Single person, London, living on £80.00 per month - possible?

gettingready

Hello everyone,

I normally stay on Pet Section of the forums but was pointed to here when realised that after paying all my bills and gettign stuff for my pets - I am left with £80.00 per months for myself.

That is £80.00 per month for food/toiletries/cleaning stuff etc.

I have a slow cooker, I have a bread maker, 4 drawers freezer, cooker, oven, microwave.

Right now empty cupboards - just enough to make do till pay day (28th).

So - need to make a plan. And stick to it.

No shop whotsoever near by - have to take a bus to nearest Tesco/Asda. No shop on the way to/from work.

I work full time , leave home around 7 (get up before 6 to take the dog out) and come back home just before 7. By the time I take the dog out/lat the cats out, clean litter boxes, bring the cats back in, feed the lot - it is usually 9pm. So not much time to cook on weekdays.

Looking at cooking for the whole week at the weekends, freezing portions etc.

I do not really eat breakfast ( no time and not hungry in the mornings) but would like to take lunch from home to have at work.

I am trying to avoid bread and potatoes as need to lose some kg (lost 12kg since December, need to lose another 10kg).

Normaly order food for delivery from Asda.

I guess I am hoping someone can maybe help me to do a shopping list and a meal planner? Hope I am not being cheeky here but a bit lost to be honest....

I see a lot of posts saying that home made bread is cheaper - mhow? When I was making it at home (got a bread maker too) it was working out quite expensive - perhaps plain bread woyld be cheaper but I was only making one with seeds and dark and this flour was a bit expensive. I do not like white bread at all - if I have bread it is only dark with seeds.. hmmmmm


Slow cooker - I am worried about leaving one on for what would have to be 12 hours. Leaving home at 7 and coming back around 7..hmmmm

Any pointers appreciated.

Thanks a lot

vanoonoo

hello! there will be lots of ideas coming and there are loads of threads already with great ideas - I'll try to come back with a link to the £7 thread. £80 for one person for a month should be entirely possible but will need planning.

the most important thing I notice is the slocooker - its absolutely ok to leave it for 12 hours unattended. try it out for 12 hours one day when you are home and you'll see it will be fine (as long as it's not faulty) if it has a choice of settings use the low one and make sure you have some liquid in there with whatever you are cooking. could you try it out today perhaps to put your mind at rest?

welcome to old style and good luck! see you in a few!

Noo

the £7 thread i mentioned linked below, also check out the Grocery challenge sticky at the top of the OS board, its got loads of recipe ideas and poster put pointers to where things are currently on offer

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4084527

gettingready

Vanoonoo - thanks a lot for that.

Will have a look at the link you posted.

My slow coker is quite large , it is this one:



http://www.argos.co.uk/static/Product/partNumber/4228826/c_1/1|category_root|Kitchen+and+laundry|14418476/Trail/searchtext%3ESLOW+COOKER.htm

haven't got anything to put in it for today - and got to find it first......somewhere deep in the huge storage cupboard under Xmas tree/cat food/litter etc

I looked around and everyone seems to be buying things in bulk - I do not drive and really order everything online (time/dragging heavy shopping to an upstairs flat) - will be luring on other threads too...

Thanks again - I am at the planning stage now so any ideas really appreciated.

vanoonoo

the buying in bulk thing is what people have worked up to over time - dont worry about that sort of thing yet! the £7 thread is a really good starting point for ideas on cheap buys - and its really current, it only started in the last month so prices are pretty much spot on. from that you can add in some extra bits to actually feel healthy too. ie fruit and veg which is in short supply on those prices! you have more than twice that budget so I am sure you'll do great.

what sort of meals do you eat at the moment?

have you heard of a site called milk&more? they delivery for free if they have one in your area http://www.milkandmore.co.uk/home



have a rummage for the slocooker and perhaps half fill it with water and pop it on low so that you can put your mind at rest that its ok to leave it on for hours and hours - that will also give the inside a good clean out

gettingready

Thanks again - never heard of Milk and More, just had a quick look at their website.. aren't they more expensive than Asda for example?

I have terrible memory, never remember what costs how much

gettingready

What do I eat? Ermmm Good question.

I try to avoid milk and dairy in general. Try to avoid bead and potatoes and white rice. But like dark bread with seeds/gians from time to time with soya "butter" for s/w. No sea food unless it is a "normal" fish (I mean no prawns, mussels etc.. yukkk).

Apart from the above... most things really.

I quite like pasta - always buy ready sauces though so perhaps some ideas of cheap home made sauce for pasta receipes? To start with?

I like all kind of lentils, most vegs and fruits, red meat - will have chicken but prefer tights/drumsticks as breast is too "dry" for me...

