Drowning...Need a liferaft

poorandindenial

Even with only a fridge you should be able to trim this back, you might have to meal plan in three day cycles rather than weekly or fortnightly cycles but it should be doable. For example, a chicken and a load of veg should do a single person for lunch and dinner for up to three days and you could (for example) have roast on day one for dinner, then make chicken soup with the bones the odd scrappy bits of meat that fall off and some veg which will do lunch for a couple of days with some bread, then a stir fry on day two with some rice for dinner and a curry for day three. That should cost you less than a tenner and would do for nearly half the week.

Obviously you might be veggie or hate chicken but this is just an example of what you could do (and is probably still at the expensive end for the OS board), the good folk of Old Style will be able to give you great ideas for decent meals that won't cost much.

EDIT: you could also check on freecycle to see if anyone in your area is giving away a small freezer for nowt if you have room to give it a home

Merlot

You could cook something like mince and onions in gravy for example on a sunday and keep the rest in the fridge, it would last for two days, you could have mince and onions on a sunday, shepherds pie on a monday and shove a pastry on it for tuesday.

You could get all this out of a £1.65 mince from Tesco and I'm not talking value here, but if we were you could get for £1.00.

Take your lunch with you to work everyday.

Does your fridge not have a wee freezer at the top?

Bayblue

poorandindenial wrote: »

EDIT: you could also check on freecycle to see if anyone in your area is giving away a small freezer for nowt if you have room to give it a home

I was going to say this as well. It may also be worth your while checking out a second hand freezer in the papers or freeads, in my town there's a charity shop which sells electrical items fully tested and there are freezers in there for around 30- 40 pounds. I know that means spending but it could pay for itself in a month or two.

Like you, I used to manage without a freezer but it really is much easier to budget with one, I now spend about £80 to £100 on food and I eat well and don't really scrimp. If space is an issue, be like me and put it in your living area, if you have posh guests you can always cover it to disguise it somehow.

jlanky81

I've posted on the Old Style forum asking for advice on reducing the grocery bill from £200 - fingers crossed!