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healthy eating too expensive...
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OP,
I moved out of home last year and, like you, didn't know much about eating healthily and on a budget. I could do the two separately, but not together!
My tips:- Get to the supermarket approx 45 minutes before it shuts, and hang around. That's when everything is reduced! I've bought salmon for 49p, spring onions for 29p, carrots for 10p etc. Then freeze what you can't eat in time - google it if you're not sure and the pack doesn't say.
- Buy a chicken and make it last! I never knew this - but now I buy a chicken on a Sunday, roast it, and then use it across the week for salad, risotto and stew. I get about 5 large servings from it.
- Mince! Because it breaks up, you can use less of it than, say, a chop. From a normal pack of mince (i.e. lamb mince for £1.99) I get three servings.
- Cans: cans of tomatoes, beans, etc can be refrigerated for 3 days or so, and if you get the cheap version, are mere pennies.
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There's nothing that you can buy in a tin that you can't make equally well. I make pasta sauce simply by cooking onions, pepper adding in a tin of chopped tomatoes and throwing in some herbs. I would imagine a pan costs me less than 50-pence and is enough for two meals.
From reading your posts it appears you're a student? When I went away to uni I could barely fry an egg. Find one of them 'student cookbooks' (try the pound store!) and it'll have lots of options for making cheap meals. If you make too much, stick it in the fridge or freezer if you're not going to eat it within a couple of days. To be honest I still prefer to follow those recipes now, as they're more price concious.0 -
I lived alone for ten years and its mostly pre-packaged stuff that is a problem. For healthy eating, loose fruit and veg are key as are the meat/fish counters. I'm not a fan of freezing food, but if I used a canned of tinned tomatoes, just transfer what's left into a plastic container and it will keep for at least a few days if not a week.
It's all about planning really, even with two of us I plan menus so that I use up things before they go off, so if you buy something that will do for more than one meal, use it as part of another recipe on an alternate day.0 -
I was the same when I moved out of home I lived off mircowave meals and takeaways. Since the start of paying off my debt I have become alot healthier and concious of what I spend on food.
For lunch I buy bagels when reduced got some for 20p last night and freeze them. I usually get morrisons value pittas for 19p and so that will do my lunch for the week. Pittas are great you can make mini pizzas, garlic bread or use instead of naan bread at a fraction of the cost.
I always buy frozen fish, chicken and mince. Finding out they actually did frozen chicken breast after moving out of my home 3 years later has been a god send. I do have a lot of grilled chicken either plain, with stuffed with soft cheese or even put some left over sauce over it while in the oven really nice with boiled potatoes and veg or salad.
I used to be embarassed about buying own brand or reduced stuff but now I couldn't care less its extra money in my pocket. I do buy fresh fruit and salad for the week.
I also do freeze or refriderate any leftovers and make sure I use them.CC [STRIKE]£956[/STRIKE]/0 :j OD [STRIKE]£500[/STRIKE]/£0
Savings £413
Money found on street £20.21
Topcashback £45.9 (able to claim in November), greasypalm £21.81, yougov 1575/5000 points for £500 -
sorry it's been a while since I lasted posted, but I've been busy. College, family, wrestling with my computer trying to keep it alive before I can get a new one, fighting TalkTalk because they have purposely halved my broadband speed and refuse to bring it back up to what it was, etc.
Reading back over this thread, I can see some great suggestions. Some I can do, some I can't.
One person keeps complaining about me saying that I don't like stews. True, I don't like stews, but that wouldn't stop me from eating one.
Another mentioned the ready made pastries. I've checked again and even asked a store assistant, but our Tesco's doesn't sell them.
Our Tesco's used to sell bags of frozen chopped onions, but they don't any more. They do sell little bags of chopped onions, but it says on the packets "None freezable".
I've got a breadmaker. I like to make some bread now and then. I've even got a small slow cooker, the Argos Value one which is large enough to make a portion for 2 (1 in my case). Just this Tuesday gone I made a sausage casserole. I bought a bag of 12 frozen Cumberland Sausages (half the price of the unfrozen packs), a pack of ready sliced mushrooms, etc.
I'm gradually replacing my stocks with some cheaper options.0 -
When you make a meal with your curry/pasta sauces, you could freeze single portions of this, I do it all the time for baits etc
hth
Sue
Yeah great suggection Sue we do this all the time well my b/f does he will make a big batch of curry split it into 5 meals worth, he does like a tray of lasagne and splits that as well, then he will keep a bag of potatoes in the house and just but loose veg on the day we need it and not huge pack. It works out so much cheaper that buying ready meals in we spend £35 a week on food for two of us and we eat pretty well .. Oh the weeks we have to buy toothpaste ect goes up a little but £35 a week on food is pretty good for two people0 -
aurongrande wrote: »That's probably because a whole Fray Bento and a fist full of ships still isn't enough of a meal for me. I'm not fat, I just burn through food quickly. In fact, my GP told me never to go on a diet, or else I'd be anorexic in no time.
