For food shopping, use your local markets more! (Saving tips)

Member Name: larsbaby

Product:	Saving tips
Date:	28/02/09 (187 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Cheaper than supermarkets

Disadvantages: Probably less convenient for many people

INTRODUCTION

I've been inspired to write the review after my weekly shop at my local weekend market. On Fridays and Saturdays, North Street in Guildford is taken over by the local market traders, offering a range of foods. I must confess that until a few months ago, I passed the market with little thought of using it, assuming that it was more expensive than the supermakets. However, once I'd got over my original reticence, I discovered that there was all sorts of bargains to be had. Many of the fruit and veg stalls have big bags of things like potatoes, tomatoes, sweetcorn and peppers for a pound. There is also less packaging than supermarket goods, which has to be a good thing for the environment.

INGREDIENTS

To give you some idea of what it costs, today I bought some tomatoes, potatoes, an aubergine, rocket, 2 mini gem lettuces, strawberries, raspberries and green beans. This lot cost me under £9.

In addition I got a whole seabass and a fillet of undyed smoked samon for another £8 - not so cheap I agree, but I'll use the fish frame as the base of a soup and bulk it up with some of the veggies. Or is it expensive? Seabass is about £14 per kilo at the fishmonger, but at M&S 2 seabass fillets, much smaller than the ones I got, are £29 per kilo!

USING THE INGREDIENTS

It's a good start to note that cooking from scratch is always cheaper than ready meals. For example, do you really need to buy that ready made risotto when you can make your own in about 20 minutes? A stew is ridiculously easy to make. Here is a link to the beef stew recipe I use as a base:

http://www.videojug.com/film/how-to-make-beef-ste w

Turning my attention to today's shop, the salad will do me for the entire week of work lunches, saving me being ripped off to the tune of a fiver a day at the rapidly deteriorating work canteen. Aubergine and potato curry will be fairly inexpensive for evening meals. For those of you who think I eat out all the time, I do cook for myself a lot, and I find that stews made with a little bit of meat or fish to add to the veg make a little go a long way.

CONCLUSION

I haven't done a direct comparison with supermakets, but based on my experience you can certainly save a lot of money buying fresh produce from local retailers. Of course many things will only be available from supermarkets for many (dairy produce, tinned goods etc) but hopefully I've given you some ideas on how to make your weekly fruit & veg shop go further.

GOLDEN RULES

In addition I think these rules are good to follow

- Never shop when you're hungry
- Only buy what you really need - make a list to help you shop
- Make big batches of food and freeze what you won't eat immediately
- Look out for the bargains that week, such as 2 for 1 offers

Summary: A good way to save money on food you probably didn't even realise