'Survive' on £7 a week?

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  • natpalit
    natpalit Posts: 113 Member
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    Dumpster diving! This is actually a serious suggestion :
    http://www.ranprieur.com/misc/dumpster.html
    http://matadornetwork.com/bnt/dumpster-diving-the-easiest-way-to-find-free-food/

    Also, I go to my local sainsburys at the end of the day, they used to have whole loaves of taste the difference bread reduced to 10p. You can get a lot of fresh fruit and veg much cheaper than it usually is too. And it usually tends to be the high quality taste the difference stuff that gets reduced, as no one buys it at the full price!

    Good luck, hope everything works out okay.
  • cersela
    cersela Posts: 160 Member
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    Dried beans and grains, textured vegetable protein, seasonal greens and fruit from a farmer's market. I spend $20-$30/£13-£19 a week on groceries for two.
  • Coco_UK
    Coco_UK Posts: 84 Member
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    You should get more than just jsa if your paying rent. Go talk to someone at the job centre for advice£7 is virtually impossible. Aldi is great! But £7 cannot be right. Get dressed and straight down to the job centre for advice. Also have a little chat with your room mates. Explain the situation x

    This !!

    You will NOT be able to feed yourself and buy toiletries... like toilet paper?
  • janehen12
    janehen12 Posts: 162 Member
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    do you have freezer accesss? tesco bread goes down to about 40p when its about to go off, but you can freeze half. I know how horrible it is, i've had (almost) nothing but pasta for a week because we were a bit unlucky with money. thankfully ours is just temporary because of how our paydays worked out, and its SO hard. iceland do frozen veg for £1 as well.

    I swear by tesco value, the pasta sauce is really cheap, but nicer than brand stuff, pasta is about 40p

    Add me or message me if you want any more help/support x
  • misskatibear
    misskatibear Posts: 158 Member
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    Dumpster diving! This is actually a serious suggestion :
    http://www.ranprieur.com/misc/dumpster.html
    http://matadornetwork.com/bnt/dumpster-diving-the-easiest-way-to-find-free-food/

    Also, I go to my local sainsburys at the end of the day, they used to have whole loaves of taste the difference bread reduced to 10p. You can get a lot of fresh fruit and veg much cheaper than it usually is too. And it usually tends to be the high quality taste the difference stuff that gets reduced, as no one buys it at the full price!

    Good luck, hope everything works out okay.

    Luckily for me a sainsburys is just opening up by me :)

    But I think I'll give a miss on the dumpster diving, and I blame @caraiselite !! Since she educated me about 'blowflygirl' I don't think I could ever go near a dumpster again!


    We share toilet paper, I buy one lot then they buy one lot. I just bought Tesco value toilet paper which cost me like 70p lol...so I do try buy as cheap as possible! But I am on job seekers allowance and can't get housing benefit because of the other person I'm living with (bros girlfriend)
  • MrsPixelbark
    MrsPixelbark Posts: 175 Member
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    What you need to do for the next week is find out what the closing hours are at all your local co-ops, tescos, asdas etc. Then you need to get there about two hours or so in advance, and find out when final reductions are. If you can get there at the right time- you will find reduced bread, fridge bits and more for all under 20p a pop. However, you may need to hang around for a while: ideally the idea is to check the shelves around 5pmish to see what the first set of reductions are, and then gauge whether you're going back from there.

    When I was extremely poor, we did this every night. We basically went from shop to shop for an hour and built up our freezer: most nights we were happily eating for under 50p for the pair of us, and to be honest we weren't eating THAT badly as we managed to pick up loads of reduced meat and veg. Lots of bread though- expect to see shelves of the stuff reduced every night.

    Be warned though, expect quite a few other people there for the same reasons, a fight broke out at our local tesco last week over a packet of 15p nectarines!
  • Ejwelton
    Ejwelton Posts: 331 Member
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    Is it that friends you are staying with don'twant to declare the additional income from your rent, and that's why maybe you feel you can't claim benefits? If so it's a little unfair of them to put your rent up!

