food shopping on a budget. UK
haylz247
Posts: 435
i have about £15 a week to spend on food. i'm sick and tired of eating my partners mums
crappy food!
what can i do?
not really too keen on meat as i hate touching it raw!
any suggestions welcome
crappy food!
what can i do?
not really too keen on meat as i hate touching it raw!
any suggestions welcome
0
Replies
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ALDI or lidl, I spend £45 a week but that is for three people, and includes toiletries cleaning stuff and the occasional bottle of beeri have about £15 a week to spend on food. i'm sick and tired of eating my partners mums
crappy food!
what can i do?
not really too keen on meat as i hate touching it raw!
any suggestions welcome0 -
Asian supermarket for cheap lentils, tofu and rice.0
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yes aldi or lidl.
Buy rice, beans, veg, tinned tomatoes, sweet potatoes, make lots of rice dishes, get some lentils too, lentil bolognaise, lentil cottage pie0 -
Aldi, Lidl, and local fruit and veg shops or if you have a local market they can be good for getting cheap fruit and veg. I can get £8's worth of veg that will make god knows how many meals (soups, stews....etc) which can be frozen can used for weeks to come.
Feel free to check out my diary for ideas, I'm vegetarian and unemployed so I understand the difficulties of eating healthy on a budget 0 -
Aldi, Lidl, and local fruit and veg shops or if you have a local market they can be good for getting cheap fruit and veg. I can get £8's worth of veg that will make god knows how many meals (soups, stews....etc) which can be frozen can used for weeks to come.
Feel free to check out my diary for ideas, I'm vegetarian and unemployed so I understand the difficulties of eating healthy on a budget
i will do thanks! yeah i don't have a job either and i really want one!
i want to go to college this year and if i can't get a loan i can't go
i don't want to work in shops for the rest of my life.
thanks to everyone else 0 -
Big bag of potatoes can be got for not much.
Big bag of pasta shell, rice and cous cous.
Should sort you out for carbs for some time and only the potatoes need to be eaten in a reasonably short time frame. If you have more than you can eat in that time frame cook and freeze - baked and mashed should work ok at least.
Keep an eye on http://www.hotukdeals.com for deals - for instance wykes farm Mature cheddar was up for £1 at Asda. Just unfortunate I've pretty much cut cheese out.
Flour, sugar, eggs, marge to make cakes etc.
Try and work out when they had good deals on the 'on offer' section and consider stocking up a little and freezing if there's something you like for 15p. Used to work in a Starbucks inside a Sainsburys store some years ago - pop around to the offers after closing up every day and get some really good deals back in those days.
Oh and I wouldn't directly equate college etc with a better job, especially these days.
I've had various well paying jobs (last was £40k, now self employed) and have a sum total of 6 GCSEs.0 -
Lidi and Aldi are great shouts.
also it might not be the same for all Tesco's but my local Tesco going for 7pm is great thats when they put all their items on discount for the day, so you can pick up cheap bread, veg and meat for cheaper than normal, just grab them and stick them in the freezer soon as your ready for them defrost and away you go.0 -
Markets are good too, fruit and veg is cheaper and you can buy as much as you need, instead of buying packs which may go off froma supermarket. Lentils are a great cheap filling food....red lentil and thai curry paste soup is delicious. x0
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thank you all so much! i will go shopping next week
geebusuk, i know that it doesn't always mean a better job, but i want to work with animals.
i don't care if it's rubbish pay. i want to do something i enjoy or i will go crazy!0 -
I find ASDA smartprice pretty cheap, beans 25p, and tuna 55p, then just stock up on rice and pasta which can be bought in bulk.0
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In the last hour of opening all the food with that days sell by date gets reduced loads so go shopping late also anything that doesn't get sold then goes in a special food bin out back, in the packets, so if you're really skint a bit of bin diving might be worth a go. Get frozen veg and meat from farmfoods or Iceland, they do offers in farmfoods like 3 bags of 4 chicken breast for £10 and bags of mixed veggies for £1. As for fruit try local markets, where I live there's a crazy cheap green grocers stall, if not aldi do super 6, 6 fruits and veggies for 69p each or less. Plenty of wild berries are coming into fruit now, cherries, blackberries, elderberries, raspberries etc can be found almost everywhere, especially blackberries which Are usually planted round car parks and stuff. 0
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I suggest having a look online for student recipes and in charity shops for a student cookbooks, you'll have to adapt the recipes as they're not always healthiest of recipes but they do take advantage of simple foodstuffs so you can buy things in bulk0
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If you eat meat but just don't like to touch it, get a supermarket chicken for about £3.50, roast it then eat it hot and cold through the week then make soup. If you can't even handle that much flesh-handling, you can get a whole ready-roasted chicken from Tescos for £5.85.
