£10.00 per week for food Help please

balmaiden

PolishBigSpender,

How would anyone, looking for work, know that you had a cellar full of junk that needs sorting?

I would assume that anyone who wanted that sort of work doing would look in the yellow pages for a " man with a van". Not wait for out of work teenagers to knock at the door.

PolishBigSpender

balmaiden wrote: »

PolishBigSpender,

How would anyone, looking for work, know that you had a cellar full of junk that needs sorting?

They could knock on my door and ask if I had any jobs that I would like done for me. Not really difficult to do, is it? Let's face it - if you're out of work, you should be looking at all opportunities to make money rather than blaming the fact that there's no formal jobs going.

I would assume that anyone who wanted that sort of work doing would look in the yellow pages for a " man with a van". Not wait for out of work teenagers to knock at the door.

I don't need a "man with a van" - I need someone to sort it nicely and allow me to actually use it as a storage space again. I can't be bothered to do it myself! And there's a car outside that could do with being washed properly by hand too... I'll end up doing both the jobs myself, but if anyone wants to offer to do it, the job is theirs...

me1234567

Polishbigspender, I wouldn't mind doing it, where abouts are you lol

I lost my job before christmas and am currently on JSA and i know how hard it is but we have just been making lots of simple cheap meals, most of which are rubbish but its cheap and filling.

GotNo£

Cheese? Cheese? I thought only rich people could afford that. Even the cheap stuff is expensive. It's possibly to live cheaply, but a bit boring at times. Porridge (with water) for breakfast. Then eat things like. Lentils, Potatoes, Couscous, Rice. Get down to Aldi as they have special offers on fruit and veg every week. Also check your local market, where I live I managed to get 12 bananas for 50p.

tabskitten

i could so easily live will on £10 per week- you buy your shopping after 8pm and head to reducedfor quick sale, you will often get a loaf slicedbread for under 10p and in the freezer will last a week for toast........
eggs on toast or value beans for lunch after porrige (own brand a 50p bag will last a week) with tuna and pasta supper)
Wrt to job hunting- i strongly believe if you are desperate for work you will find a way to earn money- there is always a call for cleaners, odd jobs, dog walking.....

elf06

tabskitten wrote: »

i could so easily live will on £10 per week- you buy your shopping after 8pm and head to reducedfor quick sale, you will often get a loaf slicedbread for under 10p and in the freezer will last a week for toast........
eggs on toast or value beans for lunch after porrige (own brand a 50p bag will last a week) with tuna and pasta supper)
Wrt to job hunting- i strongly believe if you are desperate for work you will find a way to earn money- there is always a call for cleaners, odd jobs, dog walking.....

I agree with what you are saying however I would just like to point out that it isnt always possible for people to go shopping after 8pm at night to get all the bargains. I certainly am not in a position to do this except on a tuesday night when I work until 8.30 or 9pm.........

itsallinthemind

PolishBigSpender wrote: »

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!

Have you perhaps considered that many teenagers live in areas where others do not have gardens to tend to, grass to cut, cars to clean, etc? Let alone that people have £5 per hour to pay them to do it. What planet are you on?:p


JackieO, Bless you for being such a gem to your neighbor, life can be a terrible struggle when people are stuck

Doom_and_Gloom

Hi OP if your friend is still in need of help the following could help:

Aldi - Potatoes 2.5kg for 49p (mash/chips/jaket potato etc)

Sainsburys - 2 packs of organic carrots for 93p. These work out at 62p/kg where as the loose are 70p/kg so for the moment are cheaper. (If possible your friend could get 4 packs and the amount that won't keep could be frozen but this would cost more.)
- basic onions - 59p
- porridge oats with bran work out the cheapest at 89p/pack (8.9p/100g)
- basic peeled tinned tomatoes are 31p/tin - 4 tins is £1.24
- bag of basic frozen peas is £1.74 or you could get 9 tins or basic peas for £1.62
- bag of yellow split peas is 49p
- bag of frozen sweetcorn is £1.27
- jar of basic curry sauce is 9p (should do enough curry for 2 portions at least)
- bag of basic rice is 73p

That comes to £8.46 so he would be able to buy milk (basic soya milk is cheaper than most of the milk except skimmed from what I saw but it's up to him on that count), bread (or the ingredients to make it) etc.

With the above he could make:
Breakfast - porridge made with water (or milk if has it)
Lunch - mash/chips/baked potato with vegetables/curry or dahl (use the yellow split peas) and rice/soup (with bread if bought/made)
Dinner - vegetable curry/vegetable shepherds pie/vegetable cottage pie

I'm sorry but with so little money your friend has to see meat and most dairy products as luxuries; they are just too expencive while you are building up a stock of basics! The rice should go over to the next week as could the porrige (should be around 10 servings at least in the bag) as well as the potatoes I'd imagine. It does seem rather monotonous but it will only be to start as soon there will be extras in the freezer/pantry etc to work from. I would also say he looks for reduced food as he could freeze it if possible so he will have more of a chance to buy more food.

GotNo£

PolishBigSpender wrote: »

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 -

In reality though, most people would be unwilling to let a couple of 'randoms' potter about in and around their property. It's just the way of the World

Fire_Fox

Doom_and_Gloom wrote: »

Hi OP if your friend is still in need of help the following could help:

Aldi - Potatoes 2.5kg for 49p (mash/chips/jaket potato etc)

Sainsburys - 2 packs of organic carrots for 93p. These work out at 62p/kg where as the loose are 70p/kg so for the moment are cheaper. (If possible your friend could get 4 packs and the amount that won't keep could be frozen but this would cost more.)
- basic onions - 59p
- porridge oats with bran work out the cheapest at 89p/pack (8.9p/100g)
- basic peeled tinned tomatoes are 31p/tin - 4 tins is £1.24
- bag of basic frozen peas is £1.74 or you could get 9 tins or basic peas for £1.62
- bag of yellow split peas is 49p
- bag of frozen sweetcorn is £1.27
- jar of basic curry sauce is 9p (should do enough curry for 2 portions at least)
- bag of basic rice is 73p

That comes to £8.46 so he would be able to buy milk (basic soya milk is cheaper than most of the milk except skimmed from what I saw but it's up to him on that count), bread (or the ingredients to make it) etc.

I'm sorry but with so little money your friend has to see meat and most dairy products as luxuries; they are just too expencive while you are building up a stock of basics! The rice should go over to the next week as could the porrige (should be around 10 servings at least in the bag) as well as the potatoes I'd imagine. It does seem rather monotonous but it will only be to start as soon there will be extras in the freezer/pantry etc to work from. I would also say he looks for reduced food as he could freeze it if possible so he will have more of a chance to buy more food.

Whilst you may be correct about the friend only being able to afford a vegan-style diet, your plan looks to be deficient in several nutrients. At a guess, fat and possibly total calories as a result, essential fatty acids, total protein and probably individual amino acids, calcium and vitamin B12. If the OP is going to attempt a vegan diet I'd suggest a book from the library.

One of the cheapest and most nutritious food to add into a plan such as the one above is pilchards canned in tomato sauce (65p for 425g) - you can get four to six meals out of one can, an excellent source of protein, essential fats, calcium and B12. I wouldn't waste money on white rice or potatoes as these are pretty much 'empty' carbs, switch for dried pulses which will supply carbs, protein, fibre and minerals.

HTH.