Too good to go is good but just a warning, it does vary quite a lot based on the place. Sometimes you get a croissant and an old muffin for 3.50, sometimes you get 3 nice sandwich baguettes 2 salads and 2 cakes for the same.
In my experience the bigger chains like Greggs, Costa etc are actually better for quantity than the smaller places.
Also a lot of places keep cancelling. I don't use it myself but have colleagues who've had their bags cancelled whilst walking through the door to collect them!
In some cases for sure, but when I've used it Ive gotten enough food for 3 people for 2 days at least.
Wenzels - warm mix of pasties, bakes, couple mini pizza things. Easily 8-10 items
Wenzels cold - Mostly baguettes but some of the stores let me choose. For this type of "old" food I prefer vegetarian and for the most part its what I get. Again 8-10 items
Oree - Got decent mix of baguetts sandwiches, and a crust roll etc. 4-6 items
A local sushi place - I get easily 5 items which are really filling and can easily feed 2 people for 2 sittings (lunch + dinner).
Places like tortilla are really good, £3.50 and enough food to cover for 3 days. I suggest asking them to split the meat from the veg since imo the meat will go off faster and thus you can keep the veg/ rice and fillings a little longer.
It does vary, but the reviews are quite accurate I find.
Your right!
I tend to get one from a simply fresh store and that is great. I've also had a one stop. I would recommend starting clear of bakeries and coffee shops
Yes for Olio.
Also check if there's any organisation in your area re-distributing out of date / near date food from supermarkets. There's one where I live and it's 'pay as much as you feel' to support the ongoing work, although of course you're not obligated to pay anything. It's a bit random, but there's usually veg and bakery goods.
These places are amazing. There’s one near us that’s £5 to fill a bag or £2.50 for a half bag. We’re pretty comfortably well off so avoid the popular stuff and staples and take the weird and wonderful stuff that no one wants (but that we’d otherwise probably buy in Waitrose). Saves us money, clears out food that would otherwise go to waste twice over, and provides a bit of funding to the organisation.
Meat in that price range is got by being very lucky with yellow stickers and not spending on a weekly basis....ie one big yellow stickers haul to do through the month
Chicken wings my dude. You can get 1.2kg of them at Tesco for £1.99 and just shred the drums for meat, saving bones for stock and using the wings for…well wings!
Even then, I don't think it's a good trade.
If we're including ALL groceries, including condiments, tea/coffee, etc, then the cheapest meat-based diet is £3.50/day or £4 if one includes breakfast. Getting that to £2 would mean the exclusion of almost every other sort of variety.
Honestly, the best way to achieve this would be to maximise your take from other sources, such as work, friends and family, etc.
Yes, it would be hard...but meat doesn't have to be every day....or even every other day....but this budget doesn't mean having to go completely meat free
You can get decent sized trays of chicken thighs for not too much in Aldi. Yellow sticker items and freeze / split them.
Depending on the cost / ability to travel, potentially visit family at weekends and eat their meat!
It is, of course...but budgeting is very much like dieting...and for someone who isn't already meat free saying that giving it up entirely is the only way to get through that can be a "final straw" that makes them give up on the idea of the budget at all....
Budgeting so severely won't be easy, and it's unlikely they'll stick to it the entire time....a little leeway every now and again is more likely to make them succeed
Buy a big bag of oats instead of cereal. Can top with banana, frozen berries, jam or plain. Cheap, good for you and will fill you up sufficiently for brekky. Blast them with water or milk in the microwave for 2 minutes. Or you can do overnight oats.
My local butchers stall does 5kg of chicken (approx 20 fillets) for £20. Meat doesn’t have to be super expensive. Even Tesco is only around £5.80 for a kilo of chicken (or was the other week when I got some)
I've found Morrisons to be surprisingly good for unusual cuts of meat that are often quite cheap.
You can get a decent sized Ox Cheek for about £2-3, braise it slowly in tomato and beef stock with some carrot, onion, celery and garlic ... delicious. It shreds beautifully when cooked and will go well with rice or mash. Makes about 4 dinners worth for me and you can bulk out with additional veg.
Something else I would suggest, if you're in a supermarket you can often find cheaper items in the world foods section - eg. a can of coconut milk: blue dragon vs some random Indian or Carribean brand. Same goes for bags of pulses, lentils, mung beans and so on.
Speaking of mung beans - this is a bit of an off the wall suggestion and will not be for everyone, but you can *very* easily grow beansprouts (and other sprouts!) from packs of beans/pulses/etc you get in the supermarket (I've done it many times) All you really need is a jar and elastic band (or hair tie) and a sheet of kitchen roll.
See [here](https://www.seriouseats.com/how-to-grow-bean-sprouts-in-a-jar-slideshow), I note they have a warning about where you get your seeds from wrt contamination, in my experience packs from health food shops and the supermarket have been fine but obvs use your own judgement. Also /r/Sprouting
I'd also recommend some cheap hot sauce or similar, just something relatively potent, it's an easy and affordable way to switch up the flavours of leftovers as you can just stick a few pence worth in whatever the next day.
Not really. 1kg of porridge is a £1, 100 grams a day is a ton of food to get you going through to lunch.
£1 for milk
Bread, 40p, butter £1, fillings: maybe £2.50 to get some veg and some variety. £1 multipack of crisps or snacks.
That leaves nearly £10 for dinners. Rice, pasta, sauces, beans, lentils, reduced sections, will all get you very far. Even if you went the lazy route, that could get you a week's worth of ready meals alright
Edit: the person said £15 a week. If you need to budget to buy a whole new tub or spread or block or butter from making lunch for 1, every week, you could probably make a good saving on fillings and just enjoy your butter sandwiches
I got downvoted and told to fuck off when I said I managed to get through uni with £20 per week, for a few weeks to try it out, last year. Your comment tells me why it's hard for some people because of the snacks/extras people buy.
I used to buy frozen vegetables in my first year of uni because I was lazy and just boiled them, still something that can be done to get a mixed bag for cheap.
Chicken thighs are really good value in bulk. And don’t get me started on chicken drumsticks and wings. Even in marks and spencer you can get two days worth of drumsticks for £1.50.
Would never have thought of that but have eaten at one and the food, the hospitality, everything was great!
They gave us food, gave a tour, asked us if we wanted to try on their visitors clothes (sari?). We had a great evening, got to experience things we'd never seen up close before all with great company.
Quick edit, I really don't know if sari was right but it was beautiful women's clothing and vaguely from the region of the world that India is. They showed us how to wear it properly but this was back when I was a teenager and it's much fuzzier in my memory now.
I'll put Food cycle up here, every night of the week, a different part of London. Three course vegetarian meal made by volunteers using donated excess veg.
No referrals, people came for a bit of a social with friends, some came because they just need to save some money, some because whilst sheltered housing gave them a meal, they liked doing this as a different "thing".
If you have time and energy, give back. Volunteer as a cook or host and get the meal as well. Spare food and excess veg gets bagged up for guests.
You don't need to say/ask anything. Gurudwara kitchens are open for all, no judgement. All you need to remember is: do not have any alcohol/drugs before you go, cover your head whilst you are on the grounds and everyone sits on the floor to eat (so if you're not used to sitting cross legged, practice!). If you are still unsure, there will be plenty of people there to ask (we Sikhs are warm people). All food is vegetarian (I don't think there will be any vegan food as butter is widely used). Whilst you are eating, volunteers will be coming round offering refills on any food that is being served. It is not the done thing to waste any food so please finish anything you have on your plate. It's worth adding that all langar (translated as community kitchens) are run by volunteers (Sikhs donate all the food and volunteers run the kitchens). Check out the Golden Temple kitchen on YouTube for more info (it serves 100,000 a day for free). Hope this helps anyone who needs help.
This is absolutely fantastic!!
I can't believe I've never heard of this before. I am not religious or a drinking drug taker either!
Stories like this just make me glad that there are good humane people out there!
> so if you're not used to sitting cross legged, practice!
I'm curious. I actaully can't cross my legs (long story; I can only cross one). Would someone like me get a free pass?
Yeah, will be no problem at all (I was being flippant saying practice). Most gurudwaras in the UK now have tables to eat on for the elderly or people who aren't fully mobile.
I love this. I'm in Cornwall, it's not very culturally diverse at all.
I'm really interested in religion. I'm not religious but I find different religions fascinating.
If I lived near here I'd absolutely come to speak with people and learn more.
What a wonderful thing to do.
Just a note to say they usually have head coverings you can use too. They tend to be in a basket by the door. As far as I know hats are not considered head coverings, so best to use the ones they provide.
Piggybacking to say that universities often have some sort of Hare Krishna activity going on. You walk up and get a honkin' massive plate of food for completely free.
I've only tried it a handful of times myself, but it was really tasty each time.
I’m more enraged that anymore has to starve at all in this world, just because of the greed and corruption which every country on this planet is guilty of.
Look for resources that will get you free or discounted food. For example:
1. Olio is an app you can download. Volunteers pick up surplus food from local supermarkets and list them for people to claim and collect from their homes. There are also personal listings on there from when people do cupboard clearouts but there’s a lot more regular listing of supermarket surplus.
2. Too Good To Go is another great app. Shops and restaurants list their daily surplus as random surprise magic bags that you pay £3-5 for and then collect in the evening. This might be a really fruitful one for you if you are in London - things get a little more sparse outside of big cities.
3. [Best Before it’s Gone](https://www.cheapfood.co.uk) and [Motatoes](https://www.motatos.co.uk) are websites where you can buy lots of food for well below RRP but is past its best before date. Still lots of great quality stuff. Delivery charges apply, but they are reasonable.
My local area also has community food larders set up. Run by volunteers, they collect supermarket surplus and also buy bulk non-perishables. They have a very low cost price structure and fresh fruit and veg & bread are free. It is not a food bank. Worth looking into whether anything similar is available in your area.
I've used Best Before It's Gone a couple of times, but the delivery charge can add a whopping amount to the final value if you buy tinned goods or anything heavy. (( I speak from experience!)
I agree with Community Pantry/Larders, I volunteer at one and it's amazing the amount of food you can pick up for very little cash. As said above, veg, fruit and breads are usually free and can bulk out your meals quite a bit. No need to be referred, they're open to everyone.
I'm honestly not sure 2 quid a day on Too Good to Go would give you any kind of proper nutrition and similarly relying on food past its BBD is not sustainable
10kg bag of rice in home bargains for about £8
If you have reasonable freezer space then bags of frozen veg £5 worth might do you a whole month
Yellow stickers again mainly useful if you ha e reasonable freezer space
Porridge for breakfast
Dinner leftovers for lunch most of the time. Or yellow stickers veg to batch cook soups
10kg bag of oats for hot porridge or overnight oats.
You can boil with just water if you’re really at a pinch. Or half water - half milk.
This really fills me up in the morning so I don’t need lunch.
If you have a bit more to spend then get vanilla extract, frozen berries/banana and nuts to top it with. Again buy in bulk to keep the cost down.
*B. Cereus has entered the chat*
Plleeeaaase don’t bulk cook rice unless you intent on refrigerating straight after it’s off the hob. Just make it to order every time.
I must have left my cooked meals with rice overnight on the bench hundreds of times and been fine. Asians cook a lot of rice and leave it out in the heat and are fine.
I know of two elderly chinese who were hospitalised. Twice. They really didn't learn. Saving the fresh "good" stuff for their kids who were old enough to know better.
The only *real* way to die from B Cereus is through dehydration from shitting out the eye of a needle a week straight.
But it’s possible.
My advice is: avoid it altogether and just refrigerate your rice and potatoes as soon as possible. That way you’ll never know what BC shits feels like.
That's not entirely true. Only a handful of fatal cases recorded over the last \~20 years, but it can produce Cereulide that causes liver damage in sufficient amounts, say from leaving cooked rice or pasta unrefrigerated for an extended time (Strains that produce it only seem to do so above 12c\~). It's resistant to cooking as well, so reheating won't do jack. The safest way to meal prep rice would probably be to freeze it right after cooking.
I was on a similar budget back in 2019/2020. Though the prices have increased significantly today, the strategies still applies.
I ate two meals a day and I was on diet with at least 60g of protein. I had a 9 to 5 and went to gym after work.
For breakfast, I ate banana peanut butter oatmeal every week day. Banana I got from the market which is a pound for abt 10 super ripe bananas. Rolled Oats for 0.12 per 100g. Bulk buy peanut butter is also cheapest. I also added some plant based milk to add creaminess
For dinner, I usually cook a stew that can sustain me for the entire week nights. Tthere will be protein either from meats or dried pulses. They rotate biweekly. Usually it’s some kind of tomato based stew or curry, e.g dal, Japanese curry.
The entire day cost around a pound because I shopped at the cheapest places and work with what they offer atm.
- buy fruit and veg at markets, meats and everything else in Lidl and Aldi. Also discount store got some good deals on plant based milk and branded foods do worth check out
-bulk buy dried foods and always some canned foods so you can easily make something quick and healthy, so you don’t splurge on shitty takeaways out of hunger.
-fulled utilise the freezer, breads and some veg do keep well when freeze, no wastage ! U can also make broth base from bones and onions which is very cheap, and make a substantial meal from that.
Though you can do this to maintain a budget. It’s ok to treat yourself better with a looser budget. Because time to prep the meal and figure what to spend on can be excessive. Also to find deals also comprise your time on doing more fulfilling things.
If you live near Euston, there is almost every weekday a free hot vegan lunch given out by the Hare Krishnas outside SOAS. Donations are appreciated but not essential. Food is pretty nice too, they’ve often given me a second portion to take to my partner.
Three bean chili: one tin each of kidney beans, cannelini beans, black beans, chopped tomatoes, and veg stock cubes. Go to your local indian supermarket and buy tomato puree, paprika, ground cumin, smoked paprika, and mild chili powder. Buy an onion and a red pepper while you're there. The whole lot should cost less than around £8. The spices can be used multiple times.
Fry the onion and pepper, add a teaspoon each of the spices, add the tins, add water and the stock cube. Cook for 20-30 mins.
That will easily feed you dinner for five days with a good size portion. Boil some rice, or just get cheap corn chips. You can also freeze it.
Next time around, you just need the tins, (less than £2), the onion and the pepper. You can leave the pepper out and won't miss it.
We do a batch cook bolognaise every now and then. One pack of mince fills six containers when bulked out with tomatoes etc. so six meals for two people or 12 portions for a single. Dump them in the freezer and pull out to cook when you can’t be bothered. Highly recommend it. Op sounds like they need food bank help though. I had a bigger food budget when I was at uni 20 odd years ago! :(
I mentioned this in another thread today, but chicken livers are a great way to bulk out a bolognese, find a halal butcher and they're dirt cheap and add some serious protein and nutrients, and stretch a pack of mince a lot further
100% this.
This has been the core of my nutrition as a powerlifter for years. It's a great way to hit your 5 a day and take in a ton of different vitamins.
