You love to cook good food, but your cooking budget decreases ”slowly”… Don’t start depriving yourself: just cook in a more thrifty way!
Here are few tips for cooking on a budget:
1. Find the good quality/price ratio for your ingredients
To cook on a budget, think first to use seasonal fruits and vegetables which are cheaper food (plus it’s “green”!).
It is more complicated for protein intake… but not impossible as “budget” solutions do exist. Eggs are affordable and can be cooked in any way. Go for white fish such as hake or cod, which are accessible to all budgets. Pork, rabbit, ground beef or turkey meat are also interesting when you shop with a smaller cooking budget.
As for carbohydrates, they are generally accessible to all budgets, provided you opt for raw or minimally processed foods such as potatoes or bread.
Good, you’ll have plenty of time to find recipes to cook cheap and delicious meals!
2. Cook by yourself to control your cooking budget
Another good idea: make things up by yourself!, you can make your own bread, homemade yogurt, soups and ice creams… with very simple machines that control the quality of ingredients.
Avoid buying ready-made convenience food such as prepared sauces, beef stocks,dough, mayonnaise, canned soups and so on… They become expensive because of the “added value ” of preparing the food for you, but with poor quality ingredients… Thus being costly in the long term.
3. Make a shopping list and stick to it to save money
Last tips for cooking on a low budget: Prepare your shopping list in advance – you will avoid unnecessary temptations – and cook in larger quantities, which will save time and money in your wallet at the same time.
We’ve gathered a selection of budget cookbooks to assist you further in your quest for a low cost — but healthy — cooking. All books are available to order form Amazon.
