Eating cheaply - Meal plans, where and what to buy

Life Hacking
23

We almost exclusively go to Migros, so I guess the origin is good enough, or what do you think about them? Seasonality is quite simple: if you buy in season things are cheaper anyways, and for a curry or summer rolls substituting something is trivial. Also, you can switch plans depending on the season if you create a few of them.

Again, mostly Migros, so I’d say the quality is good enough. Open to other opinions. For bulk beans/chickpeas/… it’s very hard to check. I guess there’s much room for improvement. Any suggestions?

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24

I’m going also to Migros in Bern, market is really nice but really expensive. Checking sometimes also the “Aktion food”, maybe there are only 2-3 bad leaves that could go in a broth and the rest can be easily used. There is a quite nice asian shop quite cheap near Bahnhof.

P.s. happy to see in this community also care regarding eating good stuff and not only cheap :clap:

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25

We spend between 50 and 100 for two people per week. By going to Aldi and Lidl we still have the amazing feeling of not restricting ourselves at all: lots of fresh fruits and vegetables, bio, snacks… but since we are vegan we avoid the cost of meat. We do buy vegan alternatives (depending on how healthy we want to be) which are similarly priced. I like Indian/Asian shops for spices and specialty items. When needed we might even visit a bio specialty shop (still fits in the budget).

However what we save on food is partly spent on high quality kitchen appliances. After a kitchen aid blender died on us we bought a 700 Vitamix blender. For our use it’s perfect. I even got ~180 in extra cups for it.

We love to cook so only like going out if it is something not easily replicable at home. But most things we try we learn to cook as a fun challenge. For example I learned to cook Ethiopian dishes and buy the injera. Or we go out a lot when on vacation! Until we get tired of it and are happy to eat home made meals.

When I was a student spending my money on monthly trips to Spain (Long distance), my meal prep costed between 10-12 and 20 a week. When alone I never buy snacks to avoid temptation.

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27

There are different labels. I agree that you normally can safely eat food with the “Mindestens haltbar bis” label a few days or sometimes even weeks after the mentioned date. However the “Zu verbrauchen bis” label is pretty accurate in my experience, especially with meat. Often the stores don’t take the cooling chains that serious…

28

We make delicious veggie patties:

We use Aldi patties (that we freeze and then defrost, it improves the texture for some reason) and put them in the pan to “separate” them. We add chopped onions and spices we like (a pinch of thyme), reshape, and heat them a bit so they hold together.

Denner patties are pretty good for us on their own, no prep needed.

Lidl patties we don’t like. At all.

With home made buns (delicious and firm, without any of that vinegar aftertaste the factory ones all have for some reason), pickles, ketchup, mustard, salad, sliced tomato, black pepper.

29

i just skimmed trought the messages here, is there a source for a product similar to soylent (USA)?

I sometimes do some sport over my lunch break and it would be amazing to just have to drink my calories instead of eating. My goal here is to save time and maybe money.

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30

I remember some people I know using something called “Joylent”.

31

Jimmy Joy is the “new” name for Joylent. Plenny Shake is the main powder product. They ship from Netherlands to Switzerland but shipping (Post) is not particularly cheap.

Huel (UK) has similar products. They also ship to Switzerland. If I remember correctly, the powder is more expensive than Plenny Shake but shipping (FedEx) is slightly cheaper.

In both cases you may be hit with import duties over a certain threshold (with the usual additional fees from Post/FedEx).

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32

We occasionally use YFood. It did cost roughly 3 CHF / meal the last time we ordered. The second time we ordered, there were some extra duties to pay, but I don’t have the numbers handy. I think they shipped from the UK and it was before Brexit, so the fees probably changed anyways…

33

As Italian I’m “luckily” used to Pasta and Tomatosauce without ever getting tired of it.

So my cheap meals are:

  • Chop and Fry random stuff that you like
  • Add tomato, spices and water and let it slowly boil off
  • Boil any random pasta (or sometimes rice)
  • Put the sauce on it

:upside_down_face: :slightly_smiling_face:

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34

also pasta is expensive in CH. I’m Italian too hahahah

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35

A real italian makes his own pasta :slight_smile:

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36

open to discussion, not always and not every day heheheh. A good Spaghetti, it’s impossible to make at home without buying machines exc

37

If you like the good Italian brands, I found that “Otto’s” sells them much cheaper than Migros or Coop. (~1.50 CHF per 500g)

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38

That’s true. I’d say we make our own pasta 70-80% of the time. However we always make our own pizza dough, the premade ones taste terrible and are expensive.

Come on, as an italian you get a pasta machine from your parents once you move out :rofl:

39

used pasta machine is 20.-

40

Jokes apart, fresh pasta is really different and most sauces don’t go too well with it. :smiley:

41

As my name suggest i’m working in the kitchen, dry pasta is completely different from fresh pasta. Eggs sometimes are not in the dough excellence. As much as I love pasta and I eat it 3-4 times a week, I still prefer the dried ones, why? just consistence of the dough probably hahah

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42

That yes and for my self I don’t even need a machine, when I want I buy eggs and flour and my hands; doing dried pasta costs way more than just a machine hehehe

43

I know, most of the time we make dry pasta, often on Sunday for the coming week. It became a ritual for me and my wife and it makes cooking way funnier.

Why? You only need the ingredients, your hands and eventually a small pasta machine to cut it into equally large pieces e.g. for Tagliatelle

What kind of flour do you use? We mostly use a mix of semolina and wholemeal flour.

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