Budget-friendly recipes, tips & tricks

Healthy budget-friendly recipe ideas

From hearty soups and stews to crunchy, bright salads and quick traybakes, you’re sure to find something exciting (and helpful) that you’ll come back to again and again. You can also swap in your favourite meat, fish, veg or pulses if that’s what you have; these are great principle recipes that are here to help.

11 beautiful budget-friendly pasta recipes

Pasta is a brilliant base staple that enables you to use up many ingredients you may have to hand; whether that’s frozen veg or a floppy broccoli loose in your veg drawer, a stray tin of tuna, or half a pack of beef mince that needs using up. So, whether it’s a

8 tasty tahini recipes

Tahini’s rich, nutty flavour and creamy texture lends itself to all sorts of recipes. You can blitz it into a dip, dressing or marinade, bake it into sweet cookies and cakes, or simply enjoy spread on toast with a drizzle of honey.

11 amazing ways to use up leftover yoghurt

While natural yoghurt might have a relatively short shelf-life, the good news is it’s a super versatile ingredient. Its creaminess and tang make it ideal for balancing and carrying flavour in salad dressings and dips; its acidity helps to create light, fluffy cakes and quick flatbreads, and works wonders as a

Ways to use up leftover pesto

A jar of ready-made pesto is such a useful ingredient, but how often have you found a half-empty jar that’s gone mouldy at the back of the fridge?

Easy microwave recipes

Get-ahead gravy with lovely leftover recipes

Our top 5 lunch ideas for under £1 per portion

How to reduce pumpkin waste

According to the charity 

How to use up leftover mashed potato

Recipes to reduce food waste

Thankfully, it’s never been easier to make the most of your ingredients with our tips, tricks and hacks. From transforming leftovers into delicious dishes to knowing what to do with odds and ends of fresh fruit and veg, we have all you need to know. And don’t forget to

Brilliant Boxing Day dinners

It’s the ideal time to start using up those Christmas Day leftovers, too, so whether you go for a relaxed Boxing Day buffet, or pick a starter, showstopping main and gorgeous dessert, we have all the Boxing Day recipes you need.

7 ways with leftover Christmas cheese

There will be cheese lovers out there for which the word ‘leftovers’ just doesn’t compute. But for those of us who are left with a few odds and ends that you don’t know what to do with, these are the deliciously easy cheesy recipes you need to know – and they could also use up a couple of other Christmas ingredients at the same time. Winner!

12 ways to use up leftover turkey

Make the most of your traditional Christmas Day centrepiece with these incredible leftover turkey recipes. From a wintry turkey stew with biscuit dumplings to a festive croque monsieur with an oozy cheese topping; these are the ultimate dishes to help you hold onto the festive season for as long as possible!

Easy recipes for students

So, whether you’re after a quick-fix dinner, want to get organised for the week ahead, or are in need of some easy lunches to get you through long revision sessions, we’ve got you covered. Here are a few of our favourite student-friendly recipes to help get you started…

10 ways to use up ripe tomatoes

So, we've chosen the best ways to use up a glut of ripe tomatoes – whether you’ve bought a load on offer from the local market, or your garden has gone into overdrive – so you can make the most of this brilliant seasonal produce while it’s at its very best. Here are our top ten easy tomato recipes to whip up next time you have a few too many to hand.

4 ways to use up leftover chillies

Freeze

Leftover heroes: Stale bread

Blitz into breadcrumbs to use in

Use up your fresh veggies!

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Behind the scenes at Money Saving Meals

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Christmas leftovers; treats and feasts

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Thrifty puds for your leftover loaf

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Cutting food waste: the best-before myth

Cook smart, waste less: fabulous fish ideas

Why? Our British love affair with filleted fish has meant that 170,000 tonnes of useable offcuts, including the heads, cheeks, gullets and liver, all get thrown in the bin every year in the UK. However, what most of us perhaps don’t realise is that they’re not only useable but arguably the best bits!

How to use up leftover hot cross buns

For an Easter twist on a brunch favourite, transform leftover hot cross buns into

How to freeze more and spend less

Clever ways to use Christmas leftovers

Most of us will wake up on Boxing Day with a little more than just a headache: many fridges are packed full of Christmas leftovers – whether it’s leftover turkey, cooked ham, roasted veggies, stuffing, chipolatas or even gravy! And that’s before factoring in all the extras: the foodie gifts, bags of nuts, jars of mincemeat and piles of sweet treats knocking around. But there’s no need to let any of this lovely stuff go to waste; get creative with our gorgeous Christmas leftover recipes and use up your leftovers in style.

How to make turkey soup

Turkey soup is a great way to use up leftover meat, and with a deliciously aromatic twist, this recipe is guaranteed to be a Boxing Day crowd-pleaser.

10 tips to reduce food waste

We’re all becoming so much more aware of our food waste – not only to help reduce our impact on the planet, but because it’s basically throwing money away. And who can afford that?

Free-range kid goat meat: the sustainable choice

A visit to a small-scale, free-range producer in the Cotswolds really opened my eyes and taste buds to this massively logical and delicious alternative to the usual Western world mix of chicken, pork and beef.

Why we love kid goat meat

This week, they focus on kid meat. While female goats have long been reared in the UK for milk and cheese, male kids are routinely sent straight for the slaughterhouse, their meat deemed worthless for the UK market (read more on that

Love for langoustines

Langoustines are one of them. These prawn-like creatures are actually part of the lobster family. Delicate and intense, they’re incredibly tasty, but have long been underrated by us Brits. Scotland is famous for its langoustines with one-third of the world’s supply coming from Scottish shores alone. But, rather than guzzle them ourselves, a massive 70% are exported to France, Spain and beyond.

Celebrating Great British Charcuterie

There has always been a strong history of preserving food in the British Isles, but we have become disassociated from it because we look towards Spain and Italy as the main proponents and producers of cured goods. Bacon is perhaps our best example of charcuterie, although it doesn’t rank amongst the most highly-rated products of designated origin such as ibérico ham or cold smoked chorizo.

Cutting food waste: reclaiming wonky veg

Back in 2015 on

How to be an ethical shopper: part one

But what does all of this actually mean, and how are we supposed to know what’s best to buy? Throw “value for money” into the mix too, and you can end up with a real headache…

How to be an ethical shopper: part two

In this second part of my article on ethical shopping, I explain what to look out for when buying animal products and how to stay smart when you do your weekly shop.