Spending £10 per Week on Groceries

Ainsty

Although I am a newbie, I hope no one will mind me starting my own extreme frugal diary. I have been inspired by others and by posts on the Old Style board. My financial troubles are due to a combination of bad luck and stupidity/naivety. I don't want to give too many details because I am deeply ashamed; I ignored all the warning signs and the good advice given by people who care about me. Some of those people use this site and I don't want them to know just how deep in the financial poo I am.

I've looked at my budget and I've cut out as much as possible. For the rest of the year, I will only have £10 per week to spend on food. Below is an inventory of the food I have at home.  I grow vegetables and fruit, so now is a good time to try to eat at a low cost. At this time of year, the produce is either frozen, stored or still in the ground so that should be a great help. I plan to eat the food I have in the cupboard, fridge, freezer, my homegrown veg/fruit plus spend £10/week. I live alone so it should be possible to do that until the end of 2022.

Cupboard

1.3kg Plain Flour

2.5kg Porridge oats

1.3kg Brown Rice

2.3kg Wholewheat pasta

900g Red Lentils

500g Pudding rice

650g Caster Sugar

500g Demerara Sugar

300g Skimmed Milk Power

3/4 x Jar coffee

Approx 200 tea bags

2x Packets Jelly

Tins

1x Vegetable Soup 

3x Chopped Tomatoes

1x Plum Tomatoes

1.5 x Tubes Tomato Puree

1x Chickpeas

1x water chestnuts

1xBaked Beans

2x Green Lentils

1x Light Coconut Milk

1x Sponge Pudding

2x Custard

4x sweetcorn (small)

Freezer

3 bags HG beans

1 bag HG Peas

3 bags HG Soft Fruit 

5 HM Yorkshire Puddings

200g Minced Beef

1/2 Leg of Lamb

2x Haddock Pieces

4 x Individual Meals Batch Cooked 

2 crusts Wholemeal Bread

Fridge

1/2 Lettuce

1/2 Cauliflower

3x Peppers

4/5 Cucumber

2x corn on the cob

2x slices of ham

4x Yogurts

250g Quark

250g Mushrooms

Homegrown in storage or in the ground

Beetroot
Cabbage
Carrots 
Kale

Leeks
Onions
Parsnips

Potatoes
Purple Sprouting Broccoli 
Sprouts

Squash 

Miscellaneous

A good range of herbs both fresh and dried, spices. various kinds of vinegar, 1lt Olive Oil, stock cubes, cornflour, mustard powder etc. Also washing up liquid, washing powder, toothpaste, loo roll, shampoo & shower gel. 

I plan to eat the fresh things first so none is wasted together with the frozen batched cooked meals because I can't remember when they were cooked. 

I'll post the first week's meal plan later. Any ideas for recipes or how to stretch meals would be great.

Hollie_Hobbie

Hi @Ainsty

Just wanted to wish you well but also say you shouldn't ever be ashamed - you've been daft about money not killed or hurt anyone, so be kind to yourself xx

Sounds like you've got plenty of supplies in stock. Grocery spending is definitely my weakness and I have started batch cooking and meal planning so I'll hopefully watch and learn 😊

elsien

Are you aware of the Olio free food app. It’s only really worth it if there’s someone close enough to walk or cycle to, and you need to know when people post as most items go within seconds,  but it keeps me going with veg and bread products most weeks. 

mumtoomany

Hi, @Ainsty. It's good that you only have yourself to please, makes cooking a lot easier I'm sure. You have lots of food in, this will help a lot. As bad been mentioned try olio. Also have a look to see if there are any community shops/pantries local to you. These are not food banks, so you don't need a referral. They are at up to redistribute food, that would otherwise go to landfill.
Make a meal plan. Try to get yellow stickered, (reduced to clear) food, but only if it's actually a bargain. Check out some of the recipes on the grocery challenge, old style board. This is defiantly doable. I'll be following along, and cheering you on, hugs, mumtoomany.xx

RobM99

LIDL does a veg' box for £1.50

Ainsty

Thank you, for your words of support,

@holly_hobby  - I suppose I feel more stupid than ashamed. My financial problems are mixed out with an ex-partner and it seems everyone could see this coming but me.