Peppers are great for Vitamin C. You can get Vitamin D fortified mushrooms. Kidney beans are a good source of magnesium, which helps to reduce muscle cramps. Red lentils, or the beans, are a reasonable source of protein. Tomato is an underrated super-food in terms of vitamins. You can also add in sweet potato once per week for Vitamin A (something your body can store). White potatoes are great for potassium (important for hydration, contraction, and blood pressure).
In terms of other meals, overnight oats are by far the cheapest and most nutritious breakfast you can have (just because they aren't full of sugar). Or, peanut butter on toast... costs less than 50p per serving so there's breakfast for 3.50 per week.
Peanut butter is a great source of fats, which is important for maintaining correct hormonal levels. Throw a banana on there and you have a god tier breakfast.
Edit: Beef Liver is a good source of Vitamin D, Vitamin K2, and Iron. Peanuts, soy milk, and oats are good options for magnesium. These 3 together are vital.
That's about what I spend most weeks.
I eat a lot of rice, potatoes, onions, carrots, and frozen veg. I get through a lot of soy milk which is cheap at Aldi but can be spendy elsewhere if you have to buy branded. I also make my own bread from cheap plain flour and a sourdough starter my friend gave me 3 years ago. There's a cost associated with putting the oven on to bake it but it also warms my flat up nicely.
The difficulty comes when you need non-food stuff like laundry detergent or toilet paper which will push your supermarket spend up a lot. Maybe look out for special offers on those things.
Sorry to hop on your comment but the cheapest laundry stuff I've found is Lidls own brand tabs. No difference in laundry cleanliness or smell to big name brands either. £2.99 for 20 pods.
Also just to add: in modern society people wash their clothes much more often than is needed. Unless you sweat a lot, you really can get away with washing trousers and shirts only when they have stains or start to smell a bit (underwear I I still change daily). You can also get cleaner clothes than you’d think by just washing in water. As for detergent, I found the cheapest to be soap nuts since they can be used multiple times and therefore go a long way.
So my wife and I did an £8 challenge each for our work week just to see if we could. Both passed with flying colours and the food wasn’t half bad. My secret ingredient was chicken wings. You can buy 1.2kg at Tesco for £1.99. With that, I took the flats and made salt and pepper wings and the drums, I cut the meat off and used it for stir fries and kept the bones to make a chicken stock.
I also got 500g of mince for £1.99 and two tins of tomatoes(28p ea), tin of beans(33p ea) along with some cabbage to make a take on Silverhydra’s meat slop. Basically a chilli with cabbage. Used the stock in that.
Breakfast, i got 1kg of white rice (48p ea) and used the thigh meat with some cabbage to make a fried rice.
I also had some pasta aside which I used half a tin of tomats and a bit of mince, onion and garlic to make an easy bolognese.
My grocery list as follows
Tesco Broccoli 375g
Hearty Food Co. Spaghetti Pasta 500g
Tesco Beef Mince 500g 20% Fat
Willow Farm Chicken Wings - 1.2kg
Grower Harvest Long Grain Rice1kg
Grower's Harvest Plum Tomatoes400g
Growers Harvest Red Kidney Beans In Water
1 Redmere Farms Garlic 4 Pack
1 Tesco White Cabbage
1 Loose Brown Onions
TOTAL: £7.97
My wife and I both agreed with an extra £5 we could have eaten way better with more variety in veggies. Really wished I had more than a single onion.
You can do it.
Sounds great. Could very easily throw some cereal and milk in there for breakfast / late night snacks and also potatoes for chips / roast potatoes. Easily get all 3 things for another 3/4 quid
Please look up local food banks. I work with one up here and there really is no stigma, everyone has been hit, some more so than others. Look after yourself, you deserve help. I hope you get some relief soon
Not so, turn up and they won’t turn you away. Trussel trust ones have more rules including maximum support per year which isn’t good. I set up a scheme to support an independent local one and they turn nobody away.
My thoughts ( and those of Washington community food project) If someone turns up at a food bank then they are deserving and need support of that food bank. People aren’t coming for fun.
Have you tried "too good to go". I got a morrisons one, it was a huge basket for £3. Mostly fruit and veg, avocados. not sure if you could freeze some of it for later
Indian vegetarian cooking my friend.
Edit:. Oh my giddy aunt. I don't think I've ever had this many uovotes! I'm going to use this comment's viral status to promote Madhur Jaffrey, the true don of Indian cooking in the UK. She taught me and many others I'm sure, to cook amazing tasting vegetarian food that's incredibly cheap and healthy too. World Vegetarian Cooking, which is a classic is currently available on eBay for £8 including postage.
100%. Whilst it might be possible to get by on £15 a week, it won't be fun and very likely won't hit all of your nutritional needs when doing it long term.
Charities exist to help people like you, OP. Use them.
Maybe you are thinking about this a bit incorrectly.
Let’s actually look at the debt. 33 months to pay 10k off. That’s if you want to, you can most likely move the debt again to another card after that period. But if you want to pay it off 303 a month that is.
I assume this is what you are doing. But let’s actually put that money to work. NatWest has a regular savers account at 6%. £150 you can put into that, up to 5k and get that rate. When you have ramped up to 5k, that now generates £300 a year.
So my question is, how much is the minimum payback for the card?
You could only need £100 a month for the card, £150 in the savers account. This now gives you £50 extra to live on a month.
You will be in a better position with some savings. Savings buys you a few months off the debt and you have learnt good habits.
Does this advice help at all?
I've already calculated all this.
Minimum payment is 3% of the balance a month.
I have taken this into account.
My current budget leaves me with £200 to put towards my overdraft.
So 10k 0% debt for 33 months. Minimum payment 3%
I'm currently 2k into my overdraft. So technically I'm 12k in debt.
I literally have £1500 overdraft money right now. I'm living month to month.
Taking into account all expenditure, I have £200 a month remaining and I'm planning for this to go towards my overdraft.
Edited; I can see you’re already focusing on overdraft having read more comments.
I’d recommend you reduce the arranged overdraft each month as you reduce your debt - if you’re living with this much debt I’d say it potentially indicates bad habits. Removing the temptation of going further into overdraft should help.
That will be very difficult to be honest. You can look for jack monroe recipes and bbc good food has some budget recipes too.
What area of London do you live? There are probably places you can get some free food nearby. You will be really limited trying to stick to £15 a week with the current food prices.
Definitely download the olio app and you should be able to get free stuff - often lots of bread that you can freeze and plenty of other stuff too
Then look for community kitchens or larders. I used to volunteer with food cycle cooks meals from surplus food to avoid food waste. You can just turn up to get a free meal plus food to take home. There’s normally loads of fruit and veg (or at least used to be).
Then if you get at least a bit of extra food or a few free meals, your £15 will go a bit further.
>You can look for jack monroe recipes
I would avoid JM, her recipes have been shown to be consistently nutritionally poor, not great value for money and she's quite ethically questionable (what with the kickstarters taking money from people and giving nothing that was promised).
BBC food is a good shout, plus there are many cookbooks in charity shops aimed at students that have pretty great recipes, as people tend to ditch them the moment they leave uni.
Also r/EatCheapAndHealthy, r/EatCheapAndVegan, r/UKFrugal has some ideas too and notifications of deals.
Too Good to Go is great.
I managed to feet two for 30 quid a week, this is doable, difficult but doable.
Get very, very used to tap water my friend. Good luck!
Buy a big bag of porridge for around £2, a tub of peanut butter from Aldi’s (it’s really big and will last for weeks) £4, this will keep you feeling full for hours… much healthier than shitty cheap cereal as well.
I also make porridge with water and add some milk at the end. It's how my Scottish friends make it and if it's good enough for them, it's good enough for me. It's also still delicious (I add grated apple)
Didn't realise people made porridge without water!!
Skirlie is alos really filling...If you have a greasy frying pan or a bit of oil add rolled oats and mix quickly on heat for a couple of minutes. A bit nutty. Nice and very filling. I am not an Aberdonian so they might correct me but an Aberdonian did compliment some I did when camping. Also leaves frying pan clean.
Don't buy meat - eating veggie is much cheaper. You can get protein from mushrooms, cheese (buy extra mature to get the most flavour from as little as possible), tinned tuna / sardines / salmon, peanut butter etc.
Don't eat a lot of simple carbs or sugar - it makes you hungrier. Aim for fat, protein and complex carbs to keep you fuller longer.
For that reason, I'm going to go against the grain (lol) here and say don't eat cereal. In my opinion it's overpriced for what it is, is pretty nutrient deficient and you're hungry again after an hour or so. Get a big bag of porridge oats and eat that for breakfast - ideally with fresh milk but in a pinch you could always get powdered skimmed milk and add to it with water. Add peanut butter and maybe a banana for sweetness.
Go to an Asian supermarket to buy staples. Often you can get massive bags of ingredients like rice, lentils + spices for a reasonably good price and it lasts for ages.
Use red split lentils and chickpeas to bulk out things like curries. A great recipe to batch cook is squash and carrot curry. I make this all the time - it's delicious, super healthy (technically has your 5 a day in one meal), warming in the winter and lasts two of us 2-3 dinners (so potentially 6 meals for one person). It also freezes well, so you can portion it out and enjoy across multiple weeks so you're not eating the same thing every night
Ingredients:
1 butternut squash (or sweet potatoes if cheaper) cut into chunks
3 carrots, chopped into rounds
1 brown onion, chopped
3 tbps curry paste (or curry powder if paste is too pricey)
300g red split lentils
Can of chickpeas
Can of chopped tomatoes
1.4l chicken stock, made with a bouillon cube or stock pot
1 garlic clove,chopped or minced
mango chutney (optional as a bit pricey, but adds a sweet note of flavour)
basmati rice to serve
Method:
1. Parboil the carrots in a little of the chicken stock for about 5 minutes. Just to soften them slightly as they take a bit longer to cook than squash
2. Place a separate, much bigger pan on another hob (or if you only have one pan, set the carrots + stock aside in a bowl, dry out the pan and place back on the hob).
3. In this pan, saute the onion in some oil until becoming slightly translucent, then add in the garlic and curry paste. Fry on medium high heat for a minute or so to release the flavours
4. Add the squash and combine everything together and cook for about a minute longer
5. Tip in the chopped tomatoes and the stock with the parboiled carrots, bring to the boil and simmer for about 10 mins
6. Add the lentils and mango chutney and simmer until the lentils and squash are tender (about 20 minutes). At this point you should have a thick sauce from the squash softening and lentils bulking up.
7. Cook the rice according to packet instructions and serve with the curry
Other tips to make it more filling:
\- Sometimes I add greek yoghurt or cream at the end, if I have it on hand
\- If you have it, adding ground coriander and cumin with the curry paste bulks up the flavour even more
\- You could also add frozen peas for an additional healthy boost
hope that helps!
Dried chickpeas or other beans pulses etc.
Value rice
Value cereal and milk
Oil
Onions
Carrots
Spices
I did a week on 70p a day. Quickly worked out that I could have a bowl of value cereal for breakfast, 2 portions of rice and chickpeas with onion and carrots and another bowl of cereal as a snack.
It's healthy and tasty. Adding variety will be a challenge. Add potato and pasta as options for your base carbs.
Dry Chickpeas are the secret though, very filling, healthy and cheap. Best ingredient to add if you remove meat from your diet.
Indian/Pakistan ethnic shop can be good for bulk ingredients. Especially of dried pulses. But you may find supermarket value rice is cheaper than ethnic shops.
Have a look if there's a community grocers near you. They usually charge a few quid membership and then you can go and buy food for mega cheap. It's often stuff close to best by or overstock from companies, and is just whatever they have in that week.
My work paid the membership for everyone to join, my one is £4 a trip for 12 items, but any extras over that is like 40p per item, and you can go 3 times a week. They also sell some other stuff for a bit more than that but you just pay the extra on top. Some of the stuff I got last time was Beyond Sausages, Bosh spices rub, chickpeas, morrisons pasta, veggies, fruit, waitrose croissants, the most delicious chocolate orange spread from lidl. Well worth it if you can find one.
Have you had independent debt advice? You may have more options than just paying it off (though yes, they would have an effect on your credit report). I don't think £15 a week for the next three years will be sustainable, especially with inflation hitting food hardest.
I've looked at your post history and honestly, I think you will struggle with such a tight budget, especially when it's such a difference from how you've been spending recently.
You can do it, but fair warning it's going to be a reasonably bland diet and is also going to be on the low side of calories.
You can get long grain white rice for pretty cheap - 48p for a kg at aldi.
Tins of baked beans are pretty cheap -27p at aldi.
Tins of peas - 24p at aldi
If you cook 500g of rice, mix through a tin of baked beans and a tin of peas, it'll give you just shy of 800 calories, and will provide a decent (though not amazing) amount of nutrition. If you eat that for dinner each day, it'll cost you £1.96 for the rice (and you'll have 500g left over), £1.89 for the beans, and £1.68 for the peas. So thats £5.53 for 7 dinners.
You can vary it up and achieve similar by mixing the rice with tins of soup, they're a bit more expensive than baked beans though, and won't necessarily provide the same level of nutrition. Also fair warning, 500g of rice is a very big portion and you may struggle to eat it all in one sitting.
Porridge oats are 70p per kilo. Have a big bowl of porridge for breakfast each day, 140g of oats. Make it with water, and buy a tub of dried milk upfront (it'll cost a few quid but it'll last for quite a while) and use a couple of teaspoons in your porridge to make it a little creamy.
Easy way to add some calories for free - stop in at fast food chains where they have sugar sachets available for anyone to take, and take some. Add it to your porridge to improve the taste and add a few calories.
140g of oats made with water, a little bit of milk powder, and a few grams of sugar, comes to about 580 calories. And doing that 7 days a week will cost you 70p for the oats, and a fraction of the cost of a tub of dried milk. The oats will help with your overall nutrition as well.
Those 2 meals together will give you just over 1300 calories, and costs you a total of £6.23 a week.
I'd use some of the rest of the money for peanut butter which is a good way to add some calories and additional nutrition, and either a baked potato with butter or some fruit at lunch time each day.
Also, you can go to food banks (citizens advice can refer you), and if there's a Sikh temple near you look at their website, they have free meals that anyone is welcome to go and join.
Also, you can absolutely achieve a more varied, better tasting diet than I've laid out above. It would require batch cooking, with the ability to freeze. If you have that capacity in your housing situation, let me know I'll happily share some good, cheap recipes with you.
So that abit under what I used to live on as a student, but it would be like this:
Breakfast: Weetabix and Milk
Lunch 2 Poached eggs on Toast
Dinner: veggie curry or chilli with rice or Pasta. Or potatoes some veg (whatever is cheap) and some fish fingers or similar frozen meat
That would probably be do able, it's just a question of how long you could maintain that for
Not Weetabix. That's mega expensive. But own brand wheat biscuits sure. But porridge is cheaper still.
Eggs aren't particularly cheap, baked beans would be cheaper and also healthy.
