£10.00 per week for food Help please

Butterfly_Brain

ceridwen wrote: »

I think myself that - provided you dont get any p.c. repairs needing doing! - then its a moneysaver. My monthly fixed phonebill I seem to remember was £20. So - to pay £28 now and get Internet thrown in means I am spending £8 per month (if that) for the broadband. My tv licence alone would cost more than that - but I watch any programmes I want to on IPlayer etc.

Thats not to mention that I've picked up simply loads of moneysaving ideas:D

Don't have the problem of pc repairs I can fix most problems that arise and if I can't I know a man who can.
Trouble is everyone has started bring their pc's to me to fix:eek:
FIL, SIL, Friends can be a pain sometimes because sometimes it can take hours to do - that's why you have to pay so much

OrkneyStar

Re the internet, if you are on JSA then you really might not be able to afford it! You can nornally get free internet access at local library, and provided you live in an area where you can get there by walking (or a lift ) then that would save you having to have it at home ? Even a couple of pounds saved on that a week would go toward some healthy fruit/veg or even a piece of cheap chicken/pork/mince ?
Just a thought, I think the replies about the meals have been covered by Penny/Pink and the others.

brokeinwales

Hiya, I had this problem a while back (about £3 to last several weeks) - some lovely people were very kind in helping me out with a few "care packages" which really helped, but other things I did included:

Porridge for breakfast (made with water to save buying milk)
Drink water, rather than any other drink
Value packet noodles for lunch (I bought a ripped bag of frozen veg for 25p to serve with them)
Lots of potato based dishes - wedges, chips, mash, yortilla - you name it
Going to supermarket just before close to pick up the super-reduced stuff
Having smaller portions so one meals leftovers would last me a few days
Scouring the streets for dropped change, digging out money off vouchers, Tesco clubcard vouchers, Boots advantage points - anything that could potentially be spent on food
Soup - if your friend has, or can borrow, a hand blender, and get a few stock cubes in, practically anything can be turned into a filling soup. Soup is also easy to "stretch" by adding more water, or to change the taste with a sachet of sauce liberated from Wetherspoons.

JillS_2

babyshoes wrote: »

Otherwise, soya mince is an excellent source of protein and can be cheaper than meat. It is the only vegetable protein that contains all the amino acids the human body needs, so as good as meat, with far less fat! It can be used on its own or mixed with mince to stretch it a lot.

I'm not sure that's correct. I thought that most if not all vegetable protein contained all the essential amino acids - it's just that they don't contain them in the right proportions so some of the protein they contain is wasted. This is also true of animal protein but the proportions are closer to the ideal there so less is wasted. Soya beans are the best of the legumes though they're not much better than wheat but neither of these are as good as most fish and meat. If soya mince is as good as meat it must have been processed by adding or subtracting nutrients from the beans.

babyshoes

JillS wrote: »

I'm not sure that's correct. I thought that most if not all vegetable protein contained all the essential amino acids - it's just that they don't contain them in the right proportions so some of the protein they contain is wasted. This is also true of animal protein but the proportions are closer to the ideal there so less is wasted. Soya beans are the best of the legumes though they're not much better than wheat but neither of these are as good as most fish and meat. If soya mince is as good as meat it must have been processed by adding or subtracting nutrients from the beans.

Hmm, I will have to do some research on this... My explanation above stems from A level Biology lessons and advertising about soya mince when it first became available in Africa some years ago, and I may have either mis-understood or mis-remembered. I certainly remember soya being touted as a 'wonder crop' which could solve a lot of the world's food problems as most poor people tend to fill up on carbohydrate rich basics and don't get enough protein...

Do you have any links for me to read up or do I have to rely on good old Auntie Google?

