Is it possible to eat "healthy" on a £150 per month budget?

Emmia

JIL said:

Lots of my daughters friends recommend hello fresh and other meal kit delivery companies.  Apparently there are some really good offers.  
My daughter has had some recommend a friend offers and I have to say some of the food and recipes have been really good.
They are set out in an easy to follow way and all components of the dish are included. They also are quick to cook.

It could help you to gain some confidence in the kitchen. They do two people portions, her single friends, heat up a smaller portion for lunch the day after or they alternate over 4 days.
 

We have tried Gousto, Hello Fresh and are currently using Green Chef (which is from the same company as Hello Fresh). We started doing them as we wanted more variety in our dinners, which had become a bit dull as we were eating the same 10 things on rotation.

I'd say that these meal kits are fine (they work well for us) but they're not exactly veg heavy, (especially Gousto and Hello Fresh) so I'm not sure if they'd work with the OPs "healthy eating" desires.  Additionally they require at least some basic cooking skills (If the OP cannot make a stir fry, they will struggle.) and cooking / prep times tend to be longer than the recipes say. 

Without an offer, the OP may also find the cost of the kits doesn't work with their budget (they're not the cheapest). However, doing the kits for a short period might help to build confidence. 

kimwp

FlorayG said:

This 'five a day' lark is mostly just made up, a way to get you to eat properly. In real terms, if you have one grape, one tomato, one lettuce leaf, pepper on your dinner and a strawberry for 'afters' you've had your five and that's sufficient variety for your biome ( this has been established by recent research). After that, you can fill up with carbohydrate or fat. I follow a low carb diet which people tend to think is expensive but I don't spend as much as £150 a month on my food. 
You WILL need to learn to cook, though, if you want to 'eat healthy' on whatever diet you follow

I think it's supposed to be ten a day but they decided to publish a more achievable target so people would at least aim for it. I'd be interested in the recent research if you have a reference @FlorayG

PipneyJane

Emmia said:

FlorayG said:

This 'five a day' lark is mostly just made up, a way to get you to eat properly. In real terms, if you have one grape, one tomato, one lettuce leaf, pepper on your dinner and a strawberry for 'afters' you've had your five and that's sufficient variety for your biome ( this has been established by recent research). After that, you can fill up with carbohydrate or fat. I follow a low carb diet which people tend to think is expensive but I don't spend as much as £150 a month on my food. 
You WILL need to learn to cook, though, if you want to 'eat healthy' on whatever diet you follow

In Japan, I think the guide is 10 fruit/veg per day.

It was 5 portions of veg and two portions of fruit in Australia.

To the original poster:  how large is the freezer compartment of your fridge?  You should be able to fit at least half a dozen takeaway boxes in your average under-counter fridge’s freezer and still have room for a bag or two of frozen peas.

Please join us on the monthly Grocery Challenge.   My regular budget is £200 a month (£160 for ALL groceries plus £40 for butcher shop spends).  I feed two adults, three meals a day plus snacks, cooking from scratch most of the time.

- Pip

FlorayG

kimwp said:

FlorayG said:

This 'five a day' lark is mostly just made up, a way to get you to eat properly. In real terms, if you have one grape, one tomato, one lettuce leaf, pepper on your dinner and a strawberry for 'afters' you've had your five and that's sufficient variety for your biome ( this has been established by recent research). After that, you can fill up with carbohydrate or fat. I follow a low carb diet which people tend to think is expensive but I don't spend as much as £150 a month on my food. 
You WILL need to learn to cook, though, if you want to 'eat healthy' on whatever diet you follow

I think it's supposed to be ten a day but they decided to publish a more achievable target so people would at least aim for it. I'd be interested in the recent research if you have a reference @FlorayG

I wish I could find it...it was definitely a scientific paper not a Daily Mail report  showing that it's the VARIETY of vegetables that is important, not the portion size

London_1

My late Mother manage to raise three healthy kids without some unknown ‘expert’ telling her to feed her kids 5 fruit and veg a day.

True at the time she had 14 years of wartime rationing which somewhat limited our diets probably but her sheer inventiveness to feed her children on limited ingredients was pretty good. Most meals were stretched or extended with veg. Every dinner had plenty of vegetables carrots cabbage spring greens etc