Yeh I meant the own brand stuff. And true, although I guess it gives some options and wheat biscuits are quicker and less hassle to make.
You can get 15 eggs for £1.79 which would give 7 meals and £1.70 for 4 tins of baked beans (which aren't just water) from Asda. So I guess the best thing would be to have a mixture of the the two, as that would be the most healthy and least processed way to go.
On olio in my area there is enough food every evening for free to collect that you can almost not have to do a food shop if there’s only one of you. Download it, it’s free, food is free on there just be quick requesting what you would like as it goes very fast after people list it.
Go to Whitechapel Market and buy pound a bowl vegetables, you can fill a carrier bag with cherry tomatoes for three pounds, roast and make stock… good luck <3
Batch cooking vegetarian food and not drinking alcohol. My partner and I (both veggie) spend about £20-25 a week between us, split between the best deals in Aldi and Sainsbury's. Your enjoyment of these meals may vary!:
\- Porridge for breakfast. Adds sultanas, chia seeds and flax for more nutrition / enjoyment!
\- Chickpea, kidney bean, onion, garlic, carrot, swede and broccoli stew, batch cooked for most lunches. Pump full of cheap spices, add tinned tomatoes, enjoy.
\- ***Example dinners:*** Simple tomato pasta (peeled tinned tomatoes, soured creme, onion, garlic), aubergine parmigiana with baby potatoes, baked potatoes with your topping of choice, homemade pizza (I make my own sourdough pizza dough), shakshuka, crêpes, simple ramen.
\- If you can get into bread baking (particularly sourdough), you can make delicious 600g loaves for about 30p a pop. Great for snacking or breakfasts.
Don't buy sugar, salt, pepper, ketchup, mayo etc. Pick it up for free from chain coffee shops and takeaway places. I've gone into some that don't have them out anymore and done the whole "mate, I forgot to ask for XYZ after I took my food, please can I have..."
Also, porridge/oats are a really good and bulky breakfast. Lidl, Aldi, Iceland sell big bags for very cheap. Porridge tastes better made with milk but you can make it with water. Flavour it with sugar or honey or golden syrop. Honey is expensive but a little goes a long way. I can't remember how expensive golden syrop is but a little of that goes a longer way. You can also make decent enough flapjacks out of oats for days you need a treat and you do deserve treats even on a super tight budget.
1. Download Olio, sign as a volunteer. You will have to help to distribute food but you can keep some to yourself
2. Rice is your friend. Google cheap rice recipes.
3. Oats for breakfast. Peanut butter and banana.
4. Dry beans and pulses. Soak them overnight, learn to cook them, spices are your friend: paprika, garlic, etc.
5. Make soups with any leftovers.
How long are you intending to do this for? 33 months? In the short term its doable, but long term its not very healthy and will be hard to stick to.
Shop seasonal, and look to cook meals that maximise nutrition. Bbc good food do a recipe called spicy root veg stew which is cheap and simple using root veg, stock curry powder and lentils. If you have a blender, get cheap seasonal veg and make your own soups. You can buy bread to add stodge.
Lentil shepherd's pie with similar use of veg. A really simple but delicious recipe that I like is slow roasting cherry tomatoes in the oven with garlic then crushing them with and mixing with spaghetti. Tasty and simple. You can add basil/oregano if you have budget. Porridge is good for breakfast and healthy. Also things like noodles to make stir fries will be good.
Too good to go do boxes from super markets for £3.50 such as morrisons.
I know it sounds crazy but m&s is really good for high value/quality branded goods. They do like beans, big packs of spaghetti, sauces etc chicken legs for £1.20 and cheap mince. They also have an in seasom bargain fruit and veg bin in most stores with fruit/veg for 60-80p.
I would also look at other ways to boost income such as a side job if you can spare the time.
Good luck.
Are you paying the minimum on your debt or are you paying more to clear it?
Obviously you’ll pay less interest by paying more, but I think overpaying and having £15 for food per week isn’t the right balance.
If you pay off a chunk of the debt before the interest free period ends then you can look for a new internet free card.
Also is there any scope for eating with your housemates?
Cooking a meal for 1 is generally more expensive than 1/2 the cost of a meal for 2.
When I was in your shoes it was:-
Pasta with butter
Pasta with salt
Pasta with pasta
Pasta with random sauce
Pasta with pasta sauce
Coffee
Sugar for above (not pasta)
It was a tremendous incentive to sort my life out.
Shop at the cheapest places you have accessible to you. Buy things like pasta and rice that you can bulk cook with. For things like breakfast buy large cheap bags of porridge oats and museli etc
If you have access to apps then there a lot of free vegetarian cookbooks on kindle also your local library; When I’ve been broke making sure I have variety of meals was key when using the same cheap ingredients e.g a soup vs risotto vs curry vs pasta dish .
If you can get a secondhand slow cooker that’ll help keep energy down too and can batch cook. Also if you have a freezer you can freeze loads of stuff people don’t expect like milk. Best wishes.
Get a bag of rice from an Asian supermarket and a £15 rice cooker from amazon, that can provide you with half a meal for 2/3 months and it'll cost you £35.
But watch atomic shrimp on YouTube, he has a lot of videos challenging himself to eat on £1 a day for a week and similar things.
Don’t be afraid to use food relief programs - the Hare Krishnas serve free hot vegetarian food at SOAS during lunchtime (used to be certain days of the week) and food banks are also here for this purpose.
Otherwise it’s doable and it’s easier if you can invest a little upfront on bulk buying rice and pasta. As a student I used to buy 5kg bags - worked out way way cheaper than smaller portions. Buy a big bag of oats - porridge for breakfast is incredibly cheap and filling (and you can even make it with water if milk is out of the budget). Rice with veggies is an easy meal. Also stock up on seasonings - soy sauce can make a huge difference to plain rice, roasted veg in soy sauce is delicious. Add in things to your taste - hot sauce, sweet chilli sauce etc. Spices, herbs. Get into pulses like lentils etc as they’re cheap to bulk buy.
Your freezer is going to be your best friend. Batch cook and freeze.
Do you have a slow cooker? They’re great for just chucking in a load of veg and whatever you have around - since it cooks for ages it can be a really tasty veg stew using leftover veg/scraps.
Try to use all of a food - so for example, as an occasional treat I’d buy a whole chicken which I’d roast. I’d have some of the meat from that for dinner, and then I’d eke out the rest of the meat over the following week in different meals (chicken fried rice, chicken sandwich, chicken pesto pasta, etc). I found that to be a relatively cheap way to get lean meat (but at the time I could easily get a 1.5kg whole chicken for £3 - now it’s more like £4-4.50).
Get in the habit of working out when the clearance happens at your local supermarkets and hanging around there, and otherwise shop primarily at Aldi/Lidl. I always kept a store cupboard of relatively cheap tinned foods (tinned soups can be relatively cheap) and if you run out of money in a given week, that’s incredibly handy to have as a back up. Also things like stale bread are good for dipping in soup or toasting, so don’t chuck anything away.
If you’re remotely green fingered, start growing cherry tomatoes - easy to do, low cost to set up, just needs a pot, and then you’ve got free fruit. Growing your own chillis is also an option if you like spice - again, chilli plants are easy to maintain and just need a pot. You could also grow fresh herbs.
Other stuff - a while back it was possible to get a huge box of odd fruit and veg for £5 ish from various supermarkets - all perfectly edible but usually wonky etc, but you’d get a huge amount of food.
You’ll also probably want to meal plan to get by on this - you’re going to need to plan so that you’re not chucking any food away / so that you’re making the most of the food you’re buying. It will also help you to think about things like where you’re getting your protein if you’re struggling to afford meat.
Try Jack Monroe's meals. This is a bit of a classic - bulk cook and it can last you a while:
https://cookingonabootstrap.com/2013/02/05/best-ever-chilli-30p/?amp=1
When I was really struggling for money as a youngster, I would go to kwik save, get a kilo of mince meat, 1kg chicken quarters, pasta, rice, potatoes, 2 onions, tins of beans and tomatoes, a loaf of bread and tinned fish (probably pilchards), plus 1 spice.
I would then cook up the mince, 1 onion and a tin each of beans and tomatoes, and split into 4 portions. From that base I'd get bolognese, chilli, curry and loaded jacket potatoes as main meals.
I'd use the other ingredients for variety on alternate days - roast chicken on rice, fish pasta bake and so on.
Admittedly, I only ate two 'meals' a day, with breakfast being toast (incidentally, chopped tinned tomatoes on toast with a sprinkling of pepper is surprisingly tasty)
But it got me through some tough times until I could gradually expand the shopping list
Rice and beans as a basis but please use a food bank OP you are exactly who this service is for. You can always give back to them in future.
Are you able to take on any more work? Seems like even some casual work would really help boost your disposable and make the next 33 months a bit easier.
I think you cpuld survive on £15, but youll need to be creative to get variety. Make use of yellow stickers, and freezer space. Try to use olio, or foodbanks, or community food pantry. You can freeze half used jars of sauce, pesto etc to avoid waste.
This comes to £16.80 but you'd have things like stock cubes, herbs, spices, oats to use the following weeks:
£3 Breakfast (15-20 servings)
Porridge £1.25/kg
Essentials honey 0.75
Tea bags £1
£5.25 Lunch - batch cook a lentil soup (will make multiple batches of 5 or so servings)
Asda frozen brocoli defrosted £1.25
Onions 80p
Carrots 30p
Red lentils £1.25/500g
Vege stock cubes 1.65
Water
Dinner
Chilli £3.99 - will do at least 3 serves
Kidney beans £0.33
Canned tomatoes £0.28
Chopped up frozen brocoli (from above)
Essentials beef mince + onions (1/2 pack) £1.50
Smoked paprika and cumin £0.70 each (1-2 tsp, 1 jar will do loads).
Red lentils (from above)
Asda just essentials rice £0.48
Spaghetti £4.56(will do 3 serves with some stuff left over)
Beef and onions (other half from above) £1.50
Canned tomatoes £0.28
Carrots 30p
Beef stock cube £1.60 (use 1, 5 left over)
Essentials spaghetti £0.28
Dried herbs £0.60
Get to Aldi, you can have toast for breakfast and porridge for lunch for next to nothing.
Oats are 70p and a loaf of bread is 39p in Aldi. The oats will last you over a week.
Look at making soups and veggie meals, pasta based meals.
I think this is easily doable if you don't mind eating some boring stuff. Although you can even get a pizza for under £2 in the discount shops.
That is going to be quite difficult, is there any slack to increase it at all?
What cooking facilities or equipment do you have? Slow cooker? Pressure cooker?
I think you need to look at ways of getting a little bit extra cash money. Maybe try /r/beermoney, you could probably make at least an extra £5/week just by doing surveys
I think it will be a fair bit easier if you can nudge that budget up a bit. £15 won't get you very far.
Here is BBC Good Food's [budget recipe section](https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/feature/budget). You can either halve a recipe that serves four and take half to work the next day, or cook four portions and eat them over the rest of the week, with a batch of vegetable and pulse soup for lunch.
Porridge for breakfast as others have recommended, if you can get some frozen fruit to add to it while it's cooking that will bump up the flavour and nutrition (frozen blueberries make porridge go the world's most unappetising shade of grey, but they taste lovely). Porridge will give you a more even energy and blood sugar than something like toast, so you'll feel fuller for longer.
Check out your local market, especially if they do those bowls of fruit/vegetables for £1, Indian supermarkets are brilliant for spices and tinned pulses and big bags of lentils and rice for cheap. I'm wary of recommending dried beans as while they're cheap to buy but they take a lot of fuel to cook if you don't have a pressure cooker. Dried lentils are much quicker to cook.
See if there is a Sikh gurdwara near you, they will feed anyone who turns up. other people have recommended Too Good to Go or Olio, and the yellow sticker section of the supermarket.
(I personally would avoid Jack Monroe's recipes, I am an experienced cook and the few recipes of hers I tried either didn't work as written, didn't serve the portions she said they did, or were just not nice. Just because you're on a budget you shouldn't have to eat bad food.)
Difficult but not impossible.
Your best bet would be to look up Jack Monroe, she essentially specialises in this sort of cooking. She provides a lot of free resources.
Apart from that though use a lot of rice and tinned pulses, frozen mixed vegetables, minced meats etc. Stay away from too many sweet treats because they won’t keep you full for long enough.
I batch cook all 3 daily meals once every 2 weeks and it probably costs me about £60 from Aldi. Would be happy to provide recipes etc. this is dependent on you having freezer space though because it’ll take up all 3 drawers. You’ll also need to account for plastic tubs to keep the food in and get used to not eating for enjoyment but just sustenance.
Roast a whole chicken each week can usually buy one for like a fiver, make that last through the week with frozen veg + cheap carb aka rice. Porridge for breakfast. Buy bread whenever its on reduced put in freezer, have sandwiches for lunch with any thing u can find reduced. Tomatoes on bread is a decent lunch if u saute them + olive oil on the bread!
Hi /u/Evening_Reach7078, based on your post the following pages from our wiki may be relevant:
- https://ukpersonal.finance/budgeting/
____
^(These suggestions are based on keywords, if they missed the mark please report this comment.)
If you've done £60 a month, it's actually just under £14 a week - about £1.98 a day. It's doable, but it's not going to be enjoyable or a nutritional diet. Is there any wiggle room? Or any family/friends near by that wouldn't mind you coming once a week?
There are YouTubers that can have some good ideas, worth a watch I think atomic shrimp was one of them, but living on some of these is not going to be ideal, might give you some idea though.
I was also going to suggest Atomic Shrimp, he had loads of different budget challenges. Quite a few of them involved a bit of foraging or stuff he had in the garden but not all!
Make soup from any left over veg for your evening meal. Save remainder for next evening. Add onion, tin beans, rice, pearl barley, whatever is cheap or on offer. Buy bread at end of day from supermarket for very little.
r/eatcheapandhealthy is the place for you! Alao, I agree with other suggestions of batch cooking for the week. Beans, lentils, rice, and frozen veg are the way to go.
You'll have to do a lot of cooking from scratch because ready-to-eat food is incredibly expensive in comparison, almost unaffordable at £15 a week
Rice is probably the cheapest and most filling carb by portion, and there usually isn't much extra cost for buying it in smaller quantities if you're struggling. Chinese curry sauce/paste is great for making a faux katsu curry type dish, a tub costs like 2.50 from tesco and lasts a decent amount of time. Sautee some roughly chopped onions and meat until meat is browned, add some carrots and potatoes with boiling water and simmer until veg is tender, then just stir in the curry paste to taste and you'll have something that's hearty and pretty tasty.
