Arcadia Ireland

Our Top 12 Tips for Cooking on a Budget

1. Sharing is caring! At the beginning of the semester suggest to your house-mates to put some money together for essentials – e.g. salt & pepper, cooking oil, aluminium foil, dried herbs, spices and dried chilli, ketchup, mayonnaise and butter. – There’s no point have 4 jars of mayo expiring in the fridge!
2. Know your grocery stores - Lidil and Aldi are great budget supermarkets, but you might not get everything you need there. Often Irish people will do their main weekly shop in Lidil or Aldi and then head to another supermarket for things they couldn't get. Tesco is a nice happy medium, not quite as cheap at Aldi or Lidil but will have everything you need. Dunnes Stores, Supervalu and Superquinn are a bit more expensive, but often have good special offers and you can get good deals on their own brand stuff. Don’t forget you have to pay for plastic bags in Ireland, so invest in a few reusable ones.
3. Be open to new brands - Don’t be afraid to try new things! You might not recognise all the brands in the stores but it’s worth trying them out - You might even discover a new favourite!
4. Jelly is Jam, and Jello is Jelly!! It’s a bit confusing but certain foods have different names in Ireland. For example Zucchini is Courgette, Eggplant is Aubergine, Oatmeal is Porridge, and Arugula is Rocket. Cookies are biscuits except chocolate chip cookies, Gravy is sauce, and in Ireland gravy is actually brown, made from meat juices and served with a roast dinner. Noodles are spaghetti; we only say noodles for Asian egg or rice noodles. So if you tell an Irish person you had noodles and gravy for dinner, they’d be pretty confused!
5. Befriend a butcher - A good local butcher can be invaluable. They are often cheaper than the supermarkets and you can get exactly how much you need, so there’s no waste. If you ask, they’ll be happy to chop up your meat for curries or stews, and they usually have a selection pre-prepared meats for example burgers, BBQ sewers and stir-fry mix.
6. Don’t give yourself food poisoning - Seriously!
   • Wash your hands in warm soapy water before you start
   • Wrap meat and fish well when storing and keep at the bottom of the fridge
   • When chopping meat, use a different chopping board and knife to everything else and clean well afterwards with really hot water (boil your kettle if you don’t want to put the immersion on!)
   • Cook meat properly- cut into it to make sure! Cooked chicken should always be white throughout
   • Food should only ever be reheated once and it should be piping hot
     Check out the Safe Food website
7. Cans are the man! Baked beans, spaghetti hoops, tuna, soups – all great things to have in the cupboard. 
8. Love your leftovers - Invest in a little lunch-box and use your leftovers for lunch the next day. I often intentionally cook a bit too much and save it for the next days’ lunch. This works best for pasta and rice dishes - not even Irish people like cold potatoes!
9. Organization is key! Do an inventory of what you have at home before you go shopping, and try to think of things to cook to use up ingredients you already have. It’s always helpful to make a little plan before you go shopping of what you want to cook that week so you know what to buy.
10. Your freezer is your friend - If you have a freezer, use it! Frozen veg is cheaper, easier to keep and just as healthy as the fresh stuff. Most supermarkets sell packs of meat, if it’s too much for what you need, just wrap carefully, date it and pop in the freezer for another time. It’s also a good idea to cook double and freeze for another day – this comes in super handy during exam time! Just clean and hold on to old takeaway containers for storage.
11. Check out the markets - Farmers markets can be great fun to look around and also cheap for good quality chesses, eggs and vegetables- especially towards the end of the day, when they’re trying to get rid of stuff they didn't sell! Check out the English Market in Cork, the Milk Market in Limerick, Moore Street in Dublin, Church Lane Market in Galway, the Saturday market in Ballyvaughan, George’s Market Belfast or the farmers market in Maynooth.
12. Take turns cooking - When I was in college my house-mates and I used to do a ‘family dinner’ every Thursday night. Each Thursday it was someone else’s turn to shop for and cook dinner; it’s a great way to bond with your house-mates, learn new recipes and save cash!

Now you know the basics, it’s time to start cooking! This year we are hosting a Cookery Competition for Arcadia Ireland Students. Be in with a chance to win a $50 Amazon voucher! Just post your recipes (or even better, a video of you cooking your recipe!) to the Arcadia Ireland Facebook page before November 27, 2015. 

Happy Cooking!!