Losing Weight on a Budget?

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musicaljessica

Hi! Best of luck! I honestly believe it can be done (and I have also ate healthy and lost weight on a very very tight student budget). Ive managed with the following tips: Buy mostly frozen veggies and fruits. Although this means most of your veggies will be cooked for consumption, frozen produce is frozen at the source so (apparently) there are more nutrients than we find in fresh veggies that have been sitting on a shelf for days, frozen produce is on sale (as there are many different brands in that frozen foods isle)and can be purchased in bulk (and there is nothing as good as frozen berries, milk and 1 crushed generic cookies to make you feel like your treating yourself). Baking your own bread is REALLY cheap, and fun. Generic rice cakes and nut butters are your friend in a pinch. Buy dried lentils and beans from a non big-box store (the only difference is you have to soak them, but you leave out all that nasty sodium). Lastly (and I'm still working on this myself) finding a love for homemade soup is very helpful. Good luck!

I had thought abuot buying frozen because tbh I throw alot out when it goes off - and with frozen it'll not go off.
And I've never made my own bread! I love baking (although I'm not sure cakes are such a good plan right now).
I love making my own soup. I use my Nana's recipe and make it in bulk and freeze in portions. But I only ever do that when veg is going off. And then I normally forget its in the freezer and make something else.

Never tried using lentils. And I wouldn't know what to do with them or what to put them in!! Same with beans. Other than chilli what can I do with them? Cos I know that lentils and beans are a good source of protein - which I'm trying to up right now

MiNiMoNkI

I can spend £70 a week thats feeds 4 of us and the dog. i find the best way to shop on a budget is to make a meal plan for the week, writin down what you will be making for each meal. Most of us overspend anyway. If you do this you will then only be buying what you need thus not wasting money

musicaljessica

I can spend £70 a week thats feeds 4 of us and the dog. i find the best way to shop on a budget is to make a meal plan for the week, writin down what you will be making for each meal. Most of us overspend anyway. If you do this you will then only be buying what you need thus not wasting money

Thats a great idea. I never make meal plans, but I should really. It'd make things a million times easier. And I'm fed up of binning potatoes or carrots because I just bought far too many.

almondgirl00

I can spend £70 a week thats feeds 4 of us and the dog. i find the best way to shop on a budget is to make a meal plan for the week, writin down what you will be making for each meal. Most of us overspend anyway. If you do this you will then only be buying what you need thus not wasting money

Thats a great idea. I never make meal plans, but I should really. It'd make things a million times easier. And I'm fed up of binning potatoes or carrots because I just bought far too many.

Blanch and freeze them. When I chop up my vegetables I put the peelings (the good stuff; it's not a compost heap) into a little container in the freezer for stock making. If I have vegetables left over at the end of the week I either make a soup or I freeze. I hate waste.

melaniecheeks

Tinned beans are a great cheap source of protein - Sainsburys were doing a "5 tins for £2" deal recently so I stocked up on a variety of kidney beans, borlotti, cannelini etc. They are great in a stew - you can add in some strongly flavorued meat like chorizo and that makes it stretch further. Red kidney beans are familar in chilli con carne, and chickpeas added to a lamb tagine are lovely. And any beans make a tasty addition to vegetable soups.

If you're throwing out veg - you're over-buying. There's nothing worse when you're on a budget. Plan ahead, only buy what you need, and factor in that there will be leftovers.

Use seasonal veg - asparagus and baby sweetcorn that have had to be flown in from Kenya are going to be more expensive than a locally grown cauliflower.

JeSuisPrest

Coupons, coupons, coupons!!!! Paired with sales equals great savings. I use www.thegrocerygame.com I couldn't afford to shop any other way!

magikmax

Have to agree with the OP. Went to our local Lidls yesterday (similar to Aldi) in search of some cheap veg. While some prices were good, half the price of Tescos for example, I got a few sweet potatoes for a Tesco Diets recipe I'm following, and the nearly hit the floor when I realised that they were £5, which was more than I had paid for the chicken breasts!

It's seems to be a fact, as far as supermarkets are concerned, that fresh fruit & veg, and other things that are good for us are dearer than the processed sludge that they freeze and put into ready meals. Also, if you're not used to putting a lot of natural ingredients together, you might not have jars of spices etc. that all mount up, whereas now you have bought them, they'll last a good while. It's definitely not cheap being on a diet...

Salukisazuki

I shop for my fruit and veg in Aldi & the veg shop near me. My weekly budget is 15 pounds and i dont always use all that(its just me and the dog) but as suggested by bothers i buy packs and split them and freeze them. things like bread because i wont eat a whole loaf in a week.

I freeze loads. for fruit, i cook up some apples and berries and freeze those for then im really broke and need a fruit fix Obviously not as good a the fresh whole fruit but i figure its still a step in the right directon:)

my tips are
shop around
write a list and stick too it
set yourself a limit and only take that much cash, then you will only buy what you can afford.
split and freeze what you can
make meals from scratch- usually tastier and cheper

good luck x

musicaljessica

I shop for my fruit and veg in Aldi & the veg shop near me. My weekly budget is 15 pounds and i dont always use all that(its just me and the dog) but as suggested by bothers i buy packs and split them and freeze them. things like bread because i wont eat a whole loaf in a week.

