The A to Z of thrifty food shopping

Marketers of food products have persuaded us that we should only ever eat “organic”, hand raised, free range (which can mean a variety of things or not much at all), and “only the freshest ingredients”. For all of which, read “more expensive”.

While all of these things are noble objectives, not everyone can afford to live in the style of the one percent. And almost everyone overspends at the end of the year, leading us to — Januworry.

There’s a premium on eating the way food retailers and marketers urge us to eat. But are they paying your salary? Are they sorting out your utility bills, school fees, uniforms, household budget?

Are they coming to your aid right now, with three weeks of January still to go, and the budget having whittled away like a faucet running dry?

When January comes around (or, for some people, any month of any given year), and we look in the cupboards, fridge and freezer, with a grocery budget reduced by years of price increases (which rarely seem to come down, even when things are looking up economically), are we really going to appraise that jar of pickles, that can of beans or that frozen something-or-other and think, “ooooh, I hope it’s organic so that we can eat it?” And chuck it out if not? I think not.

I write for real people, ordinary people, people who need a bit of help in getting by. And I’m here to help. Take my own example if you like – I’m on Day 7, as we speak, of buying no food at all. Everything we’ve eaten since last Friday has been made from whatever I’ve found in our cupboards, fridge and freezer. And I mean everything… and I’ve earmarked more (as yet frozen or unopened) items for the meals for the next week. After that, well, I’ll need to check the shelves again…

Here are my 26 tips (one for each letter of the alphabet) for getting by on a minuscule budget – and even on no budget at all. Yes, even J, K, Q, X, Y and Z…

A is for Alliums

(Photo: Robert Owen-Wahl from Pixabay)

Onions, garlic, leeks – they’re the alliums that a kitchen cannot be without for any cook worth their apron. Nothing is surely more versatile in cooking than alliums, which is why you find onion, and almost as often garlic, in a gazillion recipes, and why so many soups contain leeks.

The onion is your best friend in the kitchen. The big round onion is as ubiquitous as knives and forks, and despite their enormous popularity, onions remain cheap. 

Spring onions, also known as scallions or green onions, are a core feature of many Asian dishes, and of course in salads too.

Use them to increase the bulk of 1,000 dishes while adding flavour.

An onion, some dried herbs and spices. Those simple things, with a bit of your ingenuity stirred in, can be turned into a simple, satisfying supper.

Which brings us to what I’d have preferred to have been my starting point, except that it begins with a B…

B is for Bargain Bin

I’m not ashamed to be seen perusing the bargain bins of supermarkets, because I know the truth: much of what is in there is perfectly fine and safe to eat. And much cheaper than it was the day before they moved it from its usual spot to the bargain bin end of the fridge.

A sell-by date does not suggest a product has gone off. It’s a part of how supermarkets manage their perishable goods. I’d say there’s as much as a 90+ percent chance that the goods are fine. So rather see it as an opportunity to save yourself a bit of your food budget.

In early December I found several punnets of fresh cherries – cherries! – at the bargain end of the vegetable fridge at my local superstore. There was absolutely nothing wrong with them. The only difference? The price – they’d been marked down from R39 to R14.99 a punnet. I bought the lot.

For some weeks I found punnets of sugar snap peas there for weeks in a row. I used a lot of those in my recipes for some weeks, you may have noticed. They were in mint condition.

Last winter, I frequently bought packs of trimmed leeks from the bargain bins. Celery finds its way there too on occasion. There’s one thing I avoid in these bins though: mushrooms. Mushrooms must be as fresh as possible, and can make you decidedly off-colour if they’re even slightly off.

So do scrutinise goods before buying. Trust your eyes. You’ll be able to see their condition. And keep an eye on these bins whenever you shop (I say “bins” but often they’re just the end of the fridge) so that you’ll know what’s been newly added.

Having said that, don’t buy something just because it’s been marked down. Ask yourself: do you really need it? (See “Q is for Questions” further down.)

C is for Chicken

Tony Jackman’s Persian roast chicken. (Photo: Tony Jackman)

Chicken is a staple of South African kitchens for good reason. Yes, yes, we must always buy free range, right? Well, tell that to the poor people – and I mean properly poor, not merely battling through January like many of us – with whom I rub shoulders at my local small-town supermarkets. 