Like others have said, stock up on rice, pasta, veg from the market, beans and lentils (tinned are cheap - dried are super-cheap) and tinned toms. Get the value range all the way, there's no noticeable difference from the full price stuff. Make a packed lunch every day - I save easily £20 a week doing that.0 -
If you eat meat but just don't like to touch it, get a supermarket chicken for about £3.50, roast it then eat it hot and cold through the week then make soup. If you can't even handle that much flesh-handling, you can get a whole ready-roasted chicken from Tescos for £5.85.
Like others have said, stock up on rice, pasta, veg from the market, beans and lentils (tinned are cheap - dried are super-cheap) and tinned toms. Get the value range all the way, there's no noticeable difference from the full price stuff. Make a packed lunch every day - I save easily £20 a week doing that.
touching it makes me feel ill haha super fussy when i eat meat.
tesco is too far away for me. might be somewhere in town that does ready cooked chicken.0 -
heya, eveyone kinda beat me to it with the good ideas, another idea is to try a couple weight watcher meals, some of there ready meals in freezer section are actualy lush, they are portion controled and calorie controled and great for dieting. plus they are usualy on offer in supermarkets(£1)but if not on offer they are generally under £2 xx0
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£15 really isn't going to get you far. Do you have a fruit and veg market stall where you live? There is one here that does huge Veg boxes (about 2 carrier bags of mixed veg - whatever is cheap and in season) for £5 which would be a good start. Otherwise Sainsburys do a similar thing, but not as big.
Look for things in the reduced section of the supermarket. There are some amazing bargains to be had if you buy things on the day they have to be sold, but you do have to look out every day, and be willing to eat whatever is on offer that day.0 -
learn how to make soups and stews. Buy a load of vegetables and foods and make a massive batch of it. Same with pasta.
Keep it in the fridge and heat up when you need. This got me through university!
I would avoid anything processed and full of chemicals like weight watcher meals. They taste like crap and wont fill you up. They arent even healthy.
Also buy lots of potatoes, sweet potatoes and things like that that fill you up and you can get for cheap. Avoid all snack food - that's where you will spend your money0 -
i am on a tight budget also being out of work and i buy nearly all asda smart price and sometimes if its cheaper to buy bulk i share the price with another friend who lives on her own so that makes things cheaper . pasta and tomatoe sauces porroidge is cheap i try to get 2 for one offers also milk if u buy 2 4pts u save u can freeze the other one till needed (IT IS OK TO FREEZE MILK I DO IT ALL THE TIME) buy bread thats nearly out of date and freeze i find bread lasts quite a bit longer then sellby date good luck
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I shop at ALDI very good value for money.0
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We have a low budget as well I often shop at Iceland and sainsbury's we would do farm foods but don't have the freezer space atm. They have a lot of £1 or deal items. Often our shopping list consists of frozen / fresh veggies & fruit, chicken breast, tuna and couscous. It really depends on what is close to you, and how far your willing to walk. It takes me about an hour to go to and from the shops by foot. As has been suggested if you can forage look into how to freeze and/or dry things correctly as this will help extend the life of what you can find. As can making jam's, chutney etc. Maybe see if their anyone you know would be willing to donate a bit of their garden for a veggie patch. :happy:0
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Pork shoulder is £2 a kg in Morrisons right now, it has no bone and only abit of fat/skin so you get around 1.5kg for £2 of actual meat, now per meal I think 50g for a soup/stew/curry is a nice amount (if bulked with veggies, 100g if little veg) so you should get enough for loads of meals! If you cook this pork in a slow cooker with a pint of stock (10p tesco cube work fine) then use the liquid the meat has cooked in to make a stew (remove the fat layer and use for roast potato) you get any meat goodnes that came out of the meat during cooking. Add some frozen veggies to the liquid and you have a stew, + 50g meat per person. 30g in some bread makes a nice sandwhich too!
Another is turkey leg meat, its cheap especially in morrisons where you get a leg and a thigh for £3, this amount does me about 10 meals and its lean, full of flavour and packed with protein. Roast the meat, keep the bones and the fat that runs out during cooking and make your own stock from it (it will be yummy!), stock in a slow cooker again is super duper easy, throw in bones, throw in skin and scratty gristle bits, add a pint of liquid, cook on low over night, put in a jug and put in the fridge untill the fat and stock can be seperated, use the fat for roast potatoes, and the stock is enough for about 2-3 stews! again just add frozen veg and about 50g meat per person. 30g of turkey makes a nice sandwhich too!
I know you said you are not keen on raw meat but roasting/slow cooking meat is super easy and you dont have to touch it!
Frozen meats and veg are so cheap! I get fresh veggies (I have rabbits and guinea pigs) from Tesco on a night for 20p or less per item and I have never spent more than 20p on a loaf of bread before! I spend as little as £20 per week to feed 2 people and the animals!0 -
If you eat meat but just don't like to touch it, get a supermarket chicken for about £3.50, roast it then eat it hot and cold through the week then make soup. If you can't even handle that much flesh-handling, you can get a whole ready-roasted chicken from Tescos for £5.85.
