Eating healthily for £25 a week

Ames

Hi all.

I give my sister food money but I can't afford to keep giving her the £30 a week that she needs.

So could you suggest ways she can eat healthily for less? She doesn't like fruit and prefers veg. She has to have sauces with her meat. She needs to drink lots of milk to stop losing weight. She lives in a shared flat so doesn't have a lot of space for keeping things. She doesn't like cereal.

Ideally I want to get her down to £20 a week but she really doesn't think that's possible.

LilacPixie

Does she eat pasta/rice. If so you can do chili, bolognese etc reasonably cheaply. Do you have a farmfoods near by?? they are £1 for 2 litres of milk. Does she have a freezer so she can be freezing portions of food?

Ames

She does eat pasta, but doesn't like hot foods, so no chilli. There is a farmfoods. She does have a freezer and can freeze portions. She doesn't want to have tomato based sauces much, as she doesn't want to eat the same thing every day and she says it'll get expensive.

chika

Tell her that beggars can't be choosers or ask her to get her own food!;)

Does she live in Leeds too? The market has fantastic fruit and veg for not very much money.

If I had 20 i would get:

Chicken (£4 from butchers) Roast and use meat for sandwiches, roast dinner, risotto and turn the bones into stock.

A good selection of fruit & veg from the market - my aunt who lives in Leeds told me that she feeds three on ten pounds a week when she buys produce from there. Look for in season things and try and visit at the end of the day when prices are reduced even further. (£5)

Milk, cheese butter - dairy is essential and she can make cheese sauce to go on pasta or with veg (5)

Bread (£1.50) this is even cheaper if you make your own but it can be a faff.

Encourage her to get a store cupboard of essentials - pasta, rice and cous cous are all very cheap when bought in bulk and you can make anything taste amazing with a decent range of cheap spices.

Does she eat lentils and pulses? You can pick these up for next to nothing and make the cheapest meals around. Bean chilli, dahl etc are delicious, super healthy and cost about 10p a portion. If you make it yourself you can make it as hot or mild as you like. They are a great way to get yur protien without meat.

Ames

Where do you get fruit and veg on the market? I've tried most of the indoor stalls but the quality's crap and they go off within a day, sometimes they're mouldy by the time I get them home, when they're from the places that get them from behind.

mummysaver

How about some cheaper meals such as baked pots and soups? She can bake a few pots whilst cookin something else and pop them in the freezer to be eaten another day.

Making a meal plan might help her out, especially with things like bulk cooking and freezing foods, so she can see that she won't end up eating shepherds pie every day for a week!

Perhaps if you posted a typical week's meals that she eats, and what she buys usually, then alternatives could be suggested or ways of making it go further. I'm sure the amount you give her can be reduced, the ideas on here are always amazing!

Edit: just to say if you're buying stuff from the market then don't accept stuff taken from behind, point to the stuff that you want, if they aren't prepared to let you have it then try another stall!

mumto1_2

Definitely beggars can't be choosers. Give her the £20 and tell her that's it. She'll have to figure out herself what she will be able to eat on that. I lived on that a week when I was a student and ate well - and sometimes that was for 2. With limited means she can't be fussy. Point out to her that some families on here have that for 4-5 people and manage.

Veggie fried rice dishes, cous cous dishes, pasta dishes etc. are all cheap. She will have to learn to like dishes without meat or sauces. Or shred half a chicken leg into them. Jacket potatoes are cheap and you can stick whatever you want on them.

Grated cheese lasts longer than sliced for sandwiches as you put less on. Buy seasonal fruit + veg, have porridge for brekkie and make applesauce to put on top. I know some on here find UHT milk OK + it is cheaper than fresh - or there's powdered as well.

Ames

Her favourite meal is pasta with dolmio mushroom sauce, bacon and scollops. She loves stuffed belly pork. She gets the 'the best' sausages from Morrisons, I can't remember which flavour though. She likes beef stroganoff made with packet sauce. Mushroom risotto (can you make it with normal rice?), she makes her own quiches and desserts. Minty lamb burgers or stew.

I can't really think of anything else she likes, if I do I'll post.

cuddlymarm

Hi

I find that if you choose your veg off the market stall yourself and then hand it to the stallholder it lasts better than letting them choose. Also don't let anyone rush you ( I tend to go early so theres not loads of people about) I live in Reading and sometimes they do offers such as a cabbage, a cauli and a head of broccoli for £1.20 which is good value but you have to menu plan after you have bought your veg if you see what I mean.

Cuddles:rotfl:

mummysaver

All of those meals should still be do-able on a reduced budget, but she might need to intersperse them with some cheaper alternatives, and do a bit of bulk cooking and portioning for freezing.

And yes you can make mushroom risotto with normal rice, doesn't end up quite so creamy though, you can also make it with barley - has a special name, but can't remember what at the mo!

I think she might need to do a bit of meal planning and thinking about what she can do to help your budget! Even simple things like using a bit less beef in her stroganoff and some extra mushrooms can make a big difference to total meal costings. Quiches and desserts can be cut into one extra portion than she already cuts them, and the portions frozen. When she uses the sausages she could eat 2 instead of 3 and bulk out the meal with extra veg or a baked potato. Stew can be stretched with more veg than meat and served with tagliatelle or mash, and leftover small portions can be used to make pies.

A bit of creative thinking and some delving into cookery books or browsing the meal plans on here might be a good way for her to reduce her costs, would she be happy to do that?

mumto1_2

Scallops??! I think they are off the menu until she can afford them..... we can afford what we'd like and I think they are too expensive for us except as a treat.

Mushroom sauce is easy to make herself and will taste better than a jar.

I used to have a 'cooking 101' cookbook, look on the river store for student cookbooks and get her one.