~£15 a week on food, the old style is the best

simmed

For the past few months I've spent about £15 a week on food (single student living in London). Here are the kinds of things I buy, all from Tesco. Although it's not a lot of money I manage to have a very balanced and healthy diet.
If I was really, really pushed I think I could survive reasonably healthy on 50p/day for food, but it would involve an incredibly monotonous diet with lots of rice and lentils (for protein)

[Deleted User]

This is what im eventually aiming for a £15 per week shop. I do buy a lot of reduced meat/fruit and veg. My only treat is maybe a bar of chocolate or a packet of biscuits (not both) and bottle of wine. I also buy cartons of fruit juices rather than bottles of concentrate as i dont like those. Its all a matter of taste. I was trying to include toiletries and cleaning products (kitchen roll, loo roll etc) in my £15 budget. Im not sure this is doable though. I do eat very healthily. This month ive had a budget of £18 per week, which i found was plenty. Next month i will reduce it to £17 per week and so on and see how it goes.

415SanFran

If you are also trying to incorporate cleaning stuff, could make your own kitchen/bathroom cleaner with an inch of bleach and a egg cup full of washing up liquid fill the rest of the spray bottle with water.
In a real emergency I have been known to use a wash cloth when needing (small;)) toilet paper jobs, you would do this with a baby so what is the difference? Use a clean one and wash it in with towels.
I have made my own washing powder that has worked really well, as most of clothes only really need refreshing. Not sure how well it would cope if I had youngsters that crawl around on the floor on spill food on clothing. Got the "recipe" on here somewhere.
I like the idea of making tinned fruit into an ice lolly, I had never thought of doing that! Must remember when the nicer weather comes.

[Deleted User]

Luckily theres only me so i dont buy that much cleaning products. I only buy bleach, white vinegar, washing up liquid, wash up pads and toilet rolls, the occasional kitchen roll and the last time i bought a box of washing powder it was reduced from £9 to £5.45 for a 6.4kg box and that was last summer. When that runs out if i cant get hold of reduced clothes washing liquid/powder i may try to make my own. A tin of air freshener and a tin of furniture polish normally last me 6month ( i always buy these on offer). Toiletries i also buy on offer and have enough for the next 6months too. So im hoping my budget will be mainly food and drinks.

simmed

415SanFran wrote: »

If you are also trying to incorporate cleaning stuff, could make your own kitchen/bathroom cleaner with an inch of bleach and a egg cup full of washing up liquid fill the rest of the spray bottle with water.
In a real emergency I have been known to use a wash cloth when needing (small;)) toilet paper jobs, you would do this with a baby so what is the difference? Use a clean one and wash it in with towels.
I have made my own washing powder that has worked really well, as most of clothes only really need refreshing. Not sure how well it would cope if I had youngsters that crawl around on the floor on spill food on clothing. Got the "recipe" on here somewhere.
I like the idea of making tinned fruit into an ice lolly, I had never thought of doing that! Must remember when the nicer weather comes.

I don't know where you read that, but it sounds like a good idea

simmed

ImDoingItForMe wrote: »

Luckily theres only me so i dont buy that much cleaning products. I only buy bleach, white vinegar, washing up liquid, wash up pads and toilet rolls, the occasional kitchen roll and the last time i bought a box of washing powder it was reduced from £9 to £5.45 for a 6.4kg box and that was last summer. When that runs out if i cant get hold of reduced clothes washing liquid/powder i may try to make my own. A tin of air freshener and a tin of furniture polish normally last me 6month ( i always buy these on offer). Toiletries i also buy on offer and have enough for the next 6months too. So im hoping my budget will be mainly food and drinks.

Not a bad idea one of these days, concerning toiletries, I'm just going to wait until there is an amazing deal and hoard.

I think Tesco recently had 18 rolls of Nouvele for £2.50, might have been a price glitch though.

