food shopping on a budget. UK

HamsterNut

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!

jheeley1989

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 weeks

KNarrainen

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.

diadojikohei

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!

MrsPixelbark

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.

vicky1804

Some good advice here,

vtachycardia

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.

samandlucysmum

We shop in Iceland too, or Farmfoods.

PrinnyBomb

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

KellyUK1987

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!

melaniecheeks

How are you on tinned fish? You can usually find tins of sardines or sild in tomato sauce for about 50p.

opuntia

I'm on a similar budget, and I go to Asda around 7:30 to 8:00pm, when food that's about to go out-of-date is being reduced to its lowest prices. I look for things that will last several days, so that I can divide them into portions and freeze them. I also look for things that you can eat way after their use-by date, such as yogurt - I get sets of yogurt drinks for 10p, for instance. I find it's very good, healthwise, to be on such a budget, because it forces me to look for the most nutritious food and avoid junk.

geebusuk

As far as working with animals goes - as with many professions, often you can do better by starting from the bottom and working up.

I was fairly lucky to get a first IT job in the right company that was happy to give me the responsibility and roles that I could show I justified. They were happy to see that I could do the job - and I saw plenty of people that couldn't that came in with 'bits of paper'.
Ok, pay in that first job was generally below industry/company standard for me, but I didn't begrudge them for that considering the experience it gave me (and one I said "give me more money" they did .

So me, I'd say the best thing to do is to try and get your foot in the door and get paid to be involved in doing something around what you like.
Even maybe volunteer to start with?

haylz247

thank you all SO much. defo given me some ideas on what to buy i'm just crap with food and would love it to all be done for me haha i'm not lazy i just don't enjoy cooking. really helped me out though

haylz247

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.

i'll defo look into volunteering at a centre! i never even thought of that!

aldi seems very popular! it's down the road from me so it's a nice walk
i'll go next week and see how i get on!

geebusuk

Remember Aldi have their offers listed on their website if you want some things to aim for.
They have special deals called 'super 6' or something, which is 6 fruit and veg they've discounted that week.

graelwyn

Start haunting the aisles of your local asda or sainsbury's in the early evening and check out the reduced sections. They have specific times each day usually that they will reduce their foods, whether that be produce or microwave meals. The same goes for Tesco, mine tends to reduce their produce and meats between 4 and 5pm. Also, Asda often have 50p offers on their fresh vegetables and salad stuffs. Lidl/aldi are good for things like cottage cheese. Asda sells big boxes of about 15 eggs for a few pounds and reduce their bread in the early evening too. Canned beans can be gotten for around 30-40p a tin, or stock up on the dried variety. Smart price pasta is dirt cheap as are baking potatoes. Sometimes asda sells these whole frozen wild salmon for £3 also, so keep an eye out for those as that is 3 meals right there. Matter of getting canny and finding where the best deals are, and when the reductions are done.