As everything is going up in price I thought we could all share cheap food ideas

I'll go 1st

My mam bought the kids a pack of plain buns (small cakes not bread!) but they weren't impressed!
So I sliced them across the middle & sandwiched together with jam & cream!
I reckon 24 would cost me around £1, much cheaper than Mr Kipling!

Great for kids parties or lunch boxes

Retail Tricks

They place higher-priced items at eye-level. When you are in a hurry, you may grab the first item that you see. You may not notice that the brand that's the best bargain (or the store brand) is on the bottom or top shelf. Even more tricky, favorites of children are placed at their eye level. Next time you are at the grocery store with a kid, keep this in mind and see if it's true. The time after that, leave the kid at home.

Notice where the basics are. As you may have already observed, basic items like milk and eggs are located at the very back of the store. And what's in the center and front of the store? Junk food and seasonal items that you might buy on a whim. Consider a time when you took a quick trip to the grocery store to buy just a couple of things. After journeying through aisles upon isles of junk food and other items, where you able to stick to just what was on your list?


Frozen Dinner

If you are accustomed to purchasing expensive frozen dinners, consider spending a few hours in the kitchen and trying out some freezer cooking. You can create enough frozen dinners for a whole week, or even month and it's definitely more cost effective. You can see some great articles on freezer cooking by looking at the related articles below.

Lunchables

Do your children love these little snack packs you can pick up conveniently at the store? Try making them yourself. Purchase a couple of those little Ziplock reusable containers and then purchase all the ingredients yourself. Look for sales and purchase the meats, cheese and crackers, or whatever else you'd like to add. It's much more cost effective and you can get almost an entire weeks worth of lunchables from one package of crackers, lunch meat and cheese!

Pasta/Pizza Sauce

Don't purchase expensive spaghetti sauce. Be creative and make your own. Using tomato sauce and herbs you can create a pasta sauce or pizza sauce that anyone would be proud of. Experiment until you get the taste your family loves most.

Here the supermarket "own brands" comparison link for all major supermarkets

http://www.supermarketownbrandguide.co.uk/index.htm

Free 4 pints of Coors Lager,again i did email the link but not up yet,i,m posting here as i don,t know how long this will last.

http://www.coorslight.co.uk/4freepints/

Go back to what your Grandparents did:
Make a list BEFORE you leave home of the things you need then STICK TO IT. DO NOT IMPULSE BUY BOGOF may look great in the supermarket but if it has a use by date DO YOU THIMK YOU WILL USE IT or will it END UP IN THE BIN. If possible shop in supermarkets in the EVENINGS thats when most supermarkets reduce the price of foodstuffs you can save UP TO 70% off the normal price.If you have them check out local Market shops or stalls some good savings can be made with them as you can BUY LOOSE so only get what you require.Also GET YOU RECIPE BOOKS OUT,{ MAKE YOUR OWN Yorkshire Puds,SAUCES ect}CUT DOWN ON READY MEALS {most only take 20mins or so to make from scratch and are less than half the price}
Last but not least CHECK OUT THE FREEBIE SITES for money off coupons and deals that other people have found.
THIS WAY WE CAN ALL SAVE MONEY
Regards
Colin

dont be scared to use the value alternatives. more often than not, they are identical to the 'premium' brand. my friends dad used to work in the penguin factory and the used to just change the wrappers from penguins to puffins (the asda version). they were still the same biscuits!! and also weve saved loads by buying tesco vale orange juice and its actually nicer than robinsons!! oh and now its even better because all of tesco cordials are now double concentrated.

I have started making my own bread, the mix only costs 45p and its hovis, so I am saving nearly £1 and the kids like it too

Stop buying pre-packed and pre-prepared food

Today all people in the food business capitalise on our general lethargy. If we all had endless supplies of energy then after a hard day at work, we would never come home and order a takeaway because we can't be bothered to cook, we'd cook glorious meals from fresh each night. However, we all know that sometimes, we are all lazy. And the supermarkets know this too. It is for this reason that they sell pre-packed and pre-prepared food; to make more money off our laziness.
So basically, to save money on your shopping do not buy pre-packed or pre-prepared food. We're not talking ready meals here (although if you can cook you've got no excuses for buying these), but the beans that have been trimmed, broccoli and carrots that have been chopped up or chicken that has been cut into strips. This kind of food preparation is a basic skill which anyone can do, but if you buy it already done, you will really pay through the roof. For example:
Tesco loose broccoli costs £1.38/kg, the packaged head of broccoli costs £1.47/kg and broccoli florets chopped up and sold in a bag cost £3.77/kg - that's more than twice the price of the loose broccoli.
Loose carrots at Sainsbury's are currently £0.62/kg and ready to cook carrot batons are £1.98/kg - more than twice the price.
At Asda, loose red onions are 85p/kg, packaged red onions are 89p/kg and diced onion is £1.35/kg - again, significantly more expensive (and when it's all chopped up it won't nearly last as long as an onion in its skin will).
It's clear that we're not talking about a couple of pennies, so fight your laziness and try to buy loose produce in the supermarket (less packaging=better for the enviroment too!). It should be cheaper and will be just as good quality,its probably up to 30% cheaper still on your local market!

Wow, cheers guys! Me and my hubby are always on about the lack of money in our house for decent food. If we just stopped having our once a week take away, we'd probable save enough money to do a weeks worth of shopping! Everything is making more sense now. Not only the cost effectivness of cooking from scratch, but the healthiness of it all. I'm thinking stir fry for tea now

Nice one YMNat With a little inspiration eh? (There are miilions of great takeaway recipes on line!) Look at this BBC link TAKE ON THE TAKEAWAYS!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/tv_and_radio/takeaway_content.shtml