Food for single person in flat

pennypusher

Firstly sort out the mince, if you're not happy eating it throw it out. It may be ok to eat but not as good as when it was frozen. When you cook make enough for at least two people and freeze the leftovers.

You could do a meal plan and then just shop for what you need - that cuts down on wastage. You shouldn't need to throw food away, just buy what you will eat, if you have too much see if you can freeze it.

How much you get by on depends if you eat much meat or not. I'm now up to £35 including cleaning bits and pieces and trying to cut it down. It can be done for a lot less but also a lot more if you don't watch how much you spend.

VfM4meplse

Start by eating cereal at least twice a day - by that I mean porridge, or supermarket's own brand of shredded wheat or weetabix. Apart from toast, it's about the cheapest meal you can have.

pineapple

I'm sure there are a lot of frugal meal tips elsewhere on the forum. I don't know how much you can pare things down to. £10 a week maybe?
I believe it's harder for us singletons to economise. I try to compensate by sometimes cooking up 2 or 3 meals together - in a slow cooker for example.
I use quite a lot of dried pulses - ie butter beans, canneloni beans, haricot beans... Soak overnight and for economical cooking boil for 15 minutes then leave them in a thermos flask (with boiling water) for the day! Beans can bulk out meals, act as a base for salads etc.
I get round the problem of veg going off by blanching and freezing in portions on purchase.
I balance expensive meals - ie fresh fish - with cheapies like dhal (basically lentils, onions, spices). You can make a tasty bread type affair to accompany with just flour and water. SR flour will give a 'puffy' bread, use plain for more crispy. Just mix to a dough, flatten to between 1/4 and 1/2 inch thick and fry.
I do like my butter but I only buy when on offer and put it in the freezer.

I think you need a bigger freezer!

Byatt

Have a look at the grocery challenge (GC) threads, sticky at the top of the page of this forum, also the thread for not throwing away food. Lots of info on those as well as support. I am single and my GC for Feb is £50 for the month.

I have a small freezer too, but it's amazing what I get in there when taking away all the packaging. Mince for instance gets separated and put into individual bags; meat gets sliced up into individual portions. Look for reduced food (yellow stickers, or YS) in the supermarket.

If you really want a slow cooker and would use it you can get very cheaps ones, up to £12. Check out Freecycle for a microwave.

terra_ferma

This is a fantastic forum, with lots of information!

There is an indexed collection (sticky thread at the top of the page).
Here's the index:
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/235198

Here's cooking for one, lots of useful tips for you :
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/1297549#Comment_1297549

BitterAndTwisted

I am a single person with no working freezer and I feed myself quite well on £15 a week BUT I don't eat meat and I don't have a job right now so what I have but you don't at the moment is time.

Work out what meals you like and always make enough to put another portion or two away in the fridge or freezer for another time in the week.

Always make your lunch at home and take it to work with you.

Nearly everything depends on how much time you have to set aside for cooking food from scratch and what your cooking skills are. If you don't have a lot of experience something like a student cook-book might be of help to you. Most of the recipes are fairly simple and don't require endless bits of complicated kit you may not have.

Never underestimate the versatility of eggs and cheese.

HelenYorkshire

I have a slightly different dietary approach

My main points of attack are:
- slow cooker - big enough for 4-5 portions of soup/stew. In this temperature, I leave it on the counter and it's fine for a few days.
- mind where you buy your veg. Some carrots last forever, some go bendy in a day or two. Bendy veg is fine to eat, sprouting potatoes get a haircut before they go in the pot, etc
- mind what veg you buy - spring onions are immortal, peppers are not.
- salads are expensive and perishable; I splash out on the "growing/living salad" you can get so at least I get my money's worth (I also find that the unwashed stuff lasts longer). But I tend not to eat much salad
- big tins of fish are cheaper per gram, so I tend to make a batch of salmon fishcakes and freeze the spare
- I make a lot of stock, boil it right down, and freeze in baby food pots/trays
- a pint of the ultrafiltered milk easily lasts a week
- frozen veg is cheap and cheerful, and avoids cooking too much and wasting it, but it depends how much room you have
- Whitworths do packs of dried veg that are fantastic for throwing in a stew/soup
- build up your herb and spice cupboard, and you can make the same ingredients into vastly different dishes

I have a microwave steamer that gets a lot of use - the base is also good for "omelettes". Saves on power, not so moneysaving if you have to buy the microwave first :rotfl:

Hope some of those are useful

kochi1

pineapple wrote: »

I'm sure there are a lot of frugal meal tips elsewhere on the forum. I don't know how much you can pare things down to. £10 a week maybe?
I believe it's harder for us singletons to economise. I try to compensate by sometimes cooking up 2 or 3 meals together - in a slow cooker for example.
I use quite a lot of dried pulses - ie butter beans, canneloni beans, haricot beans... Soak overnight and for economical cooking boil for 15 minutes then leave them in a thermos flask (with boiling water) for the day! Beans can bulk out meals, act as a base for salads etc.
I get round the problem of veg going off by blanching and freezing in portions on purchase.
I balance expensive meals - ie fresh fish - with cheapies like dhal (basically lentils, onions, spices). You can make a tasty bread type affair to accompany with just flour and water. SR flour will give a 'puffy' bread, use plain for more crispy. Just mix to a dough, flatten to between 1/4 and 1/2 inch thick and fry.
I do like my butter but I only buy when on offer and put it in the freezer.

I think you need a bigger freezer!

Thanks for the tip about the pulses in thermos, will give that a try!

Sheahaven

Hi
I'm on m'todd too.
So far, what springs to mind:
1) I recently got hold of a small chest freezer from Freecycle (had looking for one for over a year on that site). So, if you've got the space, handy!

2) I use this freezer to put in leftovers, bread and milk - since these usually go off so quickly with just me around.

3) Batch cooking: When I can, I cook for approx 8 people - then let the stew/soup cool and bag them into small portions, using freezer bags, then seal and freeze the bags flat.

This is handy since you only take out what you need for a meal for the night without thawing out the rest. Plus if you want to cook anything extra, like rice, just use a microwave rice cooker/steamer - can get these from £2-4. I picked up mine from my local Home Barga1ns (have a look at B&M, other pound shops too).

Sheahaven

Have a lookout for a microwave on Freecycle too. Or keep your eyes peeled for one at Lidl.

I bought a microwave from Lidl (came with 3 years guarantee) and only cost me £39. It came with a grill function.

I agree with the previous posts of checking supermarket 'reduced to clear' produce, World Food aisles (at times some items are cheaper in these aisles than they are in the regular aisles, ie. lemon juice, tinned pulses, etc), special offers.

Plus make the most of your locality - farm shops, local producers/greengrocers and World Food/ethnic stores. The more custom/friendly relations you have, face to face, with these local companies, they're more inclined to look after you with good quality and better deals.