Can you live of basic/value/smartprice food for a month?

simongregson

Jacks_xxx wrote: »

:wave: Hiya hon!

That's pretty much how we try and shop these days - but with plenty of fruit and veg thrown in. (Oooh, you'd be amazed at the things I can do with Value mince! :rotfl: )

The main thing don't like about value mince is the fat content, which is about 28%!


Lidl do a pack of lean mince for about £1.20 though, so what we do is buy one of these, but only use half a pack at a time, then add a can of tinned beans (borlotti, black eyed etc). These are very cheap and probably even better for you than lean mince!

JCD_Capulet

Living on smartprice foods is something I've been doing for months to almost a year now. My monthly food budget is £40, but often comes to less than that.

Easily done, you just need to brush aside the 'stigma' associated with smart price foods. Once you do, job's a good'n.

jo1972

JCD_Capulet wrote: »

Living on smartprice foods is something I've been doing for months to almost a year now. My monthly food budget is £40, but often comes to less than that.

Easily done, you just need to brush aside the 'stigma' associated with smart price foods. Once you do, job's a good'n.

Is that just for you or your mum as well? Either way that's amazing :beer:

JCD_Capulet

carlih1 wrote: »

The link to the sainsbury's student advice is here for anyone that is interested!

http://www.sainsburys.co.uk/shoppingandservices/student_savings/savings/great_student_savings?from=http://www.sainsburys.co.uk/food/foodandfeatures/sainsburys_food_ranges/organics/5_meal_ideas/meal_ideas.htm

Carli x

I'm half tempted to print off the Bundle lists and go shopping in ASDA. Looking at the £10 bundle, I'm more than sure I could buy all that for about £8. I'm going to look into this some more. Thanks for the link, Carlih! x

JCD_Capulet

jo1972 wrote: »

Is that just for you or your mum as well? Either way that's amazing :beer:

Nope that's just me hon, I live alone. I've managed to cut costs even more by finding the IAMS food my cats need in poundland. So I spent about £20 in there one day snapping up as much as I could. Previously my £10 per week was for my food AND the cats food, but with alot of stock for them in the cupboards I now have a few quid extra each week for slightly pricier food (i.e, anything over £1 :rotfl: )

jo1972

That's excellent Joanne! I thought you were moving in with your mum for some reason Ah well...

JCD_Capulet

jo1972 wrote: »

That's excellent Joanne! I thought you were moving in with your mum for some reason Ah well...

My mum and sister were supposed to be moving in with me because my stepdad left mum and she was having to sell the house. Well, she got a flat from the council, step-bloke has STILL prevented the sale so the house still needs paid for, mum is wanting a divorce and she's met a guy from Arizona who she's planning on moving out to live with as soon as she gets her divorce. *PHEW* big scentence! But yeah, all chaos and change constantly over this way.

But, back on topic.....It can totally be done.

tsharp

painted_lady wrote: »

I lived off kwik save no frills for 3 years as a student, 1995 - 1998

Hey, that's the same years i went to uni.

I saw a programme once about supermarkets and their value brands, and basically Heinz make all the beans you see in a value supermarket. They create the normal full price ones with their own packaging etc, and the supermarkets ones in the same production process because they would rather make a tiny/break even profit on them than have a competitor take their contracts. So i bet the theory is the same for most other things.

painted_lady

We just done our monthly shop at asda,for 2 adults and a baby, £138, included
- 2 large washing powders(the 50 wash ones, one non bio, one bio)
- 3 cartons baby milk (over £20)
- fridge and freezer probably most fulll they been in years
- few bottles of beer
- loads and loads of veg (went in evening, was reduced, some items to 10p, I will freeze some and make some into soups, pies, quiches etc and freeze portions)
- except a few pizzas, didnt buy anything already made, such as quiches, pies, fancy sauces, I do enjoy cooking though and will spend a day cooking these fancy things at a fraction of the cost
- some smart price curry sauce at 6p a tin (hope this is nice, it was regular price)
-Used £7 of voucher I had

bathgatebuyer

No shame at all attached in using the basics! If anything it proves to everyone else in the supermarket that you know how to cook your food properly. A former colleague of mine (Grrrrrrr, calm down, calm down..........you don't work with her anymore) is about 36 and lives of Marks and Spencers stuff, took 6 months in her new house before she realised that her cooker was not wired up, and had to ask us, "When you do scrambled eggs, do you actually have to take them out the shell?"

Next time someone looks down on you for having loads of basics in the trolley, pity them, they probably don't even know how to do some scrambled eggs or whether their own cooker is wired up.