Help my friend live on £1 a day?

ceridwen

D&DD wrote: »

I just took delivery of this today :rotfl: talk about timing
I'll be settling down to read it later,first impressions are its sooo got to be someone on MSE :think: My detective hat is on...

Not guilty yer honour...;)

D&DD

Caterina you have a pm
Ceridwen :rotfl: I've got my deerstalker on now where'd I put my pipe??

Implosion take a look at the Debtfree wanabee board as well there are many people on there who live on next to nothing per day..or indeed on NSD no spend days
There's a freebies board which may help for vouchers and samples etc
HTH D
PS you're a very good friend!

ceridwen

Hmmm... well clues are (from memory):

- Used to be a part-time teacher
- Used to rent a room in a house
- Now married (or partnered up) with a man they met on a WWOOF stint
- Happily hitchhikes round the place
- Not a "health food freak" shall we say
- Lived in Bristol
- Younger agegroup than "certain age" me (20s/30s at a guess)
- Intelligent
- Has a married brother

well...thats all I picked up about her...

pandora205

There are lots of ideas on the threads above. Here are easy cheap meals that spring to mind and would be okay for most students:

• Home made pizza. Either buy bread mix (Hovis 27p from Tesco if someone lives near one) or use naan bread/french stick as base, with drained chopped tomatoes and a bit of grated cheese. For delux version add puree and herbs. Other cheap additions would be onions. This would make two reasonable sized pizzas and could do about 4 meals.
• Baked potatoes with baked beans, or scooped out with cheese and onion then grilled. Use any large potatoes from value range.
• Pasta with cream cheese and chives. Serve with chopped tomatoes.
• Wraps with salad (don't buy prepacked - use lettuce and mayo as basis) add slice of ham or chicken. Aldi do a bag of cooked chicken strips (about 450g I think) for £1 something. This would do several meals, and could be used with pasta or rice.
• Rice with curry sauce (use value range). Add chicken strips and or veg.
• Rice with sweet and sour sauce (use value range) Add chicken strips or veg.
• Omelette with cheese and salad.
• Bangers and mash with onions, veg and gravy. Use decent sausages if possible. A pack of 8 coud do 4 meals and would cost about £1.50
• Mince and onion, cooked with stock cube. Lots of variants to this: add chopped toms and puree, for bolognese; add chilli powder and kidney beans for chilli con carne; cover with mash and cheese, for cottage pie; use in wraps or pitta bread. Mince can be stretched by adding grated carrot and/or a few lentils.
• soup. chop and fry an onion, add to 1 pint or stock (beef or chicken) and mix in grated carrot, potato and any other veg chopped. Simmer for about 30 minutes and serve with crusty bread or toast.
• Fruit - whatever is in season or on offer. Don't forget apples can be baked in a microwave (scoop out the centre, add a few raisins if you have them, and a little juice - apple or orange). Other fruit that goes a long way: oranges, melon or pineapple if you split with a friend or two, pears at this time of year.
• Yoghurts: Morrisons do a lovely cheap range called Longley Farm. Look at these reviews: http://www.ciao.co.uk/Longley_Farm_Yogurts_Various_Flavours__Review_5774654I I think these are about 30p
• Sandwiches - various salad, chicken, peanut butter or marmite if liked. Best breads are wholemeal and seeded. Can often be bought good price end of day in supermarkets, especially Morrisons (shop after 8pm for best bargains)

got-it-spend-it

My top cheap meal would have to be value pasta with value tinned tomoatoes- even better if you can stretch to an onion and a couple of grated carrots to add to the tomatoes.

As others have said, yellow stickers and whoopsies could be a godsend. Iceland also do some great offers, particularly on cereals and fresh items like milk and cheese.

Lentils are a great cheap protein- red ones need no soaking. Lentil soup os delish and can be easily concocted with an onion, a couple of carrots, a potato, a handful of lentils, a tin of tomatoes and some veg stock.

Hope that helps. It certainly is doable but will take a bit of organisation and planning.

spugzbunny

Right … I keep typing this message and losing it so this is my final shot (Stupid cold hands keep hitting shift delete!)