    As you're not working for now could you offer to do cleaning etc for them in return for some of your board?
  • harrietlg
    harrietlg Posts: 239
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    iceland literally saved my life this year there was so much that was only a £1 quorn is £2 so yu could make a spag bol and eat for a few days? but yeh rinse the reduced bits at the end of the day, so much cheap stuff!
  • dhakiyya
    dhakiyya Posts: 481 Member
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    Back in 1996-2999 I was surviving on five pounds a week for food in London, not all the time but for some of the time during those years. I nearly got malnutrition because I didn't realise tht white rice didn't have the same amino acids as brown rice and couldn't afford animal protein. My meal plan went like this:

    - strongest/hottest curry paste that I could buy (so I could use one teaspoon for as many meals as I could)
    - tomato puree tubes (cheapest i could find)
    - cheap vinegar
    - fresh veg from the local greengrocer
    - big bag of rice
    - big bag of lentils
    - cheapest orange juice that actually had vitamin C in it
    - tins of tuna or mackerel when I could afford them
    - extra money would be spent on bread, cheap meat, pasta and similar

    then I'd eat a concoction of rice, lentils and vegetables flavoured with curry paste, tomato and vinegar. It would have worked better if I'd used brown rice instead of cheapo bulk buys of white rice. Brown rice was unfortunately significantly more expensive than white rice and not available in big bulk packs. I was deficient in protein (because of the white rice) and didn't get enough calories.

    Anyway I wasn't eating like that permanently during those years, because I'd have phases of having more money where I could eat a wider range of foods although I frequently didn't manage to eat enough.

    To answer the question - that was 15 years ago, the price of food is much higher now in the UK so I highly doubt you can survive off seven pounds a week, but if you follow the above kind of menu planning, i.e. buying very cheap staples, including vegan sources of protein (much cheaper than animal produce) and find ways to make them taste interesting without spending too much money, you can eat really cheap.
  • misskatibear
    misskatibear Posts: 158 Member
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    @janehen12 Luckily I do have freezer access, but just one drawer and that drawer is very small. I'm quite happy eating pasta all the time, I actually adore pasta both white and brown, but I worry about all those carbs. I think I would live off freezer food if I had more space, my boyfriend works there and gets 10% off, so it's frustrating I can't fill my freezer with it haha.

    I do usually buy tesco sauce as well, and completely agree, it's so yummy! The garlic and onion one is my fave. Thanks for your post :)

    @Mrspixelbark Sounds like a good idea and since I have no job at the moment I DO have that time to waste hehe. Thanks

    @Ejwelton Yeah, that's the case. Although not friends, family :/ And it's a bit unfair too I think considering they know my position, but there's not much I can do! And I do actually do the cleaning already! Haha, I love cleaning, and they are pretty damn messy, so I'm constantly cleaning up after them and doing dishes. I also baby sit now and then if she asks. :/

    @harrietlg Wow Quorn stuff is really £1 in Iceland? My boyfriend works there and gets 10% off! Although I can't fill my freezer up on it but that's useful to know thank you!

    @dhakiyya Thank you for your informative post! Some good suggestions in there. Really appreiciate it. And it frustrates me that brown rice/pasta is more expensive - they want us to be healthier but they make it harder for us! *shake fist*

    Thanks again everyone!
  • casperuk
    casperuk Posts: 195 Member
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    I can pretty much guess the situation you are in regarding not being able to claim housing.

    Get to the local housing association, or even an estate agent, ask them to see properties where the landlord has said DSS is welcome or would be considered, then talk to them about it. SOme of them will defer the deposit for a few weeks till you get on your feet. And if you have even a 1 roomed flat, it will at least be your space AND you will get housing to cover the main expenditure you currently have.
  • casperuk
    casperuk Posts: 195 Member
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    Back in 1996-2999 I was surviving on five pounds a week for food in London, not all the time but for some of the time during those years. I nearly got malnutrition because I didn't realise tht white rice didn't have the same amino acids as brown rice and couldn't afford animal protein. My meal plan went like this:

    - strongest/hottest curry paste that I could buy (so I could use one teaspoon for as many meals as I could)
    - tomato puree tubes (cheapest i could find)
    - cheap vinegar
    - fresh veg from the local greengrocer
    - big bag of rice
    - big bag of lentils
    - cheapest orange juice that actually had vitamin C in it
    - tins of tuna or mackerel when I could afford them
    - extra money would be spent on bread, cheap meat, pasta and similar

    then I'd eat a concoction of rice, lentils and vegetables flavoured with curry paste, tomato and vinegar. It would have worked better if I'd used brown rice instead of cheapo bulk buys of white rice. Brown rice was unfortunately significantly more expensive than white rice and not available in big bulk packs. I was deficient in protein (because of the white rice) and didn't get enough calories.

