£10 for the week...

joeyboy

Right basically I want to see if I can eat decently(obviously it won't be brilliant) on £10 for a week, bit of an experiment basically.

Now I'm not going out all, I'm cheating a little bit. Tea bags and milk don't count(unless the milk is going on cereal, if it's just for tea it isn't being counted), but apart from that everything does.

Now near me I have a Sainsburys, an Iceland and a LIDL. So basically folks I need YOUR help! Any recipe suggestions, Sainsburys basics products you've found taste pretty good.

I'm only making meals for one. I eat two meals a day not three, just how I am, I usually don't eat breakfast, and have a normal lunch, but my portion size for dinner is probably bigger then some. You know when rice suggests a serving is 50g of the dry product or what ever, my portion would probably be 75g, as an example.

Now obviously the idea will be to lower the protein as that's usually what costs more and up the carbs, rice, pasta etc.

So £10, 7 days, 14 meals....exact meals rather then stating single items which are cheap would be more helpful.:)

Sharon87

Sainsburys basic beans on toast?

Basics pasta, basics chopped tomatoes (do you already have herbs? If not basics herbs), put it with basics veg or basics sausages.

8p basics noodles - actually I think they're 9p lol. Or a 25p can of spaghetti on toast.

30p or thereabouts curry sauce with rice and veg

basics white frozen fish with home made white sauce (milk, flour, butter) or add some dried parsley in it to make parsley sauce, then have with basics veg/potatos.


It's an interesting challenge, I would do that, but I already have loads in the cupboard and that's cheating lol. I know how to eat cheaply though!

Also if want snacks get basics biscuits/crisps. I would suggest Lidl for your veg, as I hear they're really cheap. Don't know much about Iceland, but I think it will be hard to live off a tenner if you shop there, unless you buy a big bag of chips or frozen veg that can last more than a week. It would be easier if it was £20 over 2 weeks, as then you can bulk buy things like this.

Good luck with the challenge!

Sharon87

Few updates, just been to Sainsburys and their basics curry sauce is only 13p!!! Definitely buy that if you like curry. They also do a basics sweet and sour, but mine doesn't have it! I noticed you can also buy basics cheesespread for less than 50p and 10 slices of ham for 50p. Perfect if you want to add to pasta, potatoes.etc

Also you can get 9p strawberry jelly and 9p angel delight thing, but basics. A few things for if you want anything sweet.

Also check for reduce things as well, especially bread.

joeyboy

Sharon87 wrote: »

Sainsburys basic beans on toast?

Basics pasta, basics chopped tomatoes (do you already have herbs? If not basics herbs), put it with basics veg or basics sausages.

8p basics noodles - actually I think they're 9p lol. Or a 25p can of spaghetti on toast.

30p or thereabouts curry sauce with rice and veg

basics white frozen fish with home made white sauce (milk, flour, butter) or add some dried parsley in it to make parsley sauce, then have with basics veg/potatos.


It's an interesting challenge, I would do that, but I already have loads in the cupboard and that's cheating lol. I know how to eat cheaply though!

Also if want snacks get basics biscuits/crisps. I would suggest Lidl for your veg, as I hear they're really cheap. Don't know much about Iceland, but I think it will be hard to live off a tenner if you shop there, unless you buy a big bag of chips or frozen veg that can last more than a week. It would be easier if it was £20 over 2 weeks, as then you can bulk buy things like this.

Good luck with the challenge!

Cheers! Probably not doing it until First week of September, I have that week off, will just make shopping trips and the like easier I think. Yeah £20 over 2 weeks probably would be easier to be fair as I could buy a big bag of frozen mince(or basics and just not use as much meat) and make a huge pan of bolognase, then freeze it into 4-5 portions. I might do that at some point, but I'll do £10 for a week first.

I'll have to make a thread in this sub-forum when I do it, give you folks meal by meal updates and any negative health effects of what will likely be a high carb not much else diet. Though a week is much too short to see any issues really.

Oh curry sauce! Hell yes, I like their easy cook long grain rice more then premium brands, it's £1.35 for 1kg, so It'll last me easily for 3 weeks. In fact what I might to do make it fairer and more realistic on me, is if I bulk buy some things like rice, which I get anyway, would be too say well it costs £1.35, BUT because I can get 10 meals of rice from it and I'm having rice 2-3 times this week, I'll say it only costs me 45p per week, sort of thing. I think that still makes it fair as it just assumes I carry on my weeks diet for the long term. My only issue would be chicken, I know Iceland do 1.1kg of frozen fillets for £5, so again if I used say 150g or so of chicken with each curry it would give me 6-7 meals, so say 70-80p per meal.

I'm an odd 19 yr old haha, I've always been really critical when it comes to analysing price per 100g of a product, trying to lower our food shopping bills, scanning every isle for offers, trying to substitute for cheaper brands which turn out to be just as good(not always...).

Clowance

jacket potato with baked beans (and cheese if poss) or other filling of your choice
tin of corned beef abt 1.40 (do 2 meals at least) mash and tinned carrots (19p)
Egg and chips (home made if you have a fryer)
Some of these things have to be bought in "bulk" - eg 6 eggs - and you may or may not use all in the week but you could cost them individually.
Having said that - omelette and carb of choice (rice/pasta/potato) including something healthy (tomato?) in omelette
Switch to basics or own brand products of cereal etc
Porridge - make it hard way
Key I think is to cook from scratch. No short cuts or ready meals as this takes you over the budget.

MrsBartolozzi

There's plenty of cheap recipes over on the Old Style board. Do shop at teh end of day when the reductions are being made - do you have a freezer - you can batch cook and freezefor later so you don't have to eat the same thing all week.

Oh and ignore the poster Dave4545454 who usually appears on threads like this, claims to eat for about 30p a week, but noone else can get the sums to add up.

shebrett

highly recommend the basics cornflakes, 34p for 500g from memory, last a week no problems.

for cheap meals - buy 1 thumb size pieces of chorizo from deli counter and lightly fry with 1 crushed garlic clove and olive oil until oil turns orange (don't let chorizo brown) then pour in chopped tomatoes 1 tin and a little salt, let bubble away until has thickened. Also, not absolutely necessary but does finish the dish well, just before serving chop in some fresh basil if you have some in the garden. Use over basics pasta, should get 3 - 4 meals out of that, store the sauce separate from the pasta and heat each one and mix together when ready to eat. Chorizo is great to cook with as it's so full of flavour you only need the smallest amount to flavour a sauce based dish, bacon is also useful in this way.

angeluk2

i think you made a good point by saying you will buy in bulk and then split the cost up per week. You will get better deals this way. remember to check all deals in the local supermarkets for the occasions when a deal is actually cheaper than a savers brand when bought in bulk(e.g. 4 pack of beans for say £1 and savers tin is 35p each)
another suggestion which im sure you have thought of, but if you have spare time at the end of the day when they are reducing food, that is a very good time to pick up meats, etc.
also you could make a big meal up and split it over a couple of days, like a roast chicken, or a pasta dish, etc??

daphne_descends

*cough*



http://www.cheap-family-recipes.org.uk/

415SanFran

You could always make a large yorkshire pudding and fill it with whatever you had yesterday, just to make a change, also remember it does not HAVE to be savoury, spread with jam makes a filling desert.

hitatotatus

Yorkshire pudding with a blob of icecream - yummy!:D