I'm a single guy, not very good at cooking, but when I was down on money the last few years I started buying weird random things to see what they were like in case it was something I enjoyed and could save money on.

Just before Christmas 2021 I went to my local supermarket.

To "make room" on the shelves for Christmas stock, they had put a ton of "baking chocolate" bars in the reduced aisle. I mean, dozens upon dozens upon dozens, filling entire shelves, in plain (but factory-sealed) wrapping, for pennies each.

I picked one up and felt it, and it felt like a chocolate bar inside. Cut squares and everything. I read the ingredients and compared it to a chocolate bar I had in my basket. Almost identical. The expiry dates were something like a year from that point (i.e. Christmas 2022).

I bought 10, I think they were 750g each. I thought, what the hell, they're really cheap and I'll try it and the worst that happens is that I have a lot of hot chocolate or chocolate cake to make.

I should have bought them all. They were basically just a milk chocolate bar. Tasted identical to any other.

I was tempted to go back just to fill up a basket with whatever they had left, but I thought that it was just being greedy.

My best finds over the past few years were that chocolate, powdered egg (I love scrambled egg and it makes perfect scrambled egg, and I hate things that go off quickly and powdered eggs lasts for YEARS. and you can get a huge 1kg bag of it for almost nothing), burying eggs in salt (they last for MONTHS without refrigeration, it's the air getting to them that makes them go off), salted preserved fish (lasts for years without refrigeration) and a particular brisket-in-a-bag (fabulous tender cut of meat, in a sealed plastic bag, that can be frozen and also lasts 2 months in the fridge so long as you don't open it).

Also, snapping up the "pancake mix" bottles after Pancake Day (Shrove Tuesday) - it's just the ingredients but it's a lovely quick meal that only needs water and the bottle of ingredients - chocolates after Valentine's and Easter eggs after Easter.

I also started doing the "world foods" aisles as they often have things in there that I end up liking or that I hadn't considered eating or preserve better, even if the "world food" part is rather contrived.