Help design me a 5 day week packed lunch for under £2 a day

Flinchy-Stryder · 7 December 2014 at 5:18AM

Feels a bit weird thinking about lunch at 4am on a sunday morning lol. Long story short i'm recovering from a bad case of tonsillitis and the meds from the doctor made me sleep way to much! Thats why i'm awake now.

About me, i'm 19 living away from home and on an apprenticeship in aeronautical engineering. I get £410 a month. Most of my money goes on rent travel and what i call dinner food. I then spend £2 a day on lunch. I made a thread somewhere else in this forum explaining my situation and was advised to come here for help. I would like to cut out my £2 a day lunch to like 50p a day if that is even possible?

I have tried making a packed lunch before but messed up by wasting a lot of food. In my other thread i learned you could freeze a whole sandwich so you sort of know what you are dealing with when helping me. I'm not very developed in food making yet but with a little help i can improve my knowledge and hopefully save some money as well

barneydee_2 · 7 December 2014 at 6:18AM

At the moment I am making home made soups which can work out cheap & stretch a few days,do you have access to a micro wave at work? If not have you got a flask you can put soup in?
Making home made veg soup is a good way to use up bits. If you do have access to a micro wave you can take left overs to work for the next day.
Just a couple of ideas if I think of any more I'll be back
Dee x

puppey · 7 December 2014 at 7:24AM

What kind of cooking equipment do you have at the office? With a microwave/ toastie machine you can get quite creative.

pablakeman · 7 December 2014 at 7:38AM

I normally do potatoes with tuna/chicken/pork, sweetcorn and beetroot. I have never tried to work out the cost of this but with offers in Aldi/Lidl it tends to be pretty cheap. Obviously the meat element can be expensive, and with tuna I normally put prawns in, but this is just a treat.

Otherwise look into incorporating fruit as well, bananas are your cheapest bet. Nuts are quite expensive but are filling.

I don't eat much bread because although I really like it, it isn't that nutritionally good for you. I would say avoid, but of course if you use cheap bread and cheap ham you could make a very cheap sandwich!

suki1964 · 7 December 2014 at 9:42AM

Cooked pasta is a cheap lunch. Boil some up,plunge into cold water and then drain. Mix in a dressing, can be as easy as plain mayo or sweet chilli sauce, add a chopped pepper, sweet corn , hard boiled egg and if you have a bit of left over chicken or ham or even tuna, mix it all in. Whatever you like

A saucepan of this cooked up on a Sunday will last a good few days in the fridge. Would cost around £2 to make but should do at least 4 days

Soup. Leak and potato is very cheap and easy. I made 3 litres of it yesterday for around 75p. Reduced pack of leaks, one potato, a stock cube, water and a dash of milk. Chop the veg finely. Soften in a large saucepan with a knob of butter, add the stock and water, boil until all the veg is soft. Add the milk and either have it as it is, or blend through a sieve, use a hand blender or just mash it up a bit

Always look in the reduced section. There is usually packets of meat off cuts from the deli going cheap. Use b&m for tins of fish and cooked meats and cheap dressings Eggs , a pound a large box in Iceland are cheap, nutritious and filling. Take them hard boiled , make egg mayo for sandwiches or even make a kind of frittata ( thick omelette ) that can be cut into wedges and eaten cold. Use cold sliced cooked spuds (tinned will do) fry in a frying pan along with sliced onions and anything else you have - peppers, tomatoes sweet corn etc, then when all heated through, whisk 3/4'eggs witha bit of salt and pepper and pour over. When set on the bottom grill the top till cooked and set. Cut into wedges and wrap and place in the fridge till needed

If you give us more of an idea of what skills you have, what foods you prefer, I'm sure we will be able to give a lot more advice

GwylimT · 7 December 2014 at 9:48AM

I have access to a microwave so I often make a little bit extra when cooking our evening meal so I can take some to work.

Occasionally I will take in an already cooked jacket potato with some home made baked beans, cottage cheese is also a good option. Bananas and apples can also be bought very cheaply, as can carrots, all are a good snack to have at work.

Chicken is quite cheap if you buy a whole one and take some of the cooked meat to work each day, a good source of filling protein as well.

NewShadow · 7 December 2014 at 9:49AM

It depends on what you consider 'normal' for lunch. If you're okay with leftovers from dinner, you could cut your lunch bill to almost nothing by stretching or padding your ingredients and plating up an extra portion.

