Single Money Saver living on my own

kitschkitty

On the food front - are you able to cook/what is your skill level as you might need to learn/use a bit more cooking skill to make tasty food on a budget.

Avoid waste - there's lots of ideas on here how to bulk out meals and use up left overs.

Use your freezer to the full for storing meals made in batches, storing things like bread bought at bargain prices. Many frozen veg are cheaper than fresh, just as tasty and much more economical.

Try value ranges, many products are very good.

Let us know when supermarkets/shops you can easily get to as there are some great items/deals that are store specific - such as 9 "nice" loo rolls for £2 at Farm foods.

grumpyoldwoman41

Thanks a lot for all the replies, very much appreciated.

Yes, I do have a slow cooker - somewhere in the cupboard as I never managed to make a decent meal in it so gave up a while ago, may dig it out again now.

I do not eat white bread or potatoes or white rice or pasta, get brown but it is always more expensive

I do eat meat but of course can cut on that.

Do not have any shops within walking distance and any shop trip will involve a bus (I do not drive) and having to pay a bus fare there and back. To get to a market with fruit/veg stalls it would be 2 busses each way so about £4 just for the trip..

Will have a look at the links posted for ideas, thanks again.

grumpyoldwoman41

I normally shop at Asda or Tesco as those are the 2 I can get to, still - by bus.

JulieGeorgiana

Rubberising Chicken is a great place to start!

I buy a 1.93kg Chicken from the Butchers for £5.50 and can feed a family of 3 for 10 meals!!! With a freezer this is a great way of bulk cooking!!!

Roast Chicken (wings and leftover meat from carcass - inc. oysters) - 3 Portions
Nutty Chicken Curry (1.5 Breast) - 8 Portions
HM Chicken Pizza (1 Leg) - 3 or 4 Portions
Chicken Pasta (1 Thigh) - 3 or 4 Portions
Spanish Rice (0.5 Breast) - 4 Portions
Chicken Curry (1 Leg&Thigh) - 6 Portions
Chicken Broth with Pasta (Chicken Stock) - 6 Portions

The last one, can be made half chicken broth (3 Portions) and half vegetable stew (3 portions)

Nutty Chicken Curry is the most expensive one to make as you need greek yogurt. Spanish Rice is nice with a few prawns in. Chicken Curry is 9p for a jar from Sainsbury's. I always bulk out my Roast dinners with HM Yorkshires as they are so cheap to make and means you need less everything else.

Obviously all meals are bulked out with a LOT of veg and other ingredients... but we find this menu lasts the best part of 2 weeks... you could do it monthly, and supplement other meals in and eat pretty cheap for a month!

adelight

Sounds like you will need to rely a lot on dry foods and long lasting vegetables to keep the cost of travelling to buy food down, like carrots, onions, apples, squash etc. I would suggest doing a big tesco online order of dry foods, offers and basics as you can get delivery for as little as £3.

If you will only have brown bread and would consider making your own (ie, do a tray of rolls and a loaf while the oven is on for a lasanga etc) buying something like http://www.bigbrandsforless.co.uk/?page_id=7&category=16&product_id=689 or tesco basic wholemeal which is 47p a loaf.

Join the GC and search for the single person threads.

janb5

grumpyoldwoman41 wrote: »

Thanks a lot for all the replies, very much appreciated.

Yes, I do have a slow cooker - somewhere in the cupboard as I never managed to make a decent meal in it so gave up a while ago, may dig it out again now.

I do not eat white bread or potatoes or white rice or pasta, get brown but it is always more expensive

I do eat meat but of course can cut on that.

Do not have any shops within walking distance and any shop trip will involve a bus (I do not drive) and having to pay a bus fare there and back. To get to a market with fruit/veg stalls it would be 2 busses each way so about £4 just for the trip..

Will have a look at the links posted for ideas, thanks again.

I have personally just stopped getting JSA having had a Christmas temp job at M & S. Can I suggest that you use the site - say noto 0870 to find out the geographical number of your Jobcentre so you can cut down on any unnecessary calls to them?

BitterAndTwisted

I've been getting by on JSA for over a year now and my shopping budget is about £10 a week or thereabouts. One of the good things about being at home 24/7 is that I have plenty of time to cook from scratch. My freezer doesn't work alas or I'd be bulk-cooking a-gogo but in any case most of the things I cook can be kept in the fridge for at least a week so I don't have to eat the same meal day after day.

If you have a few quid stashed away take a look at the Approved Food, Food Bargains and Big Brands For Less websites and see if you can justify the £5 delivery charge with some knock-down prices. BB4L are still selling FOUR KILOS of Lloyd Grossman's risotto rice in 200 gramme packs for ONE POUND. I can't move for the stuff at the moment. Now might be the time to set aside your disinclination for white rice until your income improves.

Check any local Asian or ethnic food stores for very low prices on grains and pulses.

Have a look at Weezl's cheap-family-recipes site for incredibly delicious and low-cost ideas for meals and treats.

Visit any Lidl or Aldi store for their weekly fruit and veg deals plus their extremely good value toiletries and cleaning products. Lidl's hair-conditioner and laundry detergent are fab but even cheaper is to make your own "laundry gloop". I made ten litres of the stuff for less than two quid and it's really good if you're not hooked on scented laundry. Ditto substitute fabric conditioner for vinegar.

grumpyoldwoman41

Thanks but I can not eat white rice pasta and bread for health reasons - this is not disinclination.

I do cook from scratch at home, always have as I need to see what goes into my food - will of course look at the suggestions, thanks for that.

mrs-stressed

JulieGeorgiana wrote: »

Rubberising Chicken is a great place to start!

Oh thats what rubberising means. Why dont they just say chopping, splitting, dividing, quartering or even pulling apart!!!!

mrs s

mrs-stressed

kitschkitty wrote: »

Hi, you said your daughter was a student, living at home. I think she needs to be made acutely aware right now that circumstances in your household have changed drastically and that your standard of living for the time being must change too.

You need to pool all the resources you have and she needs to help you out so if that means sharing food budgets to make savings then you need to do it. I do understand that as she is an adult you may feel you don't want her to have to change her lifestyle, but if she is a responsible adult she needs to "work with you" right now to get through this so that you don't end up with terrible debts that you can manage.

I absolutely go with you kitschkitty. My kids have left home but are acutely aware of my circumstances. Although I cant share my plight with anyone I do feel that your daughter should be made painfully aware of whats happening. She will either be uber enthusiastic to pitch in and help or she will go off in a huff somewhere - speak to her friends and then come home!!

When our backs are against the wall people including family can really surprise you and turn out trumps.. if the two of you are sharing this 'challenge' then it can become less painful and more of a "I know where I can cheaper than that...." scenario.

mrs s