I only have five pounds to buy food..?!
Answers: What is the essential stuff I should buy. I'd like some meat like lamb chops or something, but i have limited money and I buy milk and bread but it goes off, obviously. Help.
Your diet needs to be balanced with plenty of carbohydrates, Rice is good and cheap, but you need to buy in big bags so it's cheap. Ethnic supermarkets often do it cheaper. Potatoes are excellent, but can rot or go green(which is bad for you). Bread is OK, but I think rice is cheaper and keeps longer. Then there's protein. Milk obviously, and cheap cheese, beans, meat which you don't need but is a good protein source. I'd avoid processed meat which is likely to have loads of fat and gristle. Have you tried minced Quorn? mixed with a gravy in a spaghetti recipe it tastes like mince. (It's made from a kind of mushroom and is healthy) We use bacon in small amounts in stir fries so it flavours up the veg and goes further, likewise stews, more veg, less meat, loads of rice, is cheap and good. Veg, you have to have your vitamins, well at the end of the day real greengrocers have a lot of fruit and veg to get rid of if they haven't sold. Bargain with them for stuff that has a few marks. Carrots and onions are good, anything in season can be cheaper.
At your level of cash, you can't afford to pay for processed food, or out of season food that's been shifted across the globe. Likewise fast food, these outlets buy cheap in bulk, and spice it up with loads of fat, salt and sugar to beat the competition. Best avoided. Sometimes you have to have a few luxuries, fruit is good, Chocolate is OK but you always want more. Drink just takes your cash, although beer has some B vitamins in it
I believe there are government guidelines to good health called the food pyramid, google that. Also the BBC website has a lot of cheap recipes.
Mixed peasant foods all have tricks to bring flavour without using much meat. So the Irish have stews, with loads of veg with the meat. The Spanish use beans and highly flavoured Cherizo sausage to make casseroles go further. The Chinese are masters at it, they invented sprouting bean shoots to make beans develop more vitamins, they use rice, and spices to make bulky foods that don't cost.
Getting good at buying and cooking is good because you are in control, and like buying IKEA flatpacks, you can it it cheap because you supply the labour. It also gives you something to do, hunting for the best stuff can be fun, and cooking for friends is neat. Another tip, if are cold because you are doing without energy, wear something on your head and good socks, when you go out wear gloves as well, you'll be warmer with less clothing.
Ever wondered why ethnic people and hippies looked the way they do? They are trying to live on very little and know all the tricks......
Good luck finding some decent lamb chops for under a fiver!
pasta
eggs
chocolate
fruit
Get loads of cheap noodles. Vegetables are cheaper than meat and provide the same nutrition as long as you chose the correct vege's. I wouldn't eat cheap meat as it will be low quality. However, go to the supermarket at the end of the day for marked down bargians.
Couple of chicken breasts, stock cube/water, peas/sweetcorn/onion/brocolli, mashed potato over the top, bake it in an oven. Yum!
Buy some rice, canned vegetables, bread, peanut butter, and jelly. Also, if you can, buy some chicken breasts and take them home to separate and freeze. Good luck.
Heinz Lentil Soup, around 75p a meal and really one of those super foods. Fills you up and makes you feel good. Eggs are great for scrambling, but you will need milk. Avoid fruit, even if its cheap, it doesnt fill you up. Its really tinned food that you want, corned beef, rice pudding, baked beans of course. Tinned spaghetti or Heinz Big Soups can be pricey but look for special offers in the supermarket. Good luck!
Beans, potatoes, milk, cereals, bread and butter. Wich country are you in it would make a big difference, ￡5 in some countries is a lot .
Looks like Tuna Pasta for a couple of nights!
When I was a student I had 7p once for supper and I was starving so I brought a carrot.
You can freeze bread. Why dont you buy pasta - thats cheap.
i once lived for a week on 7 tins of soup and 2 loaves
you can always make toast with the loaves , and dip the bread in your soup
dont ever wanna do it again though
all the best
Ian
well tinned stuff will last.
milk should last a week, bread can last longer if you halve the loaf and the freeze the other half.
buy some pasta, cheap tins of beans, think tescos do em for like 5p or something daft.
or even better, go to iceland or farm food, they do bags of frozen food for ￡1 a go.
or sod the food and buy 5 cans for carling for ￡1 each lol.
tesco value stuff crisps pasta beans bread butter sliced meat and a bottle of pop
minced pork or beef is cheap if you want meet
pasta, egg, rice, noodles, potato
tesco and asda has very cheap stuff look for their own brand
Give up your internet,Booze etc etc etc,And you will have more money for food
you could buy a loaf of bread then freeze it and only take out what slices you need for that day then it wont go off salad and cold meats is good because you can have salad or sandwiches another good thing to do is make a big stew it will last a few days and if you make friends with the stall holders on your local market and make them aware of how skint you are then you'd be surprised at how generous and helpful they can be just stick to fresh and healthy don't buy meals in tins they are not as nutritious so are false economy
pasta is always filling and big bags of the stuff are cheap and will last a good few meals maybe get some mince and make a bolognaise u can freeze and re-heat what u dont eat bread will freeze also so you can slap a loaf in the freezer and just take out as many slices as you need for toast or something
or get a pack of beef cubes and a bag of stew veg and make a big stew same again it'll freeze into portions
long life milk is a good buy too doesnt taste as nice but lasts and does for coffee and tea
Buy some root vegetables, carrots, swede, potatoes, parsnips. Some stewing steak, beef oxo and make a stew.
refrigerate what you don't eat and you can live off it for nearly a week, particularly if you have some bread with it.