@elsien - Thank you for your suggestion, I have downloaded the app so will see what turns up
@mumtoomany - I was surprised how much food there was in two cupboards and a small fridge/freezer. Probably evidence of past profligacy.  I will check out if there are any community shops/pantries around here, also go on Old Style for ideas plus read through diaries on this board. I won't be going out drinking and having restaurant meals for a while so there will be plenty of time to do research.
@RobM99 -Thank you for the tip. I hope to live "off the land" for a while with vegetables I grow myself, but if this is not possible I will definitely check out the LIDL veg box. 

Here is the meal plan for 21 meals over 7 days including 3 meals a day plus snacks

Breakfast -

7 x Porridge made with milk and water. 

7 x 80g frozen soft fruit, defrosted and mixed in the porridge. 

Lunch - 

2 x Corn on the cob, stewed apple with breadcrumb topping

4 x spicy squash and lentil soup, yoghurt 

1 x Mushrooms on toast, jelly

Dinner -

2x Macaroni cheese with mushroom & ham, large side salad

2 x Vegetable curry, rice
1 x Vegetable rice - freeze the rest for later

2 x HM Frozen meal not sure what these are so will use them up, it might be a nice surprise

Jelly

Gooseberry fool made with frozen gooseberries & Quark (using some of the Quark left over from the macaroni cheese)

Snacks -

Garlic Dip - crudites (using the last of the Quark)

Apples from the tree

3 oranges I forgot to add to the inventory 

Anything else I can find 

Vegetable curry, rice and chilli will feature very heavily in my diet. The cupboards & stores are full of carbohydrates including plenty of potatoes to keep me going until the end of the year. The main cost will be to buy protein to add to meals. One job before I next go shopping at the end of the week is to look up low cost vegetarian meals.  

Does anyone have suggestions for high-protein low-cost food?  

RobM99

I make a lentil, chick pea and chilli curry - worth a look.
And it did make me chuckle when you listed "4 tins of sweetcorn (small)"!

joedenise

Pulses and beans are high protein and can be used in a variety of ways.  Check out the Jack Monroe website www.cookingonabootstrap.com for cheap meal ideas.  The older recipes include some with meat but more recent recipes are vegan.

newlywed

Don’t forget you can pad out mince using oats or lentils too… if making bolognaise type sauce meal.  You still get the meaty taste.

lentils are protein, as are beans.

elsien

You probably already know this, but if you’re buying chickpeas/pulses, get a bag of dried, cook in the slow cooker and freeze in portions. Much cheaper than buying tins

EssexHebridean

Hello - just stopping by to reiterate the point that you shouldn't feel ashamed, embarrassed or whatever - you're dealing with the situation now so be proud of that instead! 

Some thoughts from here then:
A great way of bulking out a single portion of mince into a bolognese or chilli that will then do probably three portions (possibly more, depending on your portion size!)  is to add a punnet of really finely chopped mushrooms to the pan once the onions are softened. Cook until the mushrooms are softened and any liquid has disappeared, then throw the mince in and turn up the heat - you're looking to cook the mince and just start the edges of the pieces of meat "catching" slightly as that adds flavour. Once you're ready to add your tinned tomatoes and any other veg you're throwing in, add a couple of handfuls of oats or red lentils as well and cook out until the oats/lentils have basically disappeared and thickened the sauce. The finely chopped mushies give a very similar texture to the mince, and because they are cooked  ahead of the mince they absorb lots of the flavour from it too - my theory is that this fools your mouth and tastebuds into thinking there is more mince in the dish than there really is. 
Slow cooked stews are wonderful - again, a small quantity of well flavoured meat with handfuls of pearl barley, oats or oatmeal, and red lentils added bulks it out and gives a nice thickness and texture to the gravy. 
A great way of naturally sweetening porridge is to throw in a handful of mixed dried fruit - it rehydrates as the porridge cooks but also means you also get a naturally sweeter finished product. Similarly a spoonful of pretty much any sort of peanut butter makes a nice topping for porridge - if you want to make it a bit luxurious then treat yourself to a couple of squares of dark chocolate broken up and shoved lightly down into the porridge - a real treat and with Aldi and similar doing a basic bar of dark choc for 33p, a bit of a bargain too!