Single Money Saver living on my own

Rebekah24

I am the same in the way that I cant have white bread/rice/pasta

I also dont drive, cuts into my food budget massively to spend on fare to go and buy say £3 whoopsie's..so often a once a month order is convenient. Mr A has a £25 minimum limit - If I do that once a month it leaves me £7-£10 to keep in purse for the month.

Of course with that you can really sit and plan your order - also order all smartprice goods etc. Check the offers and such. Might be an option perhaps..just throwing ideas out there!! .. Obviously if shops are not within a 7 mile round trip it could be tricky... be worth doing a decent shop £15+ if you are going to pay bus fare

Could you make soups up and freeze?? ..that pretty much gets me through the cooler months! You know whats going in there, so no nasties

Hope that helps xx

grumpyoldwoman41

Thanks again everyone - I am pretty good at cooking and like soups (just need to watch the salt).

Tesco does not accept my card so can not shop online with Tesco - it is an Electron card, they accept it in shops but not for online orders for some reason. Tried it before, put an order, got an email confirmation only to be called by Tesco on the day to collect my shopping and pay at the till.

Asda delivers at £3 (one has to look for slots) which is cheaper than a bus fare to go there - the problem is that shopping online one can not look for bargains in the baskets

So going to make a menu for a week and stick to it no matter what....

In the summer, got blackberries in the woods behind my block of flats

grumpyoldwoman41

Mrs Stressed - would love some soup receipes to be honest, I normally make chicken soup which a day later I add tomato puree and sour cream to to make it into tomato soup or mushrooms and onions and sour cream to make it into mushroom soup etc etc... as I make a massive pot of it LOL

Got a lot of cookbooks at home but when one looks at the list of ingridients - they cost way too much to make....

Got a book somewhere about feeding the whole family for so long with one pot and one fryiong pan etc (title something funny like that), got to dig it out together with the slow cooker....

Got a bread maker too, may dig it out for my brown bread but when I calculated the cost before - this was not much cheaper (ingridients, electric) than buying, unless I am missing something there?

Thanks again for all the posts...really appreciated

vl2588

Cheapest way of getting bread is definitely getting to shop about an hour before it closes...if this coincides with bus times anyway!

JulieGeorgiana

mrs-stressed wrote: »

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

mrs s

There is a whole thread on Rubber Chicken... it is a term for making a Chicken Streeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeetch as far as you can make it go!

Stretching like a Rubber Band

grumpyoldwoman41

Where I live I only have a petrol station within a walking distance and possibly some "corner shops" abit further - no good for shopping on a budget.

So will be shopping at Asda looking for their £3 delivery slots which are cheaper than the bus fare there and back.... sigh

JulieGeorgiana

Value mixed veg and tinned tomatoes are the best for bulking out most meals!

I also find that frozen veg is the best for most things as you only use what you need and it doesn't go off! I just heard somewhere that you can buy chopped leeks now!

The slow cooker can be your best friend

Bulk buy pasta and rice and bread when it's on offer (if you can afford it)

Write a budget, know what's coming in and what's going out... then once you know how much you have for food... and can work on making it cheap...!

Freezing sandwiches might help.

If you are not working, handmaking bread is great!

Baking saves you lots of money...!

unhappy_shopper

grumpyoldwoman41 wrote: »

So will be shopping at Asda looking for their £3 delivery slots which are cheaper than the bus fare there and back.... sigh

If you opt for a 8-hour slot instead of a 2-hour slot, you need to pay only £2 delivery charge. HTH.

Pitlanepiglet

When cooking for one I used to make "meal of the week" on a Monday, usually Lasagne, bolagnaise, chilli, pasta bake, risotto etc. I'd then make a second "meal of the week" on Tuesday and alternate the two for lunch at work and for tea! Not the most inspiring diet but cheap and cheerful and obviously everything stretched with oats and lentils! With better freezer space I'd have frozen more portions so that I could have had a little more variety!

Can I ask what the dietary issue is with white bread, pasta, rice and potatoes? It seems to encompass a large range of foods that don't necessarily go together as problem foods? (I've tried to phrase that so as not to offend but suspect I haven't managed - as someone with a number of food intolerances whose ex was wheat intolerant, I'm just interested!), plus if you've a range of intolerances, presumably there are others which would be relevant to menu suggestions.

nopot2pin

grumpyoldwoman41 wrote: »

Asda delivers at £3 (one has to look for slots) which is cheaper than a bus fare to go there - the problem is that shopping online one can not look for bargains in the baskets

Maybe you could alternate between getting a delivery, and going to the shop.
When you get the delivery, ensure you get all the heavy stuff .
And when you go to the shops, go later in the day, if possible, to take advantage of any discounts applied.

Some one mentioned the cheap family meals site.
I know the recipes are for 4 people, but I have made lots of the recipes, from the site, and froze 3 portions for later.
The bean pate and the homous also both freeze well
HERE is the link