I freeze loads. for fruit, i cook up some apples and berries and freeze those for then im really broke and need a fruit fix Obviously not as good a the fresh whole fruit but i figure its still a step in the right directon:)

my tips are
shop around
write a list and stick too it
set yourself a limit and only take that much cash, then you will only buy what you can afford.
split and freeze what you can
make meals from scratch- usually tastier and cheper

good luck x

Those are great tips. I am going to definitely use the cash one! If I don't want to spend over £45 (thats the ideal amount) I can only spend up to £45 if thats all I have on me.

Rubyinthesand2012

I was given some "stay-fresh" bags from my mum, you basically put the fruit or veg in them and then in the fridge or wherever you normally store and it keeps the fruit fresher for longer.... Bananas lasted 3 weeks without going brown! carrots lasted ages as did brocoli and cauli and sprouts etc... means i can bulk buy when things are on offer.
they sell them on ebay & amazon

musicaljessica

I was given some "stay-fresh" bags from my mum, you basically put the fruit or veg in them and then in the fridge or wherever you normally store and it keeps the fruit fresher for longer.... Bananas lasted 3 weeks without going brown! carrots lasted ages as did brocoli and cauli and sprouts etc... means i can bulk buy when things are on offer.
they sell them on ebay & amazon

They sound amazing! I could really do with some. Asda always have big bulk offers and those bags would would be perfect for us.

ooshlet

i'm on a strict budget at the moment. i make a giant vegetable soup every weekend - normally some kind of variation of butternut squash, red lentils, carrots etc, then eat that all week. freeze some and just keep it in the fridge. then i have eggs and nuts for protein. it can be done - you just have to plan a little bit more.

swisspea

Frozen produce is truly helpful, I love it, I'm munching on some grapes I froze a few weeks ago when they were on sale

Beans: I make a lot of salads with beans- something simple: beans, olive oil, garlic salt and different vinegars make a good lunch. As for lentils, I like putting them in soups. They really fill me up. My favorurite is a potato-lentil soup, which is basically boiled skinned mashed potatoes, vegetable broth, a bit of light sour cream (or yogurt) and lentils all mixed together and left to simmer with some herbs- yum yum!

I always do the same with freezer stuff, which is really bad! or I think "no, its only for when I'm really busy and there is a food EMERGENCY"- which pretty much never happens and I forget it for a few months, and by then its full of freezer burn and gross (like my butternut squash soup I tried to de-thaw last night).

Hi! Best of luck! I honestly believe it can be done (and I have also ate healthy and lost weight on a very very tight student budget). Ive managed with the following tips: Buy mostly frozen veggies and fruits. Although this means most of your veggies will be cooked for consumption, frozen produce is frozen at the source so (apparently) there are more nutrients than we find in fresh veggies that have been sitting on a shelf for days, frozen produce is on sale (as there are many different brands in that frozen foods isle)and can be purchased in bulk (and there is nothing as good as frozen berries, milk and 1 crushed generic cookies to make you feel like your treating yourself). Baking your own bread is REALLY cheap, and fun. Generic rice cakes and nut butters are your friend in a pinch. Buy dried lentils and beans from a non big-box store (the only difference is you have to soak them, but you leave out all that nasty sodium). Lastly (and I'm still working on this myself) finding a love for homemade soup is very helpful. Good luck!

I had thought abuot buying frozen because tbh I throw alot out when it goes off - and with frozen it'll not go off.
And I've never made my own bread! I love baking (although I'm not sure cakes are such a good plan right now).
I love making my own soup. I use my Nana's recipe and make it in bulk and freeze in portions. But I only ever do that when veg is going off. And then I normally forget its in the freezer and make something else.

Never tried using lentils. And I wouldn't know what to do with them or what to put them in!! Same with beans. Other than chilli what can I do with them? Cos I know that lentils and beans are a good source of protein - which I'm trying to up right now

shakybabe

Really? That seems a lot for just fruit and veg when meat is so much more expensive. Are these the bulk buy frozen food type Iceland deals?

I get organic veg delivered to my home and I get a weeks worth for just £10!

where from?

ednawhatnot

Porridge oats are great for breakfast and dirt cheap, they can also be used to thicken soups and add bulk to dishes like stew etc which makes them go further. Lentils are another multipurpose item which are great for bulking meals out or using instead of meat for a chilli or similar (I often make a chilli or savoury 'mince' using leftover bits of veg, lentils and onions). I'm also making vegetable broth once a week which costs me about 30p per portion - it's just chopped veg like carrot, celery, cabbage & leek with a couple of handfuls of dried soup mix soaked overnight, a stock cube and whatever herbs I feel like dropping in.

Do you have a friend you could shop with to take advantage of multibuys?