help me cut on food

spezial

I am looking to save money on food. I need two meals, one around 12am when I am at work and one around 9pm when I am at home. I cannot eat any carbohydrates, so I am limited in protein and fat, ie meat/fish, cheese/yogurt, egg, and veggies (or anything else that has <5% carbs).

So far, I buy a meal at work which costs £3.5-4.3 and at home I eat some deli, cheese and tomatoes, or two eggs, or tuna with tomatoes. So the total cost is around £5-6.5.

Is it possible to limit my costs? Even if I limit my costs for £2 per day, I will end up saving £730 per year, which is an enormous amount for me. I am not sure if I can achieve that, and ofcourse have some variety in my meals and include the necessary veggies.

I find deli's to be somehow expensive, £5-8/kg. My tomatoes are the small ones, which are pretty expensive at £2.8-3.2/kg (other tomatoes are not preserved to take them with me at work). Cheese is at £5/kg. eggs at 15p each and tuna tin at £3/kg.

Can you help me make few meals that will be cheap and I will be able to take at work? Unfortunately cheap products like bread, rice, pasta, potatoes are not for me for medical reasons (carbs).

Or this is the lowest I can go?

7roland8

Not an expert but I think I would stop buying lunches and take along some salad.


That way you could have a salad for lunch and then cooked veg and protein for evening meal.


As you eat cheese and eggs you could have them with salad or those thin slices of turkey breast that you can cook yourself.


Then for evening meal a variety of veg with either fish or turkey/chicken.


Salad and veg quite cheap - I like beetroot, radish, onion, cucumber, lettice, tomatoes and anything you like.


Veg wise I like chips made form sweet potato and carrots ad parsnip.


All quite simple and quick to do.

jackyann

I would agree about a salad box for work, and I would look at veggie layers, curries, stews etc. for the evenings.

However, I think that you should see a dietician. I would have thought that once you got your diagnosis, you should have the contact details. If not, then I would ask your GP / consultant / specialist nurse for a referral.

I usually find that dieticians are quite helpful about keeping costs down, and can also advise you of any help you are entitled to.

Islandmaid

When I was low carbing (by choice), I would take lettuce leave, sliced ham, colslaw and make wraps. A chopped mixed salad with cubes of cheese, or a baked chicken breast wrapped in bacon, asian inspired steak and salads, boiled eggs, advacado etc.

High quality protein is not cheap, friends of mine who are diagnosed celiac have dietry support and i formation via the NHS

spezial

Ok but chicken breast is a bit expensive, at £6/kg raw which could easily mean £8/kg cooked

TiredTrophy

Canned mackerel in olive oil with finely sliced fennel and pepper salad.
eggs are very inexpensive and you can make crustless quiche......freezes ok.
salmon, cream cheese and lettuce or other leaf rolade?
one way we found to afford fish was to buy a whole salmon when yellow stickered and poach it. Very good value.
try not to depend too much on ham and salami.....fresh is best as less added stuff so you stay in control.
i had a lovely low carb meal of turkey breast rolled in aubergine in a tomato sauce.
i had a super site but lost the url....it was lo to no carb for diabetes and had lots of support.
not doing it at the moment tho..not actually the problem for me!

purpleshoes_2

It is very easy to eat a low carb diet cheaply, it doesnt need to be the best of the best. You can eat canned mackerel, tuna, salmon, eggs, salad, quinoa

I dont eat meat but I eat Paleo and I dont spend £5 a day or anywhere near it

ciderwithrosie_2

Have a look here for inspiration....

http://www.genaw.com/lowcarb/recipes.html

Spendless

I think maybe I am not grasping your post here. Why would chicken work out more expensive if you bought it raw and cooked it yourself. (I understand that it's more expensive to buy it ready cooked) and is there a reason why it has to be chicken breasts? Can't you buy a whole chicken, cook it and get 2 chicken breasts included, plus a load of other meat from it?

I don't understand the comment about tomatoes either, what are ones that aren't preserved and are unable to be transported?

I do agree that you need some help if your diet is due to a medical issue. When I was diagnosed diabetic, I was just let out of the Drs surgery with a prescription! It was the pharmacist who helped me, giving me a short interview and directing me to some websites and giving me leaflets. If you can't get a Drs appt straight away to access a dietitian, I'd start by asking at your Chemist.

spezial

let me elaborate please

1) buying raw chicken, you buy bones and other useless parts as well that you throw out, so you don't buy the price per kg of pure meat.
Plus, when you cook chicken and meat in general, it gets shrinked because it looses juices etc, so that again contributes to that you are actually buying less pure cooked meat per kg than what you actually pay for raw meat.
These two reasons prove that the purchase of raw meat for eg £3/kg does NOT equal to £3/kg of cooked pure meat. I am not sure what is the equivalency, but we need to take these into account!

2) As for tomatoes: if you buy normal tomatoes, you need to cut them in order to eat them, and the pieces that you can take out juices and become messy, plus cannot be preserved for long because they become dry. Small tomatoes like plum, etc, don't have these two problems.

Spendless

spezial wrote: »

let me elaborate please

1) buying raw chicken, you buy bones and other useless parts as well that you throw out, so you don't buy the price per kg of pure meat.
Plus, when you cook chicken and meat in general, it gets shrinked because it looses juices etc, so that again contributes to that you are actually buying less pure cooked meat per kg than what you actually pay for raw meat.
These two reasons prove that the purchase of raw meat for eg £3/kg does NOT equal to £3/kg of cooked pure meat. I am not sure what is the equivalency, but we need to take these into account!

2) As for tomatoes: if you buy normal tomatoes, you need to cut them in order to eat them, and the pieces that you can take out juices and become messy, plus cannot be preserved for long because they become dry. Small tomatoes like plum, etc, don't have these two problems.

A whole chicken you cook yourself will still work out cheaper than buying chicken fillets and give you enough meat for several days. There are plenty of threads about it.

As for tomatoes, try wrapping them in tin foil. I do this myself as I don't add them to salad sandwiches until lunchtime as they make the bread soggy. They don't dry out. You need to cut a tomato around the equator. Alternatively stick to cherry tomatoes or take a small knife in to work.