My yummy <£1 lunch today...

redbedhed

Hello moneysavers!

I'm a longtime lurker, and have recently started an austerity drive. First thing I'm cutting out- buying lunch from the cafe/sandwich/coffee shop. I found the thought a bit depressing 'cos I LOVE my Asian soups from ITSU, Abocado and the like, but actually I'm starting to enjoy bargain hunting.

I thought I would start a thread where I post what bargain I've found and consumed each day - please join in!

Mon - Wed: There's small Tesco's, Sanisbury's and Co-Op's nearby my work so I've gone out a bit later than usual and sought out sandwiches on sale. Admittedly, Monday's (chicken salad) and Tuesday's (roast chicken) sandwiches were £1.05 from Co-Op, but on Wednesday I got a deep-filled ham & cheese sambo from Tesco for 80p, so overall I'm still under budget.

Today I dared to venture into Waitrose (they're the only full size supermarket nearby and they now claim to be as cheap as Tesco on 1000 "everyday items") and came out with a pack of 4 sachets of Ainsley Harriott Aromatic Thai Chicken & Lemongrass cup soup, and a 250g pack of Waitrose fine egg noodles. Total cost £1.69 - that's 42p per meal, yay! Have to say, it doesn't quite rival Abocado's chicken & lemongrass soup but if I had bought some beanspruots (50p) and porcini mushrooms (Waitrose out of budget though!) I reckon it could rival it! Anyway, Abocado's might be nicer, but not ten times nicer!

Of course, I know I could go cheaper again if I planned ahead and prepared lunch at home. Unfortunately, despite best intentions, I work such long hours and am so tired when I get home that convenience always wins out. By the way, I work in Central London in a professional capacity - a few people in the office have been taking the !!!! about my recent money saving ways, but one whiff of today's lunch shut them up!

redbedhed

Ok I've been a bit quiet, but I've just won a week's free lunches from Abokado, by becoming a facebook fan. So that should set me up for Asian soups for the next week!

They've only 63 fans at present and they're still offering free lunches to new fans (prize draw) so the odds are good if you fancy trying it!

Missy_Spud

It can cost loads when you eat out for lunch everyday, my bf used to as his work takes him out all over the place during the day so he would nip to a sandwich shop for lunch easily costing £3 a day, so now we buy baguette's from the supermarket, and i make home-made soup which doesnt cost much its only lentils, carrots, potato, onion, and any other veggies, a cheap tin of tomatoes if im doing a tomato soup, a bit of tomato puree and some stock cubes, salt and pepper, bring to boil and simmer for 45 mins and blitz up, its brilliant for freezing i make a big batch up and stick a load in the freezer so he can just microwave it at work maybe you could try making your own soup with noodles etc in? its really easy is soup making and its all natural stuff no preservatives etc.

i love bargain hunting too, i only started a few months ago but ive saved loads of money

princess2010

thats brilliant!!!!!

my husband and i are on a raw organic juice diet and i don't know if you have seen the amount of juice that you get out of a fresh carrot, but it isn't that much! anyway i ended up spending around 200 quid a week to make juice!!! at sainsbury.

now i go to the covent garden market once a week and buy in bulk! our bill has cut in half if not more!

totally worth it even if i don't get home till 4 in the morning.

it amazes me that fruit and veg are so expensive! society tries to promote a healthy diet and eating pattern, but it can bankrupt you!!!