£160 for food a month

jay78

I would like to stay within this budget each month, how do I do it?
I'm such a take-away junkie, and I love my Starbucks coffee. Anyway, I've decided to ditch them and opt for a healthy diet of fruit and veg and fresh fish but their so expensive. Where do I start?

moozie_2

Have a look in the old style board for lots of ideas of home made lunches and dinners.

Asda, Lidl and Iceland are some of the cheapest - unless of course you have markets near you.

It can be done

flower_chops

How many of you are there?

jay78

flower_chops wrote:

How many of you are there?

Just me.

Where/what are the old style boards?

calleyw

jay78 wrote:

Just me.

Where/what are the old style boards?

£160 a month for one person :eek:

I wish I spend a £100 a month on two people.

Try here

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/forumdisplay.html?f=33


Yours


Calley

Honeybee_2

I'm cooking lots of soup lately to save money.

I can spend about £3 on a batch of soup and it feeds 5 of us. Sneaky way to get the kids to eat veg too!

saubryn

Have you tried getting Starbucks Filter coffee to have at home? I think they still do the 'passports' where when you buy so many you can get a pack free. Extravagant, but miles cheaper than buying a Starbucks while you're out, and tastes just as good

inkie

Shop at local market at the time when they are packing up rather than the supermarket, and then batch freeze - 'vegetarian' meals tend to be cheaper than meat based meals (look on OS for recipe index). As a bit of encouragement, why not have a moneybox designated for the money that you would have lined starbucks/takeaways pockets, that way you will see just how much you were spending - and use this to throw at any debt that you may have, or to save.

Smashing

One person - easy done. Consider joining one of the 'use it up' or 'storecupboard challenges' on the old style board. The idea being you plan your meals based upon what you already have in the cupboard and then top up with fresh fruit/veg to save money on groceries and make some space in the cupboard to stock up on the essentials (big bags of pasta - currently £1 for 3kg in asda, rice, potatoes etc.)
Also check you local supermarkets near to closing for reductions you can freeze and defrost as needed.

angchris

£40 a week for food for 1 person you could live like a king! ok you`ve done the hard part and banned yourself from takeaways lets face it the costs of these do mount up! you dont need to give up eating what you like, what you do need to do is give up on paying someone else to make them for you! if you like pizza make your own! i looked at it like it was a new hobby i`d started, it was a novelty to me to go decide what we were having for tea that night then to go to the shops armed with a list of ingredients i`d need then with great satisfaction actually sitting down to my homemade efforts and feeling really proud of myself:D especially when my other half comments that "it was gorgeous is there any more?" use leftovers from your meal for part of the next days meal or freeze it if poss. keep any leftover/spare veg and whizz it with a blender and make soup. its amazing how many different tasty meals you can make with cheapo pasta.
make sure you always have a few basics in your fridge so you can resist temptation and think no i can rustle up a quick ommelette when i get in which takes about 5 mins tops.
why not have a savings jar and tip in the £5 you would of spent on a kebab on a fri night and take great delight in seeing your takeaway money mountain grow into something worthwhile and use it for something productive instead like paying my credit cards off quicker in my case! :rolleyes: