Regarding the 50% deals near the end of the shop-hours.
In my experience, you will get most of these in the mid-sized Coop (or Migros, but I don't shop there as regularly as in Coop) about 2h before closing time.
Then, you can even get 50% on the Prix Garantie meat.

Barkat:
Vegetables - sometimes, Barkat even beats Aldi (e.g. tomatoes for 1.90 CHF/KG).
Meat: I don't think they have pork, but the prices are competitive IMO, though you might not always get the best cuts for the cheapest prices.
They don't have a web-page or cumulus-cards. Might explain their price-advantage.

Learning how to cook with inexpensive ingredients is half the battle. The following excerpt is from the Skint Foodie's blog.

If you don't know the blog, it's a real inspiration and sans pomp. As it's UK based, prices are in £, but don't let cheaper British living interfere with inspiration...

Planning is everything
Impulsive spending isn't an option so plan your week's menu in advance, making shopping lists for your ingredients in their exact quantities. Being an anal-retentive, I have an Excel template for a week of breakfast, lunch and dinner. Stop laughing: it's not just cost effective but helps you balance your diet. It's also a good idea to shop daily instead of weekly, because, being human, you'll sometimes change your mind about what you fancy.


Stick to what you need
This is where supermarkets and their anonymity come in handy. With them, there's not the same embarrassment as when buying one carrot in a little greengrocer. And if you plan properly, you'll know that you only need, say, 350g of shin of beef and six rashers of bacon, not whatever weight is pre-packed in the supermarket chiller.


Waste not, want not
You may proudly claim to only have frozen peas in the freezer – that's not good enough. Mine is filled with leftovers, bread, stock, meat and fish. Planning ahead should eliminate wastage, but if you have surplus veg you'll do a minestrone, and all fruits threatening to "go off" will be made into a compote or juiced.


Live like a peasant
This means eating the obvious things such as beans, pulses and abundant veg, but also cheaper fish such as mackerel, pouting and flounder, and cuts of meat such as beef shin, pork cheeks and offal. I love all that stuff, but it really is the only way to go, and easy to find if you make a bit of effort.


Shopkeepers are your friends
Everyone says this, but it really is a top tip for frugal eaters. Shop at butchers, delis and fishmongers regularly, even for small things, and be super friendly. Soon you'll feel comfortable asking if they've any knuckles of ham or prosciutto for soups and stews, or beef bones, chicken carcasses and fish heads for stock which, more often than not, they'll let you have for free.

You might find the www.aktionis.ch website useful. Updated every Tuesday, it aggregates all the specials offered by the major Swiss supermarket chains.

Certain products appear regularly, typically offering 10-50% off. Items that often appear at 40-50% off are mince/ground meat, laundry products (detergents, stain removers, fabric softeners), tomatoes on the vine, beer/wine and carving/cutting knives (Migros).

And when it comes to cooking, always buy the best quality you can afford.

Tom

Hi there,

if you especially buy meat, you will find that there is a huge difference between ethnic stores and regular supermarkets. Being a student myself, it was quite difficult to afford some steaks for 55-80CHF/kg at the regular supermarket when you coulg get even better quality (I think) meat for 30-35CHF/kg in an ethnic store.


cheers

Excellent advice (via the blog - thanks for pointing that out to me).

In particular, the advice on planning ahead. There are several reasons why this is a good idea. You save money, you eat more nutritiously, you waste less, and you take the stress out of knowing what you are going to be cooking and eating that evening.

As is happens, I'm not desperately short of money but I still try to plan ahead for all those reasons.

If you have a freezer, it's also a good idea to make extra and freeze the leftovers. Stuff like Bolognese, curries, casseroles, all work really well. About once a month I cook a huge pot of something, and divvy it up into about 8 good portions to freeze. Some dishes (e,g, curries) actually taste better out of the freezer.

Remember, you can freeze bread too. I don't eat a lot of the stuff but I always have some sliced bread in the freezer. Makes perfectly good toast on a weekend morning.

Also, I've learnt late in life that potatoes and carrots will keep almost forever in the bottom of the fridge! I was always told that you shouldn't put pots in the fridge but since ignoring that advice, I never have to chuck out sprouting spuds.

My saving tips:


When eggs are on sale and you want to have a sweet treat that doesn't use 10, but only 3 or 4:
Leftover egg whites can be frozen and used later on to make things like cakes, macaroons and other cookies.

Make your own popsicles and ice cream (popsicle molds can usually be found in Migros in the summer and you can use an old ice cream tub to put other ice cream in).

Make your own jam, buying the fruit from a farmer (their prices are often cheaper than store prices, but you might have to pick the fruits yourself).

Compare! M-Budget and Prix Garantie products often contain the same things as the home brand products while being cheaper.

Whenever you crave something, write it down in a booklet. Take the booklet with you and only buy the ingredients which are on sale and can be stored easily (e.g. flour, sugar, rice etc.), so that you never buy overpriced ingredients but still have the things to make your favorite foods on hand.

Lisend to Oncle: Smart cooking I called it.A chiken dinner with spatzle on sonday gives you a other dinner on thursday and makes lots of sandwiches true the week ,chiken in salad .chiken and rice etc.same with beef .Have a dozend schnitzel you have no need to cooke wendsday and friday

Look out for aktionen.
Don't eat too much meat or fish.
I found fruits, veggies and eggs the cheapest in Barkat.

good luck

I check the weekly "Wochenhits" from Otto's (check out ottos.ch, you can also subscribe to the weekly e-mail newsletter).
There is not a fixed range of products on sale, they do weekly sales actions on some branded food and non-food items. We have found prices very cheap for these items on sale, often cheaper than what you would pay across the border. If there is something interesting on sale (pasta, nutella, coca cola, etc.), we buy in bulk as it mostly are items that can be kept for a while.

Go to Germany (the nearest small town is Waldshut). From HB to Waldshut, round trip ticket is 18.6 CHF. Things are much cheaper there. Opening time is to 9 o'clock PM.

There is several big supermarkets there like lidl, woko, Kaufland

18 CHF is the round trip price with half travel card. I came there once a month.

It will take 50 minutes from Zurich to Waldshut.

I agree. The only things comparable in price here are the cheap wine and decently priced electronics!

Denner is probably the cheapest supermarket chain I have found so far. But if your are a university student (or somehow have access to their canteens) then i highly recommend you try and make as much use of the cafeteria's and bistro's. Often one can have a solid warm meal for around 10 or less CHF.

There is a strawberry bush by my bus stop. There are grapes growing over a fence near downtown at an alleyway. I ate some wild raspberries as I was walking up Niesen. A store in one of the alleys in the Altstadt offers free beers on Saturdays! In fact there is a lot of free food everywhere you look! I spend at least a quarter of my day foraging.

Once winter comes, you can just hibernate.

IKEA Restaurants at times offer a good deal for a meal.

One of the biggest mistakes is to live like where you come from. Instead buy local foods and live like the locals do.

Did I read free beer?

Or if skint and only for a token amount of CHF1, you can get a fruit and veg basket at TDD ( Tischlein Deck Dich ).

http://www.tischlein.ch/index.php?id=8&L=0

That's the one + buy fruit and veg in season. Strawberries are tasteless and cost a bomb at Christmas - what is the point?

Key to cheap food : ADAPT

Right. But who wants breakfast for dinner?