Eating for virtually nothing

8pnoodles

I've already introduced myself here: http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=101186

... and was directed to this board. I'm cooking for only myself (fussy eater, see thread referred to!) and am looking for ways of living on virtually nothing. I'm borwsing back through this board now but if anyone has/is doing this and has tips and advice let me know.

squeaky

Hiya,

Gosh! Where to start!!!

have a read of our "Welcome" sticky at the top of the forum listing, or click on the blue "Welcome" in my signature below, which should help you find your way around quite quickly.

We have all sorts of recipes and frugal challenges that you can read through and join, not to mention growing your own...

So after a quick scan of the welcome maybe you'd like to browse the MEGA Index sticky with particular areas such as "Cooking" and "Food" being your first ports of call.

Anne_Marie_2

Hi,
As Squeaky says, have a good look around the board for cheap meal ideas, there are absolutely loads and am sure you will find some that will appeal to you. Do try some of the recipes featuring pulses and vegetables, which are cheap and are nutritious, you gotta eat decent food even though you are cutting costs!
For your fast food fixes, there are recipes for curries, pizza and burgers, and all much better for you than the shop/take-away bought stuff, and infinitely cheaper!
Any questions you have re cooking help, just post, we will all be happy to help out. You might actually start to like cooking, and will be immensely proud of your efforts.
Good luck, and hope your debt disappears quickly.

Gingham_Ribbon

Tell us what you like and we'll see if we can throw in any suggestions...

Also, what sort of budget would you realistically want to look at? Is it just for you? Do you have any special dietary requirements?

There was a good thread recently about free food and eating 'weeds'. I'll look in a while if I get the chance.

You're gonna love the challenge!

culpepper

Theres a book called food for free by Richard Mabey.If you buy it as a collins Gem it is £5 and small enough for your pocket.That is all about weeds and berries that are safe to eat.

arkonite_babe

HERE'S is the link to the edible weeds thread.

HTH

squeaky

Thanks ark - I'd forgotten to chase that one.

Gingham_Ribbon

I'm afraid if you are more a meat and potatoes person, I can't offer much advice as I don't eat potatoes much and I don't eat meat at all.

But if you fancy branching out, there are some VERY cheap pasta or rice meals that can be rustled up really quickly.

Perhaps a good place to start would be with the recipes section. When you've got an idea of the kinds of things you fancy, you could look at the store cupboard thread to see the kinds of things that you'd find useful for preparing basic scratch meals.

I would not go out and buy a lot of things to start with. Decide on a few basic meals and buy what you need for them. Then add to them.

Someone on another thread told a story about being in halls of residence with some people who were hopeless cooks. But they learned one new meal a week and by the end of the year they were the best cooks around. (I took that on board and am learning new recipes a step at a time and it's working a treat.) In other words, don't try to cut back completely all at once. You may get overpowered by it all.

If you HAVE to make some serious cut backs now on how much you're spending, have a look at what's in your cupboard that you can use up and check the recipe section again. Or post it here and we'll see if we can come up with any impromptu meal suggestions.

I'll look for the storecupboard thread and post a link in a minute.

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=20967&highlight=storecupboard

This one might be useful for using up what you already have. Back in a mo...

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=43535&highlight=storecupboard

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=96363&highlight=storecupboard

Not sure if these 2 should be merged? I haven't had a proper look.

bluep

My mum told me the other day that when things were really tight when I was young, she'd use the money to make sure i had a meal, then eat boiled egg mashed up in potato for days on end - cheapest meal she could find.

However, if you don't fancy that...have you got a freezer? This makes life a lot easier as you can take advantage of really cheap bargains in the supermarkets...ie.. M&S 1/2 price chicken for £2 - boil it up with potatoes, carrots, frozen peas, whatever else you fancy chucking in - a few onions - all from the local greengrocer for £2 or so. Then once the chicken is so cooked that it is all falling off of the bone and disintergrating, seperate it up into portions and freeze - this feeds 3 of us for 2 or 3 main meals, so you should get at least 4-5 meal portions out of it.

Eggs and omeletes are very cheap too - just wisk up a couple of eggs with some milk, pour in a frying pan, add slices of boiled potato for a spanish omelete, or cheese, chunks of tomato....

If the food is all tasting a bit bland, then why not try growing a couple of herbs in pots - the costs for buying them to start is minimal - aroudn the same as buying a pack of cut herbs in the supermarket, and once they start growing, its hard to stop them!

At the end of the day, the best things you can do is...
keep your eye out for coupons (i.e. the free leaflets in Superdrugs that had 50p off Tena vouchers on them - I've picked up £5 worth in the last week or two) - check out the ONline and Offline coupons board for info on what supermarkets accept them off of your shop if you don't buy the product

learn the times when your local supermarket discounts items on their due date. I buy in bulk then and freeze - for example, my safeways does stupid discounts between 7-8pm - packs of prawns 7p each, chicken breasts 50p a pack, huge mixed bags of bread, rolls and stuff for 50p each. Tescos is also pretty good at having a well stocked discount section in the fridge aisle - brilliant for bargain cut meats that can be chopped up into a soup.

skintchick

In Tesco they ALWAYS have BOGOF on bags of frozen chicken breasts, so you get 8-10 breasts for £3.99! They are a bit small and sometimes a weird shape, but great for chopping up and if there's a bigger one you can wrap it in bacon and bake it and it's lovely *drools*

Gingham_Ribbon

bluep wrote:

for example, my safeways does stupid discounts between 7-8pm - packs of prawns 7p each, chicken breasts 50p a pack, huge mixed bags of bread, rolls and stuff for 50p each. .

That used to my job! It was lots of fun! If one of the other girls had marked down a piece of meat to less than a couple of quid, I used to buy it and get a taxi home from the late shift for the price of the meat. The taxi firm knew to always send the same guy who was happy to chip in my fare in exchange for his Sunday roast! (It was no good to me as I'm veggie!)