[Deleted User]

It wasnt a price glitch, the offer was 9 rolls for £2.50 but they also put out the 100% extra free packs as well, so it was 18rolls for £2.50. I couldnt find any but i did get 18rolls for £2 somewhere else which were the same quality as the nouvelle. so i saved money there too. I only use one certain type of shampoo, conditioner and shower gel etc, unperfumed kind which always comes around on offer in one supermarket or another. If not £1land sell it if i run out. Ide rather spend money on reduced quality meat, fruit, veg and salads and have a healthy diet than i would on expensive toiletries and cleaning products, especially the cleaning products.

Butterfly_Brain

Aldi super six this week are Avocado 49p each. Red Onions 49p 1kg. Button Mushrooms 49p 150g. Butternut Squash 49p each. Parsnip 49p 500g. New Potatoes 49p 750g

Popperwell

No rude comments but I don't think I have ever had an avocado, not sure I'd like one and...what to do with one:p:o:eek:

Funnily enough I have bought the other items you mentioned BB and will find a use for them I am sure. Well, I missed that the parsnips were on offer but earlier I had purchase a stew pack with parsnips, carrots and onions so...I already have some...

I've never used/lived off so much vegetables. TBH I keep promising to serve a meal on a plate in the traditional way where they are seperate but I nearly always take the easy way out by chopping it all up and it going into the slow cooker and served in a bowl.

Only good thing is I have started to take more of an interest again in cooking and though alone I am trying even on a limited budget to have a variety of meals and not give in and have just beans on toast etc...not that there is anything wrong with simple quick meals.

As said elsewhere on MSE I spent £14 yesterday and seemed to have little for my money and I also thought you can't keep spending what you haven't got. But if I stretch it out I can probably make it last approx 14 days so in reality that is only approx £1 a day so then it doesn't seem quite so bad.

Lilyplonk

Popperwell wrote: »

No rude comments but I don't think I have ever had an avocado, not sure I'd like one and...what to do with one:p:o:eek: ........

I'd say that you're not missing out on anything at all, Popperwell .

Just once in my life have I eaten avocado, and that was completely by accident. It was an experience that I never, ever wish to repeat :rotfl:.

For me, they are both over-priced and over-rated and also rank - alongside asparagus, broad beans and artichokes - as 'the work of the Devil himself' . That OR God was having a darn good joke at my expense .

I'm not a fussy eater - and will happily fill up on all other veggies including sprouts, cabbage, broccoli, all other forms of beans - most other stuff that many people 'baulk at'.

I head for my local supermarket (in my case Asda) and stock up on whatever they're getting rid of around 7.00pm - Monday evenings are best in my case. Some of this gets prepped for freezing and other stuff goes into the pressure cooker for a batch of Home-Made Soup. That then gets portioned up, allowed to cool and goes into the freezer the next day.

I also buy 'Ham Shanks' and cook those - either in the pressure cooker OR in the Slow Cooker overnight.

A small amount of the meat gets put to one side for a couple of sandwiches.

Half of the stock and a small amount of the meat is removed to make a pan of Ham & Veg Soup.

The remaining stock and meat, some more whoopsied veggies, lentils and barley (or Soup/Broth Mix) and potatoes goes back into the Slow Cooker to make a 'kind of Scouse' (only with Ham meat instead of stewing steak) - Herb Dumplings get added to the Slow Cooker about 45mins before the end of cooking time. It's a good, filling - stick-to-your-ribs - type of meal.

As it's mostly vegetables, it isn't too bad regards being 'healthy' - just have to be a good girl where the dumplings are concerned .

[Deleted User]

Last year I did a small experiment to see if I could survive on a £1.00 a day (millions survive on less in the third world ) it is doable but at times quite boring.It helps if you have a good stock of spices and herbs to 'jazz' things up a bit.With the price of potatos at the moment they can be replaced by pasta or rice or even the extremely streeeetchable red lentils.I think tescos are doing a 2 kilo pack for £2.00 at the moment and thats a whole lot of lentils :) Useful for soup or curries.Well done for you effforts you will obviously use your knowledge of ekeing out both your food and cash to your advantage in the future.Far better than just buying stuff thats processed and expensive
Good luck with your studies