Also, have a good look at the reduced to clear shelves at the supermarket, there are always bargains to be had.
Which ever supermarket you go in, get there own brands rather than the branded stuff - for example baked beans store brand cost 20p, and Heinz ￡1.
Pasta, Tinned Tomatoes, Cheese
all these people saying to buy meat.. it's well too expensive for DECENT meat. 4 decent chicken breasts your looking at ￡4-5. although you can get mince for like 80p in your local supermarket.. some pasta.. and tinned tomato's etc.. make your own pasta sauce.
so better options , things like noodles (cheapest are like 10-20p) / pasta etc. dirt cheap. same with vegtables, as for buying veg's in tins.. a lot less time consuming BUT your paying for that. tin of veg is what 40-50p?
cheap loaf of bread is about 60-70p now?
see whats in the cupboard though, is what i do. normally I find a tin of tuna (in spring water), a bit of basil , pasta twirls , and some salad cream.. cook the pasta... drain it.. drain the tin of tuna.. add a bit of basil to the pasta, mix.. then add a bit of salad cream.. heat a bit.. add the tuna, add a bit more salad cream and heat slowly and stir all the time. sounds gross , but i like it.
try a local green grocer also, compare the prices of veg etc.
and if all else fails theres aways the classic baked potato =)
but yer if money is tight, the reduction cabinet is the place to go at the end of the day. in most cases you can freeze stuff thats chilled.
If you want lamb, buy breast of lamb. It is a cheap cut and can be fatty but if you roast it on a rack until crispy, it is quite delicious. It also works very well on the BBQ.
Ignore people who insist on prime cuts, they are missing the flavour. Breast of lamb is so tasty, and cheap.
I would buy veg like onions, carrots, celery, lentils, tinned haricot beans and veg stock cubes. This way you will always have a homemade soup that is nutritious and cheap. It will feed you for several days.
Try making your own bread. A bag of strong bread flour will cost around 80p. Some supermarkets will sell you an ounce of fresh yeast for 16p.
Belly pork is another cheap cut that is very cheap and tasty. Roast it well and you will have crispy crackling and moist succulent meat. All the flavour in meat comes from the fat.
Some of my best meals have been when I have been broke and I have had to shop wisely and carefully and use my imagination.
You can get liver for less than a pound, healthy and nutritious. But really if you want to make ￡5 go a long way you'll want dried beans and pulses, rice, pasta and vegetables (not from supermarket as they're double the price of a greengrocer).
You could also ask the butcher for some bacon bones or other off-cuts and stuff to make a tasty broth from.
baked beans on toast then your bread wont go off
You don't say how long this money needs to last you, but it can provide you with a fair amount of food if spent wisely. Cue Asda and their Smart Price range:
Beans, spaghetti, macaroni cheese, ravioli, meatballs, hotdogs, tomatoes, all kinds of vegetables - all priced between 10 and 40 pence a tin.
Noodles, 8 pence a packet, dried spaghetti, 14 pence, soups, about 20 pence each...
Bag of frozen vegetables will cost less than fifty pence...
All cheap and essential considering tinned, packet, and frozen foods all last a while.
As for meat, 4 pork chops are about one fifty, a bag of chicken is about two pound, beef burgers are less than fifty pence for a box of ten, 4 turkey steaks a pound, bag of chicken nuggets fifty pence, 10 fish fingers twenty five pence - all Smart Price of course... cheap but edible.
Buy some bread for about 20 pence and stick some in the freezer. A bag of potatoes will cost about a pound and will last you all week (boiled, mashed, roast, jacket... even chips if you have the oil).
Here, an impromptu suggestive shopping list for you:
Bread: 23p
2 cans of beans: 34p
4 packs of noodles: 32p
10 fish fingers: 25p
Chicken nuggets: 49p
10 beef burgers: 49p
4 Pork chops: ￡1.49
Frozen mixed veg: 49p
5kg Potatoes: 88p
That lot totals ￡4.98, and as you can see, you have enough food for breakfast, dinner and tea for a few days (there are easily over ten meals there, plus you can have the noodles and bread as snacks in between).
Like I said, that's just a suggestion, and sorry I missed off your milk and lamb chops (you may have to settle for the pork chops as lamb, even Smart Price, is expensive). Just have a look around Asda, you'll be surprised by how much you can get for under a fiver.
Oh... and if you can find another 30-odd pence down the back of the sofa, then I recommend you get some gravy granules to make up and pour over the potatoes, veg and pork chops...
Right, I'm off to go shopping. See you in Asda.
Go for chicken legs or thighs rather than breasts, a lot cheaper, and a stronger flavour. Probably about ￡1.50 or less for three. Carrots and tinned/frozen peas are cheap. Quite often other frozen vegetables are cheaper than fresh, and no waste. You don't say if you have a freezer.
Keep an eye open for supermarket offers, also for end of day reductions. You can buy cuts from a butcher that need long slow cooking, are delicious, and cost a fraction of the price of chops. Ask your butcher's advice on what he has in stock.
Shop around, don't keep to one supermarket..