    Anyway I wasn't eating like that permanently during those years, because I'd have phases of having more money where I could eat a wider range of foods although I frequently didn't manage to eat enough.

    To answer the question - that was 15 years ago, the price of food is much higher now in the UK so I highly doubt you can survive off seven pounds a week, but if you follow the above kind of menu planning, i.e. buying very cheap staples, including vegan sources of protein (much cheaper than animal produce) and find ways to make them taste interesting without spending too much money, you can eat really cheap.

    1990-1992 my diet was

    Beefburger sandwiches

    And thats it. And I played football for 2 teams :)

    I had about £5 a week to live on and I bought 50 cheap beefburgers from Netto, they were about 2.50 if memory serves. And the remaining money would be spent throughout the week buying loves of bread for 12p each.

    Sometimes as a treat I would buy 6p tins of beans and 11-20p bottles of lemonade or cola.

    Oh those were the days.
  • girlinahat
    girlinahat Posts: 2,956 Member
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    . Although not friends, family :/ And it's a bit unfair too I think considering they know my position, but there's not much I can do! And I do actually do the cleaning already! Haha, I love cleaning, and they are pretty damn messy, so I'm constantly cleaning up after them and doing dishes. I also baby sit now and then if she asks. :/

    for your own sake, I would recommend trying to get into a hostel or as someone else suggested looks at the private housing market. As you are already on JSA you should be entitled to housing benefits. I just think you would be better off away from the situation you are in and would have more control over it - doesn't sound wildy fair to put your rent up if you can't then explore support options.

    as an aside, did you know that Tesco basics toilet paper (aside from being horrid) has only about 160 sheets per roll compared to the 240 in a more premium brand? It's a false economy as you have to shop more often, plus your bum deserves better ;)

    foodwise - dried goods are your friends. avoid bulkbags of things as they are often more expensive (supermarkets little tricks) and go at the end of the day for fresh veggies. Aldi and Lidl are good for that sort of thing, but don't sacrifice nutrition for the sake of a cheap meal.

    Good luck in finding work and getting yourself sorted.
  • b1505
    b1505 Posts: 102 Member
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    Definitely agree with the people saying to go to the supermarket just before they're closing...I went last week to Asda (probably about 2 hours before closing so still chance for it to get cheaper) and managed to pick up weight watchers sandwiches for 20p...obviously there is healthier food but for the price you can't complain...also many a time I've picked up loaves and bagettes for less than 20p each so there is some good stuff to get :) Try pound shops as well for toiletries and other stuff you might need.
    Also buy the cheap brands like value, smart price, basics etc as often they're alright and for the price you can't complain. Just looked and you can get a 500g bag of sainsburys basic pasta for 39p and a 1kg bag of long grain rice for 40p which would last you qutie a while...I bought both of these when I had little money at the end of the term at university and combined with a bottle of passatta for the pasta (around £1) and some stock cubes for the rice (10p for 10!!) I had quite a lot of meals for a little amount. If you buy the staples cheap then you can spend the extra on stuff like quorn and frozen veggies to make it a bit better for you :)
  • Selma10001984
    Selma10001984 Posts: 206 Member
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    http://www.mysupermarket.co.uk/#/Shopping/FindProducts.aspx?Query=dates

    According to research you can survive on 10-15 dates and 1 L milk a day for a few years and cover EVERYTHING the body needs in terms of vitamins. And best of all you can actually afford it. A 500g bag will last you at least 2-3 days and costs 1.2 pounds (S) in Tesco and 2L milk costs about the same.

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