Fruit was unless in season and available just didn’t happen. Things like oranges and bananas or grapes didnt grown in abundance in the Uk and I think I was around 4-5 before I even saw a banana let alone tasted one. But we survived perfectly well on what she could find or make something from . We did have quite a bit of home made soups and stews often perhaps it wasn’t a good idea to ask what meat was in the stew but it didn’t kill us and as children two bits and myself we learned from birth to eat what was put in front of us and be darned glad to do so.
im in my 80th decade so I’ve sieved pretty well and like my two older brothers will eat and make a meal from anything. Eggs are a good source of protein and fish doesn’t have to be high priced in fact a tin of sardines mashed up in tomato ketchup if you don’t like oil much is good for you milk even in a pudding is good for you 
Because of rationing back then we ate very little sugar as it was like ‘gold dust’ and hoarded very carefully so I grew up without a sweet tooth
we had home made stuff as a rule and my late Mum never owned a fridge let alone a freezer. Yet we survived
ive noticed on TV recently adverts telling folk to only buy what they actually need which is what most housewives did back then. Storage wasn’t the main thing on the agenda when your house could possibly be blown to smithereens along with a stash of food
people say ‘oh we don’t have time as we work Well I worked full time and brought my family up eating food cooked from scratch and true I was luckier than my Mum in that I had a fridge and from the mid 1970s a freezer as well which helped a lot, but I’ve never obsessed about the five or ten a day nonsense and managed to raise two healthy daughters who in turn between them raised 7 healthy grandchildren
i dont like , but or eat processed food and unless it’s veg on a special offer I don’t buy frozen stuff either I’m quite capable of peeling spuds, even with a bowl on my lap sitting watching tv, they then go in water in the fridge for the week with the water changed daily saves time in the evening when you get home from work I used to do the veg prep in a Sunday morning every week. 

But as for a fiver a day for lunch what ever are you eating for a fiver a day. Take a flask of home made soup and a sandwich it would cost around a pound if not less
a a piece of boiling bacon ( now fancifully called gammon is excellent as opposed to buying the ham encased in plastic. Slow cook or roast gently, cool and voila lits if sliced nice ham for sandwiches pasta or even hamm and eggs 
 

JIL

Emmia said:

JIL said:

Lots of my daughters friends recommend hello fresh and other meal kit delivery companies.  Apparently there are some really good offers.  
My daughter has had some recommend a friend offers and I have to say some of the food and recipes have been really good.
They are set out in an easy to follow way and all components of the dish are included. They also are quick to cook.

It could help you to gain some confidence in the kitchen. They do two people portions, her single friends, heat up a smaller portion for lunch the day after or they alternate over 4 days.
 

We have tried Gousto, Hello Fresh and are currently using Green Chef (which is from the same company as Hello Fresh). We started doing them as we wanted more variety in our dinners, which had become a bit dull as we were eating the same 10 things on rotation.

I'd say that these meal kits are fine (they work well for us) but they're not exactly veg heavy, (especially Gousto and Hello Fresh) so I'm not sure if they'd work with the OPs "healthy eating" desires.  Additionally they require at least some basic cooking skills (If the OP cannot make a stir fry, they will struggle.) and cooking / prep times tend to be longer than the recipes say. 

Without an offer, the OP may also find the cost of the kits doesn't work with their budget (they're not the cheapest). However, doing the kits for a short period might help to build confidence. 

My daughters friends all say its helped their confidence. I was thinking that take advantage of the offers for a month and the op may then decide they can actually cook.

Not sure what ones my daughter currently has, they come in a green box, just spices and they are currently in a big pile on top of the freezer. Apparently her friend bought her a subscription for her birthday.  

Emmia

JIL said:

Emmia said:

JIL said:

Lots of my daughters friends recommend hello fresh and other meal kit delivery companies.  Apparently there are some really good offers.  
My daughter has had some recommend a friend offers and I have to say some of the food and recipes have been really good.
They are set out in an easy to follow way and all components of the dish are included. They also are quick to cook.

It could help you to gain some confidence in the kitchen. They do two people portions, her single friends, heat up a smaller portion for lunch the day after or they alternate over 4 days.
 

We have tried Gousto, Hello Fresh and are currently using Green Chef (which is from the same company as Hello Fresh). We started doing them as we wanted more variety in our dinners, which had become a bit dull as we were eating the same 10 things on rotation.

I'd say that these meal kits are fine (they work well for us) but they're not exactly veg heavy, (especially Gousto and Hello Fresh) so I'm not sure if they'd work with the OPs "healthy eating" desires.  Additionally they require at least some basic cooking skills (If the OP cannot make a stir fry, they will struggle.) and cooking / prep times tend to be longer than the recipes say. 

Without an offer, the OP may also find the cost of the kits doesn't work with their budget (they're not the cheapest). However, doing the kits for a short period might help to build confidence. 

My daughters friends all say its helped their confidence. I was thinking that take advantage of the offers for a month and the op may then decide they can actually cook.

Not sure what ones my daughter currently has, they come in a green box, just spices and they are currently in a big pile on top of the freezer. Apparently her friend bought her a subscription for her birthday.  

That sounds like a spice kit, rather than a recipe box which provides all the ingredients needed (or sometimes most, as it assumes people have cooking oil, salt..)