Uni Food Budget/The £10 Challenge

Broke_Student

£10 a week will should be no problem if it is just your challenge for next week. It depends on how much stock and condiments you have from the previous weeks!

£10 a week long term is more difficult but you have the right idea to achieve it long term - base meals around cheap (but complex) carbohydrates and buy in bulk.

losthour

£10 a week! That is loads for a student! I work and can do £10 a week ...most weeks I'm at £8.50 ish

Broke_Student

losthour wrote: »

£10 a week! That is loads for a student! I work and can do £10 a week ...most weeks I'm at £8.50 ish

£8.50 a week on groceries but is that for all your meals? Doesn't count if you're having take-aways Really doesn't sound like much if you buying some fresh fruit+veg, milk, bread and meat etc...

I should take another read of this thread - spent £20 this week on takeaway and another £25 on booze! Not done that since freshers...

System

Do you like pasta? Pasta is cheap, easy to make and healthy. Most recipes require the basic ingredients: dry pasta and a tin of tomatoes. You can then add herbs/spices/meat to the dish. There are thousands of recipes all over the internet.

Also, sandwiches. For the price of 1 pre-made sandwich (£2-£3) you can buy a loaf of bread and filling (ham, cheese slices, salami) to last you the week.

Also, you know after you open the ham/salami packet it goes a bit funny after a few days? Instead of throwing it away, chop it up and add it to a pasta dish.

I used to do a lasagna dish with the 30p Smartsave lasagna from Asda, one packet will make several dishes. You don't even have to pre-cook these lasagna sheets. Just make a sauce (tin of tomato, cheese, minced meat) and stick it in the oven.

SheffieldMark_2

It all depends on what mood I am in. I can quite happily buy a jar of Pasta Sauce and a large bag f pasta and live on that as an evening meal for 5 days. I always eat a decent breakfast or I cannot function and either have no lunch if I am at uni or have a pretty good lunch at home.
Probably spend around £20 a week on food, but then again I have a job which pays really well

dancingqueen_tr

i am a student too and it is tempting to cut down on food spending to spend on wayy better things, but doesnt it sound very unhealthy to you to live on pasta? how can you even get anywhere near getting your half a day with fruit and veg being so expensive compared to carbs like pasta and rice..:(

System

I wasn't suggesting only pasta. That would be mad.

I know what you mean though dancingqueen, my friends cut down on food and spent money on alcohol, shopping, gadgets etc. instead.

I was travelling on a gap year when most of my friends started uni, but when I got back in the summer they all looked horrible! Really pale, tired, huge dark circles under their eyes. . .

I always put my health first no matter what the cost. Once you become seriously ill, you won't be able to buy your health back.

panicking_lemon

Ok first things first, you have to get your staples; like you say the carbs. Stock up on rice, pasta, bread (if there is an offer on bread where you have to buy more than one loaf then do so and freeze one for the next week).
Mince like said above can be bought in big frozen bags, add any vegetables you have etc, and if you cook a meal and find you have made too much do not throw it away put it in a plastic box like one you would get from a take away chinese and freeze it for the next day.
Frying steak, the cheapest steak you can buy, tuna; buy only in the really big tins that you get at tesco not the stacks of little tins, any other meat, buy it frozen, meat is cheaper frozen. Buy all snacks in multipacks that are on offer. consider what you can buy tinned, ie instead of buying a jar of Dolimio pasta sauce buy tinned tomatoes at about 30p a tin and tomato puree at 27p a tube, then make it a sauce with the vegetables you add. Buy tinned fruits and tinned vegetables that are cheaper than the fresh ones. To buy fresh vegetabvle i would strongly suggest somewhere like Aldi or Lidl, theirs are fresh and quite cheap, and buy allot, dont let them go bad freeze them if you know you will not eat the in a couple of days. Buy the own brands of the supermaket's cereals.
To be honest i would not do a weekly shop but a fortnightly one at loeast so you can get all the offers and not have to worry about wasting food, good luck :A

celyn90

have a look at this thread from Old Style - weezl74 is cooking for two on £40 a month. It might help you with some ideas.

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=826653

It is possible to do this very healthily - OH and I have a monthly food budget for the both of us of around this level too and still eat very well on it - and I hate pasta so we don't eat it very often. We eat a lot of vegetarian food, a lot of pulses and I buy the veg weekly at the local market - sticking to seasonal stuff which makes it cheaper. If you want fresh herbs and things, grow them on your windowsill, buy stuff in bulk if you can store it and take advantage of the local asian delis if you are lucky enough to have them for dried pulses, rice and spices - if you have friends you can split large packs with it helps with the cost too. We don't have a freezer, so batch cooking is out, but meal planning is an excellent way of keeping the budget on track. best of luck, cel x

[Deleted User]

I would like to know how to get my food budget down to £10 as my last bill was £34! But I did have no food what so ever in the house!
My problem is that our local supermarket is morrisons which is not the cheapest of places and the one near us seems to stock very few "better buy" items. Also I like to eat lots of veggies and frozen veg are rather soggy and yuk.