I used to live in Bangor (North Wales, not Ireland yeh??) but I left 4 years ago (sob). I loved it there, not least because you could live on next to nothing! Here are my top local tips:

· Anglican Chaplaincy off College Road, Upper Bangor. They used to do a fab free lunch regularly. I’m not actually Christian but my friend lived there and the chaplain (John?) was a lovely bloke and happy to help anyone in need. It is definitely worth checking out what events they have on and even talking to the chaplain.
· Dimensions, I think it’s called that, maybe Sensations(?). It’s the health food shop opposite the greek in Upper Bangor. They are a ‘group’ of ‘like minded’ people who have a ‘centre’ outside of Bangor. It may be worth seeing if your mate can volunteer with them in exchange for produce from the shop that may be going off. They are very friendly but be aware they have a (non-threatening) agenda!
· I used to go to an Alpha Course at Pappillion (in lower Bangor near the Occy) because one of my friends felt I needed some spiritual guidance! It is one evening a week of bible teachings in exchange for a free 3 Course vegetarian meal. Worth it I felt!
· Bangor is full of amazing natural produce, for example I believe blackberries are in harvest and are an amazing source of Vit C (try around Love Lane). Foraging would be a good option in Bangor but read and research before hand as you need to make sure you know what is safe! Be particularly careful of mushrooms around this time of year! Bangor is full of lovely hippies doing Forestry Bsc so find them and befriend them! They will have a wealth of knowledge on the local harvest!
· OK, it’s not ideal but skip jumping at any of the supermarkets is worth it. Morrisons (or safeway as it was when I was there!) used to throw out stock that was damaged but otherwise perfectly edible. It’s worth looking into late at night. We used to do it for Booze but the same applies for food! Tesco is also great for whoopsies!

Additionally, for extra cash has your friend been to see the Uni about a hardship grant? You have to fill in a mountain of forms but in both my undergrad and postgrad I received grants (ie. That you do not need to pay back!) for a total value of £1250. I also remember Psych paying subjects for participation. I would have thought other courses do it to so look on the intranet for that one!

That’s all I can think of for now but good luck to your mate. I’ll be up end of next month so I’ll bring your friend a sandwich!!;)

spugzbunny

BTW... I'm a massive lurker on here! I love the OS board but I've never skuttled out the wood work! Only my beautiful Bangor could do that to me! (sob) (sniff sniff) (sob) ... maybe I could help your mate out with the rent and move back?? (joke!;))

implosion07

Thanks for your replies, everyone. I do try to be a good friend, D&DD...the guy in question is like a brother to me. I felt especially bad since he'd been buying me drinks the previous night (not knowing about his rent increase).

I'm sure that if there was some legal problem with the rent increase he would know, though...he's doing Business Studies as his degree, and takes Law as a module in that. He's already helped one of my other friends whose workplace kept changing her working hours around.
Anyway, I talked to him last night over the chicken dinner (and beers :beer:) and apparently he's done a shop for the next month by buying lots of Morrison's Bettabuy stuff. So here's hoping his supplies of pasta and things don't run out! But even if they do, he always has friends and the stuff in spugzbunny's posts .(I know how you feel, mate, I'm graduating this year...)

I'm glad this thread has helped more than one person, anyway. I mean, as a student, I'm always looking to save money and this is brilliant for me as well. :cool: Just made chicken curry, chicken and mushroom pie (Morrisons had low fat cream of mushroom soup for 28p!) and chicken stock out of last night's leftovers. The leftover gravy's gonna go into a turkey mince Chilli con Carne.

Keep the ideas coming , if you have any! Thanks everybody!

cuthbert_the_octopus

I am sure that there is a pub in Bangor that used to give away baked potatoes one evening a week.

gairlochgal

Don't think you've said whether he has a decent store cupboard to start with but just wanted to mention ramen dishes. They work best with lots of seasoning so may not apply if he hasn't got stuff in.

A rough and ready ramen would be:

poach a chicken breast in a pan of stock ( around 20 mins)
remove the chicken and flavour the stock - whatever combination you favour of garlic, chilli, ginger, coriander
slice the chicken thinly and keep on the side
keep simmering the stock and add noodles - most kinds will do here - I like the medium sharman dried egg noodles
add any other veggies you have eg green beans, mushrooms, pak choi, finely sliced cabbage
add the chicken back in to reheat

yum