food shopping on a budget. UK

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haylz247
haylz247 Posts: 435
in Food and Nutrition
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 :)
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Replies

  • tadpole242
    tadpole242 Posts: 507 Member
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    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 :)
    ALDI or lidl, I spend £45 a week but that is for three people, and includes toiletries cleaning stuff and the occasional bottle of beer
  • charitas32
    charitas32 Posts: 58
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    Asian supermarket for cheap lentils, tofu and rice.
  • mirandamayhem
    mirandamayhem Posts: 772
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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 pie
  • LottieLou13
    LottieLou13 Posts: 574 Member
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    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 :smile:
  • haylz247
    haylz247 Posts: 435
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    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 :smile:

    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 :)
  • geebusuk
    geebusuk Posts: 3,348 Member
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    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.
  • tommiirugby
    tommiirugby Posts: 52 Member
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    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.
  • amy1612
    amy1612 Posts: 1,356 Member
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    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. x
  • haylz247
    haylz247 Posts: 435
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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!
  • shep5856
    shep5856 Posts: 11
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    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.
  • shivles
    shivles Posts: 468 Member
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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.
  • kendrafallon
    kendrafallon Posts: 1,030 Member
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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 bulk
  • BerryH
    BerryH Posts: 4,698 Member
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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.
  • haylz247
    haylz247 Posts: 435
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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.

    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.
  • slimsdown
    slimsdown Posts: 122 Member
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    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 xx
  • fteale
    fteale Posts: 5,310 Member
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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.
  • deadbeatsummer
    deadbeatsummer Posts: 537 Member
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    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 money
  • stephvaile
    stephvaile Posts: 298
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    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:wink:
  • beatoks
    beatoks Posts: 63
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    I shop at ALDI very good value for money.
  • Dovekat
    Dovekat Posts: 263 Member
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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:

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