Most of our fellow citizens cannot afford “free range” anything, let alone anything with labels such as “grain-fed” or “drip-fed essential nutrients under a sickle moon”. Chicken is bought not necessarily even fresh and ready to cook, but frozen, most usually drumsticks or whole breasts, and also chicken feet, known colloquially in our eclectic part of the world as walkie-talkies.

I consider myself lucky not to have to buy my chicken frozen, and in a perfect world, well, wouldn’t it be marvellous if we were all well off enough to buy only free range, but let’s look at ourselves honestly in the mirror and acknowledge the truth that for every exorbitantly expensive free-range fowl there are many thousands sold that led a life that we frown upon. But which sell anyway, and are the products of a troubling but necessary industry. Needs must…

So, yes: eat ordinary shop-bought chicken when times are tight. Just like nearly everyone else.

D is for Dried pulses and fruit

(Photo: Thomas G from Pixabay)

The shelf life of these things is extraordinary. Check your pantry shelves and cupboards for any packets of dried fruit (this week I found dried red figs I’d bought in Calitzdorp last year) and packs of dried peas, beans, samp, anything at all.

There may be some leftover nuts such as almonds or cashews (I keep them in the fridge once opened and they last ridiculously well and long. Just toast them back to life in a dry pan on a lowish heat.

The dried fruit can be used, for instance, in a tagine with chicken portions. Make a quick Moroccan spice mix using spices from your cupboard stocks, and finish off the dish with toasted chopped almonds.

I’d keep any dried peas and beans I found for use in winter soups – and that will come soon enough.

E is for eggs

(Photo: Alexa from Pixabay)

Sometimes the most ubiquitous things are taken for granted. But see eggs as a thrift item too. So many recipes need only one or two eggs, yet without them the dish cannot be made at all.

And there can’t be many households that don’t have a ready supply of them, so build a simple quick supper out of eggs. An omelette with a filling. Savoury pancakes or fritters. Shakshuka. Curried eggs. Cheesy scrambled eggs on toast. Eggs and chips, that English standby. Or whip up a Salade Niçoise using a can of tuna...

F is for Frozen

My favourite frozen food is peas. Even the world’s leading chefs often use frozen peas over fresh, because they’re as good as freshly picked. Another in this category is frozen puff pastry. It works like a charm, every time.

There’s a lot that I don’t buy from the frozen section of a supermarket, but if making, say, a sweetcorn soup, a packet of frozen corn kernels does the job perfectly well.

But freezing is also useful as a way for the home cook to get a second meal out of something you’ve made too much of (and I don’t know about you but I always over cater). 

The only downside of freezing meals for later use is that the containers you freeze them in are out of use until further notice. I often freeze in plastic tubs, two of which were suddenly back in use this week…

See “X is for X Marks the Spot” for more thoughts on this.

G is for Grind

(Photo: Steve Buissinne from Pixabay)

Grind and mix your own spices into a spice rub or mix all your own. Let’s be honest: we all have too many spices, and a lot of them just sit in their jars indefinitely, feeling ignored.

Pre-ground spices: Learn to assess the relative quantities of spices, and mix your own. If using a teaspoonful each of certain spices, you can probably figure out how much to use of certain others. I would use, say, a teaspoon each of ground cumin, coriander (powdered seeds), fennel (again the powdered seeds), but only a half a teaspoon each of ground turmeric, cinnamon, cardamom and chilli powder. And others might only warrant a pinch, such as nutmeg.

Whole spices: Leave some whole, such as star anise and cinnamon quills, to be removed before serving. Bay leaves too. But seeds such as fennel, cumin, caraway and coriander can be ground to a fine powder.

Grinding your own spices from what’s already in your cupboard is a better thrift option than buying a jar of Moroccan spice mix or some or other exotic rub when they are most likely concocted of spices you have already paid for.

H is for Herbs

It’s the element (other than spice) that makes the difference between a so-so dish and a scrumptious one. While the edible leaves of plants from parsley and sage to rosemary and thyme add their delicious charms to a multitude of recipes, there’s little substance in herbs, unless you’re making basil pesto, and that is a very thrifty item if you grow your own basil. But what if you don’t? 

