Spending £10 per Week on Groceries

joeyjimbles

Another suggestion is that you could try doing some surveys in your downtime (if you have any) to supplement your income either for some variety in food, or to create a buffer for anything unexpected. I know they can be dispiriting but if you can get on Prolific it is very worthwhile, Qmee can give you a few pennies or more at a time and e-Rewards pay in Sainsburys Nectar points that are useful for a shop or Argos purchases etc

CRANKY40

Going forward.....if you buy plain yogurt then equal parts yogurt & SR flour (add baking powder to your plain flour to make it SR) make flatbreads so if you used say 1/3 of a yogurt you could make a flatbread to go with your soup and add some of your homegrown fruit to the rest of the yogurt for dessert? You can stew a batch of the fruit in one go and freeze it in ice cube trays ready to add to the yogurt. 

linz

You've probably thought of this already, but definitely consider looking to see what yellow stickere'd stuff you could get to store in your freezer meat-wise once it starts to run down

KeepOnKnitting

Good luck with your challenge.

Ainsty

Hi 

Tea tonight was a massive vegetable curry using potatoes, onions, green beans and cauliflower, all homegrown. Using potatoes meant no rice was needed. For pudding, I couldn't resist having some ice cream with stewed apples. There is plenty of curry left in the fridge for later this week.

@mumtoomany I saw your thread on Old Style. Paint me envious, its sounds like you have an idyllic life in the country with your family around you. If you can manage £187.15 until the end of the year feeding your clan, I'm sure I can manage on £80 for just me.

@London_1 - I also saw your post on mumtoomany's thread. Wow, you manage on £60 per month for food, that's incredible if you are buying fruit and vegetables. It really fills me with hope, I will definitely be following you to learn more ways to stretch meals.

@RobM99 - I'm certainly going to be upping my consumption of beans and lentils as a cheap, healthy source of protein

@joedenise - thanks for the tip about Jack Monroe's website www.cookingonabootstrap.com. I'd heard of her but had not checked out her recipes until now. Some look very suitable and rather yummy.

@newlywed - thank you for the tip. I used to add grated carrots to meat when my children were small to get them to eat more veg without knowing. I've never tried lentils or oats, which is strange because I eat quite a lot of both. What proportion of lentils/oats to the meat works best?

@elsien - I've ways used tinned for convenience and because I am a bit frightened of using dried because of concern about kidney beans. I'll look out for dried beans in ASDA and see what they have. It stands to reason that dried will be cheaper than tinned.

@EssexHebridean - thank you for your kind words, I am starting to feel a bit better and in a position to put the sorry episode behind me. I love mushrooms and already add them to chilli, pasta and rice dishes as well as having them on toast or with a cooked breakfast. I've never heard of adding them to mince but it sounds like a great idea.

@joeyjimbles - I've never heard of survey sites but I'll check it out. They may fill the long dark nights and make a few pence too.

@CRANKY40 - I've never heard of making flatbread this way but I've looked on YouTube and there are loads of recipes, thank you for the tip

@linz - I am a bit unsure of the whole YS thing. I don't look often but when I have looked the things seem to be mainly expensive joints, ready made meals, dips and the like. Perhaps the timeing wasn't right. The only supermarkets within walking distance are ASDA and ALDI. What is the best time to go to ASDA looking for YS goods?

Another no spend day (a good job because there is only 27p in my purse.)

Longwalker

Dont be buying dried lentils etc from mainstream supermarkets - they are pretty expensive compared to ethnic shops - if you have any near you?

Our local home bargains often have them in large bags  - a lot cheaper then Tesco

With lentils to mince - I chuck in a couple of  good handfuls to 500gr packet of mince

We also have a community fridge in the next village. Tescos etc send along their overstocks and you can go along and help yourself. Its mostly fruit and veg and bread, sometimes cakes and biscuits. Anyone can use a community fridge, you dont have to be referred or anything, its just to stop food going to waste

We dont actually need a lot of protein for a healthy diet - its something like 50/60 grs a day - an egg is 6gr , one cup of cooked Quinoa is 8gr and 2 tbsp of peanut putter is 7gr. So you dont need to be looking for large meat portions which will help keep the shop down

Good luck x

RobM99

My local hypermarket does 25kg bags of rice!