Like others have said, stock up on rice, pasta, veg from the market, beans and lentils (tinned are cheap - dried are super-cheap) and tinned toms. Get the value range all the way, there's no noticeable difference from the full price stuff. Make a packed lunch every day - I save easily £20 a week doing that.
touching it makes me feel ill haha super fussy when i eat meat.
tesco is too far away for me. might be somewhere in town that does ready cooked chicken.
Have you tried getting frozen meat? Just feels like a cold stone when you take it out the pack so might be easier for you to handle and obviously you wouldn't touch it with your hands once it comes out.
Also its a lot cheaper, I got 1.5kg of chicken from Sainsburys for £6 last week which is about 10 decent sized breasts which would last you a few weeks0 -
I get all my fruit and veg from the local market, it's so cheap it's untrue.
However annoying it is to hear pound a bowl over and over again, you get so much for your money.
it's always in season too.
If i spent £10 at the market, I would hardly be able to carry it all back.
I've started makeing curries, chilli's, quorn spag bol, tuna pasta bake, etc. I get roughly 6 meals out of each cook and the rest goes in the freezer.
I also get multi-packs of salmon fillets and things like that, again it goes in the freezer, I take it out the night before, so I barely need to do that much cooking, but always eat well.0 -
Try turkey mince, asda do 450g for £1.89. I make shepherd's pie for 7 with it, lots of frozen veggies (£1 each does lots of meals) 1 potato per person mashed with a corgette on top it's about 230 calories per helping but very filling and you can freeze it in portions for later! Also no touching meat, open container and drop into frying pan! (don't forget to take off the paper bit first, I use a knife!)
I used to wear rubber glove to cut up chicken when I first started cooking, so I know how you feel!
I found lots of good, but cheap meals after having my forth child when my husband came home and said his company was closing down, we had 9 months of being thrifty!0 -
Just remember, if you have any local supermarkets, hit the shelves a few hours before they closed for the reduced section. You can often find cheap fruit/veg in there! I spend about on average £20 for two people per week buying mainly fruit and veg (plus bits like lentils, chic peas etc) and we buy our meat mostly from the reduced section.
Just to echo what everyone else has said, soups and stews are fantastically cheap meals (and can be packed with veg). A slow cooker can be a life saver, as you can do a big batch of a meal to then freeze into portions.
Don't be afraid to buy one 'big' thing if it will last you an entire week, I know you don't like raw meat but take this week for example, I did a roast chicken yesterday (3.50 from Aldi- ours was a touch cheaper as it was reduced, but to give you a rough idea on prices) with loads of root plus leafy green veg yesterday. However, the roast will feed us for just under a week (with added veggie extras)- with bubble plus squeak tonight, chicken + veg stir fry tomorrow, chicken curry Wednesday, chicken salad Thursday and I've also made some chicken stock from the bones which I can use in other meals next week. So, whilst it was a big outlay in terms of money, in terms of nightly meal cost it's been quite cheap- and it's certainly healthier for you than the £1 ready meals out of the freezer section!
Also, I noticed you want to work with animals. Have you thought about doing any volunteering whilst you are looking for a job? I volunteered last year at a rescue centre for around three months, where they then offered me a job for that summer (honestly, I would have kept the job had I not been going back to college). It was so rewarding, I got paid pennies for what I did, but I got to make a difference to so many animals lives over the course of eight months - and I lost quite a bit of the waistline as well (I went down three- almost four - dress sizes over the course)! Certainly worth considering, and any experience to add to the CV is vital if working with animals is what you want to do! Just remember, any jobs that do crop up in rescue centres etc are normally offered to insiders before the general public.0 -
Some good advice here,0
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Frozen spinach and value broccolllllllllli - 1kg for£1
Frozen Carrots - 1kg £1
Potatoes -1kg - <£1
Apples - 1kg - £1
Mushrooms - 500g - £1
Dried Chick Peas
Dried Haricot Beans
Dried Butter Beans all about £1
Onions
Garlic
Garam Masala - another £3
Yoghurt - £1
Milk - £1.80 six pints
£13.80 - enough calories for about 10 days. I woudl add Organic Bouillion powder by marigold or Kallo chicken cubes and a lemon juice
If I wanted meat, I would get sausages or burgers because I believe in saturated fats for the diet.0 -
We shop in Iceland too, or Farmfoods.0
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Definitely hit up the likes of Tesco, Sainsburys around 6 or 7pm for the selloffs. I get loads of cheap bread and veg and what not and then freeze it. Same with meat (though I know you're not fussed about that).
Best of luck 0 -
I work at Sainsbury's and (depending on what time your store closes) we put all stuff for that day on reduction at about 2pm (25 - 50% off), then final reduction is around 6:30pm (about 75% off). With stuff like meat, you can freeze it, or with produce it'll last for a couple of days after the BB date.
Or if you don't like the idea of having to go shopping every couple of days, just go to Lidl or Aldi! 0
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