£25 a week food budget do-able?

neviditelny

neviditelny

neviditelny

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I'm sitting here budgeting things and try to save a bit more but also organise and structure my life a bit more.
And I'm thinking about setting up a budget for food and wonder if you people would say it is possible to do it?
And what recommendations would you do for recipes? I got a slow cooker and a decent sized freezer as well to store left overs/lunch boxes in.

Any ideas or suggestions are welcome :)
 
Yep. Lots of pasta, vegetables and buying stuff from the "Reduced to clear" box, but very do-able. Buying and learning to cook with random ingredients you buy just because they were cheap is fun.
 
Pasta, Rice and Potatoes are your friends in this type of scenario (the first two more so than the third) as they are cheap and filling.
 
I think so, especially if you're able to average £25, rather than it being a strict '£0 left in my bank every week'.

Batch cooking lasagne, chilli con carne, fish pie, bolognese, cottage pies etc, which we do for a family of four, all works out around £1 to £1.50 per adult portion. Add frozen veg, rice, pasta or whatever is appropriate for about another 30p.

Then you just have to figure out cheap lunch and breakfast. And only drink water.
 
I got quite a bit of canned vegetables in the cupboard and some packs of frozen veg in the freezer already. In the freezer I got plenty of bits of chicken (breasts, thighs, etc).

I tend to to chilli con carne and bolognese every now and then, lasagne i shall give another go as I do like it but have struggled with getting it good before (but training makes it easier).
Fish pie sounds like a good idea as well as I did fall in love with cod with cream when I was in Portugal, and that is similar to fish pie.

Got a large bag of brown rice and whole pasta in the cupboard too as I'm going to try that out to see if it makes a difference in diet compared to ordinary white rice and pasta.
As I mostly do nights shifts I only tend to have one proper meal (dinner) before work, and then have some fillers while at work, and breakfast (usually yogurt with berries of some kind) when I get home.

So I shall be quite a good way on the way :)
 
Depends how you want your diet to be. Fresh food and meat are the most expensive things. As is eating relatively low carb high protein and veg.

If you are ok with bulking out your calories with the aforementioned pasta, rice etc then that should be low cost and high calorie per meal to keep you full.

It may not be particularly nutritious though so make sure you're getting your '5 a day'.
 
i live 2 mins walk from an Asda, pop in just before closing and I can often pick up a loaf of bread for 10p, dozen eggs for 30p etc.
 
i tend to bulk buy the meat from the local butcher, mainly chicken though so over time the cost isn't that big. So for the time being I could do with just adding the vegetables i would need for the meals.

I've been looking a bit more at LCHF or LCHP but might finish off what I got in the cupboards first.
 
Woden said:
i live 2 mins walk from an Asda, pop in just before closing and I can often pick up a loaf of bread for 10p, dozen eggs for 30p etc.
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+1 this strat is elite
yesterday I went to the local food shop and the guy was flogging perfectly good pizzas for 10p, normally about 4 quid each lol
 
Weirdly enough, if you bought 5kg of Whole Fuel from Myprotein, and had 500g of it per day (2100cal), it would cost pretty much bang on 25 per week. So it might be an idea to get some to supplement some of your meals, as it's nutritionally balanced and has a long shelf life.
 
neviditelny said:
lasagne i shall give another go as I do like it but have struggled with getting it good before (but training makes it easier).
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I made 4 family sized ones yesterday. Total cost approx £16, for about 14 adult portions.

Ate one today: tasted great. The rest are going in the freezer. Not particularly technical, but this was how it went:

1250g mince beef, 8 cans chopped tomatoes, 2 large onions (fine chopped) , 1 garlic bulb (fine chopped) , 2 oxo cubes, 2 carrots (halved and sliced), 4 pints milk, one block butter, ~6 tablespoons plain flour, tray of mushrooms, 1-2 tsps each basil/ oregano/ parsley, tsp sugar, salt, pepper. And a few packets of lasagne sheets, plus bog standard cheddar cheese for the top

I just fry off the mince, with the oxo cubes, then tip it into a massive pan, then do the same with all the other vegetables, before adding all the tinned toms to the mixture and simmering for an hour or so to reduce. add the herbs, seasoning and sugar at the end, to taste.

Meanwhile, melt the butter, mix in the flour, gradually add the milk whilst heating and stirring loads.
 
Its very possible and not really difficult if you don't mind eating anything within budget, i.e. reduced bread and things like a bag of 60 sausages for Iceland were few £ last time I looked (haven't had them for many years so I'm not sure if they even sell them still)

If you want something a bit healthier and nicer buying meat in bulk is a big saver, if you know someone with access to a Makro or similar wholesaler you can buy bulk frozen meat for around half the price of fresh and if you want fresh buying in bulk is much cheaper then a butcher.

last time I made a bulk batch I did a mixture of curry, chilli and bolognaise and made my own ready meals for work it worked out about 80p per portion and were much better then most ready meals.
 
Porridge/oats in a morning is a good start.

60g oats
250ml water
125ml milk

pinch of salt and then some honey on top.

Costs are very basic and it's filling for the morning.
 
Well for about £5-6 you can knock together a general all purpose chilli for 4-5 meals a week then accompany it with either pasta, rice or a jacket potato. (I do this most weeks and in the slow cooker too)

Tesco do 500g back of oats for about 70p, buy 4 bags for £2.40, 4 pint of milk £1, Jar oh honey about 70p and a bag of frozen fruit for about £1.50. total cost is about £6.

So for about £12 you have breakfast for a week and 4-5 evening meals. The problem with eating cheap is you tend to have to eat the same thing a lot and it can get boring
 
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Lentils and beans are a great cheap way to bulk meals out. Buy fresh spices for a cheap way to add pazazz. Grow your own herbs from seed (don't buy plants from supermarket).
 
Funny thing is you might find you are actually eating much healthier! Cheap doesn't always mean rubbish.
 
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