Review of "The Savvy Shopper's Cookbook"

When I was in Waterstones a few weeks ago the manager mentioned this book when she saw I was buying the other budget cookbook but she could only describe it as she had forgotten the name. About a week later another blogger had it on her list of library books and I wondered if they were the same book ? Now I had a name and could search for it, the library round here or county wide did not have a copy but the copy on Amazon seemed reasonable so I started saving Swagbucks to get an Amazon voucher.

The Swagbucks voucher came through, the price of the book dropped on Amazon and I had a few days to run on my free trail membership of Amazon Prime, so no postage to pay ! This is how I got the book for free ! The book starts with lots of information on how to shop at discount supermarkets, what you should keep in your pantry and a one week meal plan. Now, this book is about saving money by cooking meals with ingredients that can all be sourced from the discounters. It does not include prices with the recipes and so there are some fairly expensive recipes included e.g.) " The Best Steak Dinner Ever".

There are also cheap ones such as "Moroccan Chickpea Curry", there is even a useful make your own curry powder recipe at the start which is less complicated than the one I use. Most of the recipes are aimed at producing quick, cheap midweek type meals and snacks so there are no breakfast recipes and only a few dessert and baking ones. There is no information on making your own baked goods such as wraps or pita breads, the author presumes that you buy those !

The author used to live close to where we do and in such an expensive area following these recipes and using a discount supermarket would save you money but I don't think that it is for hardcore frugalistas, we wouldn't buy jars of red pesto, we'd make it ! That said there are some interesting ideas in the book, like with our current glut I shall definitely be trying the roaster lettuce recipe !

All in all I'm glad that I got a copy but I don't think I would have paid £14.99 for it, which is it's full retail price !

Anybody got any other frugal cookbooks they love ?