BOGOFs 

(Buy One get one free)

Published September 2008

This page is part of  a series of articles on this site devised to give practical advice for saving money and preventing unnecessary food wastage. That's extra money in the bank to spend on other things.

See also:-    Introduction  |  Cutting your Food Bills |  Money Saving Foods 

Credit Crunch Recipes

BOGOFs are a fantastic idea however, in order to make the best of them, they must be approached in a “clinical” manner. There’s no point getting double the amount of anything  if you end up throwing half of it away because you didn’t have time to eat it.   Here are some BOGOF tips:-

Fresh Produce BOGOFs

·         Look out for the “Suitable for freezing” label on BOGOF items such as fish, shellfish, meats, poultry and ready meals. Unless you know for sure exactly which day you are going to use them, it’s best to freeze most of them straight away. Remember – it only takes a day for items to pass their sell by dates.

·         Many fruit and vegetables can also be easily frozen at home, so if you do see a BOGOF deal on fresh veggies or fruit, as soon as you’ve packed the shopping away at home, sort out which of them you are going to freeze and do it straight away. Remember, fresh produce starts to lose nutrients and viability from the time they are picked, so the sooner you freeze them the better.

·         If you don’t have time to freeze fresh produce immediately, certain cooked dished can also be frozen, so look out recipes on this site using the items you’ve bought which can be frozen e.g. meat and vegetable sauces for pasta, pies and bakes.

Tins (cans) and Packet BOGOFs

These are an absolute boon as most of them have relatively long sell-by dates. The only thing you have to worry about is the length of the promotion, as quite often the offer will be very short term - sometimes only a couple of days.