasts and frozen veg for adding a bit extra to meals, some of it is bought in, some of it what we have grown ourselves – although a freezer catastrophe about 6 months ago meant we lost a lot of our stores. I really enjoy cooking but have accepted that compromises are a must in this life and don’t have to mean defeat.

    Reply
    • shoestringjane@outlook.com says

      15th April 2019 at 15:43

      Completely mirrors how I have been, Tanya, minus the pot noodles. Can’t stomach those!

      Reply
  6. Susan says

    15th April 2019 at 15:58

    I cook a lot of meals from scratch and always batch cook and freeze where possible. I buy a lot of yellow sticker foods and sometimes if there’s a really good deal on something ready made than I buy it. Some quick meal ideas to save me time are baked beans, jars of curry sauces and oven chips (we like Aldi oven chips at 99p a bag). Some days I really can’t be faffed with cooking which is where the batch cooked meals come in. Occasionally, I am on my own for evening meal and will just have soup but usually I have two hungry boys to cook for! Snack meals just don’t fill them up!

    Reply
    • shoestringjane@outlook.com says

      15th April 2019 at 16:34

      Batch cooking is a good idea. I do that too. Your own healthy ready meals!

      Reply
  7. Petra says

    15th April 2019 at 17:00

    I normally cook from scratch but sometimes I cannot be bothered so I would eat things like egg salad, tuna salad or omelette. Sometimes we buy ready made pizza from a supermarket but that doesn’t happen very often as I know it’s not very healthy.

    Reply
  8. Julia says

    15th April 2019 at 17:51

    I’ve just had 2 days of porridge for dinner because
    1) DH & DD took over the kitchen to do a fry up for everyone (yuck!)
    2) Was a ready-made lasagne that I don’t eat

    If I’m not having the meal I’ll usually do that, as I can’t be bothered to make myself separate afterwards!
    I think of it as a detox, as I always feel better for it! 🙂

    Reply
  9. Margie from Toronto says

    16th April 2019 at 00:12

    I cook from scratch from September through March and then I mostly give myself a break. I have RA and fibromyalgia so need to pace myself and when I’ve had enough, I adapt.
    It’s just me so that does help – salad in a bag, eggs, tinned fish, beans & lots of Fruit & Veg (and there’s nothing wrong with tinned or frozen) are my friends. When it all gets to be too much I’d rather spend money on a couple of cooked chicken breasts (each will do me for two meals) than go the full takeout route – but even if I did I find that one meal can do me 2 and even 3 meals with some veg added so it’s still cost effective.
    I’ve had a very busy few days and the rest of this week is extremely busy (I work in a church office) so after a lot of extra running around tonight I settled for a supper of a couple of crisp bread, a few slices of ham, a bit of cheese & beetroot – and it really hit the spot.
    The trick, as you’ve discovered is to have those time savers on hand at all times so you aren’t heading to the chippie or ordering pizza every night.

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Categories

  • ECO FRIENDLY LIFESTYLE
  • FRUGAL CHRISTMAS
  • FRUGAL FOOD
  • FRUGAL GARDEN
  • FRUGAL HOME
  • FRUGAL LIFESTYLE
  • FUN AND TRAVEL
  • General
  • GENERAL POSTS
  • HEALTH AND WELL BEING
  • MAKING MONEY FROM HOME
  • MONEY
  • SLIMMING WORLD

About Me

Would you like to take control of your finances, pay off your debts and save for the future? At Shoestring Cottage we aim to show you that you can live a good and happy life on less than you think, you can get off the consumer treadmill and you can live more simply and healthily and not feel deprived.
We are also moving toward a less wasteful, more sustainable lifestyle and believe frugality and sustainability go hand in hand. Read More…

Copyright © 2021 · Delightful theme by Restored 316

loading Cancel
Post was not sent - check your email addresses!
Email check failed, please try again
Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email.
This site uses cookies: Find out more.