Money Saving on food - is fast food & takeaways a 'luxury'?

Ryan.Maloney

Well at uni - food can be very expensive

I have a mutlifunction steamer+rice cooker+ slow cooker

It is ideal for the lazy student


- Boiled eggs - put egg in, Press 14 mins, walk away come back and it's ready



But can my steamer be used to cook pasta? (Lol... I know it's easy anyway) I can't find the instruction manual


Is paying £3-4 per meal is excessive when you're trying to money-save? (e.g kfc, mcdonals, subway) or if you want to splash out - Nandos (£10) or Dominos



I want to be a hard-core money saver like you guys

What should be on my tesco shopping list?

- milk
- bread
- eggs

- pasta ? (tesco value lol)
- Pasta sauce (or is that too expensive? that Llyod Grossman stuff is nice, but it's like..£2)

calleyw

I think you need to pop over to the Old style money saving forum.

Covers everything from growing your own food to cutting your food bills.

And yes fast food and takeaways are luxury and not really good for your health due to all the fat and salt in them. And you can cook a nice meal for less than what it costs in takeout.


All the best.


Yours


Calley

Sillychuckie

I have managed this entire year at uni without 1 takeaway.
Go ME!!!
Lots of bread, lots of pasta... and pancakes are fantastic too.
Eggs = cheap, Flour = cheap, Milk = cheap.
You can make so many pancakes from 1 egg, and probably nearly a hundred from one huge smart price pack of flour for less than 20p. They are pretty filling too.
Fruit and Veg is the most expensive thing I buy, but try to keep healthy. It'll keep your mind alert for the studies etc.

StudentSaver_2

Ryan.Maloney wrote:

Pasta sauce (or is that too expensive? that Llyod Grossman stuff is nice, but it's like..£2)

I found Tesco Value Pasta Sauce to be perfect. It's 29p or something per jar, and if you want a bit more flavour, do as I do - add a bit of basil and oregano to it. You wouldn't know the difference!

sockospice

StudentSaver wrote:

I found Tesco Value Pasta Sauce to be perfect. It's 29p or something per jar, and if you want a bit more flavour, do as I do - add a bit of basil and oregano to it. You wouldn't know the difference!

Add mince to it as well, serve with spaghetti and it's like a cheap but tasty bolognaise (sp?)

Cheap flavoured noodles (8 or 9p usually) are also a student staple, and can be livened up with cheese, ham, etc

StudentSaver_2

Yes, Tesco have their own value super noodles, but you need to be very careful not to eat too many of them. Yes, they may be a student staple diet, but they're filled with salt and other nasty things.

I know I'm contradicting myself by having a packet, but I've just looked at the ingredients, and noodles make up 92% of the ingredients, and seasoning makes up another 7%. Maybe there's something they're not telling us.....

Ebany

I would certainly say that fast food counts as a luxury, when you can eat very well for under a pound if you buy sensibly.

While your cooker on steamer function wont cook rice, it should do perfectly well on rice cooker mode - but I would check on it as it goes as I am not sure if the technique it uses to know when rice is done will work with pasta - you may need to add extra water and just time it like you would with pasta on a stove. Quite often if you put the make and model number into google along with 'instruction manual' you can download a copy so that might help and give you some new ideas too!

I would say there is no need to get the Lloyd Grossman stuff - maybe buy one jar and actually study it - look at the ingredients list and consistency etc and work out how to make it yourself. Its bound to be cheaper and you may even make something better!

missk_ensington

Potatoes on your list too! Mince is great, whole chickens can be bought for £1.99 and serves me and my 2 years old a sunday dinner, my lunch at work the next day and then a chicken and vegetable soup (using the left over carrots etc from the roast)Hot Pot is great I pay about £2.30 for braising steak and the veggies etc cost another £1 but it must make about 8 meals!

The thing is, its hard getting started because you need big pans, stock cubes, suet, seasoning, whisks, potato mashers.... and all the utensils to start you off. Asda and Tesco are pretty good for buying the basics but if money's tight it can be a chore buying a load of ingredients.

When money has been really tight, like Ive had £9 to last me 10 days and out of that I need to buy nappies and put pretrol in my car to get to work, I've got clothes and unpicked the seams and taken them back quoting the Sales of Goods Act. You don't usually need a receipt if its faulty, however I'm not suggesting everyone goes out and does this, although for me it has at times been the difference between my little boy having shoes or no shoes. It really is desperate measures though!

Another great thing is pastry cos you can make a pie with all your leftovers from the night before and the pasty costs about 8p to make!

calleyw

missk_ensington wrote:

Another great thing is pastry cos you can make a pie with all your leftovers from the night before and the pasty costs about 8p to make!

If you want to be a little more healthy then use mashed potato as a pie topping. And not just on mince but fish etc.

If you can get the freebie magazines from supermarkets like Asda/Tescos/Somerfield they always have budget recipes in there.


Yours


Calley

tr3mor

Me and my girlfriend live on around £25 a week between us. We eat loads of mince type things, bulked out with kidney beans and veg etc. The freezer is full of leftovers ready for when we cant be bothered to cook.

And yes, takeaways ARE a luxury!

misskool

For pasta sauce, why not just get a couple of tins of chopped tomatoes, add garlic and herbs. then freeze portions. Defrost and add whatever's going into the pasta.

Make a shopping list from meal plans and stick to it. I spend approx £12 a week for myself on pretty much all my meals for the week. So a takeaway at £5/£6 (it is expensive down south!) is a proper luxury...