A money-saving mum has figured out how to save £40 on her weekly shop by batch cooking.

The cost of living is soaring - and that shows no sign of changing - but savvy Fay Churchward has shared her top tips for saving cash.

The 52-year-old mum of two found batch cooking helped her save not only money, but time.

Speaking to money-saving site LatestDeals.co.uk, she said: “I started batch cooking when the kids left home.

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"I found I couldn’t stop making meals for four people, so it made sense to freeze a couple of portions to use another day. It also means I have more time to do the things I enjoy."

As Fay explained: "If I spend a couple of hours on a weekend doing some batch cooking, I have more time in the week for what I want to do, and am less likely to grab a takeaway instead. It has the added bonus of less washing usually too! I am all about working smarter, not harder. Sometimes it's not just about making a meal for four and freezing two portions. Batch cooking is very much about planning. You need to get the ingredients in to make what you want.

“It is cooked usually as soon as you have bought the food and then portioned and frozen, so there is very little food waste.

"Before you go shopping, make sure you go through all of your cupboards, the fridge and the freezer and make note of what you have in already.

"Make a meal plan from what you have in, and then a list of ingredients you need to buy.

"But when you get to the supermarket, be a bit fluid especially if you see something on offer. You can always swap something around to take advantage of a bargain.

"Make sure you know when food is due to go out of date and take action to either use it, or freeze it for later on.

"Adding extra veg to a casserole will make it go further and not compromise on the taste. Vegetables can be roasted with garlic and herbs at the beginning of the week and then added to your meals as you need them.

"If something is going off, chuck it in a big thick omelette; it makes a lovely meal with salad or chips, and is delicious cold for lunch.

"Make a note of how much food actually costs and work out the cost per portion. You will be surprised once you know how much the meal cost, how it can impact on your decision to make it again.

"Keep lists of what you need and what you plan to cook. That way you won’t forget!

"Although I meal plan, I don’t say we will have this on this day and that on another. I know what meals I have available, but choose what I fancy on the day, so if there are impromptu plans, I know what I will have time to cook up.

"Food lasts longer with batch cooking as it isn't left in the fridge, waiting to be used, it is cooked up before it has a chance to go off. You just need to ensure you have enough containers and freezer space.

"Every last scrap can be used and the most simple of meat and tomato sauce can be so versatile. When the kids were smaller, I would make a huge pot of onions, minced beef and passata. Once this was cooked, it was put into smaller saucepans. Into one I would add beef Oxo cube, carrots and peas, and would make the base of a cottage pie. In another pan, I would add peppers, courgette and aubergine, basil, balsamic vinegar and this would become my ‘Italian sauce’.

"This could make a lasagne, or poured over cooked spaghetti, it might go into cannelloni tubes with a simple sauce over the top and baked. Smaller amounts would be lovely over a baked potato, with cheese.

“For another basic sauce, I would add kidney beans and chilli, which could be served with rice, or in a wrap, over baked potatoes and so on. One starting sauce, lots of meals from it.

"Another example is a humble chicken. Day one, it's roasted and served with all the typical roasted vegetables, stuffing and Yorkshire pudding.

"Day two, the leftover meat can go into some mushroom or celery soup with carrots and onions and topped with pastry and served with potatoes or a salad.


"Day three, the carcass can be gently simmered with some aromatics and veg to make a broth or stock. Add finely chopped vegetables to make a soup and have with bread. I also add lentils, different beans and split peas to meals, to pad them out and make them more filling.

"When we were first married, money was very tight and I had to cook for two adults and a toddler. We had the child benefit, which was about £7.50 then. I remember buying three chicken carcasses from the butcher. They were boiled up and what meat left, stripped with vegetables and made a stew. What was left made soup. They cost 25p, so we ate for two days from that.

"I now don’t have to do it because I don’t have the money. I do it because I get a buzz from making a tasty meal, which feeds us at a good price. At the end of the week, I get pleasure from knowing we ate well and it didn’t cost a fortune. That money I can spend on something else.

"Nothing is wasted. I save time during the week when I am working so I can do other things, like walking the dog.

"If I am turning the oven on to cook something, I will make use of an empty shelf and try to cook something else at the same time. For example, baked potatoes: I will chuck them in while the roast is cooking. They can be scooped out to make a mash, later in the week, or cut up into wedges with a sauce over the top, or sliced to go into an omelette, or frozen to be defrosted and warmed in the microwave for a quick meal another day.

Fay Churchward claims she saves £40 a week on food bills with simple hack
Fay Churchward claims she saves £40 a week on food bills with a simple hack.

"The trouble is, I’ve batch cooked for so long it’s difficult to quantify how much I’ve saved, but I’d say it’s about £30 to £40 a week on average."

Fay, from Plymouth, has plenty of other ingenious tricks for organising her food shopping and cooking without anything going to waste.

“Think about what you like to eat, but find different ways of eating it, for example make one sauce but have it over rice, or potatoes or pasta,” she adds. "Keep a list of what you have in the house already."Buy what you need but if something is reduced and you know you will use it, don’t be afraid to buy it.

"Think about what will motivate you to make this sustainable. These aren’t all about a quick fix. It takes time and practice and a bit of trial and error, so find what motivates you, and stick with it!”

Tom Church, co-founder of LatestDeals.co.uk, said: “Wow - Fay is an amazing saver. By taking the time to really think about her food shopping, planning and cooking, she’s saved herself a huge amount of money.

“She’s also saved herself time, as there’s no need to cook a daily dinner as her freezer is stuffed with tasty home-cooked meals.

“If we all took a leaf out of Fay’s book, we’d save more time and money and definitely waste less food too!”

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