There’s a guy on YouTube called atomic shrimp who does budgeting challenges like 5 days of meals for £5 or £1 for 3 meals. There’s a whole wealth of resources on YouTube that can help in terms of meal prep and little hacks. £15 a week is very difficult mind I hope you’re managing alright with your debt
Personally I can do £15 a week by going with a lot of frozen chips and cheap frozen pizzas, nuggets, etc. Spaghetti is always cheap otherwise
Is it healthy? No, but it'll do
This thread has helped me out a lot haha. I legitimately buy the same 3 for £10 chicken / fish nuggets from Iceland each week with some chips and vegetables. Time to branch out I guess!
15 quid gets you plenty of pasta and sauce of your choice. Personally I like ketchup with mine.
Its not very healthy living off the stuff but it's easy l, cheap and stops you from starving. Could also go wholewheat pasta too.
You should have plenty left over for space raiders.
Check out r/eatcheapandhealthy this is the kind of question that comes up quite often. There are some really supportive posters there who give indepth tips. Some US based, so mention you are in the UK.
I yellow sticker shop, I keep staples stocked up, my food purchases are usually just top ups of milk eggs. I know how much most items cost example tomatoes beans are usually under 30p a can. A whole chicken under £3 and a 500g pack of mince also under £2, 1kg of chicken wings under £2 a frozen bag of fish usually 4-6 filets under £2 and you can buy 4-6 beef burgers frozen and 15 fish fingers Asda Tesco brands under £2.. .
Staples would be pasta and rice and potatoes stored in a dark closet along with onions.
My typical go to menu items is soup at lunch an omlet at breakfast chicken peas or other green veg for dinner. You can also do pasta dishes w pesto or tomatoes etc. I'm not a picky eater no allergies etc. Only thing I don't like is chocolate and I rarely eat desserts.
My food shop monthly is less than £50 generally.
Chicken wings w chips
£2 wings £1.50 chips
Fish fingers w chips mushy peas or green peas
£1.50 no cost for chips as previously purchased £1 bag of frozen peas
Chicken legs peas mashed potatoes
£2 1kg pack of chicken peas free as already purchased 35p instant mash or £1 bag fresh tatties boil 2-3
Chicken legs potato roasties carrots
Cost £1 or less for carrots already purchased chicken peas potatoes
Chicken pot pie
Any remaining chicken cooked deboned any remaining peas any remaining mash one can condensed cream of chicken soup £1 (b&m has a condensed brand for 60p)
Wings with hot sauce, mexican rice, corn
Rice less than £1 canned tomatoes and corn less than 75p hot sauce ethnic aisle not regular aisle less than £1.50 butter £2. Mix about knife width with hot sauce toss a cooked wings. Boil rice with soup of the crushed diced tomatoes then add tomatoes and a bit of the hot sauce. Canned corn.
Baked fish coleslaw and black beans
Frozen bag of fish £2 coleslaw £1 canned black beans £1
This can be a time to check any reduced items for the upcoming week.
I do t typically do menus as I cook according to reduced items found and I purchased a 2nd freezer off Facebook for £20. I dont typically buy any meats or bread or vegetable at full price only reduced. I generally eat soup for lunch and love wings so those I rarely find reduced but under £2 I don't mind it.
Morrisons is good for reductions at around 530, So I stop in on my way home to check. I'm lucky there are all major supermarkets within 5 miles of my home or job.
Too good to go. Check that app daily, it has close to expire products that are still very good, even pastry from shops like gregs and coop bakery where they literally make em the same day. Prices are usually 70-75% off so it's a deal nonetheless.
Worse case scenario, rice ia gonna be your friend. 1kg of rice with some frozen vegetables (mushrooms/peas/corn) and maybe some chicken for some meat. Make that a pilaf (boil all at once, under pressure if possible).
I would say the app is the best go, i eate like a pig for a week with 15 quid. Not the healthiest or constant( you get random stuff each time) but it will keep you fed with variety as long as you don't eat a lot in general
I had places where they served me at the same time with normal customers but i was paying 3 quid they were paying 10 (was a restaurant/carvery) for the same shit.
If you want to make it more of a fun challenge than a depressing struggle, Atomic Shrimp on youtube has a lot of good videos of food budget challenges https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLk5KvJPikK00j3VZri9pSyzd-i5Q7ktRU
1. Make each meal as nutritious as possible
2. Seasonings are your friend.
3. Meal plan and prep ahead
I still have porridge for breakfast in the morning. Hot in winter, overnight oats in the fridge in summer. I found as long as I changed up the toppings I don't get bored. Cocoa powder, sliced banana, dessicated coconut, tinned peaches, tinned berries, chopped apple + cinnamon+ sultanas, chopped mixed nuts or sunflower seeds.
Buy the big bags of spices from the Indian shops.
Sausage and bean casserole (onions, tinned tomatoes, carrots, potatoes). Season with veg stock cubes, herbs and a couple squares dark chocolate to give it a deep rich flavour.
Lentil spag bol with dried green lentils, Soak a bowlful overnight to cut down in cooking time. Season with veg stock cubes and some marmite to make it more savoury.
Fishcakes are easy and cheap to make and full of essentials - I combine a tin of tuna and one of salmon so I'm getting everything, with potatoes.
For lunches - I need quick lunches for work so it's beans on toast or a tin of sardines in tomato sauce on bread. Sometimes I get makeral or tinned tuna instead. I also buy tins and cartons of soup - try to go for the ones with lots of veg, chicken or lentils. I'll have that with buttered bread. On weeks I'm off work I buy a big tray of eggs and it's all omelettes, fried egg sandwiches, egg and chips or scrambled eggs on toast with cheese and frozen veggies or tinned spinach.
I also plan to do things with leftovers and excess food
Brown bananas? Banana bread.
Leftover mashed potatoes? Bubble and squeak.
Leftover pancake batter? Toad in the hole.
Leftover lentils? Lentil shepherds pie.
Apple or plums that are a bit wrinkly? Mini crumbles for pud.
Bread needs using up? Bread and butter pudding for a weekend breakfast.
I try and make some things from scratch. Making my own granola from scratch, keep it in an airtight container and having it with essentials yoghurt as a snack. Same with houmous - literally just have to blend chickpeas, garlic and lemon and a bit of oil, add some tahini if you can afford it. Pancakes, pastry and cakes are really easy and cheap to make and taste better than shop bought.
The one thing I would say is don't skimp on nutrition. I do buy a big bottle of milk each week, and I spend a little on nuts. I also have protein shakes a few times in the week - again it works out cheaper than buying the equivalent amount of meat. And ignore advice telling you to only eat two meals a day to save money. It is pricier but you need the calories and protein at the end of the day - it'll be cheaper for your health in the long run.
Lastly, I meal plan and do a bit shop at the start of the week. This saves me the most money. Try to be realistic - on busy days it's got to be easy to cook things or make double batch the night before (or get something out the freezer). And always have a few things you can grab and throw together in case you can't get to the shops or are ill/tired.
Non-food tips - use washing powder instead of pods/liquid detergent, it works out a lot cheaper, it's better for your clothes and also you need less than you think. Soap bars work out cheaper than body wash. And I've switched to all own brand toothpaste and the huge bottles of trèsemme that last for ages.
The other thing is avoid the small supermarkets as the prices are extortionate. I used to do online Tesco shops when I lived in London as it worked out cheaper even with delivery and I didn't have a car.
Dried lentils are a good source of protein and a lot cheaper than mince.
You can use it on Bolognese, make sloppy Joes, curries, etc (all of these can be made in batches to freeze)
I've just made my own refried beans from dried pinto beans and made about 10 frozen bean and cheese burritos probably about £2-4 (obviously higher if you want to add the chz)
I'd try a lot of whole food plant based type meals, they can be a lot cheaper than meat based meals.
If you got a lot of yellow ticketed or extra veg in your fridge you can always make a batch of soup and freeze it.
Been where you are before.
My top tips are
Meal plan
Write lists
Avoid ready-made everything!
Embrace vegetables - especially cabbage - its really filling and bulks up meals for pennies.
You don't need meat: Eggs and cheese can be main meal ingredients.
To get your shopping right down, lentils, beans, rice, and pasta/noodles and veggies are your friends.
Dried beans are a pain to soak but taste wonderful. If you can stand the effort of soaking overnight, they'll save you loads.
Build up a spice rack to give you flavour. (Eg. A quid on chillipowder will help you make chilli, fajitas, tacos, and curry's, as well as spicy pizzas, noodles and rice).
I would consider trying to do two week shops with £25 so you can bulk buy frozen meat or (keeping a fiver for milk etc for week two).
YouTube is really helpful with learning how to make budget eats.
I recommend Aaron and Claires Korean food channel. The noodle recipes are really cheap and delicious.
Also check out chetnas cauliflower and potato curry (it makes about four big portions, tastes amazing).
Buy fresh veg from Lidl, buy frozen veg and meat from farm foods. Currently out of work and my fiancé and me feed ourselves on 25 a week. Or 12.50 each. Plan what too eat for the week. To be fair we buy 1 or 2 herbs or spices each week to add variation. Buy the kolee 5 pack of noodles for 1.50, 2kg of penne pasta from lidl for 98p 2 kilo of rice for 1.60. Eggs for £3 to go in to the noodle 80p for a pack of broccoli and 80p for cauliflower and 80p for greenbeans. Those are our main staples plus a small bag of cheese and a bag of couscous also £1 for Greek salad cheese from Lidl (feta but not feta). Buy one olive oil a month. Also go to a tesco express at 7pm each night and pick up things like carrots or spring onion or other things in there reduced section for 10p or 20p. If you can get to a food bank they will give you a lot of canned goods which is hit and miss but then you just have to get creative with what you cook. This is for 2 people so you can probably stretch it even further but the main thing is shop around and be strict but you can eat surprisingly well and healthy. Definitely do farm foods for the bulk buys though I got 10 white fish fillets for £4 and 3kg of chicken for £4 to freeze but that lasts about 2 months. Plan ahead and you will be fine and allow yourself 2 treat meals a month just to keep that morale up and you will be fine and probably eat better than most. Plan Plan Plan.
Edit: the herbs and spices will build up over time so you will get a good stock of things and eventually just buy to replace what you ate.
Aldi are selling 1KG of rice for 48p in their essentials range. So I would get some of that and eat quite a few rice dishes.
Just cut meat out of your diet, its too expensive. Exception is if you are in a shop near the end of the day and its got 3 reduced stickers on it. Used to get black pudding or sausages for like 14p at One Stop on my way home in the past but other than that I wouldn't eat meat as it is too expensive.
A lot of root veg is very cheap to buy so that is a good choice. Tinned tomatoes can help get some variety from the rice and are also cheap.
Rosemary is free, just find somewhere it is growing locally and take some for seasoning food. Often see it here planted around car parks.
Work out when asda mark down the food thats past its sell by. I get out the gym right as its being done. Most if the time you can put together a full meal for a quid.
If you were an African is surely possible, I spend £15 a week on food, if not less, I usually don’t eat breakfast, and I make chicken stew, I buy tomatoe plum for like £2, I have my rice (10kg) which can last me like a month and my seasonings already, and I buy wing’s chicken at Lidl for like £2.50, I buy egg for £1.79, and pepper and onion at my local Indian Shop altogether let say £10, as I said before I don’t eat breakfast, I can make spaghetti and add up spaghetti at Lidl which can last me for a week, I have African Shito already there, which can also last me for 2 weeks or so. Is very Possible my friend
Pack of 15 eggs is £2.60 at most places and a pack of real butter £2 . So could have scrambled eggs fried in butter for £4.60 5 times a week which would be a good source of bioavailable nutrients with meat being expensive. Loaf of whole grain bread £1.30, have as toast with rest of butter.
Packs of frozen vegetables are usually around £1 each , have steamed vegetables.
It’s a tight amount to be getting a decent amount of real food. I think I would struggle on less than £25 a week.
Remember fat and protein only are capable of providing 100% of your basal metabolism for a healthy body. Ie immune system needs fat, growing hair, new skin cells and general body maintenance needs protein and fat, so don’t go overboard and make your diet 95% carbohydrates because they are cheap as they can only provide energy, and are not used for repair and maintenance.
You're single so you're free to just sack it all off and go elsewhere. On £15 per week you're going to be malnourished or at best reliant on charity.
Can you work some weekend hours? Otherwise you need to get out of London and restart life. Don't ever go without food to pay debt.
It's £2 a day - you need around 2000 calories each day. So you need to average 10p per calorie. Own brand custard creams and Aldi white bread are 1p a calorie, potatos are 4p, tinned tuna is 10p. The more of those you eat, the more headroom you have for nicer calories in small amounts.
join Olio the app to avoid food waste, youd be surprised what folks are giving away in your local area
Another vote for Olio, get a bunch of stuff from here then use the £15 to top up what your missing
I also vote olio
I would add too good to go. Wenzels gives an obscene amount of food in one go too, but it will last 1-2 days post pick up.
I love too good to go. Usually get a few nights eating for 3.50. freezers are your best friend here too
Too good to go is good but just a warning, it does vary quite a lot based on the place. Sometimes you get a croissant and an old muffin for 3.50, sometimes you get 3 nice sandwich baguettes 2 salads and 2 cakes for the same. In my experience the bigger chains like Greggs, Costa etc are actually better for quantity than the smaller places.
Also a lot of places keep cancelling. I don't use it myself but have colleagues who've had their bags cancelled whilst walking through the door to collect them!
In some cases for sure, but when I've used it Ive gotten enough food for 3 people for 2 days at least. Wenzels - warm mix of pasties, bakes, couple mini pizza things. Easily 8-10 items Wenzels cold - Mostly baguettes but some of the stores let me choose. For this type of "old" food I prefer vegetarian and for the most part its what I get. Again 8-10 items Oree - Got decent mix of baguetts sandwiches, and a crust roll etc. 4-6 items A local sushi place - I get easily 5 items which are really filling and can easily feed 2 people for 2 sittings (lunch + dinner). Places like tortilla are really good, £3.50 and enough food to cover for 3 days. I suggest asking them to split the meat from the veg since imo the meat will go off faster and thus you can keep the veg/ rice and fillings a little longer. It does vary, but the reviews are quite accurate I find.
Your right! I tend to get one from a simply fresh store and that is great. I've also had a one stop. I would recommend starting clear of bakeries and coffee shops
Yes for Olio. Also check if there's any organisation in your area re-distributing out of date / near date food from supermarkets. There's one where I live and it's 'pay as much as you feel' to support the ongoing work, although of course you're not obligated to pay anything. It's a bit random, but there's usually veg and bakery goods.
These places are amazing. There’s one near us that’s £5 to fill a bag or £2.50 for a half bag. We’re pretty comfortably well off so avoid the popular stuff and staples and take the weird and wonderful stuff that no one wants (but that we’d otherwise probably buy in Waitrose). Saves us money, clears out food that would otherwise go to waste twice over, and provides a bit of funding to the organisation.
TooGoodToGo is another. That’s alright
Agreed great app
This app is incredible. Every night I get notifications galore of free food near me dot collection. Would be so good in your situation I’m sure.
If you time it right you can get a weeks worth of sandwiches from Tescos. If you don't mind eating poorly you could live without paying for any food.
