The Best Diet!

bananachip

jack_pott, entirely your choice what you spend your money on and eat. I make home made curry because I like the taste and know my own food is low fat (I use fry light oil to fry onions and spices) and has no preservatives or nasties. It probably costs me around £1 to make a batch of curry sauce taking all the spices into account as I buy napolina tomatoes in bulk when on offer so probably less expensive than an average shop bought curry sauce although it could obviously not beat the smartprice 8p sauce in price.

I do see your point though, I'm not one of those people who only eats home cooked, at times I do use sauces and jars and smart price sweet and sour is a favourite of mine and I doubt if I could make it cheaper.

Personally when losing weight I find a lot of the time it is easier to go with pre packaged as it is already calorie counted for you so you dont have to worry about portion size.

daveyjp

jack_pott wrote: »

Why would I spend two quid on a packet of spices, plus the cost of the other ingredients when I can buy a jar of sauce for 75p?

Because the jars aren't healthy. Which was the point of your argument in the first place.

[Deleted User]

daveyjp wrote: »

Because the jars aren't healthy. Which was the point of your argument in the first place.

No the point of my argument in the first place was that processed food is cheaper:-

Originally Posted by jack_pott
Junk food is far cheaper than healthy food, which is one reason why the poor tend to have worse diets.

Kirri

jack_pott wrote: »

Junk food is far cheaper than healthy food, which is one reason why the poor tend to have worse diets.

I think junk food is actually much more expensive compared to cooking from scratch! They are all £1-£2 per item compared to a pack of pulses for 50p ish which makes multiple meals etc. It's all the junk food which is unnecessary in the diet.

I only buy basic foodstuffs and cook from scratch - spices last for ages re your example - I also find a lot of ready made sauces are a bit too salty for my liking. I have a healthy diet cooking things myself and am very poor at the moment!

Maybe the reason the so called poor buy junk is probably pester power from their hyperactive kids or the fact they are too lazy to cook from scratch despite having more time than those working, there's no way it can be said to be cheaper overall than buying basic items, ie pasta, rice, pulses and in season veg etc with no treats/biscuits/crap etc.

To the OP, when I started examining my shopping habits after redundancy, I cut down on waste food and my waist reduced also!

[Deleted User]

I don't eat junk food at all as I don't like it but I do go into my local Icelands for specific things 4 litres milk is £1.10 and this week they had 3 litres of Robinsons 'no sugar' Orange squash for £2.00.I have seven thirsty grandchildren and I like to think they can have a decent squash at a reasonable price I am lucky that its not too big a shop yet you can get quite a few bargains there.I don't buy what I call 'ping' food .you know stick it into the microwave and ping its done, but some of there basics and staple stuff is cheaper than tescos.depending on the offers you can get things like cereals and tea bags on good offers there .My local presinct has a tesco Metro and an Iceland almost opposite each outher so the competion is quite fierce at times.I go from one shop to the other pricing thingd up and buy the best value out of the two of them I also have a 'proper butcher' there as well so I can buy free range eggs that were produced less than three miles away and a fresh greengrocer as well for local produce.For such a little area my community is very well served with a variety of shops all within three minutes walk from my house

alanbluecat

Yes, totally agree with OP.
Had to really get a grip with food shopping expenses due to bankruptcy and now spend around £7 per week (single, live on my own) and have virtually no food waste and my waistline has shrunk dramatically as an added bonus. I have lost 2.5 stones so far and there will be more to come.

I have never eaten so healthily and so cheaply in my life and I'm loving it. I even reckon I could get the cost down even further if I absolutley needed to.
I cook all my meals from scratch with healthy ingredients.

I tend to rotate the following type of main meals - curry, chilli, bolognese, stir fry, ratatouille (all homemade from scratch), with rice, pasta or baked potatoes as appropriate.
For breakfast I have porridge or bran flakes and lunch tends to be a sandwich and/or salad. I eat fresh fruit if I need a snack and I also make different types of homemade soup which I sometimes have for lunch or dinner.

Shopping around, buying own brand or value where appropriate and cooking in bulk and freezing really helps. I know everything that goes into all my meals and the closest thing to a convenience food/packet/jar would be tins of chopped tomatoes and a loaf of bread.

It can be done, it's good for you, cheap and doesn't take any more time than cooking packet foods and frozen chips for example but it takes a bit more effort than a microwave dinner if that's your level.

I wish I would have done this years ago instead of wasting so much money, being unhealthy and piling on weight year after year.

georgette

This really interesting!

I must admit that I can't really cook. Any good recipes for me to begin with?

What food do you all typically buy in one week? What meals do you cook? What are the cheapest, healthiest, but tastiest meals?

Willowx

georgette wrote: »

This really interesting!

I must admit that I can't really cook. Any good recipes for me to begin with?

What food do you all typically buy in one week? What meals do you cook? What are the cheapest, healthiest, but tastiest meals?

Your best bet is to head over to the Old Style board which has lots of helpful advice on cooking and the like. There is an index linked in the stickies at the top and many simple (and advanced) cooking threads. https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/273825

Desperate_Housewife_2-2

I am trying to lose weight but find that 'unhealthy' food is always cheaper or has bargain status (eg bogof on biscuits and fizzy drinks).

It would be great to compile a list of current offers or cheap low fat finds in the supermarkets to help all the dieters on the forum.

My contributions are

-quark which can double up as cheese or use as cream substitute in recipes cost 70p for 250g

- longley farm yoghurt (Asian supermarkets or local veg shops) around 65p for a large pot

- trout behind fish counter in sainsburys and ask lady to fillet it costs around a quid per fillet and serves 1 person.

Would love to hear if anyone has any ideas...

minicooper272

I appologise in advance that this is going to be a long post!

I decided weeks ago that I was spending far too much on junk though I just couldn't help myself! So i decided to try and cut it out and reduce my shopping at the same time. I find sadly though, an apple costs about 35p and doesn't fill me as much a bag of crisps so it was difficult! My solution is to shop at Lidle - their seasonal stuff is really cheap (10p for a kiwi, 30p for an avocado at one point).

The major problem with supermarkets is that a lot of the junk companies will pay the supermarkets money if they put a product on offer in a prime location (74p pringles facing you the second you enter the door?) It's sneaky, but it works! I don't find this in Lidl so it saves me tonnes! and I come home with a lot less junk in my trolley!

I replaced rubbish snacks with nuts (they sustain you for longer) and dried fruits (things like raisins are good for a sweet tooth!) and these are all much cheaper in Lidl than in tesco (dried apricots are 99p in Lidl and approx £1.29 in Tesco) and they are good to keep to hand if you really need a snack.

I warn you, they don't have an awful lot in the way of reduced calories/fat products but then I really don't believe in these anyway!

What Lidl don't have, I buy from Tesco but I know exactly what I am looking for and I stick to just getting those products (try making a game out of it - see if you can get all you need from tesco for less than £3 or something - you'll soon be putting back those crisps in honour of something you really need).

I still buy most of my meat from tesco as they do have good offers on it sometimes!

One thing I will warn you of is that Lidl tend to pre-pack a lot of fruit and veg. A 3 pack of lemons can be 89p but I sometimes find that at least one in the pack is always off. It's cheaper than 3 lemons from tesco at about 38p a lemon but as you will only use 2 of them, it actually doesn't work out cheaper!

I hope you find this of some use!