Do I still fit in here if...

Rummer

I live a mainly OS life so I can enjoy lifes little luxuries with the money I have saved.

tryingtoruletheworld

I think maybe you might need a little more for veggies and things?

I would start by writing a meal plan for the week, and work exactly how muh you need to buy and what it will cost. Then use the leftovers for some alcohol.

You could try and make it spending neutral? Collect points for surveys and Ipoints/Pigsback, mystery shop and cashback sites, or try ebaying a few things and use this for your treats budget?

Just a few suggestions, as you need to make sure you keep youself fit and healthy. And try and find what times your local supermarkets reduce their fresh items to get extra veg, maybe try your local market if you have one?

Oh yes, I posted this on another thread too (I will sound like I work for Sainsburys at this rate!) but they have Linda Mcartney sausages on offer for 94p, and sausage rolls for 72p. Obviously pulses would be healthier, but it is nice to have back ups to prevent any last minute take aways! Their basics yoghurts are also free from gelatine and 25p for 4.

Reverbe

There's some great threads here full of hints and and recipes. Welcome!!

Butterfly_Brain

Good on you - if you want a little treat a week it is ok, we are all struggling to keep the fat cats in business so I don't see a problem.
My treat is a DVD a month I bet everyone on this board has a favourite treat as well.

Izzy.

Interesting post. I say buying a bottle of wine a week is okay but if it's 32% of the total food budget it's too much. Put into perspective if somebody had £300 a month to spend on food and spent nearly a third of it on wine most people would think it was abit much. Op I know you want to relax and enjoy a bottle of wine and thats fair enough, but you would be silly to do it at the expensse of your health and basic nutrition. I know its not what you want to hear but if you only have a tenner to spend on food then you can't afford wine right now.

Doom_and_Gloom

£7 on food is possible. I've done it in the past quite easily and if I still lived where I used to it would still be more than possible. However the supermarket is not going to be your friend unless you only buy reduced fruit and veg there and other needed items. A green grocer is your best bet for good prices on fruit and veg if possible.
You should give around £4.50-£5 of your budget to fruit, veg and pulses I'd say. If you can buy a big 3KG of lentils (preferably in an Idian or simular shop as most likely cheaper) it's an expensive outlay but I found them to last so long that it didn't matter (I still have around half of one I bought left and I bought it months ago).

Make things such as
Lentil soup - have it with some bread
Lentil and vegetable curry
Vegetable chilli
Vegetable stir fry with rice or noodles or quinoa
Vegetable lasange
Spaghetti bolognese (use veg and lentils and/or soya mince)

I would stay away from the meat substitutes as they are expensive for very litte nutrition and don't fill you up for long from what I've found. I'd rather make a huge veggie shepherds pie made with loads of vegetables, lentils and maybe some soya mince if I feel like it for around £2-£2.50 for 4 good sized portions that I can freeze the left overs of. It's better than £2-ish on 2 packs of Linda McCartney sausages when on offer that won't do much good to me nutritionally and are a lot of money for what they are!

By the way this is a link to the Shepherds pie http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showpost.html?p=18412639&postcount=32 it is vegan but you could easily do it veggie if you wanted cheese on/use butter etc it but it tastes just fine as it is. Obviously it's cheaper to make this if you manange to obtain a good number of the vegetables reduced or at the grocers than I have stated.

Also remember that fruit juices and dried fruits are very good ways of not only getting portions of fruit but usually also contain a high number of calories to prevent weight loss. You might want to think about nuts and seeds as well as these can be cheap, are a source of good fats, are calorie dence, good source of protien as well as a source of calcium a lot of the time .

I hope I've helped. It is possible if you want it to be but don't let the thought of keeping your budget low only for drink stress you out. That won't do you any good.

ceridwen

I can sympathise with the wish for a bottle of wine a week. Thats not much to ask for I know and we all like a little treat once in a while.

I too share the concern that its not affordable out of just £10 per week though and would like to see you meet your nutritional needs first and then, if theres any over, a treat would be in order.

I always advocate student cookbooks as a good source of ideas/recipes for single people - so perhaps you could borrow some from the library? There are vegetarian ones I know - I dont know about vegan (I've never yet seen a student vegan cookbook). Cas Clarke is one person I have several books by and last I knew there was several of her books on Amazon for 1p (though, of course, thats assuming that you could put your order in with someone else - so that you didnt have to pay the postage costs).

Take care - Rome wasnt built in a day and its going to take a while for you to adapt to your new life.

esmf73

Only thing I would say is that if you're treating yourself - do it properly and don't drink Lambrini - choose a quality wine - Tesco have lots on offer at the moment.

Have you thought of Aldi, Lidl or Netto instead of one of the big 4?

faithcecilia

Last night was semi tounge in cheek (hmm, wrote tongue in cheese:rolleyes:). £10 is not my max budget a week I don't think, just what i would like to stick to. At one point about 3yrs ago I was feeding myself on about £3 a week by buying the supermarket out of reduced veg, whatever it happened to be, and making big batches of soup then freezing. Some weeks it was strange combinations (and very strange colours!) but I never starved, always had cash when I needed it for other things and stayed perfectly helathy! Actually, I studied nutrition for a few years too, and the main thing I learnt was actually not to worry too much. Yes, my weight loss is a bit of a problem just now (never imagined I would ever say that) but its more stress than anything - my heart rate is also higher than usual, though when I saw the nurse to register at the drs she wasn't worried.

Don't worry, I am not intending becoming an alcoholic - if nothing else, I really can't afford to at all! But yes, I do want to budget for alcohol in my shopping. I am trying to keep my expenditure to half my income (hmm, okay JSA when I apply for it:o) so that I always have a buffer.

There is both a Lidl and an Aldi but they are both further away and I have only my footsies and the bus. I was thinking maybe getting my veg at Lidl, or at least some of it. I haven't come across an Indian supermarket or similar yet - where I lived a few years ago we had masses, but I will keep an eye out.

I'm going to go back on Tesco.com and try to do a 'basics' shopping plan, allowing maybe £20is this week, to get the bits I won't need every week, then back to my £10 from next week, I hope.

PasturesNew

Macaroni cheese can be good for several reasons:
- it's easy to make
- it's cheap
- you can make it once then portion it up in to the fridge for nuking over the next 2-3 days (or freeze it if you have one of those)
- it's filling (and comfort food)
- you use the cheapest cheese (e.g. £5/Kg or less), you can even mix cheeses ... all cheese is cheese in a macaroni cheese
- cheese is high in protein and calories

I like to serve mine with a dash of brown sauce, or half a tin of tomatoes.