If you only see lunch as a sarnie, crisps and a choc bar... its harder to make cuts.

Would you mind posting an average weeks food? With the (rough) prices if you can manage it.

jackyann · 7 December 2014 at 1:24PM

I would second the idea about "stretching your dinners".
I'd also suggest that you consider getting (for Xmas?) a slow cooker & either a cheap liquidiser / blender or hand operated food mill.
Here are a couple of ideas:

On a weekend (or using a slow cooker) make a large beef stew with plenty of veg (and maybe some sausages). Ideal time to ask a friend round to eat with you. Fish out most of the veg and add stock to make a soup - it will be nice & thick if you put it through the food mill / blender, and you can chop & add the sausages to it if you like. Then freeze the rest in portions for quick, cheering after work dinners.

Get a ham hock (look up how to cook it) and cook with dried peas, cook some potatoes, mash enough for dinner, and keep the others cold.
You can then get:
1 or 2 meals of ham, peas & mash (make gravy or sauce if liked)
chop the remaining ham finely.
Liquidise / mill the peas to make a thick pea soup, add little bits of ham as well.
Use cold potatoes & bits of ham to make:
1. a corn chowder (one of the most comforting soups I know)
2. a spanish omelette (see Suki's frittata) make enough to take a good portion for lunch.

I should add that with both of these, you can just mash the veg / peas down without a blender, and they will be fine, but the blending gives you a lovely thick soup.
Slow cookers are useful because they are cheap on electricity and cook a lovely dinner while you are at work, but of course, either of these recipes can simmer on a hob or in a very low oven on a weekend day.

And well done for working at organising your cooking & budget so well - will be very helpful in the future!

jpscloud · 7 December 2014 at 1:54PM

I'm trying (not that successfully I'm afraid) to eat less as I'm in danger of becoming as wide as I am tall :eek: so I generally take very little to work for lunch, but some of the most inexpensive things I've used over the years are:

To be heated-up at work:

Slow cooker stews, bolognaise etc, frozen in portions with rice or pasta - just like a ready meal, only edible. These come in under £5 for a week's meals for one, and that's not stinting either. I use turkey mince for bolognaise, with a bit of chopped up german salami to boost the flavour, and also make a really nice gammon and red lentil stew using cheapo gammon steaks. There are loads of slow cooker recipe threads on here, with more ideas than you can shake a stick at.

Pasta or rice mixes - batch cook the pasta or rice and add raw or cooked veggies of choice, dressing of choice etc. Ultra cheap, and if you need meat/a little extra flavour use a pack of smoked salmon trimmings (I cook them first though, can't stand it raw) or a few rounds of finely chopped german salami. I sometimes add peanuts to rice mixes for protein if not using meat, boil them up with the rice. This is a really cheap option, if you use the bargain basement versions of things, and amazingly tasty. Again freeze in portions.

If you can't reheat meals, but have a toaster at work, get yourself a loaf of cheap sliced bread from a supermarket's basic range, keep it in the freezer but take out your daily ration for work. Invest in some toastie-maker pockets and cheap grated cheese or pate to make toasties at work. Pitta breads do a good job for this too.

phizzimum · 7 December 2014 at 5:30PM

Flynchy - what sort of things would you usually have for lunch if you were buying it? And how did food end up being wasted? For example, was it bread going mouldy or taking lunch but forgetting to eat it?

Happytravelling · 11 December 2014 at 5:58PM

Pasta bake is a good cheap meal that can make your evening meal for a couple of days in a row plus lunch, if you make enough. You can get away with just using pasta, a tin/ carton of chopped tomatoes (you can get chopped tomatoes with herbs, to save you buying herbs separately) and an onion. Oh, and a little oil for the onion.

Sorry I'm not very good on quantities, but at a guess around 250g pasta would be 25p, not more than 40p for the chopped tomatoes, perhaps 20p for an onion. Imagine you'd have at least 2 meals out of this for 85p. You can make it a bit more interesting by adding a couple of rashers of bacon or cheese or just chopped ham. If you search for 'tomato pasta bake', lots of things will come up. Don't worry where it says you need a pinch of this herb or that seasoning, it will be fine without if you don't have it. The good thing about this is you can eat it cold, if you don't have access to a microwave.

I've never frozen sandwiches before, but have just googled it and lots of web pages came up, so you might be able to find out elsewhere.

I'll let you know if I think of anything else :-)

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Help design me a 5 day week packed lunch for under £2 a day

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