What can you eat on £3 a week

yvonne13_2

RuthnJasper wrote: »

Echo this - and "bulk up" the soup with value brand pasta or cous-cous. I managed for while on value brand tinned tomatoes and pasta, with different dried herbs for variety. Also look in the reduced items section. It's tough but CAN be done. Also, check for when fresh fruits and vegetables are in season - they are often cheaper then.


Are you eligible for a food bank? Whatever the future holds, I wish you all the best OP. x

Thank you so much for your sweet reply, but I don't need to use a food bank yet. None of us knows what can happen at the blink of an eye and sometimes it's good to know that you can always come on here and find help.
Even though I'm not in that situation I clearly need to stop spending on average £24 a week for my lunch at work.
Sandwich £3 x 5 days
Water 90p x 5 days
Grapes £2 x 2 days

Lots of great ideas have been suggested on here and I'm going to try and do it as from Monday.

Feral_Moon

Bordeuax wrote: »

40p a day? a tin of Campbells soup every day ..ooh and lose weight

Where do you get 40p a day? They're £1 a can in the supermarket!

For £1 I can buy enough veggies to make soup for the entire week, let alone one meal!

Feral_Moon

melanzana wrote: »

It is for sure. But it takes a lot of planning and so on.

And what folk forget is that sourcing it, and actually cooking it (soup and so on) costs money in energy bills too!

So the 3 quid a week actually costs more than that depending on the menu.

It takes literally 20 mins to make a large stockpot full of soup which will easily make a dozen portions, costing just a few quid. Not much planning and barely any fuel costs. Buy fruit & veg in season or at reduced price in the supermarket.

I made 24 portions of soup for less than £5 yesterday - carrot & coriander, potato & leek and a Moroccan spicy lentil soup. I spent less than an hour in the kitchen making them!

74jax

completly misread question.......

yvonne13_2

Feral_Moon wrote: »

Where do you get 40p a day? They're £1 a can in the supermarket!

For £1 I can buy enough veggies to make soup for the entire week, let alone one meal!

I've seen them for that price in B & M and I just done another search and have seen weightwatchers soups for 29p a can.

Feral_Moon

yvonne13 wrote: »

I've seen them for that price in B & M and I just done another search and have seen weightwatchers soups for 29p a can.

Well, it's obviously personal choice but I wouldn't touch WW soups with a barge pole, full of sugar! Plus you only get 295ml so very small portion. I like to know I'm eating something healthy in my soup bowl, plus I can make it cheaper

Mr_Toad

Another vote for home made.

I used to do a big pan of soup and portion it up for work. Costs a lot less than £3 per week.

But one of my favourites is a dhal recipe saw on a food program once.

1 onion
250g red lentils
300ml water
chilli
can of coconut milk - 69p
2 chopped tomatoes

Hardly any prep, chop the onion chuck the lot in a pan and simmer for 30mins until lentils are soft. I used to make bigger batches and portion it up for the freezer.

Fantastic on its own but as a base it can be made into many things. I add one or more of the following;
Cauliflower
French beans
Potatoes
Broccoli
Left over chicken and so on...................

What about chicken soup? I cook it in a huge pan for freezing and use chicken thighs for the flavour. They cost £3 for 1kg but that makes more than ten portions and the veg doesn't have to cost much, there's always stuff on offer or the not so pretty value veg that identical once chopped up.

I don't find the concept of £3 a day for lunch at all difficult but I can imagine that if you have become used going out and buying a coffee, £2-£3 and a £3 sandwich plus crisps and other stuff then it must be hard to believe that you can have a good lunch for a week for less that you currently spend a day with a little thought and effort.

I know people who buy three or four designer coffees a day. I had a single cup cafetiere and my own coffee and it cost less for a week than they spent in a day and was better quality coffee.

People pay for the convenience of not having to plan or make anything, they don't have to and it's not always about the money, just because you can afford £20 a week for lunch doesn't mean you can't make your own.

yvonne13_2

I couldn't eat soup everyday and I don't like coconut milk, but lots of suggestions on here are very helpful.

GwylimT

She actually said it was £3 a week for treats. Shamefull I know that.

yvonne13_2

GwylimT wrote: »

She actually said it was £3 a week for treats. Shamefull I know that.

Oh right so I did hear wrong then. I hand on heart thought she said it was for his lunch.