help - £40 to feed 1 person for a month!

determinedtodothis

Hi guys,

I just wondered, things are going to be Verrrry tight for me and the maximum i can spend on my groceries next month is £40. Regardless of what I have stashed away (plenty of pasta and chopped toms) - what would you say is a must to buy for that budget?

I'm thinking:

Milk
Flour (to make bread)
Mince
Potatoes

all suggestions welcomed I don't want to waste my pennies!

Pink.

Hi determinedtodothis,

I would say with careful meal planning you should be able to do it easily. However, it's difficult to suggest what you need to buy without knowing what you already have in stock and what your tastes are.

To get the best from your £40 have a look at Martin's supermarket shopping article


I know these threads are primarily talking about families but you should find some good tips in there too:

£50 a week to feed family of 6, does anyone do it cheaper??

£20 to feed a family of 4 for a month?



These threads may help too:

What can a single person use on this board?

Need help cooking for one.

living on your own/cooking for one....

Saving Money On Food For a SINGLE person

Help a Single Saver

Single moneysaver living on my own!



Have a look here for some recipe ideas:

Cheap recipe threads



And finally (you'll probably be glad to hear), we have a monthly thread where people help and support others to keep within their own budget. You should get lots of help there so I'll add your thread to the August 2009 Grocery Challenge later.

Good luck with cutting back.

Pink

Caterina

Dried pulses are cheap and go a long way, if you have an ethnic supermarket (Asian, Turkish, etc) you can find a bag of 2kg red lentils for appx £3 and you can use these for a variety of dishes. (Also seen bulk buy bags in some Tesco stores.). If you are a meat and fish eater, you can concentrate on cheaper cuts, make broth with chicken wings and bulk up stews and soups with root veg, as well as picking and eating the meat from the wings - you can also mince that and mix it with lentils and breadcrumbs for chicken rissoles.

Another thing you might want to consider in this season of plenty is foraging, there are plenty of blackberries out there and if you are fortunate to have some countryside near you, you might even find plums and apples. Nettles are a good staple green, work like spinach, also dandelion leaves are great to eat, full of vitamins and minerals. Check www.selfsufficientish.com it is a great website for this sort of thing.

Also, rely on freebies and tasters in supermarkets, learn when they have yellow stickered items and with some luck and skill you might even be able to eat posh nosh on hardly any dosh (sorry, I had to do my poetry bit LOL)

Take care and best wishes,

Caterina

Edited to say, just noticed you are in London - if you are anywhere near Angel, the Chapel Market is very good for picking up slightly bruised leftover fruit and veg at the end of the day for free - a nice saving, I have seen excellent bananas left behind because they were a bit brown. Also worth checking the bins around Borough Market, sometimes you can find real treasures there! And all for free!

justpeyton4now

I think you'll find all these threads helpful.

50p a day til Christmas

Grocery Shopping Budget Thread

Food Shopping and Groceries General Thread

£10 a week shopping Budget

Peyton xx

justpeyton4now

Pink-winged wrote: »

Hi determinedtodothis,

I would say with careful meal planning you should be able to do it easily. However, it's difficult to suggest what you need to buy without knowing what you already have in stock and what your tastes are....

...Good luck with cutting back.

Pink

You're always so on the ball. Bless you Pink for all you do here.

Peyton

ifonlyitwaseasier

how is your freezer space? you could get frozen verggies (or reduced fresh ones) and save some money that way,

oats - for brekkie and hob nobs
lentils - def agree these can be added to so many things, i add both lentils and oats to my mince dishes and get far more from it that way, ie 400g mince does 4 x meals for 2 adults when bulked out with the above and veggies.
get normal potatoes not jacket or new, the large bag in the supermarket should last and you can always make up mash/roasties to freeze ready to cook.

Good Luck

ioiwe

knithryn

I would recommend looking at the 'not quite perfect' veg in Tesco as they are often very cheap.
Battered boxes of breakfast cereal and washing powder are good.
Aldi are doing cheap veg, so make the most of it - freezing tomato cooked down for later on,...
Be careful about breadmaking etc as a breadmaking machine uses a fair amount of electricity. Making it by hand is only feasible if you have the time and patience.
Look for own-brand bargains. For example Morrisons do 6 pittas for 19p, and a jar of curry sauce for about 8p!
Have a outline shopping list but be prepared to alter it as you find bargains. Depending on your tastes, search different aisles in your supermarket to find the best deals. Search one aisle carefully at a time. And compare supermarkets.
Cheese is good bought in bulk if you see an offer - grate it and freeze it for adding to pasta etc.
Other than that - good luck!
Last summer I fed two adults and three large cats on £150. About £50 or more was cat food. It's certainly manageable to feed one person for £50 but you will need to be careful.

determinedtodothis

Brilliant thanks everyone I knew you could all help, I will check out some of these links, and I will do a check of everything I have in my kitchen

Thank you everyone :T

determinedtodothis

WOW pink! I think I misunderstood the grocery challenge thread - i will def be signing up to the september one

Thank you!

Butterfly_Brain

Eggs are cheap and full of protein so are chicken thighs
You can make a good variety of meals from mince as well
Tinned Tuna can be used in a sarnie and pasta (2 meals from one can)
Porridge is a filling brekkie
Try batch cooking to save on fuel costs
Buy basic tinned or frozen fruit instead of fresh (so expensive at the mo)
The same goes for veg,
Buy a bag of casserole veg and add to mince or chicken thighs for a good hearty meal.
Bake yourself some cakes and biscuits so that you can have a little treat.
LG Rice goes a long way - makes a change from potatoes and pasta.
Aldi are worth going to for veg - the offer changes on the first of every month.
I get my eggs from there because they are 99p for 10 large eggs.
Sainsbury do 4 basic yoghurts for 29p and farmfoods do milk at £1 for 2L
Go to the library and find some budget cookery books
And the most important thing for you to do before going shopping is MENU PLAN, then write a list and stick to it.

Butterfly_Brain

Have you got any relatives or friends that you could cadge a meal from?