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

Popperwell

Still thinking of investing in a pressure cooker...then allowing for items breaking down and needing replacing I have considering I am alone...a microwave, microwave combi, cooker, halogen oven, steamer, Foreman Grill, slow cooker, hot plate, mini deep fat fryer, mini chopper, smoothie maker, food processor, a couple of kettles, a toaster and juicer. So I have all the gear and some are not powered by electric. Many items were on offer too.

And a lot of meals are cold and don't require any cooking. I have enough mugs, cutlery, plates and bowls and dishes. I also have some spare frying pans and even some Woks.

And of course sauce pans too. So all I am missing is a pressure cooker.

I thought buy whilst you can and they'll hopefully last years...probably longer than I have remaining myself and some items I have not used yet!

Of course this makes you make the effort of cooking something worthwhile rather than just beans on toast.

Lilyplonk

We love Beans on Toast - and have it at least once a week for an evening meal - usually with one (or two) poached eggs. OH has extra slices of toast with his ...............

It's low on fat and high on protein and fibre - jobs a good 'un :j!

valk_scot

simmed wrote: »

Breakfast: Cereal (alpen) with milk. Cost: ~50p

Have you tried the Lidl muesli? It's gorgeous, and costs about half the Alpen price. Full of fruit and nuts (or just fruit) too. Gets rave revies in magazine tests.

sandraroffey

they made ice lollies with fresh fruit on river cottage a while back. they looked lovely and went down a storm!!!

Popperwell

Lilyplonk wrote: »

We love Beans on Toast - and have it at least once a week for an evening meal - usually with one (or two) poached eggs. OH has extra slices of toast with his ...............
It's low on fat and high on protein and fibre - jobs a good 'un :j!

I'm a fan too Lily. In fact when Mum passed away I had a real propper fry up and thoroughly enjoyed it...

And I doubt it did me any harm(TBH)I don't care...it had it all...mushrooms, fried eggs, bacon, sausages, fried bread, baked beans and tomatoes(what was fried was done with olive oil)and not much as most food secretes liquid of some kind anyhow.

When I get my fridge clear of things that need using up I'm going to do it again;)and yes some good old beans on toast.

simmed

JackieO wrote: »

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

That's an unfair comparison though. A basket of fresh vegetables in China costs the equivalent of 4p..

Toonie

I also live in London and have a £15 per week budget

Last week I bought:



500g barley 69p
1kg red lentils 89p
4 tinned tomatoes £1.30
8 large chicken wings £1.59
1kg lamb neck £2.50
1kg Cyprus potatoes £1
1kg parsnips 70p
500g noodles 80p
4 pints milk £1
1kg oats 50p
2 packs butter £2
4 large oranges £1
2.5kg plain flour £1
=£14.97
(I split my shopping between Tesco, Sainsbury, Lidl and a local Turkish supermarket)

I've still got lots of barley, lentils, flour and oats left as well as a couple of nests of noodles and a tin of tomatoes. Over the weekend I baked some biscuits and made a fruit loaf (lots of dried fruit in the cupboard).


Today I bought


1.5kg carrots £1
500g sweet potatoes 70p
1kg new potatoes £1
800g minced beef £2.34
2 pots yeo valley yoghurt £2
5 large bananas 50p
6 free range eggs £1.48
Fig rolls 49p
Swede portion 50p
=£10.01


This added with what I bought last week (and whatever is in the store cupboard) will mean I have enough food for the next five days at least including


Mince, neeps and tatties (leftovers to be made into pasties for lunch box for wednesday and friday)
Shepherds pie
Meatballs and roasted vegetables
Barbecue chicken wings (frozen from last week) with sweet potato chips and mixed veggies
Mince with dumplings and root vegetables


So, not bad for a budget of £15 per week, especially as I found out I'm losing two hours at work for the foreseeable future so losing £10 a week. More belt-tightening to come.

[Deleted User]

simmed wrote: »

That's an unfair comparison though. A basket of fresh vegetables in China costs the equivalent of 4p..

True, but I cannot buy a basket of veg for that price so everything is in context and a pound would go much further in China than it does in Kent .:p

But I did manage to eat for a week on a pound a day, but I certainly wouldn't want to do it for any length of time,and I don't for one moment think I could do it now with the rate that food has increased over the past 12 months.

I suppose it was easier as I was able to use a lot of herbs and spices from my cupboards and probably to eat with nothing at all to help streeetch the food would be difficult.
But as a poster has said quite often the odd meal of beans on toast with an egg on top or my favaorite poached egg on the top of cheese on toast is quite a filling meal and fairly cheap.

I can live and eat quite healthily on around £25.00 per week just to feed myself and often do and some weeks have cash left over ,but I have always looked at the unit cost for a meal and do try to get the main meal at around 50-75p and adding some veg will take it up to a pound.

Tonight for example I have a couple of beef and cracked pepper sausages from my freezer that had been reduced to 1.30 for 6. I can make three meals from six bangers simply by adding veg to them and a small yoghurt or piece of fruit for pud.I don't need more than two sausages per meal and if I wanted a change I could fry them gently, and then chop roughly and mix them with a handful of cooked pasta and some cheap passata and the last two I can make a small batter up(tesco's do one for 8p) and fry the sausages and then again chop them up and put them into the batter in the oven with a handfull of fried onion for a nice sausage toad in the hole with a bit of chopped cabbage and gloopy gravy on top.so three cheap and filling meals with the staple meat ingrediant costing very little and just padding them out with pasta or batter and veg