h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

My way of saving food money is to eat instant noodles. My preferred brand is Top Ramen, because it tastes good (compared to other brands) and costs no more than $0.10/package on sale.

Furthermore, for a few pennies, one can add garnishes and vegtables to the noodles and get a complete meal. Suggested ingredients are lettuce, green onions, egg, Spam (though Spam is expensive), leftovers, Chinese sausage, and just about anything else that can be easily shredded and boiled.

If that gets too repetitive, sometimes I eat rice in place of noodles. Rice costs less than $.50/pound where I get it, but a pound will easily make several meals. A 25 pound bag for $12 will last me for several months, if not years.

For a quick and cheap meal, one can make fried rice. Take cooked rice, put it in a pan. Add chopped green onion, then a raw egg, and mix. Add almost anything else, such as (but not limited to) lettuce, Spam, leftovers, Chinese sausage, onions, carrots, zucchini, bacon, and anything else easily diced and stir-fried. Mmmm...I'm getting hungry already.

Make sandwiches for lunches, rather than going out and buying them. It's cheaper and you'll always get the variety you want

The Variety you want?

Come off it after a couple of days the only variety you'll get is the whatevers left in the fridge variety

Bald Bloke (Who forgot to go to Sainsbury's on the way home, again! )

But what's left in the fridge is your choice to start with anyway

They're still in the fridge because you don't like them, they've gone off, or because you dropped them on the floor and are too mean to throw them away and are hoping that another member of the household will eat them for you.

Go shopping at the supermarket 30 minutes before it closes. All the perishables are marked down to stupid prices - bread at 10p a loaf and so on. Do this regularly, and you'll get a reputation as a skinflint.

I work at Sainsbury's and when my mum gives me a lift home late she does this. She once bought nine packets of organic cheese dated best before the next day and froze them. They still surface from time to time but the cheese is great so we can't have too much! (Good thing too.)
Another great thing about late supermarket buying is that you can impulse-buy and not regret it too much if you don't like it. I bought a custard apple; realy liked it. I planted the seeds and now I have five baby custard-apple plants! (I wonder how well they'll do in SE England's climate?)

For the sake of your body, assuming you have a human one, please avoid bargains in food.

1) The cheapest foods are usually the most processed foods. Look at that list of chemicals on the label. (Especially noodle fans!)

2) Old food contains many more bugs than fresh food, even if they haven't reached lethal levels.

If you really think that food is an area for economy, then either grow your own in garden or window box, or major on fruit and vegetables. Use the freezer a lot to do your storing of bulk buys etc. (P.S. make sure your freezer is really cold -18C min. for storing meat & Fish). The fresher the better.

Eating on the cheap is entirely possible without settling for heavily processed foods. Here are two recipes that provide a protein rich meal at very, very low cost.

LIMA BEAN SOUP
2 lbs. (about 1 kilo) dry large lima beans
1 qt. (about 1 liter) can of crushed tomatoes
2 large onions, chopped
A small spoonful of butter or olive oil
Salt to taste
In a 2 gallon (about 8 liters) pot soak the sorted and washed beans overnight. Pour off the soaking water. Add the chopped onion and the crushed tomatoes. Add water to cover everything by 2 or 3 inches (5 to 8 cm). Over high heat, bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer uncovered for about 1 1/2 hours. Add a little boiling water as necessary to keep mixture covered. Add butter or olive oil toward end of cooking period. Yields about 5 or 6 quarts (4.5 or 5.5 liters) of soup. This may be frozen for later use.
N.B.: For variety, other kinds of dry beans may be substituted for limas.

CORNBREAD
3 or 4 large spoonsful of good oil (rapeseed is best)
1 cup (about 1/4 liter) self-rising cornmeal (use self-rising cornmeal, and NOT self-rising cornmeal mix which has wheat flour and sugar added)
1 egg
1 cup (about 1/4 liter) buttermilk (if you don't have buttermilk, use sweet milk and add 2 large spoonsful of vinegar and let it stand five minutes)
Put the oil in a cast iron skillet or frying pan. Put the pan in an oven pre-heated to 450 degrees F (about 210 degrees C) until pan and oil are very hot.
In a bowl stir together the egg and the buttermilk. Stir in the cornmeal. Stir the hot oil into the egg-buttermilk-cornmeal mixture. Pour the batter into the hot pan. Bake at 450 degrees F (about 210 degrees C) for about 30 minutes or until nicely browned on top.

The entire cost of both recipes will be about US$4.00 (GBP2.75).

In 19th and early 20the century U.S.A. these two items were standard fare for evening meals.