But don’t buy them. We all know that the price we pay for a punnet of thyme or sage may seem relatively low compared with many other things, but we also know that at least half of it wallows in the crisper, eventually going off and being discarded. Mostly, they’re a solid waste of good money.

So, yes, grow your own herbs, as many as you can. I have several big rosemary bushes, so no problem there. Thyme and I do not get along; most of my thyme plants die. Ditto sage, although currently I have a bit that is strangely surviving. Lavender is rife but doesn’t get used much in cooking, and the painters put paid to my parsley patch when the house was painted late last year.

When I’m out of a herb, and nearly everything in the garden has given me up as a lost cause – and at those times of year when the parsley and thyme in my garden die (like, right now) – I’m not embarrassed to ask a friend if I can snip a sprig or three. Or spot a neighbour over the fence and ask if they have a bit of this or that for me.

But establish a good herb garden too, following the rules of good gardening, and you (and your neighbours, to whom you can return the favour) won’t be disappointed. Even on a kitchen windowsill or on a balcony.

I is for ‘In case I need it’

Chances are, you don’t. When shopping on a thrift budget, buy only what you’re sure you need. Just buy what’s on your shopping list, but first make sure everything on that list really should be on it.

This means checking cupboards, pantry shelves, fridges and freezers before you even leave the house. You may be surprised at how many things you already have tucked away somewhere that you’d forgotten about.

Take 15 minutes to check behind things in cupboards and fridges. Maybe you do have a can of chopped tomatoes after all, behind that forgotten can of kidney beans and the tin of condensed milk you bought months ago “just in case I need it”.

Chances are you didn’t…

J is for Jars, Juices and Jus

(Photo: fancycrave1 on Pixabay)

There’s a lot to be said in this category of thrifty cooking. And the above two elements – jars and juices – interplay when making a jus.

I scan shelves almost every time I make a sauce. You may have noticed, for instance, that I used moskonfyt (grape must) in a number of dishes late last year; this was because a lovely lady from Tulbagh brought me a bottle of it when we served her and her friends lunch one Sunday.

The syrup in fruit preserves, honey, molasses, pomegranate syrup, lemon syrup, chutneys, condiments such as Worcestershire sauce and, yes, ketchup, all of these can be added to sauces to spruce them up and give them a bit of depth and interest.

Fruit juices too. When I’m cooking pork belly or pork chops, the first thing I do is check to see what leftover fruit juices I might have. It doesn’t have to be apple just because that traditionally goes with pork. Any juice goes with pork, whether berry, citrus or deciduous. 

A splash of fruit juice in a sauce for chicken, or when glazing carrots, or when making a baste for sosaties to be braaied, never does any harm.

K is for Knives and Knowing

Know your knives and how to use them. Slice, dice and chop only the amount of that ingredient needed for the recipe. Wrap remaining cucumber, tomatoes or whatever you’re preparing in clingfilm and refrigerate.

Then, know what you have in the crisper, and how much of it. (I couldn’t count the number of times I’ve bought tomatoes and cucumbers and arrived home to find that I’d bought some two days ago.)

L is for Leftovers

Turn leftovers into frittata, risotto, and pasta sauces. Or fillings for toasted sandwiches. Or just freeze the balance and thaw and reheat it a week or two later. If it’s not quite enough, add a can of chopped tomatoes, zoot up the spices, and make some rice to serve it with.

This week, I found a container of frozen tomato bredie I had made and frozen three months ago – I spiced it up and turned it into a curry. (Makes sense – curry usually needs tomatoes in any case.)

When I’m cooking one evening, my mind will already be on what I can do a night or two later or the next morning with something that I know will be left over. Most obvious is roast chicken – leftover meat becomes toasted chicken mayo sandwiches for breakfast. (And I cook them in an air fryer by the way, it works beautifully).

Use leftover cooked chicken carcasses (i.e. from a whole roast chicken) to make chicken soup.

Turn leftover fruit, whether apples, peaches and plums or all of the above and citrus too, into chutney. Add sugar, vinegar and spices and water and simmer slowly until it develops into a jammy chutney.