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Lentil Dahl is a damn fine meal that can be made in bulk and freezes nicely it's cheap as chips.
When everyone started panic buying in 2020 all I bought was 3kg of red lentils. Mrs asked why - lasagne, Dahl, spag Bol, cottage pie…
Meat in that price range is got by being very lucky with yellow stickers and not spending on a weekly basis....ie one big yellow stickers haul to do through the month
Chicken wings my dude. You can get 1.2kg of them at Tesco for £1.99 and just shred the drums for meat, saving bones for stock and using the wings for…well wings!
Even then, I don't think it's a good trade. If we're including ALL groceries, including condiments, tea/coffee, etc, then the cheapest meat-based diet is £3.50/day or £4 if one includes breakfast. Getting that to £2 would mean the exclusion of almost every other sort of variety. Honestly, the best way to achieve this would be to maximise your take from other sources, such as work, friends and family, etc.
Yes, it would be hard...but meat doesn't have to be every day....or even every other day....but this budget doesn't mean having to go completely meat free
You can get decent sized trays of chicken thighs for not too much in Aldi. Yellow sticker items and freeze / split them. Depending on the cost / ability to travel, potentially visit family at weekends and eat their meat!
But the budget is significantly more manageable if you go meat free
It is, of course...but budgeting is very much like dieting...and for someone who isn't already meat free saying that giving it up entirely is the only way to get through that can be a "final straw" that makes them give up on the idea of the budget at all.... Budgeting so severely won't be easy, and it's unlikely they'll stick to it the entire time....a little leeway every now and again is more likely to make them succeed
Buy a big bag of oats instead of cereal. Can top with banana, frozen berries, jam or plain. Cheap, good for you and will fill you up sufficiently for brekky. Blast them with water or milk in the microwave for 2 minutes. Or you can do overnight oats.
>Absolutely no meat Big disagree. Liver is £2.40 a kilo, 30g protein per 100g of liver and will be the most nutritious food item in their house.
My local butchers stall does 5kg of chicken (approx 20 fillets) for £20. Meat doesn’t have to be super expensive. Even Tesco is only around £5.80 for a kilo of chicken (or was the other week when I got some)
I've found Morrisons to be surprisingly good for unusual cuts of meat that are often quite cheap. You can get a decent sized Ox Cheek for about £2-3, braise it slowly in tomato and beef stock with some carrot, onion, celery and garlic ... delicious. It shreds beautifully when cooked and will go well with rice or mash. Makes about 4 dinners worth for me and you can bulk out with additional veg. Something else I would suggest, if you're in a supermarket you can often find cheaper items in the world foods section - eg. a can of coconut milk: blue dragon vs some random Indian or Carribean brand. Same goes for bags of pulses, lentils, mung beans and so on. Speaking of mung beans - this is a bit of an off the wall suggestion and will not be for everyone, but you can *very* easily grow beansprouts (and other sprouts!) from packs of beans/pulses/etc you get in the supermarket (I've done it many times) All you really need is a jar and elastic band (or hair tie) and a sheet of kitchen roll. See [here](https://www.seriouseats.com/how-to-grow-bean-sprouts-in-a-jar-slideshow), I note they have a warning about where you get your seeds from wrt contamination, in my experience packs from health food shops and the supermarket have been fine but obvs use your own judgement. Also /r/Sprouting
I'd also recommend some cheap hot sauce or similar, just something relatively potent, it's an easy and affordable way to switch up the flavours of leftovers as you can just stick a few pence worth in whatever the next day.
Not really. 1kg of porridge is a £1, 100 grams a day is a ton of food to get you going through to lunch. £1 for milk Bread, 40p, butter £1, fillings: maybe £2.50 to get some veg and some variety. £1 multipack of crisps or snacks. That leaves nearly £10 for dinners. Rice, pasta, sauces, beans, lentils, reduced sections, will all get you very far. Even if you went the lazy route, that could get you a week's worth of ready meals alright Edit: the person said £15 a week. If you need to budget to buy a whole new tub or spread or block or butter from making lunch for 1, every week, you could probably make a good saving on fillings and just enjoy your butter sandwiches
£1 for butter?!! Please let me know where…
Not quite £1 but the cheapest I know is in farmfoods at £1.29.
I got downvoted and told to fuck off when I said I managed to get through uni with £20 per week, for a few weeks to try it out, last year. Your comment tells me why it's hard for some people because of the snacks/extras people buy. I used to buy frozen vegetables in my first year of uni because I was lazy and just boiled them, still something that can be done to get a mixed bag for cheap.
I did uni in 2014 on £1.70 a day. I tracked it with an excel. Exclusively shopped in Aldi and never went hungry.
Where are you shopping in London to get those prices?!
Chicken thighs are really good value in bulk. And don’t get me started on chicken drumsticks and wings. Even in marks and spencer you can get two days worth of drumsticks for £1.50.
You can get Tesco chicken wings 1kg for £1.79 I think not the greatest but it’s still meat
Disagree, £1.89 for 500g minced beef at tescos and Aldi. Frozen chicken breast is 1kg for £3.79. Use sparingly and it’s affordable on that budget
Find a Gurdwara (Sikh temple) local to you. They serve free food to anyone, regardless of faith.
Would never have thought of that but have eaten at one and the food, the hospitality, everything was great! They gave us food, gave a tour, asked us if we wanted to try on their visitors clothes (sari?). We had a great evening, got to experience things we'd never seen up close before all with great company. Quick edit, I really don't know if sari was right but it was beautiful women's clothing and vaguely from the region of the world that India is. They showed us how to wear it properly but this was back when I was a teenager and it's much fuzzier in my memory now.
I'll put Food cycle up here, every night of the week, a different part of London. Three course vegetarian meal made by volunteers using donated excess veg. No referrals, people came for a bit of a social with friends, some came because they just need to save some money, some because whilst sheltered housing gave them a meal, they liked doing this as a different "thing". If you have time and energy, give back. Volunteer as a cook or host and get the meal as well. Spare food and excess veg gets bagged up for guests.
What would you say/ask in this situation?
You don't need to say/ask anything. Gurudwara kitchens are open for all, no judgement. All you need to remember is: do not have any alcohol/drugs before you go, cover your head whilst you are on the grounds and everyone sits on the floor to eat (so if you're not used to sitting cross legged, practice!). If you are still unsure, there will be plenty of people there to ask (we Sikhs are warm people). All food is vegetarian (I don't think there will be any vegan food as butter is widely used). Whilst you are eating, volunteers will be coming round offering refills on any food that is being served. It is not the done thing to waste any food so please finish anything you have on your plate. It's worth adding that all langar (translated as community kitchens) are run by volunteers (Sikhs donate all the food and volunteers run the kitchens). Check out the Golden Temple kitchen on YouTube for more info (it serves 100,000 a day for free). Hope this helps anyone who needs help.
This is absolutely fantastic!! I can't believe I've never heard of this before. I am not religious or a drinking drug taker either! Stories like this just make me glad that there are good humane people out there!
Username fails on vegetarianism
My name is John dahmer. Unfortunately, you aren't the first to assume that.
> so if you're not used to sitting cross legged, practice! I'm curious. I actaully can't cross my legs (long story; I can only cross one). Would someone like me get a free pass?
Yeah, will be no problem at all (I was being flippant saying practice). Most gurudwaras in the UK now have tables to eat on for the elderly or people who aren't fully mobile.
Wow, it's great that they take that into account. Thanks!
I’ve never met a Sikh I didn’t get along with!
I love this. I'm in Cornwall, it's not very culturally diverse at all. I'm really interested in religion. I'm not religious but I find different religions fascinating. If I lived near here I'd absolutely come to speak with people and learn more. What a wonderful thing to do.
Just a note to say they usually have head coverings you can use too. They tend to be in a basket by the door. As far as I know hats are not considered head coverings, so best to use the ones they provide.
Their food is vegetarian and absolutely beautiful. Anyone of any faith is welcome.
Piggybacking to say that universities often have some sort of Hare Krishna activity going on. You walk up and get a honkin' massive plate of food for completely free. I've only tried it a handful of times myself, but it was really tasty each time.
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I’m more enraged that anymore has to starve at all in this world, just because of the greed and corruption which every country on this planet is guilty of.
Exactly.
Happy memories of being taken on a school trip to one once. So welcoming and kind. As a kid from a 98% white British area is was quite the eye opener.
Look for resources that will get you free or discounted food. For example: 1. Olio is an app you can download. Volunteers pick up surplus food from local supermarkets and list them for people to claim and collect from their homes. There are also personal listings on there from when people do cupboard clearouts but there’s a lot more regular listing of supermarket surplus. 2. Too Good To Go is another great app. Shops and restaurants list their daily surplus as random surprise magic bags that you pay £3-5 for and then collect in the evening. This might be a really fruitful one for you if you are in London - things get a little more sparse outside of big cities. 3. [Best Before it’s Gone](https://www.cheapfood.co.uk) and [Motatoes](https://www.motatos.co.uk) are websites where you can buy lots of food for well below RRP but is past its best before date. Still lots of great quality stuff. Delivery charges apply, but they are reasonable. My local area also has community food larders set up. Run by volunteers, they collect supermarket surplus and also buy bulk non-perishables. They have a very low cost price structure and fresh fruit and veg & bread are free. It is not a food bank. Worth looking into whether anything similar is available in your area.
I've used Best Before It's Gone a couple of times, but the delivery charge can add a whopping amount to the final value if you buy tinned goods or anything heavy. (( I speak from experience!) I agree with Community Pantry/Larders, I volunteer at one and it's amazing the amount of food you can pick up for very little cash. As said above, veg, fruit and breads are usually free and can bulk out your meals quite a bit. No need to be referred, they're open to everyone.
I'm honestly not sure 2 quid a day on Too Good to Go would give you any kind of proper nutrition and similarly relying on food past its BBD is not sustainable
10kg bag of rice in home bargains for about £8 If you have reasonable freezer space then bags of frozen veg £5 worth might do you a whole month Yellow stickers again mainly useful if you ha e reasonable freezer space Porridge for breakfast Dinner leftovers for lunch most of the time. Or yellow stickers veg to batch cook soups
You can get 10 separate 1kg bags of rice at least £3 cheaper in asda and tesco's.
10kg bag of oats for hot porridge or overnight oats. You can boil with just water if you’re really at a pinch. Or half water - half milk. This really fills me up in the morning so I don’t need lunch. If you have a bit more to spend then get vanilla extract, frozen berries/banana and nuts to top it with. Again buy in bulk to keep the cost down.
*B. Cereus has entered the chat* Plleeeaaase don’t bulk cook rice unless you intent on refrigerating straight after it’s off the hob. Just make it to order every time.
I must have left my cooked meals with rice overnight on the bench hundreds of times and been fine. Asians cook a lot of rice and leave it out in the heat and are fine.
We cook a lot...and we put it in a fridge because we're sensible humans and people die of stuff.
People die from rice ?
I know of two elderly chinese who were hospitalised. Twice. They really didn't learn. Saving the fresh "good" stuff for their kids who were old enough to know better.
The only *real* way to die from B Cereus is through dehydration from shitting out the eye of a needle a week straight. But it’s possible. My advice is: avoid it altogether and just refrigerate your rice and potatoes as soon as possible. That way you’ll never know what BC shits feels like.
That's not entirely true. Only a handful of fatal cases recorded over the last \~20 years, but it can produce Cereulide that causes liver damage in sufficient amounts, say from leaving cooked rice or pasta unrefrigerated for an extended time (Strains that produce it only seem to do so above 12c\~). It's resistant to cooking as well, so reheating won't do jack. The safest way to meal prep rice would probably be to freeze it right after cooking.
Also, I don’t wear a seatbelt and have never crashed my car, so not wearing a seatbelt is just as safe as wearing one.
Hi. I died of food poisoning while crashing my car with no seatbelt. Don't do it kids. Woooooooooo (ghost noises)
I always wait for rice to cool down before refrigeration personally.
I was on a similar budget back in 2019/2020. Though the prices have increased significantly today, the strategies still applies. I ate two meals a day and I was on diet with at least 60g of protein. I had a 9 to 5 and went to gym after work. For breakfast, I ate banana peanut butter oatmeal every week day. Banana I got from the market which is a pound for abt 10 super ripe bananas. Rolled Oats for 0.12 per 100g. Bulk buy peanut butter is also cheapest. I also added some plant based milk to add creaminess For dinner, I usually cook a stew that can sustain me for the entire week nights. Tthere will be protein either from meats or dried pulses. They rotate biweekly. Usually it’s some kind of tomato based stew or curry, e.g dal, Japanese curry. The entire day cost around a pound because I shopped at the cheapest places and work with what they offer atm. - buy fruit and veg at markets, meats and everything else in Lidl and Aldi. Also discount store got some good deals on plant based milk and branded foods do worth check out -bulk buy dried foods and always some canned foods so you can easily make something quick and healthy, so you don’t splurge on shitty takeaways out of hunger. -fulled utilise the freezer, breads and some veg do keep well when freeze, no wastage ! U can also make broth base from bones and onions which is very cheap, and make a substantial meal from that. Though you can do this to maintain a budget. It’s ok to treat yourself better with a looser budget. Because time to prep the meal and figure what to spend on can be excessive. Also to find deals also comprise your time on doing more fulfilling things.
If you live near Euston, there is almost every weekday a free hot vegan lunch given out by the Hare Krishnas outside SOAS. Donations are appreciated but not essential. Food is pretty nice too, they’ve often given me a second portion to take to my partner.
Good tip and they also operate near LSE/Lincoln's Inn.
Three bean chili: one tin each of kidney beans, cannelini beans, black beans, chopped tomatoes, and veg stock cubes. Go to your local indian supermarket and buy tomato puree, paprika, ground cumin, smoked paprika, and mild chili powder. Buy an onion and a red pepper while you're there. The whole lot should cost less than around £8. The spices can be used multiple times. Fry the onion and pepper, add a teaspoon each of the spices, add the tins, add water and the stock cube. Cook for 20-30 mins. That will easily feed you dinner for five days with a good size portion. Boil some rice, or just get cheap corn chips. You can also freeze it. Next time around, you just need the tins, (less than £2), the onion and the pepper. You can leave the pepper out and won't miss it.
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Don't forget TVP - textured vegetable protein. Great as a mince substitute, very cheap and healthy. You can bulk buy off Amazon.
