Monthly food bill for a single person is £170- help!

Mr_Singleton

Bookowl wrote: »

I hadn't realised I spend an eye watering £150-£170 on food monthly.

I buy from lidl and tesco and have been down shifting my products for years. I buy condiments from b&m and home bargains.

I am on a high protein diet so its roughly cheap oats and frozen blueberries for breakfast or eggs, 2 chicken breasts or tuna and pasta and veg for lunch and 2 salmon, pasta and veg for dinner.

You food spend sounds pretty reasonable. I spend around £60/75 a week just for me.

Am wondering based on your sample days meals how your managing to spend so much as neither Tesco nor Lidl are known as expensive.

bouicca21

I am also trying to lose weight and build fitness/muscle.


The nutritionist at the gym recommend an exercise programme (resistance and weights, not just aerobic) plus a diet that includes plenty of water, lots of fruit and veg, not much in the way of carbs and protein. Portion control - 80g for fruit and veg, 125g for meat/fish. Certainly not the quantity of protein you are aiming for. 140g of protein is for body builders.



And the test is that it is working, I'm definitely stronger, and have lost weight.

Jojo_the_Tightfisted

You could, if you have a reasonable sized freezer, bulk buy meat in portions - friends who are seriously into fitness/athletics/sport speak well of musclefoods. But that's not an option for you with one measly little shelf, so that suggests a lot of your issue is having to buy single portions, which are stupid expensive.

A whole chicken, costing less than £4 in the supermarket, has significantly more meat on it, including on the breasts (and you end up with the legs for another meal and carcass to make stock (what is often termed bone broth now). That's something that can be far more satisfying, as you can make soups with tons of veggies in them - chuck in a variety of frozen veg, including edamame, maybe some decent udon noodles and one piece of salmon + a pinch of chilli flakes and a splash of soy sauce and you'll feel much fuller for around half the cost. A whole chicken cooked up tastes a lot better than a chicken breast on its own, too (although you could portion up the bird yourself with a decent knife and a pair of poultry shears - takes about five minutes once you've done it a couple of times) - if you are avoiding eating too much fat, cook it in the oven on a rack so the majority of the fat drains out, if not, just enjoy.

Tuna is insanely expensive these days, despite the occasional offer on tins (don't bother paying extra for 'in Spring Water' - in brine tastes exactly the same) - you could get more out of trying different fish (trout is similar in taste but generally cheaper than salmon, too), such as Herring or other oily fish, which gives you more of the benefits of consuming fish oil than having a bit of salmon skin.



I'm one of those people who never feels full on a carb based diet and if you've previously eaten loads of crap, switching to a higher protein diet is more sustainable than trying to get the same buzz from healthier carbs, as it's likely you'll overdo the pasta & white rice; try using wholegrain versions or the often derided spiralised veg and trying to eat as much unpeeled veg as you can . in addition, if you need to have bread, baking your own half and half wholemeal and white or looking into proper ryebread gives something that feels like food, rather than gooey stodge in slices.

Eggs are cheaper than meat - and if you like curries, they're one thing that doesn't need meat at all to be satisfying - make sure you add a pulse (chickpeas, lentils, beans) to anything with vegetables and it'll be more of a proper feeling meal, especially with flatbreads (wholemeal flour, bit of bicarb/soda, splodge of yoghurt, salt, pepper, perhaps some cumin or nigella seeds, mix together, cook in dry pan) rather than a packet of white rice with additional flavourings.

Buying 2 x 1.4kg chickens a week = £7 and about 8-10 separate meals, compared to 2 packs of 2 chicken breasts weighing 350g = £7 (on special offer on my shopping app) and only 2 meals.

Buying 2 x 2 trout fillets a week = £7.26, compared to 2 x 2 salmon fillets = £13.00

Or buy a fresh whole fish from the counter, they'll descale, degill, gut and take the head & tail off and you'll get far more fish (and more healthy fats) for around £3-4 for 500g.

Add the seasonings and make sauces yourself and you'll save on not buying fillets with [whatever sounds flashy].

that

I did the atkins diet about 20 years ago (been modified since?), and with gym I lost weight, loads of weight, but over did it due to lack of carbs, and I did not follow the regime, just consumed protein. Was expensive and meals were often bacon, steak or chicken - a fair amount of chickens, no egg or cheese due to allergy, or alcohol. My body started to eat my muscles over the six months, but fortunately no heart trouble that I know of. In the end I caught flu and stopped, but even beforehand found the diet too limiting and hard to keep up long term and too awkward to get food at work unless you want fried chicken every day.

Do not buy a slow cooker, but get a multifunction pressure cooker - many do slow cooking too, but does about 7-14 different functions and the prices do not differ that much. some have start timers, so can start before you get home, and a keep warm function. about £50 on ebay

MandM90

Have you considered:

Eggs notjustforbreakfast - i.e. boiled eggs, veg and sweet potato for lunch, or a fishcake (tinned tuna, tinned potatoes and herbs) with a poached egg on top??

More tinned fish - lots of people at my work at eg Olympic athletes or body build and they will eat tuna right out of the tin, as well as boiled eggs, for protein snacks.

Cheaper fish - e.g. white frozen fish like basa. Poach, or wrap in foil and rub with a little oil and herbs and oven cook.

Different cuts of meat/chicken - buy a whole chicken, cut up and cook and freeze half. You shouldn't be afraid of fat as long as you're hitting your macro goals. Much cheaper than breast. There is also stewing steak type meat which is much cheaper.

Dropping into the supermarket on a sunday afternoon to see if any meat/fish is yellow stickered.

And as mentioned before, vegetarian sources:
Tofu (look out for yellow stickered)
soya chunks/mince - found in H+B, cheap and in big bags. Especially good value when in penny sale
Protein shakes - can keep in your room if kitchen space is tight
Replacing some of your veg with beans/lentils (will help you get plenty of 5 a day but with upped protein)