M is for Mustard and Mayonnaise

Those bits of leftover mustard, especially wholegrain, are a boon for a salad dressing. Scrape out the bottom of the jar and add a little vinegar or lemon juice, a swirl of mayonnaise, some seasoning, maybe some finely crushed garlic, finish it off with olive oil, and dress your salad with it.

Out of mayonnaise? Grab that solitary leftover egg, break it into a deep jug (to avoid splattering), squeeze in the juice of half a lemon and season with salt and white pepper. (Sure, black is fine too.) Stir in a teaspoon of mustard too. Using a handheld stick blender, pulse it while pouring flavourless oil in, in a thin stream. When it achieves the consistency of mayonnaise, you’ll see when it’s ready. I don’t measure anything, just go by eye and taste.

O is for Offal

Give offal another go. It’s by and large still the cheapest category of meat available. Make a steak and kidney pie using cheap beef cuts cooked slowly until tender with onions, garlic, herbs and beef stock. Simmer some chopped kidneys in butter and stir them in. Make a pastry topping of bought puff pastry, brush with milk (you’ve used the last egg, remember?) and bake for about 25 minutes at 200°C.

P is for Pasta and Potatoes

Tony Jackman’s hasselback potatoes cooked in an air fryer. (Photo: Tony Jackman)

I’ve written reams about how to use up leftover pasta in those packets in that cupboard over there. Each one of these words will take you to one of my pasta recipes.

Even on its own with some butter melting into it, a potato can be a meal all by itself. A little salt goes a long way with a potato too.

Keep your leftover potato skins – put them in a plastic bag and freeze them, adding more every time you peel a potato. Defrost, dry and deep fry or simmer in butter till crisp. Or keep them for winter and turn potato peels into a soup. See my many potato recipes for the air fryer.

Q is for Question

When browsing in the shops, ask yourself a few questions: do I really need this? Did I check the cupboards before leaving home? 

How many do I need? Or what quantity in kg or grams? 

Buy only what you’re sure you need and you’ll avoid wastage and save money – and only pop the quantity required for that recipe into the shopping basket.

R is for Reinvigorate

Tony Jackman’s coleslaw with a twist, served in my favourite green bowl by Mervyn Gers Ceramics. (Photo: Tony Jackman)

There’s always coleslaw left over, right? Reinvigorate it by simmering sultanas in a little fruit juice on a low heat, and stir them into the coleslaw. Toast a few cashews or almonds and scatter them over. Or toast seeds and scatter them over.

Does that salad left over from last night’s braai, which you popped in the fridge, look a bit tired and jaded? That pair of breadrolls you’re about to throw out – are they stake, or just not quite fresh?

Here’s a use of an air fryer you might not have thought of: bread rolls can be refreshed in just a couple of minutes in a hot air fryer. Don’t leave them in too long, just enough for them to brighten up and the edges to turn slightly crunchy. It also has the effect of making the interior as soft and deliciously aromatic as when they first came out of the baker’s oven.

Here’s a recipe (or two) for coleslaw you might like to try.

S is for Special Offer

(Photo: congerdesign on Pixabay)

I’m the King of the Special Offer. I hate being taken for a ride by retailers, and when I spot a special offer I take advantage to the best of my ability at the time.

Butter marked down from R89.99 to R64.99? If I have the ready cash, I’ll buy 10 and freeze them. On 10 bricks of butter, that’s a saving of R250.

A discount on bacon from R45 to R29 (it happens)? Buy 10 and freeze them and you’ve saved R160. That’s Saturday breakfast sorted for 10 weeks (that’s our breakfast spoil day; we don’t touch bacon for the rest of the week unless it goes into, say, Beef Bourguignon).

But S is for Sweet too: Saving money on food usually includes avoiding sweet things, whether the luxury of a chocolate bar, a tub of ice cream or something delectable from your favourite confectioner.

But you can spoil yourself, instead, by plundering those pantry shelves again, this time for a forgotten can of apples, say, or peach slices or perhaps mango. Or you could use that can of condensed milk we mentioned earlier. 

Pop the cheapest packet of Tennis biscuits into your shopping basket and turn a can of condensed milk and some lemon zest or juice into a lemon fridge tart for a Januworry treat for the family. Or use that can of fruit to make a crumble such as this one, making your own pastry (crumble) from ingredients you already have in your pantry.

