Help!! £10 shopping budget.

bigjon1968

Hi guys, I've been lurking about here for a while but only just joined. Due to a slight (coughs) oversight in my financial budgeting, for the foreseeable future I have a budget of just £10 a week for my food shopping. I live alone so it is just for me. Can this be done? If so, can someone tell me how please!Few things to bear in mind... 1. I am a man (so keep it simple!), but do have basic cooking skills... 2. I'm not exactly a waif, so no skimping on the portion sizes please. 3.While I am not expecting steak every night, the odd sniff of a bit of meat would be really good!... 4. I have a sweet tooth as well, so the odd pudding or a bit of chocolate would be nice too! 5. This also needs to cover packed lunches 5 days a week.Hope I'm not asking too much. Can anyone help?Thanks,Jon.

twentypenceoff

£10

bread - reduced or tesco 45p
butter - could get for 70p
milk - around £1 for a couple of pints
paste - three for a £1 - use in sandwiches every day
eggs - around 8op for 6
potatoes - £1 should buy some for baking and mashin
cheese - at deli counter - 80p
mince at butcher - 60p
onions - 20p for 2
beef oxo - 70p
pasta - 30p
yoghurts - 5 for a pound value range
carrots - 30p at market
sausages - around 60p for four at butchers
pudding rice - around 40p
mushrooms - around 40p at market

can have paste or egg/cheese sandwich
sausage egg mash
shepherds pie
mince pasta
boiled egg and soldiers
baked potato
veg pasta

not exciting but doable

blue_ashleigh

There's some tips and threads similar to these in Food, Shopping and Groceries...

Hang on, I shall find a link...
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/forumdisplay.html?f=175

You can buy fairly decent chocolate (not amazing... but you get used to it after the first square or two) for about 25p from Sainsburys.

skiTTish

Pasta bake is 99p at Asda at the mo ,one jar would do you 2 days with a quarter of a bag of pasta(45p)
Ask at butchers /deli counter for ham /turkey trimmings ,great for sandwiches !
Veg curry /chilli - a quarter bag of mixed frozen no frill veg mixed with no frills chilli or curry sauce ,served with rice.
The obligatory beans on toast

If you have a microwave ,jam pudding is a cheap and quick pud that satisfies even the sweetest tooth ,just make as jam steamed pud (make half portion or quarter portion) microwaves in a couple of mins.
Each meal is only about 65p a portion :j:beer:

meanmarie

I knew someone who, when at college, as soon as his grant came in every month he bought a large bag of potatoes, lots of tins of beans and a tray of eggs....any extra money went for booze! You could try this one week, add a bit of mince the next week, few cheap sliced pans and a pot of cheap jam for your sweet tooth....not the healthiest diet maybe but you will live until you can up your budget a bit....don't forget free food an YS stuff as well

Marie

freezspirit

If you can I would bulk buy pasta and/or rice, it will take most of your 1st weeks budget but will work out cheaper in the long term and last you ages.

About meat, might be worth checking your local butchers they might have small offcuts or specials and generally will sell you small portions of steak/mince compared to a supermarket. Saying that I think one of the supermarket has an offer of £2 chicken that will last you awhile.

Start to get creative with what you have in your cupboards/fridge/freezer. (sorry realised your male so they might be bear to begin with - sorry to stereotype).

Work out the weeks menu, write down the list of ingredients of what needs to be bought before you go shopping - it sometime happens that if you don't have a list you will add stuff to the trolley that you don't need.

Hate to say this buy store own brand or check sometimes popular branded foods are on offer and work out cheaper.

Another suggestion is cook to make 2 serving and freeze one for the following week. My brother lives alone and gets ready sick of the same food the next day or 4 (when he's done a roast). So if he makes a curry or chilli he will freeze the excess to have later.

Meals that spring to my mind are:

rice, peas, diced onion and prawns.
mash and mince
curry and rice
jacket potato with any filling (with the price of potatoes might be over budget)
mince and pasta
stir fry with noodles
Lasagna

Or checking out these links for recipes:

http://uktv.co.uk/food/stepbystep/aid/603779

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=217679

xnatalie81x

WEEK 1
Pack value mince 2.00
tinned tomatoes x2
basil 58p
cheese sauce 1.25(bisto in a pot - loads)
spaghetti 39p
pasta 43p
value instant mash 39p
red kidney beans 19p
value rice 73p
value bacon 72p
tin tesco tom soup 44
value custard creams 30
value custard 25
value rice pudding 18p
Value swiss roll - choc 13p
value bread - 50p
value ham - 52p
value soft cheese spread - 39
value yoghurt (4) x 2 = 8 yogs 58



= 10.67

day 1 - bolognese (hm sauce with tinned toms, basil, salt, sugar, oil)
day 2 - cheesy pasta and bacon
day 3 - cottage pie
day 4 - pasta in tomato soup bake
day 5 - chilli and rice
day 6 - rice with bacon and tomatoes baked and topped with cheese sauce
day 7 - bolognese

Lunches: cheesy pasta x2 (cold and taken in lunch box)
3 x sandwiches with ham and soft cheese
Biscuits/custard and choc swiss roll/ rice pudding for afters

Breakfasts are any bread have left or custard creams - not as healthy as woud like ie no fruit/not lot veg but you won't go hungry and try and scavenge fruit/veg off friends.....

xnatalie81x

ps the cheese sauce is make with water so need for milk!

C_J

Go and read the discount vouchers thread :

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=1780341

There are plenty of money off coupons which you can print off and use to knock money off your shopping at Tesco and/or Waitrose without actually buying the product named on the coupon. The thread explains all this. From memory there's around £8 worth of printable coupons currently available, so if you do three or four small shops in Tesco per week, that's about £32 of free food you'll be getting every week

stevenhp1987

easy peasy!

Get some mince say £2 for 450-500g (turkey mince probs best from asda - £1.70 and lean - good for you!), smart price bolognese jar, tin smart price kidney beans, carrots and peas, buy an onion, some smart price pasta/spaghetti

Cook off an onion, add mince, brown it off, add veg (washed - just in case), fry for a min or two, add sauce, cook for 10 mins) - serves 4, so tub it off into 3 tubs (to put in fridge/freezer) plus one for your plate and add 100g of pasta for one serving (400-500g of mince makes 4 servings).

So thats what, £3 total for 4 days... not bad, think of similar recipies, make a pie using similar ingrediants with 7p curry sauce for example?

bimbo84

Hi,

Not much has been said about breakfast foods here, I'd recommend pancakes. They're not particularly healthy but its better than nothing at all.

Tesco do a batter mix for 8p, you just add one egg. That's enough for about 4 large pancakes so you could even use half and keep the rest for the next day.