Seriously though you have to consider the quality of your nutrition there, Fray Bentos and chips isn't really going to fulfill your demanding nutrition needs however much of it you eat because it's quite poor quality.
Last night I had cauliflower cheese, garlic mash potato and some sweetcorn. Today for lunch I fried up an onion and chucked in the other half of the cauliflower cheese and garlic mash (cos I made extra last night) and fried it up with worcester sauce to make a kind of Bubble n SqueakThere was so much there it was enough for a main meal. I do the same with
stews, which become soup (with different added spices to make it taste different) the next night with garlic bread for us all. I know you 'don't like stews and soups' but needs must sometimes, is your aversion stemming from your parents cooking of them?? Because obviously now you can make them up how you want them eg, more mushier or more al dente
There are also some useful products to help keep produce fresher for longer that may help, such as;
Stay fresh longer bags
Food Preserving Bags
Bread Bags and Take 5 Nets
FridgesmartI too disagree that healthy eating is expensive, but the thread has reminded me of something related but slightly different I was grumbling about the other day. Why is it that the cheaper versions of some products also happen to be less healthy versions?I'm currently on a high protein / low carbs muscle building diet, but struggle to find 'cheap' meats.
We've got a fruit & veg store quite close to us, which is great for veggies, eggs and fruits but no butchers.
Any ideas on cheap meats?A good book to read is the The Thrive Diet by Brendan Brazier an Ironman triathlete, or watch part 3 on quality of protein here
Honorary Northern Bird bestowed by AnselmI'm a Board Guide and volunteer to help get your forum questions answered and keep the forum running smoothly on Special Occasions, Green/Ethical, Motoring/Overseas/UK Travel & Flood boards, it's not part of my role to deal with reportable posts. Report inappropriate or illegal posts to forumteam@moneysavingexpert.com. Views are MINE & not official MSE ones
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I've frozen half jars of cook-in-sauces, just use what you want and stick the rest in a tub or food bag and freeze until you next fancy it. I've done this plenty of times when my son has wanted something I'm not having, he likes just Morrisons mushroom or hot & spicy pasta sauce (89p) or thereabouts, with pasta, no meat, just the sauce so just freeze 2 more portions of the sauce for the next time he wants it.
I find most things will freeze, you can buy fruit and veg already frozen and just use what you need.
I do this too, I've even frozen half tins of soup (but obviously not in the tin!).0 -
I don't think it's too expensive to shop healthily for one. I never buy the pre-packaged food and always buy loose fruit and veg, e.g. if I need one carrot I buy one carrot. Fish and meat can be bought in single portions from the butchers or fishmongers or the counters at the supermarket. Pre-packaged sauces tend not to be very healthy and it' really easy, cheap and quick to make your own using herbs that can be stored away and fresh veggies e.g. healthy pasta sauce for one meal can be made from garlic an onion a couple of tomatoes and some olive oil you don't need to make this in bulk. Just be imaginative and have fun with cooking.0
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aurongrande wrote: »...
When you live on your own, trying to eat healthily is too darn expensive.
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I also live alone and eat a pretty healthy diet - well, if you ignore all the sweets and rubbish I eat as well. I guess I eat a healthy diet and a load of rubbishI'm a bit thrown by your post though- pie and chips is not healthy, shop-bought pie even less so!
I cook everything from fresh, frozen or dried ingredients - no pre-prepared meals - and freeze stuff down in single-double portions. If I make a mistake and have enough for more than one meal I often take the leftovers for lunch the next day.
Dal and rice - If you buy coriander and garlic from an Indian supermarket it's always, always cheaper and you get a lot more of it! Same goes for the lentils - in fact, never buy any non-UK foodstuff from a supermarket - spices, pastes and exotic fruit and veg are always always cheaper from a proper "foreign" supermarket. Lidl is great for different European foods as well.
Dal is great because you can freeze it and then later either eat it plain or use it as the basis for a delicious beef or vegetable curry. The combination of lentils and rice is 'complementary' - ie provides all the different amino acids you need in your diet when eaten together.
Stir-fry is good for using up leftover veg, you can put pretty much anything in it as long as it's not off!
Make your own tiny pies if you like smaller portions - either do a plate pie on a small plate, or for really tiny pies use a muffin tin.
As a general rule, things with meat in are more expensive than things without. I'm not a vegetarian by any stretch of the imagination, but I usually only eat meat 3-4 times a week because of the cost. I'd rather have one decent steak than 3 servings of cardboardy mince! Avoid the "meat substitute" veggie foods like Quorn (also, ew!) and include beans and pulses for the protein. For e.g. you can make a tasty chilli without any meat whatsoever, and really cheaply - use supermarket own-brand baked beans, rinse the nasty cheap tomato sauce off, and hey presto, delicious chilli beans:D:coffee:Coffee +3 Dexterity +3 Willpower -1 Ability to Sleep
Playing too many computer games may be bad for your attention span but it Critical Hit!0
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