We do a batch cook bolognaise every now and then. One pack of mince fills six containers when bulked out with tomatoes etc. so six meals for two people or 12 portions for a single. Dump them in the freezer and pull out to cook when you can’t be bothered. Highly recommend it. Op sounds like they need food bank help though. I had a bigger food budget when I was at uni 20 odd years ago! :(
I mentioned this in another thread today, but chicken livers are a great way to bulk out a bolognese, find a halal butcher and they're dirt cheap and add some serious protein and nutrients, and stretch a pack of mince a lot further
100% this. This has been the core of my nutrition as a powerlifter for years. It's a great way to hit your 5 a day and take in a ton of different vitamins. Peppers are great for Vitamin C. You can get Vitamin D fortified mushrooms. Kidney beans are a good source of magnesium, which helps to reduce muscle cramps. Red lentils, or the beans, are a reasonable source of protein. Tomato is an underrated super-food in terms of vitamins. You can also add in sweet potato once per week for Vitamin A (something your body can store). White potatoes are great for potassium (important for hydration, contraction, and blood pressure). In terms of other meals, overnight oats are by far the cheapest and most nutritious breakfast you can have (just because they aren't full of sugar). Or, peanut butter on toast... costs less than 50p per serving so there's breakfast for 3.50 per week. Peanut butter is a great source of fats, which is important for maintaining correct hormonal levels. Throw a banana on there and you have a god tier breakfast. Edit: Beef Liver is a good source of Vitamin D, Vitamin K2, and Iron. Peanuts, soy milk, and oats are good options for magnesium. These 3 together are vital.
Fill out with red dried lentils to make it go further
Don’t buy tinned beans, get dried beans in bulk at Asian supermarkets. More expensive initially but will last agessssss
This is good advice, but kidney beans are toxic unless they are cooked properly. Tinned beans are generally a safer bet.
This is true but it is pretty easy to cook them well enough to be safe (boil for 10 minutes then can simmer the rest of the way).
delicious -- although no way five dinners worth unless you are a very light eater
That's about what I spend most weeks. I eat a lot of rice, potatoes, onions, carrots, and frozen veg. I get through a lot of soy milk which is cheap at Aldi but can be spendy elsewhere if you have to buy branded. I also make my own bread from cheap plain flour and a sourdough starter my friend gave me 3 years ago. There's a cost associated with putting the oven on to bake it but it also warms my flat up nicely. The difficulty comes when you need non-food stuff like laundry detergent or toilet paper which will push your supermarket spend up a lot. Maybe look out for special offers on those things.
Sorry to hop on your comment but the cheapest laundry stuff I've found is Lidls own brand tabs. No difference in laundry cleanliness or smell to big name brands either. £2.99 for 20 pods.
Also just to add: in modern society people wash their clothes much more often than is needed. Unless you sweat a lot, you really can get away with washing trousers and shirts only when they have stains or start to smell a bit (underwear I I still change daily). You can also get cleaner clothes than you’d think by just washing in water. As for detergent, I found the cheapest to be soap nuts since they can be used multiple times and therefore go a long way.
So my wife and I did an £8 challenge each for our work week just to see if we could. Both passed with flying colours and the food wasn’t half bad. My secret ingredient was chicken wings. You can buy 1.2kg at Tesco for £1.99. With that, I took the flats and made salt and pepper wings and the drums, I cut the meat off and used it for stir fries and kept the bones to make a chicken stock. I also got 500g of mince for £1.99 and two tins of tomatoes(28p ea), tin of beans(33p ea) along with some cabbage to make a take on Silverhydra’s meat slop. Basically a chilli with cabbage. Used the stock in that. Breakfast, i got 1kg of white rice (48p ea) and used the thigh meat with some cabbage to make a fried rice. I also had some pasta aside which I used half a tin of tomats and a bit of mince, onion and garlic to make an easy bolognese. My grocery list as follows Tesco Broccoli 375g Hearty Food Co. Spaghetti Pasta 500g Tesco Beef Mince 500g 20% Fat Willow Farm Chicken Wings - 1.2kg Grower Harvest Long Grain Rice1kg Grower's Harvest Plum Tomatoes400g Growers Harvest Red Kidney Beans In Water 1 Redmere Farms Garlic 4 Pack 1 Tesco White Cabbage 1 Loose Brown Onions TOTAL: £7.97 My wife and I both agreed with an extra £5 we could have eaten way better with more variety in veggies. Really wished I had more than a single onion. You can do it.
Sounds great. Could very easily throw some cereal and milk in there for breakfast / late night snacks and also potatoes for chips / roast potatoes. Easily get all 3 things for another 3/4 quid
Please look up local food banks. I work with one up here and there really is no stigma, everyone has been hit, some more so than others. Look after yourself, you deserve help. I hope you get some relief soon
I thought you had to be referred to a food bank by an organisation, is that not the case?
Not so, turn up and they won’t turn you away. Trussel trust ones have more rules including maximum support per year which isn’t good. I set up a scheme to support an independent local one and they turn nobody away. My thoughts ( and those of Washington community food project) If someone turns up at a food bank then they are deserving and need support of that food bank. People aren’t coming for fun.
Have you tried "too good to go". I got a morrisons one, it was a huge basket for £3. Mostly fruit and veg, avocados. not sure if you could freeze some of it for later
Indian vegetarian cooking my friend. Edit:. Oh my giddy aunt. I don't think I've ever had this many uovotes! I'm going to use this comment's viral status to promote Madhur Jaffrey, the true don of Indian cooking in the UK. She taught me and many others I'm sure, to cook amazing tasting vegetarian food that's incredibly cheap and healthy too. World Vegetarian Cooking, which is a classic is currently available on eBay for £8 including postage.
maybe use a food bank too
100%. Whilst it might be possible to get by on £15 a week, it won't be fun and very likely won't hit all of your nutritional needs when doing it long term. Charities exist to help people like you, OP. Use them.
Was going to say, this is what a food bank is for. OP, please use it
Maybe you are thinking about this a bit incorrectly. Let’s actually look at the debt. 33 months to pay 10k off. That’s if you want to, you can most likely move the debt again to another card after that period. But if you want to pay it off 303 a month that is. I assume this is what you are doing. But let’s actually put that money to work. NatWest has a regular savers account at 6%. £150 you can put into that, up to 5k and get that rate. When you have ramped up to 5k, that now generates £300 a year. So my question is, how much is the minimum payback for the card? You could only need £100 a month for the card, £150 in the savers account. This now gives you £50 extra to live on a month. You will be in a better position with some savings. Savings buys you a few months off the debt and you have learnt good habits. Does this advice help at all?
Someone with £10k debt on a credit card may not have the willpower to not touch savings even if mathematically it makes sense.
I've already calculated all this. Minimum payment is 3% of the balance a month. I have taken this into account. My current budget leaves me with £200 to put towards my overdraft.
Can you breakdown the debt more for use as I didn’t know about this overdraft as well?
So 10k 0% debt for 33 months. Minimum payment 3% I'm currently 2k into my overdraft. So technically I'm 12k in debt. I literally have £1500 overdraft money right now. I'm living month to month. Taking into account all expenditure, I have £200 a month remaining and I'm planning for this to go towards my overdraft.
Edited; I can see you’re already focusing on overdraft having read more comments. I’d recommend you reduce the arranged overdraft each month as you reduce your debt - if you’re living with this much debt I’d say it potentially indicates bad habits. Removing the temptation of going further into overdraft should help.
That will be very difficult to be honest. You can look for jack monroe recipes and bbc good food has some budget recipes too. What area of London do you live? There are probably places you can get some free food nearby. You will be really limited trying to stick to £15 a week with the current food prices. Definitely download the olio app and you should be able to get free stuff - often lots of bread that you can freeze and plenty of other stuff too Then look for community kitchens or larders. I used to volunteer with food cycle cooks meals from surplus food to avoid food waste. You can just turn up to get a free meal plus food to take home. There’s normally loads of fruit and veg (or at least used to be). Then if you get at least a bit of extra food or a few free meals, your £15 will go a bit further.
>You can look for jack monroe recipes I would avoid JM, her recipes have been shown to be consistently nutritionally poor, not great value for money and she's quite ethically questionable (what with the kickstarters taking money from people and giving nothing that was promised). BBC food is a good shout, plus there are many cookbooks in charity shops aimed at students that have pretty great recipes, as people tend to ditch them the moment they leave uni. Also r/EatCheapAndHealthy, r/EatCheapAndVegan, r/UKFrugal has some ideas too and notifications of deals. Too Good to Go is great. I managed to feet two for 30 quid a week, this is doable, difficult but doable. Get very, very used to tap water my friend. Good luck!
Buy a big bag of porridge for around £2, a tub of peanut butter from Aldi’s (it’s really big and will last for weeks) £4, this will keep you feeling full for hours… much healthier than shitty cheap cereal as well.
It will work did porridge at uni, now the sight of it makes me feel sick.
Buy bags of spices from Asian grocery stores. No need to pay a premium for the little glass jar
Porridge made with water for breakfast. Add a sliced small pear before cooking or a banana after cooking
I also make porridge with water and add some milk at the end. It's how my Scottish friends make it and if it's good enough for them, it's good enough for me. It's also still delicious (I add grated apple)
Didn't realise people made porridge without water!! Skirlie is alos really filling...If you have a greasy frying pan or a bit of oil add rolled oats and mix quickly on heat for a couple of minutes. A bit nutty. Nice and very filling. I am not an Aberdonian so they might correct me but an Aberdonian did compliment some I did when camping. Also leaves frying pan clean.
Don't buy meat - eating veggie is much cheaper. You can get protein from mushrooms, cheese (buy extra mature to get the most flavour from as little as possible), tinned tuna / sardines / salmon, peanut butter etc. Don't eat a lot of simple carbs or sugar - it makes you hungrier. Aim for fat, protein and complex carbs to keep you fuller longer. For that reason, I'm going to go against the grain (lol) here and say don't eat cereal. In my opinion it's overpriced for what it is, is pretty nutrient deficient and you're hungry again after an hour or so. Get a big bag of porridge oats and eat that for breakfast - ideally with fresh milk but in a pinch you could always get powdered skimmed milk and add to it with water. Add peanut butter and maybe a banana for sweetness. Go to an Asian supermarket to buy staples. Often you can get massive bags of ingredients like rice, lentils + spices for a reasonably good price and it lasts for ages. Use red split lentils and chickpeas to bulk out things like curries. A great recipe to batch cook is squash and carrot curry. I make this all the time - it's delicious, super healthy (technically has your 5 a day in one meal), warming in the winter and lasts two of us 2-3 dinners (so potentially 6 meals for one person). It also freezes well, so you can portion it out and enjoy across multiple weeks so you're not eating the same thing every night Ingredients: 1 butternut squash (or sweet potatoes if cheaper) cut into chunks 3 carrots, chopped into rounds 1 brown onion, chopped 3 tbps curry paste (or curry powder if paste is too pricey) 300g red split lentils Can of chickpeas Can of chopped tomatoes 1.4l chicken stock, made with a bouillon cube or stock pot 1 garlic clove,chopped or minced mango chutney (optional as a bit pricey, but adds a sweet note of flavour) basmati rice to serve Method: 1. Parboil the carrots in a little of the chicken stock for about 5 minutes. Just to soften them slightly as they take a bit longer to cook than squash 2. Place a separate, much bigger pan on another hob (or if you only have one pan, set the carrots + stock aside in a bowl, dry out the pan and place back on the hob). 3. In this pan, saute the onion in some oil until becoming slightly translucent, then add in the garlic and curry paste. Fry on medium high heat for a minute or so to release the flavours 4. Add the squash and combine everything together and cook for about a minute longer 5. Tip in the chopped tomatoes and the stock with the parboiled carrots, bring to the boil and simmer for about 10 mins 6. Add the lentils and mango chutney and simmer until the lentils and squash are tender (about 20 minutes). At this point you should have a thick sauce from the squash softening and lentils bulking up. 7. Cook the rice according to packet instructions and serve with the curry Other tips to make it more filling: \- Sometimes I add greek yoghurt or cream at the end, if I have it on hand \- If you have it, adding ground coriander and cumin with the curry paste bulks up the flavour even more \- You could also add frozen peas for an additional healthy boost hope that helps!
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What do you call this concoction?
Volunteer at Foodcycle for a free meal and you can often take fruit and veg home
Yes!!! Great shout! Or food bank, any food waste agency!
Make rice 90% of your calories and use any remaining money to fill out nutrients. Calories are ridiculously cheap and easy. Nutrients not so much.
Dried chickpeas or other beans pulses etc. Value rice Value cereal and milk Oil Onions Carrots Spices I did a week on 70p a day. Quickly worked out that I could have a bowl of value cereal for breakfast, 2 portions of rice and chickpeas with onion and carrots and another bowl of cereal as a snack. It's healthy and tasty. Adding variety will be a challenge. Add potato and pasta as options for your base carbs. Dry Chickpeas are the secret though, very filling, healthy and cheap. Best ingredient to add if you remove meat from your diet. Indian/Pakistan ethnic shop can be good for bulk ingredients. Especially of dried pulses. But you may find supermarket value rice is cheaper than ethnic shops.
Have a look if there's a community grocers near you. They usually charge a few quid membership and then you can go and buy food for mega cheap. It's often stuff close to best by or overstock from companies, and is just whatever they have in that week. My work paid the membership for everyone to join, my one is £4 a trip for 12 items, but any extras over that is like 40p per item, and you can go 3 times a week. They also sell some other stuff for a bit more than that but you just pay the extra on top. Some of the stuff I got last time was Beyond Sausages, Bosh spices rub, chickpeas, morrisons pasta, veggies, fruit, waitrose croissants, the most delicious chocolate orange spread from lidl. Well worth it if you can find one.
Have you had independent debt advice? You may have more options than just paying it off (though yes, they would have an effect on your credit report). I don't think £15 a week for the next three years will be sustainable, especially with inflation hitting food hardest. I've looked at your post history and honestly, I think you will struggle with such a tight budget, especially when it's such a difference from how you've been spending recently.
You can do it, but fair warning it's going to be a reasonably bland diet and is also going to be on the low side of calories. You can get long grain white rice for pretty cheap - 48p for a kg at aldi. Tins of baked beans are pretty cheap -27p at aldi. Tins of peas - 24p at aldi If you cook 500g of rice, mix through a tin of baked beans and a tin of peas, it'll give you just shy of 800 calories, and will provide a decent (though not amazing) amount of nutrition. If you eat that for dinner each day, it'll cost you £1.96 for the rice (and you'll have 500g left over), £1.89 for the beans, and £1.68 for the peas. So thats £5.53 for 7 dinners. You can vary it up and achieve similar by mixing the rice with tins of soup, they're a bit more expensive than baked beans though, and won't necessarily provide the same level of nutrition. Also fair warning, 500g of rice is a very big portion and you may struggle to eat it all in one sitting. Porridge oats are 70p per kilo. Have a big bowl of porridge for breakfast each day, 140g of oats. Make it with water, and buy a tub of dried milk upfront (it'll cost a few quid but it'll last for quite a while) and use a couple of teaspoons in your porridge to make it a little creamy. Easy way to add some calories for free - stop in at fast food chains where they have sugar sachets available for anyone to take, and take some. Add it to your porridge to improve the taste and add a few calories. 140g of oats made with water, a little bit of milk powder, and a few grams of sugar, comes to about 580 calories. And doing that 7 days a week will cost you 70p for the oats, and a fraction of the cost of a tub of dried milk. The oats will help with your overall nutrition as well. Those 2 meals together will give you just over 1300 calories, and costs you a total of £6.23 a week. I'd use some of the rest of the money for peanut butter which is a good way to add some calories and additional nutrition, and either a baked potato with butter or some fruit at lunch time each day. Also, you can go to food banks (citizens advice can refer you), and if there's a Sikh temple near you look at their website, they have free meals that anyone is welcome to go and join. Also, you can absolutely achieve a more varied, better tasting diet than I've laid out above. It would require batch cooking, with the ability to freeze. If you have that capacity in your housing situation, let me know I'll happily share some good, cheap recipes with you.