Hmmmm

Nottoobadyet

What do you like to eat? I think it should definitely be possible, esp since you have a freezer.

If I were you, my meal plans would include:

- vegetarian chilis using basics tins of beans, loads of veg, hot pepper and cumin and some tomatoes. You can make this on a weekend and freeze in portions to eat on its own - since you are avoiding bread and potatoes, you could do what I do and stir fry it with some rice to make a sort of yummy pilaf, or eat it poured over some cous cous or bulgur wheat. Obviously otherwise it can be eaten with a jacket spud or roll

- Soups. I like butternut squash soup and this yummy carrot and lentil soup: http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/2089/spiced-carrot-and-lentil-soup. You can also make lentil soup with whole (rather than split) lentils, throw in lots of veg and a packet of ramen noodles for something really filling

- curries. There are a million healthy options, most freeze well and can be served on rice to save your waist

vanoonoo

i thinkmilk&more do a fair few offers - so you can be selective on what you order from them (free delivery remember!) and only get what's best value for you, they often do intro offers for new customers too (someone will have a code if not) and I believe you dont have to pay up front - a bit like the old days with the milk and paper deliveries you pay at the end of the month following if I understand it correctly.

Asda may not always be the cheapest but usually are - however I know people on here use mysupermarket.com to compare prices.

Like you, I stick to one store (tesco) mainly unless I am particularly after a good offer in which case I'll go hunting. do you have an aldi on a bus route near you? they often have good deals if you can spare the time for the journey and their opening hours are better now than they used to be.

for me, the trick to sticking to budget is having a meal plan and sticking to it. I am quite happy to eat the same meal three nights running (husband is NOT hence my current weekly bill of £50!) so for me a bag of pasta, a bag of rice, a bag of spuds, a bag of onions, four tins of toms, a large pack of mince and some kidney beans along with seasonings would do me proud for a week (pasta bolognese/ragu, chili with rice or jacket spuds, mash and mince etc) and would come in at under £10.00. you could make the basic mince and onions mix in the slocooker/on the hob and then portion it out for the week and add other flavours to make the variants: garlic, chili, toms and kidney beans for chili and rice or jacket spud; toms, garlic, herbs for ragu/bolognese; as is for mince and mash.

however to keep husband happy the rough meal plan for this week ahead for us is: pasta bol/ragu; chili; pizza; roast; pie; curry (all home made)

perhaps have a look at what you ordered in the last month and work out if you threw any of it away, then make a plan for the next couple of weeks based on what you know you will use and see where that leaves you in terms of money?

Popperwell

I feed myself on approx 75p-£1.50 daily on avaerage, your slow cooker will become your friend...

Foods that you say are dry like chicken breasts will be moist.

If you can access a microwave/combi...even better...you can cook cheaper cuts of meat in your SC and you'd never know.

Try building up a food bank of your own buying a few extra items weekly than you can avoid big shops and just replace what you use and that may mean extra money in your pocket for emergencies or treats. You may be able to head off the expected increase in food prices...such goods can have long dates on them(years)and you'll be less likely to throw it away. And often you can still eat items well past their best before dates...

You can mix items with the food in your fridge/freezer so make many more meals and often save on the cost of heating food.

You may find that you can eat smaller portions and though initially buying food is expensive you may be able to batch cook and/or split what you buy so you get more than one meal out ofit and put the remainder in the freezer/fridge for another day.

Anything that you may use from baked beans, tinned tomatoes, rice pudding, tinned fruit, pulses, pasta, fish...well to be honest the list is endless. And there are many threads about storing food and household goods.

Also a lot of the lower priced own brand goods are perfectly fine and they are as good as more expensive well known brands...and that again can save a lot of money.

There are some good threads all over the MSE site and many many people working and not working in a similar situation to yourself.

Vanoonoo in the posts above speaks a lot of sense...

Luckily an Aldi is being built at the bottom of my street(Great if I can stay put and am not forced to move)as I can avoid the cost of buses and taxi's which has stopped me going to to the the three stores in neighbouring towns.

Wishing you all the best...

Molly41

I buy in bulk for my pets and that saves me hundreds over the course of a year. I wonder if you are doing that now and that may give you more to spend on you?

Soworried

Hi
I'll start with the bread first. Can you change your delivery to tesco? You will get £10 0ff your first shop and they can't be beaten on price by asda. (JTD)
They sell 1kg of Allison wholemeal seed and grain bread flour for £1.39. That will make 2 large loaves. Tesco yeast is 64p for 8 sachets, I use half a sachet a time and have no problems with it rising. That is enough for 16 loaves.
Total cost per loaf= 74p.