Food budget for people on a diet!

Willsnarf1983

ok following on from welsh lads post and sorry if i am stealing some thunger but i wanted to know that from the people that are on a diet how much do u spend per month. For me its bout £125 a month but i buy a shed load of chicken (25-30 pounds a month). I know i could goto a bare minimum in food and use tesco value but for an example the tesco value beef which is 1/4 price of the healthy stuff has a lot more fat in it...so thus that is my dilemma...which comes first...becoming debt free or becoming thinner!


for me thinner is winning out but if i can i would like to break the £100 barrier food wise!!

Will

micheleen

The only suggestion I'd make is that for diet purposes a near vegi diet is both cheap and nutritious.

ps I'm not on a diet and love steak

mountainofdebt

since the New Year (surprise surprise) and my food budget if anything has decreased.

Out has gone crisps, biscuits etc and in has come fruit & veg by the bucket load.

Personally I think the key is to plan a menu for the week and only buy what you need - that way I've been able to plan healthy meals and buy only what I need for those meals.

muddled_midget

micheleen wrote:

The only suggestion I'd make is that for diet purposes a near vegi diet is both cheap and nutritious.

ps I'm not on a diet and love steak

I'd agree with micheleen, I'm a veggie and I easily spend less than my housemates on food, even if you just swapped chicken in a dish for beans/lentils maybe twice a week you could dramatically cut your spending on chicken and have more fibre as a bonus

SkippyB

Asda do frozen Chicken Fillets at £4.97 for 1.5kg...I buy them for the 'oh' and he has them in sandwichs etc etc...I'm a veggie and so it also means I can do seperate meals with minimum of fuss.......try cutting down on the meat ad chicken and you'll see you are not only lighter by pounds...but you'll be heavier in ££££'s!

fairylights_2

I buy our meat from the butchers stall on our town market. It's by far cheaper than anywhere else (£5 for normally six MASSIVE chicken breasts - each one is enough for a two adult meal!) and the service is fab. He once refunded me because his mate had sold me a beef joint twice the size of the one I needed. When I told him, he said it was a waste of my cash, and paid me back!

As far as eating healthy on a budget goes, I genuinely don't think it's difficult. We eat really very healthily. If you genuinely believe that the small proportion of fat in the value mince is enough to cause you problems with your weight loss eat LESS rather than low fat. It also makes it easier when you go out - just eat smaller portions, rather than asking for a green salad no dressing and a glass of water!

mentaljessie

Well as someone whos is always watching her weight as well as money i always buy Tesco value mince but boil it beforehand and drain out the fat. I buy my tuna steaks and salmon fillets from Lidl and stock up on chicken breasts from Iceland or Tesco when they are on special offer my weekly spend on food for 2 is about £25 but to eat well you have to shop about.

sheng719

Willsnarf1983 wrote:

ok following on from welsh lads post and sorry if i am stealing some thunger but i wanted to know that from the people that are on a diet how much do u spend per month. For me its bout £125 a month but i buy a shed load of chicken (25-30 pounds a month). I know i could goto a bare minimum in food and use tesco value but for an example the tesco value beef which is 1/4 price of the healthy stuff has a lot more fat in it...so thus that is my dilemma...which comes first...becoming debt free or becoming thinner!


for me thinner is winning out but if i can i would like to break the £100 barrier food wise!!

Will

I do agree with you on this....I recently signed up on the tescos e-diets just to help me to plan my meals and hopefully loose weight. It was really helpful, but unfortunately, for a weeks food budget just to stick to this diet regime would cost me around £75. The dilemma now it that am I really gaining from this diet regime? My conclusion would be to try to buy an alternative for some ingredients. Hopefully this would work and i would still be losing weight at the same time.

newmum1

iceland do a frozen big bag of economy chicken for £2 per bag i think its great value as you just take out and defrost the quantity that is needed for a single person it could probably last the month.

James240

will,

For me i buy tesco low fat meals cos u can get 5 for £5, i find them really nice and also filling plus they have very low fat content and i there calories range from 290 - 400 calories per meal.

James

tipsychick

Like your new word, "thunger" - I feel like that most of the time!

My constant dilemma is keeping cost down -v- good quality produce. If £125.00 is your monthly food bill whilst on a diet and what you eat is really good quality, I'd say that sounds about right. I hate beef/steak mincemeat with any kind of gristle in it or only ninety percent lean. I really do not like any big worm like pieces of mince! There's no way around it - good quality chicken is expensive in comparison to beef or lamb and you're eating lots of it by the sounds of things. You could try pork or good quality farmed salmon as an alternative if you're desperate for protein that isn't a bean/pulse and perhaps is cheaper than chicken.

I think one of the problems when I'm on a diet is that I become even more fussy about good quality/organic than usual!