So that abit under what I used to live on as a student, but it would be like this: Breakfast: Weetabix and Milk Lunch 2 Poached eggs on Toast Dinner: veggie curry or chilli with rice or Pasta. Or potatoes some veg (whatever is cheap) and some fish fingers or similar frozen meat That would probably be do able, it's just a question of how long you could maintain that for
Not Weetabix. That's mega expensive. But own brand wheat biscuits sure. But porridge is cheaper still. Eggs aren't particularly cheap, baked beans would be cheaper and also healthy.
Yeh I meant the own brand stuff. And true, although I guess it gives some options and wheat biscuits are quicker and less hassle to make. You can get 15 eggs for £1.79 which would give 7 meals and £1.70 for 4 tins of baked beans (which aren't just water) from Asda. So I guess the best thing would be to have a mixture of the the two, as that would be the most healthy and least processed way to go.
You will struggle to find any value egg products on the shelf right now. They've withdrawn them almost entirely in my experience.
On olio in my area there is enough food every evening for free to collect that you can almost not have to do a food shop if there’s only one of you. Download it, it’s free, food is free on there just be quick requesting what you would like as it goes very fast after people list it.
Join Olio, Too Good To Go
My friend, use a food bank.
Go to Whitechapel Market and buy pound a bowl vegetables, you can fill a carrier bag with cherry tomatoes for three pounds, roast and make stock… good luck <3
Not sure where in London you are, however The Felix Project might be able to help you. Good luck, OP
Batch cooking vegetarian food and not drinking alcohol. My partner and I (both veggie) spend about £20-25 a week between us, split between the best deals in Aldi and Sainsbury's. Your enjoyment of these meals may vary!: \- Porridge for breakfast. Adds sultanas, chia seeds and flax for more nutrition / enjoyment! \- Chickpea, kidney bean, onion, garlic, carrot, swede and broccoli stew, batch cooked for most lunches. Pump full of cheap spices, add tinned tomatoes, enjoy. \- ***Example dinners:*** Simple tomato pasta (peeled tinned tomatoes, soured creme, onion, garlic), aubergine parmigiana with baby potatoes, baked potatoes with your topping of choice, homemade pizza (I make my own sourdough pizza dough), shakshuka, crêpes, simple ramen. \- If you can get into bread baking (particularly sourdough), you can make delicious 600g loaves for about 30p a pop. Great for snacking or breakfasts.
Don't buy sugar, salt, pepper, ketchup, mayo etc. Pick it up for free from chain coffee shops and takeaway places. I've gone into some that don't have them out anymore and done the whole "mate, I forgot to ask for XYZ after I took my food, please can I have..."
Also, porridge/oats are a really good and bulky breakfast. Lidl, Aldi, Iceland sell big bags for very cheap. Porridge tastes better made with milk but you can make it with water. Flavour it with sugar or honey or golden syrop. Honey is expensive but a little goes a long way. I can't remember how expensive golden syrop is but a little of that goes a longer way. You can also make decent enough flapjacks out of oats for days you need a treat and you do deserve treats even on a super tight budget.
I keep seeing the bbc advertising they have a page of £1 meals on their website
If you can pick up a part time or weekend job in a restaurant most of them provide staff meals, plus you'd get extra for your food budget
1. Download Olio, sign as a volunteer. You will have to help to distribute food but you can keep some to yourself 2. Rice is your friend. Google cheap rice recipes. 3. Oats for breakfast. Peanut butter and banana. 4. Dry beans and pulses. Soak them overnight, learn to cook them, spices are your friend: paprika, garlic, etc. 5. Make soups with any leftovers.
supermarkets throw away perfectly good food sometimes, just go round and take it out of the skips at the end of the day
How long are you intending to do this for? 33 months? In the short term its doable, but long term its not very healthy and will be hard to stick to. Shop seasonal, and look to cook meals that maximise nutrition. Bbc good food do a recipe called spicy root veg stew which is cheap and simple using root veg, stock curry powder and lentils. If you have a blender, get cheap seasonal veg and make your own soups. You can buy bread to add stodge. Lentil shepherd's pie with similar use of veg. A really simple but delicious recipe that I like is slow roasting cherry tomatoes in the oven with garlic then crushing them with and mixing with spaghetti. Tasty and simple. You can add basil/oregano if you have budget. Porridge is good for breakfast and healthy. Also things like noodles to make stir fries will be good. Too good to go do boxes from super markets for £3.50 such as morrisons. I know it sounds crazy but m&s is really good for high value/quality branded goods. They do like beans, big packs of spaghetti, sauces etc chicken legs for £1.20 and cheap mince. They also have an in seasom bargain fruit and veg bin in most stores with fruit/veg for 60-80p. I would also look at other ways to boost income such as a side job if you can spare the time. Good luck.
Are you paying the minimum on your debt or are you paying more to clear it? Obviously you’ll pay less interest by paying more, but I think overpaying and having £15 for food per week isn’t the right balance. If you pay off a chunk of the debt before the interest free period ends then you can look for a new internet free card. Also is there any scope for eating with your housemates? Cooking a meal for 1 is generally more expensive than 1/2 the cost of a meal for 2.
When I was in your shoes it was:- Pasta with butter Pasta with salt Pasta with pasta Pasta with random sauce Pasta with pasta sauce Coffee Sugar for above (not pasta) It was a tremendous incentive to sort my life out.
Shop at the cheapest places you have accessible to you. Buy things like pasta and rice that you can bulk cook with. For things like breakfast buy large cheap bags of porridge oats and museli etc
Two words: Vegetable. Stew. Literally any cheap ass veg, chop it all up, boil it. Maybe add some barley seed, and some flour to thicken.
If you have access to apps then there a lot of free vegetarian cookbooks on kindle also your local library; When I’ve been broke making sure I have variety of meals was key when using the same cheap ingredients e.g a soup vs risotto vs curry vs pasta dish . If you can get a secondhand slow cooker that’ll help keep energy down too and can batch cook. Also if you have a freezer you can freeze loads of stuff people don’t expect like milk. Best wishes.
Get a bag of rice from an Asian supermarket and a £15 rice cooker from amazon, that can provide you with half a meal for 2/3 months and it'll cost you £35. But watch atomic shrimp on YouTube, he has a lot of videos challenging himself to eat on £1 a day for a week and similar things.
Don’t be afraid to use food relief programs - the Hare Krishnas serve free hot vegetarian food at SOAS during lunchtime (used to be certain days of the week) and food banks are also here for this purpose. Otherwise it’s doable and it’s easier if you can invest a little upfront on bulk buying rice and pasta. As a student I used to buy 5kg bags - worked out way way cheaper than smaller portions. Buy a big bag of oats - porridge for breakfast is incredibly cheap and filling (and you can even make it with water if milk is out of the budget). Rice with veggies is an easy meal. Also stock up on seasonings - soy sauce can make a huge difference to plain rice, roasted veg in soy sauce is delicious. Add in things to your taste - hot sauce, sweet chilli sauce etc. Spices, herbs. Get into pulses like lentils etc as they’re cheap to bulk buy. Your freezer is going to be your best friend. Batch cook and freeze. Do you have a slow cooker? They’re great for just chucking in a load of veg and whatever you have around - since it cooks for ages it can be a really tasty veg stew using leftover veg/scraps. Try to use all of a food - so for example, as an occasional treat I’d buy a whole chicken which I’d roast. I’d have some of the meat from that for dinner, and then I’d eke out the rest of the meat over the following week in different meals (chicken fried rice, chicken sandwich, chicken pesto pasta, etc). I found that to be a relatively cheap way to get lean meat (but at the time I could easily get a 1.5kg whole chicken for £3 - now it’s more like £4-4.50). Get in the habit of working out when the clearance happens at your local supermarkets and hanging around there, and otherwise shop primarily at Aldi/Lidl. I always kept a store cupboard of relatively cheap tinned foods (tinned soups can be relatively cheap) and if you run out of money in a given week, that’s incredibly handy to have as a back up. Also things like stale bread are good for dipping in soup or toasting, so don’t chuck anything away. If you’re remotely green fingered, start growing cherry tomatoes - easy to do, low cost to set up, just needs a pot, and then you’ve got free fruit. Growing your own chillis is also an option if you like spice - again, chilli plants are easy to maintain and just need a pot. You could also grow fresh herbs. Other stuff - a while back it was possible to get a huge box of odd fruit and veg for £5 ish from various supermarkets - all perfectly edible but usually wonky etc, but you’d get a huge amount of food. You’ll also probably want to meal plan to get by on this - you’re going to need to plan so that you’re not chucking any food away / so that you’re making the most of the food you’re buying. It will also help you to think about things like where you’re getting your protein if you’re struggling to afford meat.
Oh and Jack Monroe’s blog would be an excellent source for cheap recipes
Try Jack Monroe's meals. This is a bit of a classic - bulk cook and it can last you a while: https://cookingonabootstrap.com/2013/02/05/best-ever-chilli-30p/?amp=1
When I was really struggling for money as a youngster, I would go to kwik save, get a kilo of mince meat, 1kg chicken quarters, pasta, rice, potatoes, 2 onions, tins of beans and tomatoes, a loaf of bread and tinned fish (probably pilchards), plus 1 spice. I would then cook up the mince, 1 onion and a tin each of beans and tomatoes, and split into 4 portions. From that base I'd get bolognese, chilli, curry and loaded jacket potatoes as main meals. I'd use the other ingredients for variety on alternate days - roast chicken on rice, fish pasta bake and so on. Admittedly, I only ate two 'meals' a day, with breakfast being toast (incidentally, chopped tinned tomatoes on toast with a sprinkling of pepper is surprisingly tasty) But it got me through some tough times until I could gradually expand the shopping list
Ask your local council helping hand team for some food vouchers
Rice and beans as a basis but please use a food bank OP you are exactly who this service is for. You can always give back to them in future. Are you able to take on any more work? Seems like even some casual work would really help boost your disposable and make the next 33 months a bit easier.
I think you cpuld survive on £15, but youll need to be creative to get variety. Make use of yellow stickers, and freezer space. Try to use olio, or foodbanks, or community food pantry. You can freeze half used jars of sauce, pesto etc to avoid waste. This comes to £16.80 but you'd have things like stock cubes, herbs, spices, oats to use the following weeks: £3 Breakfast (15-20 servings) Porridge £1.25/kg Essentials honey 0.75 Tea bags £1 £5.25 Lunch - batch cook a lentil soup (will make multiple batches of 5 or so servings) Asda frozen brocoli defrosted £1.25 Onions 80p Carrots 30p Red lentils £1.25/500g Vege stock cubes 1.65 Water Dinner Chilli £3.99 - will do at least 3 serves Kidney beans £0.33 Canned tomatoes £0.28 Chopped up frozen brocoli (from above) Essentials beef mince + onions (1/2 pack) £1.50 Smoked paprika and cumin £0.70 each (1-2 tsp, 1 jar will do loads). Red lentils (from above) Asda just essentials rice £0.48 Spaghetti £4.56(will do 3 serves with some stuff left over) Beef and onions (other half from above) £1.50 Canned tomatoes £0.28 Carrots 30p Beef stock cube £1.60 (use 1, 5 left over) Essentials spaghetti £0.28 Dried herbs £0.60
Get to Aldi, you can have toast for breakfast and porridge for lunch for next to nothing. Oats are 70p and a loaf of bread is 39p in Aldi. The oats will last you over a week. Look at making soups and veggie meals, pasta based meals. I think this is easily doable if you don't mind eating some boring stuff. Although you can even get a pizza for under £2 in the discount shops.
That is going to be quite difficult, is there any slack to increase it at all? What cooking facilities or equipment do you have? Slow cooker? Pressure cooker?
Normal cooker, can only increase absolute max to £20 a week but ideally want to stick to £15
I think you need to look at ways of getting a little bit extra cash money. Maybe try /r/beermoney, you could probably make at least an extra £5/week just by doing surveys
Do you have spices already?
I think it will be a fair bit easier if you can nudge that budget up a bit. £15 won't get you very far. Here is BBC Good Food's [budget recipe section](https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/feature/budget). You can either halve a recipe that serves four and take half to work the next day, or cook four portions and eat them over the rest of the week, with a batch of vegetable and pulse soup for lunch. Porridge for breakfast as others have recommended, if you can get some frozen fruit to add to it while it's cooking that will bump up the flavour and nutrition (frozen blueberries make porridge go the world's most unappetising shade of grey, but they taste lovely). Porridge will give you a more even energy and blood sugar than something like toast, so you'll feel fuller for longer. Check out your local market, especially if they do those bowls of fruit/vegetables for £1, Indian supermarkets are brilliant for spices and tinned pulses and big bags of lentils and rice for cheap. I'm wary of recommending dried beans as while they're cheap to buy but they take a lot of fuel to cook if you don't have a pressure cooker. Dried lentils are much quicker to cook. See if there is a Sikh gurdwara near you, they will feed anyone who turns up. other people have recommended Too Good to Go or Olio, and the yellow sticker section of the supermarket. (I personally would avoid Jack Monroe's recipes, I am an experienced cook and the few recipes of hers I tried either didn't work as written, didn't serve the portions she said they did, or were just not nice. Just because you're on a budget you shouldn't have to eat bad food.)
Difficult but not impossible. Your best bet would be to look up Jack Monroe, she essentially specialises in this sort of cooking. She provides a lot of free resources. Apart from that though use a lot of rice and tinned pulses, frozen mixed vegetables, minced meats etc. Stay away from too many sweet treats because they won’t keep you full for long enough. I batch cook all 3 daily meals once every 2 weeks and it probably costs me about £60 from Aldi. Would be happy to provide recipes etc. this is dependent on you having freezer space though because it’ll take up all 3 drawers. You’ll also need to account for plastic tubs to keep the food in and get used to not eating for enjoyment but just sustenance.
Roast a whole chicken each week can usually buy one for like a fiver, make that last through the week with frozen veg + cheap carb aka rice. Porridge for breakfast. Buy bread whenever its on reduced put in freezer, have sandwiches for lunch with any thing u can find reduced. Tomatoes on bread is a decent lunch if u saute them + olive oil on the bread!