Ainsty

Good afternoon

It's a wet overcast day here, the temperature in the warmest room of the house is 15.5c. A big bowl of soup and layers of clothes are helping to keep out the chill but I think I will have the heating on for a while this evening, The unidentified leftovers from the freezer are defrosting and look to be beef bolognese so it will be paired with pasta and salad. (Can you pair three things, probably not)

The beetroot picked at the weekend has been cooked. Normally these would be roasted but to save fuel they were boiled. Some will go with the salad, the rest in the freezer. I've also prepared the mock gooseberry fool, granulated sugar was blitzed to the consistency of icing sugar and added to about 2/3 of the remaining Quart, most of a slack handful of defrosted HG gooseberries were also blitzed and stirred in with a few kept whole. I haven't eaten any yet but the stuff I licked off the spoon tasted good and there look to be two portions.

@KeepOnKnitting - thank you for your encouragement

@Longwalker - there are no ethnic shops around here unless you count Polish and other Central/Eastern European and no Home Bargains either.  I've researched Community shops/fridges/larders, there is one in my town. Their website makes it clear it is only for people in desperate need and, although no referral is needed you have to have an interview with the manager to get approved to use it before you can join. I'm not in that level of need because I have food, I just need to get better with my money. Also, I'm sure they are well motivated and are doing it for all the right reasons but the idea of having an interview feels a bit like going before the Poor Law Guardians. Please don't think I am not having a go at them as it is probably a sign of the times that demand is so high they have to pick those in the greatest need. I would never say I wouldn't try to get accepted if things get worse but I'm not there yet.

You are probably right I'm worrying too much about getting enough protein. A few years ago I read that the western diet was too high in protein and it was leading to all sorts of diseases including cancer. That could easily have been wow science and I haven't seen any "proper" research on the subject.

@RobM99 I don't think I could lift a 25kg bag of rice and I certainly couldn't carry it home 

Keep smiling everyone

RobM99

@Ainsty I'd be worried about the bottom dropping out of the bag.

Longwalker

Ainsty said:

Good afternoon

It's a wet overcast day here, the temperature in the warmest room of the house is 15.5c. A big bowl of soup and layers of clothes are helping to keep out the chill but I think I will have the heating on for a while this evening, The unidentified leftovers from the freezer are defrosting and look to be beef bolognese so it will be paired with pasta and salad. (Can you pair three things, probably not)

The beetroot picked at the weekend has been cooked. Normally these would be roasted but to save fuel they were boiled. Some will go with the salad, the rest in the freezer. I've also prepared the mock gooseberry fool, granulated sugar was blitzed to the consistency of icing sugar and added to about 2/3 of the remaining Quart, most of a slack handful of defrosted HG gooseberries were also blitzed and stirred in with a few kept whole. I haven't eaten any yet but the stuff I licked off the spoon tasted good and there look to be two portions.

@KeepOnKnitting - thank you for your encouragement

@Longwalker - there are no ethnic shops around here unless you count Polish and other Central/Eastern European and no Home Bargains either.  I've researched Community shops/fridges/larders, there is one in my town. Their website makes it clear it is only for people in desperate need and, although no referral is needed you have to have an interview with the manager to get approved to use it before you can join. I'm not in that level of need because I have food, I just need to get better with my money. Also, I'm sure they are well motivated and are doing it for all the right reasons but the idea of having an interview feels a bit like going before the Poor Law Guardians. Please don't think I am not having a go at them as it is probably a sign of the times that demand is so high they have to pick those in the greatest need. I would never say I wouldn't try to get accepted if things get worse but I'm not there yet.

You are probably right I'm worrying too much about getting enough protein. A few years ago I read that the western diet was too high in protein and it was leading to all sorts of diseases including cancer. That could easily have been wow science and I haven't seen any "proper" research on the subject.

@RobM99 I don't think I could lift a 25kg bag of rice and I certainly couldn't carry it home 

Keep smiling everyone

Your community fridge sounds horrendous , seriously ours in nothing like that at all. You could turn up in a fur coat dripping diamonds and no one would bat an eye. Its run on the ethos that food should not be destroyed - I could bake banana bread every day of the week without buying bananas as they always have bananas

Shame you dont have any ethnic shops, tbh we dont either but our Tesco in the next town has a bigger food of the world aisle and they sometimes have the bigger packs of lentils under different labels. However the coast of fuel to get to the next town means I dont go very often. But I did pick up 20kg rice for £12 a couple of weeks ago. We eat a lot of rice thankfully