Student food shopping :)

across

when i was a student my mum bought me a great little book ive still got it called 'How to boil an egg' by J Arkless lots of recipes for one and lots of fun!
i used to hate sharing a fridge though!! and all that padlocks on fridges so people couldnt steel your food it is bringing back memories!!! :beer: good luck with the whole student thing!!

freebie_junkie

i dont have that probs i have my lovely little 3/4 size fridege freezer, (and no flatmates in my lovely little flat!)

tr3mor

TeamMCS wrote:

Sorry just adding something to this:

After reading some of the suggestions in those posts, wow they are unrealistic.. namely this:

that's perfectly acceptable prices.

tr3mor

A list of some of the bargain food we buy. 2 of us shop for less than £15 a week. We eat good home cooked food and it's all lovely.

bread = 35p - lidl brown bread = YUMMY.
butter = 57p - lidl again..
Turkey Breast - Netto had 2/3 breast pieces (as big as normal chicken breasts) for 67p a pack. Or Lidl had huge 1kg turkey breasts for £2.50 each before christmas. Buy, dice and freeze.
cheddar cheese = £1.50 for about 400g - or buy BOGOF from morrisons for about 800g at that price.
tin of tomatoes - 13p each from lidl - really really good ones.
Garlic/Chilli/Ginger in jars (chopped and stored in oil or whatever - lasts ages in the fridge - made by soods food from quality save - about 35p - use this in everything.
1kg pasta - usually around 50p from lidl/netto/quality save/kwik save.
sausages - always buy when cheap and put in freezer (morrisons always have offers, lidl premium ones are nice but cheap ones are a bit cheapy, netto also have them in often). Useful for quick meals and toad in the hole - great filling meal.
tomato puree - 20p a tube from lidl.
bacon - buy this occasionally as a treat. £1.50 for 400g in lidl = it's nice bacon and cheap.
ham/turkey - wafer thin stuff in lidl has 100% breast meat rather than being full of water like bernard mathews stuff and similar. It's about £1.50 for a big tub of turkey and it's nice stuff.
condensed soup - campbells is good as pasta bake sauce (tomato and red pepper one or chicken and mushroom) and in various other things.
Tuna - buy when BOGOF or half price from usual supermarkets - morrisons tend to have good offers.
yoghurt - most lidl yoghurt is nice and reasonably priced.


Veg is cheap!

potatoes, carrots, other various veg, eggs - free from grandparent's farm. We go pick some up when we visit.
Otherwise we get veg from lidl (all veg half price at the moment) and local asian greengrocers

From greengrocers!
- for example box of 33 red peppers = £3.50 - cut them up and freeze. Last weeks!
- spinach - 2 bundles for 80p etc.

Tinned veg from lidl is also handy in currys such as tinned mushrooms and sweetcorn.

We make our own sauces usually.

Curry = tin tomatoes, yoghurt, curry powder/paste, spinach, chilli, garlic, ginger.. plus whatever veg and meat.
Pasta Sauce = tin tomatoes, puree, chilli, garlic, peppers, etc.

Pasta Sauce can also be bought for about 50-60p a jar in lidl or even less in quality save if they have some in. I bought about 6 LARGE pouches of dolmio sauce for microwaving in quality save for 50p a pouch rather than £1.50. They served about 4 too.

We basically buy most food in lidl. It's good quality and tastes nice and most importantly it's very very cheap. It's better than aldi and netto as it tends to be cheaper and better quality although it's more german. You need to know what you're getting but things are so cheap everything is worth a try. If you don't like it don't get it again.

Some things are good in quality save/home bargains - tinned soup, pasta sauces, curry sauces, olive oil and other spices, olives (although I hate them), noodles, rice, pasta, biscuits and other treats. Stock changes all the time so worth popping in every time you go past to see if there are more things to put in the cupboard for a rainy day.

Other things are good to get BOGOF and freeze/store from supermarkets. Morrisons and Tesco tend to be better for BOGOF offers.

Veg - see if there is an asian supermarket/greengrocers near by. They're usually very cheap and sell large quantities of everything.

Butchers - lots of butchers do cheap packs of things and do 3 for £5 or whatever. Quite good for buying cheap meat and freezing.


When we were in halls our friends used to be amazed at the things we ate and how cheap it was. Most of them had never experienced lidl and just went to the local sainsburies, bought ready meals and takeaways and spent a fortune on food. We shopped carefully and didn't have takeaways very often but always had good food.

We also used to do big slap up BBQs because we knew we could get stuff cheap from lidl so it wouldn't cost us much and would be fun - plus we saved elsewhere so could afford to.

We also treat ourselves with a meal at 2 for 1 occasionally. It usually costs about £10-14 for both of us with drinks and the one is stockport is really nice and easy to get to from here in Manchester. Better than a takeaway anyway!

Millionaire_Wannabe

you can survive on £10 a week...thats when the student loans company decided to reject my application and leave me with £50 for a month!!!!
not a clue how i did it, but hey, the 3 mile walt there and back to the supermarket did me some good! (couldnt really afford the bus!)

cmallaby

Yeah well that card is their gimmick, they got you right where they want you!

To be honest you're only going to be saving on a card once in a blue moon unless u buy their exclusive offeres.

See if you'd wait till 8 at say Morrisons they practically give stuff like Bread and muffins away i know times when i've spent about 50p on a load of bakery stuff!!! So shop late too !

freebie_junkie

aw! youre all so lucky! on teh odd occasions i can afford a cake its £2.59 for a minascule one thats really dry and sticks to teh roof of your mouth!

freebie_junkie

plus that bloody bread! its not even like its a proper loaf the slices are half the size of real bread and you only get 20 for two bloody quid! grrr!

TeamMCS

hehe @ person living on 50 quid.Thats impressive!!

You could live on !!!!!! all like this:
Ready meal pasta, 47 pence... £3.29
Milk: £1
Cereal: £1
Fruit: £2


either way you could live on barely anything... but you wouldn't want too, i doubt it would be very healthy. At that point its more buying food which will just fill you up.

cmallaby

THIS BOOK WAS MENTIONED ON EMMERDALE THE OTHER NIGHT COINCIDENCE!

Emily responded "Cheeky beggar"

across wrote:

when i was a student my mum bought me a great little book ive still got it called 'How to boil an egg' by J Arkless lots of recipes for one and lots of fun!
i used to hate sharing a fridge though!! and all that padlocks on fridges so people couldnt steel your food it is bringing back memories!!! :beer: good luck with the whole student thing!!