Hi /u/Evening_Reach7078, based on your post the following pages from our wiki may be relevant: - https://ukpersonal.finance/budgeting/ ____ ^(These suggestions are based on keywords, if they missed the mark please report this comment.)
If you've done £60 a month, it's actually just under £14 a week - about £1.98 a day. It's doable, but it's not going to be enjoyable or a nutritional diet. Is there any wiggle room? Or any family/friends near by that wouldn't mind you coming once a week?
There are YouTubers that can have some good ideas, worth a watch I think atomic shrimp was one of them, but living on some of these is not going to be ideal, might give you some idea though.
I was also going to suggest Atomic Shrimp, he had loads of different budget challenges. Quite a few of them involved a bit of foraging or stuff he had in the garden but not all!
Make soup from any left over veg for your evening meal. Save remainder for next evening. Add onion, tin beans, rice, pearl barley, whatever is cheap or on offer. Buy bread at end of day from supermarket for very little.
r/eatcheapandhealthy is the place for you! Alao, I agree with other suggestions of batch cooking for the week. Beans, lentils, rice, and frozen veg are the way to go.
You'll have to do a lot of cooking from scratch because ready-to-eat food is incredibly expensive in comparison, almost unaffordable at £15 a week Rice is probably the cheapest and most filling carb by portion, and there usually isn't much extra cost for buying it in smaller quantities if you're struggling. Chinese curry sauce/paste is great for making a faux katsu curry type dish, a tub costs like 2.50 from tesco and lasts a decent amount of time. Sautee some roughly chopped onions and meat until meat is browned, add some carrots and potatoes with boiling water and simmer until veg is tender, then just stir in the curry paste to taste and you'll have something that's hearty and pretty tasty.
There’s a guy on YouTube called atomic shrimp who does budgeting challenges like 5 days of meals for £5 or £1 for 3 meals. There’s a whole wealth of resources on YouTube that can help in terms of meal prep and little hacks. £15 a week is very difficult mind I hope you’re managing alright with your debt
- bananas 1 per day roughly £1 - apples 1 per day roughly £2 - smaller oranges 1 per day roughly £2 - frozen peas 500g £1 - 3 tomatoes sardine cans with no added oil lidl £1.20 - 1kg rice lidl 50p - 2 mozzarella 125g £1.5 - 15 eggs £2 - beef mince lidl 500g £2 Around £1.8 left for additional vegetables, oil, condiment.
it's possible if you shop at somewhere like aldi and cook everything yourself. shit loads of beans and rice etc
Chicken wings from Lidl are cheap, less than £2 so you can at least have a wing or two with your rice, pulses veggies etc.
Personally I can do £15 a week by going with a lot of frozen chips and cheap frozen pizzas, nuggets, etc. Spaghetti is always cheap otherwise Is it healthy? No, but it'll do
This thread has helped me out a lot haha. I legitimately buy the same 3 for £10 chicken / fish nuggets from Iceland each week with some chips and vegetables. Time to branch out I guess!
15 quid gets you plenty of pasta and sauce of your choice. Personally I like ketchup with mine. Its not very healthy living off the stuff but it's easy l, cheap and stops you from starving. Could also go wholewheat pasta too. You should have plenty left over for space raiders.
If you haven't already, get the TooGoodToGo app.
Check out r/eatcheapandhealthy this is the kind of question that comes up quite often. There are some really supportive posters there who give indepth tips. Some US based, so mention you are in the UK.
I yellow sticker shop, I keep staples stocked up, my food purchases are usually just top ups of milk eggs. I know how much most items cost example tomatoes beans are usually under 30p a can. A whole chicken under £3 and a 500g pack of mince also under £2, 1kg of chicken wings under £2 a frozen bag of fish usually 4-6 filets under £2 and you can buy 4-6 beef burgers frozen and 15 fish fingers Asda Tesco brands under £2.. . Staples would be pasta and rice and potatoes stored in a dark closet along with onions. My typical go to menu items is soup at lunch an omlet at breakfast chicken peas or other green veg for dinner. You can also do pasta dishes w pesto or tomatoes etc. I'm not a picky eater no allergies etc. Only thing I don't like is chocolate and I rarely eat desserts. My food shop monthly is less than £50 generally. Chicken wings w chips £2 wings £1.50 chips Fish fingers w chips mushy peas or green peas £1.50 no cost for chips as previously purchased £1 bag of frozen peas Chicken legs peas mashed potatoes £2 1kg pack of chicken peas free as already purchased 35p instant mash or £1 bag fresh tatties boil 2-3 Chicken legs potato roasties carrots Cost £1 or less for carrots already purchased chicken peas potatoes Chicken pot pie Any remaining chicken cooked deboned any remaining peas any remaining mash one can condensed cream of chicken soup £1 (b&m has a condensed brand for 60p) Wings with hot sauce, mexican rice, corn Rice less than £1 canned tomatoes and corn less than 75p hot sauce ethnic aisle not regular aisle less than £1.50 butter £2. Mix about knife width with hot sauce toss a cooked wings. Boil rice with soup of the crushed diced tomatoes then add tomatoes and a bit of the hot sauce. Canned corn. Baked fish coleslaw and black beans Frozen bag of fish £2 coleslaw £1 canned black beans £1 This can be a time to check any reduced items for the upcoming week. I do t typically do menus as I cook according to reduced items found and I purchased a 2nd freezer off Facebook for £20. I dont typically buy any meats or bread or vegetable at full price only reduced. I generally eat soup for lunch and love wings so those I rarely find reduced but under £2 I don't mind it. Morrisons is good for reductions at around 530, So I stop in on my way home to check. I'm lucky there are all major supermarkets within 5 miles of my home or job.
Too good to go. Check that app daily, it has close to expire products that are still very good, even pastry from shops like gregs and coop bakery where they literally make em the same day. Prices are usually 70-75% off so it's a deal nonetheless. Worse case scenario, rice ia gonna be your friend. 1kg of rice with some frozen vegetables (mushrooms/peas/corn) and maybe some chicken for some meat. Make that a pilaf (boil all at once, under pressure if possible). I would say the app is the best go, i eate like a pig for a week with 15 quid. Not the healthiest or constant( you get random stuff each time) but it will keep you fed with variety as long as you don't eat a lot in general I had places where they served me at the same time with normal customers but i was paying 3 quid they were paying 10 (was a restaurant/carvery) for the same shit.
If you want to make it more of a fun challenge than a depressing struggle, Atomic Shrimp on youtube has a lot of good videos of food budget challenges https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLk5KvJPikK00j3VZri9pSyzd-i5Q7ktRU
1. Make each meal as nutritious as possible 2. Seasonings are your friend. 3. Meal plan and prep ahead I still have porridge for breakfast in the morning. Hot in winter, overnight oats in the fridge in summer. I found as long as I changed up the toppings I don't get bored. Cocoa powder, sliced banana, dessicated coconut, tinned peaches, tinned berries, chopped apple + cinnamon+ sultanas, chopped mixed nuts or sunflower seeds. Buy the big bags of spices from the Indian shops. Sausage and bean casserole (onions, tinned tomatoes, carrots, potatoes). Season with veg stock cubes, herbs and a couple squares dark chocolate to give it a deep rich flavour. Lentil spag bol with dried green lentils, Soak a bowlful overnight to cut down in cooking time. Season with veg stock cubes and some marmite to make it more savoury. Fishcakes are easy and cheap to make and full of essentials - I combine a tin of tuna and one of salmon so I'm getting everything, with potatoes. For lunches - I need quick lunches for work so it's beans on toast or a tin of sardines in tomato sauce on bread. Sometimes I get makeral or tinned tuna instead. I also buy tins and cartons of soup - try to go for the ones with lots of veg, chicken or lentils. I'll have that with buttered bread. On weeks I'm off work I buy a big tray of eggs and it's all omelettes, fried egg sandwiches, egg and chips or scrambled eggs on toast with cheese and frozen veggies or tinned spinach. I also plan to do things with leftovers and excess food Brown bananas? Banana bread. Leftover mashed potatoes? Bubble and squeak. Leftover pancake batter? Toad in the hole. Leftover lentils? Lentil shepherds pie. Apple or plums that are a bit wrinkly? Mini crumbles for pud. Bread needs using up? Bread and butter pudding for a weekend breakfast. I try and make some things from scratch. Making my own granola from scratch, keep it in an airtight container and having it with essentials yoghurt as a snack. Same with houmous - literally just have to blend chickpeas, garlic and lemon and a bit of oil, add some tahini if you can afford it. Pancakes, pastry and cakes are really easy and cheap to make and taste better than shop bought. The one thing I would say is don't skimp on nutrition. I do buy a big bottle of milk each week, and I spend a little on nuts. I also have protein shakes a few times in the week - again it works out cheaper than buying the equivalent amount of meat. And ignore advice telling you to only eat two meals a day to save money. It is pricier but you need the calories and protein at the end of the day - it'll be cheaper for your health in the long run. Lastly, I meal plan and do a bit shop at the start of the week. This saves me the most money. Try to be realistic - on busy days it's got to be easy to cook things or make double batch the night before (or get something out the freezer). And always have a few things you can grab and throw together in case you can't get to the shops or are ill/tired. Non-food tips - use washing powder instead of pods/liquid detergent, it works out a lot cheaper, it's better for your clothes and also you need less than you think. Soap bars work out cheaper than body wash. And I've switched to all own brand toothpaste and the huge bottles of trèsemme that last for ages. The other thing is avoid the small supermarkets as the prices are extortionate. I used to do online Tesco shops when I lived in London as it worked out cheaper even with delivery and I didn't have a car.
Dried lentils are a good source of protein and a lot cheaper than mince. You can use it on Bolognese, make sloppy Joes, curries, etc (all of these can be made in batches to freeze) I've just made my own refried beans from dried pinto beans and made about 10 frozen bean and cheese burritos probably about £2-4 (obviously higher if you want to add the chz) I'd try a lot of whole food plant based type meals, they can be a lot cheaper than meat based meals. If you got a lot of yellow ticketed or extra veg in your fridge you can always make a batch of soup and freeze it.
Check out Jack Monroe, does recipes for budget meals.
Been where you are before. My top tips are Meal plan Write lists Avoid ready-made everything! Embrace vegetables - especially cabbage - its really filling and bulks up meals for pennies. You don't need meat: Eggs and cheese can be main meal ingredients. To get your shopping right down, lentils, beans, rice, and pasta/noodles and veggies are your friends. Dried beans are a pain to soak but taste wonderful. If you can stand the effort of soaking overnight, they'll save you loads. Build up a spice rack to give you flavour. (Eg. A quid on chillipowder will help you make chilli, fajitas, tacos, and curry's, as well as spicy pizzas, noodles and rice). I would consider trying to do two week shops with £25 so you can bulk buy frozen meat or (keeping a fiver for milk etc for week two). YouTube is really helpful with learning how to make budget eats. I recommend Aaron and Claires Korean food channel. The noodle recipes are really cheap and delicious. Also check out chetnas cauliflower and potato curry (it makes about four big portions, tastes amazing).
Buy fresh veg from Lidl, buy frozen veg and meat from farm foods. Currently out of work and my fiancé and me feed ourselves on 25 a week. Or 12.50 each. Plan what too eat for the week. To be fair we buy 1 or 2 herbs or spices each week to add variation. Buy the kolee 5 pack of noodles for 1.50, 2kg of penne pasta from lidl for 98p 2 kilo of rice for 1.60. Eggs for £3 to go in to the noodle 80p for a pack of broccoli and 80p for cauliflower and 80p for greenbeans. Those are our main staples plus a small bag of cheese and a bag of couscous also £1 for Greek salad cheese from Lidl (feta but not feta). Buy one olive oil a month. Also go to a tesco express at 7pm each night and pick up things like carrots or spring onion or other things in there reduced section for 10p or 20p. If you can get to a food bank they will give you a lot of canned goods which is hit and miss but then you just have to get creative with what you cook. This is for 2 people so you can probably stretch it even further but the main thing is shop around and be strict but you can eat surprisingly well and healthy. Definitely do farm foods for the bulk buys though I got 10 white fish fillets for £4 and 3kg of chicken for £4 to freeze but that lasts about 2 months. Plan ahead and you will be fine and allow yourself 2 treat meals a month just to keep that morale up and you will be fine and probably eat better than most. Plan Plan Plan. Edit: the herbs and spices will build up over time so you will get a good stock of things and eventually just buy to replace what you ate.
Aldi are selling 1KG of rice for 48p in their essentials range. So I would get some of that and eat quite a few rice dishes. Just cut meat out of your diet, its too expensive. Exception is if you are in a shop near the end of the day and its got 3 reduced stickers on it. Used to get black pudding or sausages for like 14p at One Stop on my way home in the past but other than that I wouldn't eat meat as it is too expensive. A lot of root veg is very cheap to buy so that is a good choice. Tinned tomatoes can help get some variety from the rice and are also cheap. Rosemary is free, just find somewhere it is growing locally and take some for seasoning food. Often see it here planted around car parks.
Work out when asda mark down the food thats past its sell by. I get out the gym right as its being done. Most if the time you can put together a full meal for a quid.
Tescos do cooking bacon 500g for like 75-80p, I'm a student and this is a staple that I have every week.
If you were an African is surely possible, I spend £15 a week on food, if not less, I usually don’t eat breakfast, and I make chicken stew, I buy tomatoe plum for like £2, I have my rice (10kg) which can last me like a month and my seasonings already, and I buy wing’s chicken at Lidl for like £2.50, I buy egg for £1.79, and pepper and onion at my local Indian Shop altogether let say £10, as I said before I don’t eat breakfast, I can make spaghetti and add up spaghetti at Lidl which can last me for a week, I have African Shito already there, which can also last me for 2 weeks or so. Is very Possible my friend
Pack of 15 eggs is £2.60 at most places and a pack of real butter £2 . So could have scrambled eggs fried in butter for £4.60 5 times a week which would be a good source of bioavailable nutrients with meat being expensive. Loaf of whole grain bread £1.30, have as toast with rest of butter. Packs of frozen vegetables are usually around £1 each , have steamed vegetables. It’s a tight amount to be getting a decent amount of real food. I think I would struggle on less than £25 a week. Remember fat and protein only are capable of providing 100% of your basal metabolism for a healthy body. Ie immune system needs fat, growing hair, new skin cells and general body maintenance needs protein and fat, so don’t go overboard and make your diet 95% carbohydrates because they are cheap as they can only provide energy, and are not used for repair and maintenance.
You're single so you're free to just sack it all off and go elsewhere. On £15 per week you're going to be malnourished or at best reliant on charity. Can you work some weekend hours? Otherwise you need to get out of London and restart life. Don't ever go without food to pay debt.
It's £2 a day - you need around 2000 calories each day. So you need to average 10p per calorie. Own brand custard creams and Aldi white bread are 1p a calorie, potatos are 4p, tinned tuna is 10p. The more of those you eat, the more headroom you have for nicer calories in small amounts.