EDIT: A quick search pulled up the Wikipedia page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Complete_protein

Seems we are both sort of right. Soya beans contain all the essential amino acids in quantities similar to meat, which are the quantities needed by humans. Other legumes contain high quantities of amino acids but typically have low amounts of one or two amino acids. Other plant sources have lower quantities of proteins.

maltesers_2

I am very suspicious about soya, it is promoted as healthy but although it has been used in the east for thousands of years the only way they eat it is after a long fermentation the whole beans were considered poison.

Interesting Guardian article -Should we worry about soya in our food?
http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/2006/jul/25/food.foodanddrink

JillS_2

maltesers wrote: »

I am very suspicious about soya, it is promoted as healthy but although it has been used in the east for thousands of years the only way they eat it is after a long fermentation the whole beans were considered poison.

Interesting Guardian article -Should we worry about soya in our food?
http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/2006/jul/25/food.foodanddrink

Thanks for that reference. It's certainly put me off increasing my intake of soya. I've never used it that much because I've always found the beans themselves anything from boringly bland to unpleasant and have always thought the soya mince/granules was very overpriced (compared with the cost of the beans).

JillS_2

babyshoes wrote: »

Hmm, I will have to do some research on this... My explanation above stems from A level Biology lessons and advertising about soya mince when it first became available in Africa some years ago, and I may have either mis-understood or mis-remembered. I certainly remember soya being touted as a 'wonder crop' which could solve a lot of the world's food problems as most poor people tend to fill up on carbohydrate rich basics and don't get enough protein...

Do you have any links for me to read up or do I have to rely on good old Auntie Google?

EDIT: A quick search pulled up the Wikipedia page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Complete_protein

Seems we are both sort of right. Soya beans contain all the essential amino acids in quantities similar to meat, which are the quantities needed by humans. Other legumes contain high quantities of amino acids but typically have low amounts of one or two amino acids. Other plant sources have lower quantities of proteins.

Thanks. Yes, my sources used the older net protein utilisation ratio rather than the more modern PDCAAS - however, reading the Wiki article on PDCAAS indicates there may be problems with that measure as well. In addition, given the ability to improve the protein value of lower value protein like that from other types of legumes by combining with foods that supplement the lower value amino acids in each type of food, I still prefer to use other beans which are IMO tastier than soya such as kidney beans and chickpeas.

My original source (nearly 40 years ago) was Frances Moore Lappe's "Diet for a Small Planet" but has been supported by more recent reading. (Ooh, I've just read the Wiki article on the book and apparently there isn't actually any need for food combining or, it would seem, for choosing soya beans over other types since in most cases if your diet is adequate in calories any sort of protein food(plant or animal) will provide sufficient protein if it is sufficient in calories.

Having said all of that, I still prefer to get most of my protein from meat, fish, milk or eggs because of the lack of Vitamin B12 in plants.

PolishBigSpender

JackieO wrote: »

The two teenagers cannot find work and she has a health problem and her husband is her care.

Sorry, but I don't believe for a second that the teenagers cannot find work. How many people need things done? I have a cellar full of junk that needs sorting - I would happily pay someone to sort it for me, if anyone actually offered to do so. I'm sure most of my neighbours are exactly the same - grass always needs cutting, car always needs cleaning, dog always needs walking, etc etc.

Even with the spring coming, there's work to be done in gardens - people want to get out there and garden, they don't want to do the backbreaking work involved in preparing a garden. Even at five pounds an hour, the money will soon add up!

Taadaa

I dunno if this has been mentioned as haven't read it through to the end, but veg is likely to make a cheaper meal than meat. Eggs are a good source of protein okay they will have to be the value caged ones but sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do.

So my advice is where he does buy meat say to go with pasta, he needs to cut the mince tray into several portions, freeze the others, and chuck loads of veg in. Grated carrot and parsnip are good and quite cheap options, as are cabbage. Can he find a fruit and veg stall that might do these things a bit cheaper than the supermarket? Esp if he can catch them as they shut up on a Saturday afternoon.

I am sorry to hear your friend is in this position in this day and age, it really puts things into perspective for SOME of the rest of us. x