Talking of which…

T is for Tins

(Photo: Damian Kaffenberger on Pixabay)

The invention of the tin (or can if you prefer; or tin can) was a good day for food preservation. They were invented by Frenchman Phillppe Girard and patented by Englishman Peter Durand in 1810 – just imagine how much he might have made from what he may reasonably have regarded as a modest invention.

I buy tinned tomatoes, beans, coconut cream, and certain other goods that I know I am going to use. And I always check the prices and choose the ones on special offer, in the case of tinned tomatoes especially.

U is for Umami

If you’re canny about deft use of ingredients you already have in your kitchen, you can add those umami hits of flavour to any number of dishes. 

Spices, condiments, smoked salt, Szechuan pepper, ground turmeric, cumin (especially toasted), Worcestershire sauce; syrups, jams and marmalades; a hint of masala, a splash of soy sauce, all of these things add a touch of umami to a dish. You’ve paid for them – use them.

V is for Vinegar & Vino

(Photo: birgit from Pixabay)

Who doesn’t have a bottle or three of vinegar in their kitchen cupboard? This store cupboard basic, used sparingly, adds that bit of oomph to everything it is used for.

Balsamic and botanical vinegars, at the high end of the scale, can of course add much more to a dish than most other vinegars. But don’t ignore simple vinegars such as apple cider, or your standard white or brown, or white or red wine vinegars. Play around with them when making dressings, marinades or quick pickles that you can rustle up in minutes

Wine? Pour that leftover red or white wine into ice trays and freeze them, to be added to anything that is improved by wine when cooking.

W is for Water

Yes, water. In the classic French kitchen, a big pot of water is always on the simmer. Water carries flavours through sauces and soups.

Boil or steam vegetables when times are tight, to avoid using expensive fats, and rather than throwing it out, use your pasta water to enrich your pasta sauce. Blanche vegetables in boiling water to brighten them up, and refresh in iced water to hold their colour and crispness.

Boil potatoes until al dente before roasting in hot oil; this reduces the roasting time and ensures tenderness. Boil your pasta, of course, and know the rules of cooking pasta. (Stir the pasta when you plunge it into rapidly boiling water, to avoid it clumping; once al dente, drain and immediately toss your pasta sauce through it). These things save time, and saving time saves money.

X is for X marks the spot

You know those little white labels with a blue border that you find at the stationery sections of shops? Buy packs of those and a pen or koki and keep them in a kitchen cupboard. I’m not sucking this out of my thumb – I do this all the time. 

Why? Whenever I scoop leftover (cooled) food into a container and put the lid on, I write a label saying what it is and the date – “Tomato Bredie 10/01/25”. And in the freezer it goes.

Just this morning (it’s Wednesday, 8 January), I defrosted some tomato bredie dated October 2024… hence the above example. Oh, I turned it into curry btw… I added carrots, peas and diced potatoes, souped it up with curry spices and chopped tomatoes, simmered it slowly for an hour or more, and good use was made of the leftovers of a meal from two months ago.

Make your X on those leftovers.

Yeasts & yoghurts

No loafing around: The Foodie’s Wife’s kudu biltong and onion quickbread. 29 April 2024. (Photo: Tony Jackman)

Make your own bread. A tiny sachet of yeast costs next to nothing, and chances are there are one or two on that shelf where you keep your flour and baking powder. There’s a fair chance it’s still active. Check your flour stocks, baking powder and bicarbonate of soda. Or try your hand at the Foodie’s Wife’s famous herbed buttermilk bread.

Z is for Zest

(Photo: Bek Greenwood from Pixabay)

That slim outer layer of citrus rind is one of a cook’s best friends. It adds far more flavour than its slightness would suggest. The word zest itself has come to mean that zesty extra element that it lends anything it’s cooked with. Or even not cooked – add zest to a salad dressing too, to a savoury wok dish, to a sweet fridge tart or icing for a cake.

And if you are lucky enough to own a citrus tree or two, for many months of the year you have free access to as much zest as you need.

When you use a lemon, orange or lime in a recipe, keep the rinds and freeze them. Defrost and grate finely to add to sauces and stews, or in cakes and confectionery.

Happy Januworry. DM