A balanced diet for two on £50pw

[mikester]

Afternoon all,

I'm attempting to reduce my (our) food budget to £50 per week for two by cutting down on certain foods (expensive meats, snacks, juices, etc.) while maintaining a somewhat balanced diet.

The rules I have to follow are:-

1. One meal that is only protein (ie. meat loaf);
2. At least one meal with fish/seafood; and
3. Two maximum meals of starch (ie. two pastas dishes, or two rice dishes, etc.).

With the weather slowly moving into spring and summer, we're trying to move from comfort (heavier) meals to lighter meals with more vegetables and/or fruit.

Any meal suggestions are much appreciated.

Thanks!

 

[Makhaira]

Personally I find one of the best ways to reduce costs is to make things in bulk batches.

Mince dishes (cheap!)
Bolognaise
Chilli

General meat
Thai curries (high vegetables, little grease)
Caribbean style slow cooker meals (tend to be light, and can be done with cheap cuts like lamb shanks)

Fish
North sea chowder


Should give you a starting selection!

 

[HeadlessChicken]

My suggestion would be to try and have 1 or 2 nights a week totally meat free. It's a good thing to do health wise, it's usually much cheaper, and forces you to make more of veg.

I get a weekly organic veg box delivered (tenner a week for two) which really helps. Means you always have good quality veg, and lots of different stuff. Ideal in spring / summer too due to the variety of veg.

Also try and not do the same things every week, you'll just get bored of them!

Sorry there isn't any specific advice there, but I tend to cook depending on my veg box!

 

[mikester]

Personally I find one of the best ways to reduce costs is to make things in bulk batches.

Mince dishes (cheap!)
Bolognaise
Chilli

General meat
Thai curries (high vegetables, little grease)
Caribbean style slow cooker meals (tend to be light, and can be done with cheap cuts like lamb shanks)

Fish
North sea chowder


Should give you a starting selection!

Mince is my preference, but my better half is not a fan. If I had my way, I'd revert to student budget and eat on £25pw. Plus, I make great chili, but it's "too filling" for her.

We have a slow cooker, and have been making some very good Korma lately. Will try and include some Thai curries in there as well. I've never heard of North Sea Chowder, but I love chowders so I'll check this out!

My suggestion would be to try and have 1 or 2 nights a week totally meat free. It's a good thing to do health wise, it's usually much cheaper, and forces you to make more of veg.

I get a weekly organic veg box delivered (tenner a week for two) which really helps. Means you always have good quality veg, and lots of different stuff. Ideal in spring / summer too due to the variety of veg.

Also try and not do the same things every week, you'll just get bored of them!

Sorry there isn't any specific advice there, but I tend to cook depending on my veg box!

We're definitely getting a veg box starting in May when we move to our new flat. I don't mind veggie meals, it's just that they rarely fill me up. I have to add beans, potatoes and the like just to feel like I've had a full meal.

Your advice is still much appreciated, and I'll bear the veggie options in mind from now on. Luckily, she's half-Greek and knows a thing or two about eating meat-light meals!

 

[Irish_Tom]

Mince is my preference, but my better half is not a fan. If I had my way, I'd revert to student budget and eat on £25pw. Plus, I make great chili, but it's "too filling" for her.

So make a batch and freeze the majority of it. Portion it up before freezing so there's no waste and it will make your £££ go a lot further.

 

[Jolteh]

£50pw is plenty for two if you exclude booze.

I'd avoid veg boxes personally. I've tried a few and feel that they're pretty bad value for money, and you end up occasionally getting stuff in there that is just awful and you don't know what to do with it.

Best thing for food budgets I find is to do your shop online. When you're doing it on a site you can be a lot more methodical and plan better while knowing exactly how much you're spending.

 

[Makhaira]

For freezing single portions I have a small army of these containers - http://www.lakeland.co.uk/15648/Lakeland-Stack-a-Boxes-400ml.

Pretty cheap, stack well, and last for years. I tend to make about 30 portions of a meal in a vat and then just freeze it down in these. 3 minutes in the microwave after a hard day at work, and voila, an easy, healthy, cheap meal!

 

[vicisthebest]

£50 a week is easy for two people! I do that pretty much every week and we eat meat or fish every night, plus veg, rice, pasta, couscous, etc... We just don't get alcohol with our food shop.

 

[mikester]

General comments:-

1. I have very little freezer space, so cooking large batches and freezing portions is not really an option. I'd rather not have to buy another mini-freezer, since my job keeps me moving every 12-16 months.

2. I realize £50pw is easily done, but the idea here is to get some ideas as to the what and how of it, bearing in mind the rules of my initial post. They're annoyingly constricting, and both of us have different preferences/tastes/appetites. I don't want to end up with us eating different meals every night.

I'm not personally keen on the veg box, but as I am the type who will eat just about anything I'm not fussed. I really enjoy shopping online (love my nearby ASDA), so any suggestions here will end up being used there.

I do appreciate the comments, mind you. I guess I'm starting to feel as if something that's simple (for me) can end up being complicated and expensive if you don't have a good plan.

 

[Kezmo]

we eat on that kind of budget, everything made from fresh, well pretty much.
best saver is buying a sack of rice , from tesco , just over a tenner and lasts us months and months.
from our local butcher massive bag of onions for a quid.
garlic and chilli from where ever and tin tomotoes from where ever we see them on offer.
garlic , tomatoe, onion and chilli is a great base for pasta dishes... add what ever meat,for us its chorizo or good sausages.

fave rice dish excluding the lamb and spinach curry i have cooking now is chinese curry, takes 15 mins to cook and tastses awesome. rice done on the rice cooker , just add equal spoons of sesamee oil and soy sauce
sauce is origanal chinese curry sauce, can be bought in tesco , its a paste, just boil the kettel and add water . quorn chicken style pieces for meat , few peas an onion garlic and abit of chilli, quick and tastey week night meal!

corn beef hash is another quick and cheap one as is tuna pasta bake

 

[Jonny69]

I'd just like to point out that unless you buy the fatty economy stuff, free range chicken is a LOT cheaper than beef mince.

 

[Makhaira]

I'd just like to point out that unless you buy the fatty economy stuff, free range chicken is a LOT cheaper than beef mince.

I'm going to (respectfully, since I know you know your way around a kitchen ) challenge that, it really does depend where you go. My local farm shop is excellent and I paid about £7 for 2 kilos of good mince - in terms of portions that's a lot more meals than a 2kg chicken! As with most things meat related, the key thing is to find somewhere that isn't a supermarket if you want quality at a decent price.

 

[HeadlessChicken]

I'm going to (respectfully, since I know you know your way around a kitchen ) challenge that, it really does depend where you go. My local farm shop is excellent and I paid about £7 for 2 kilos of good mince - in terms of portions that's a lot more meals than a 2kg chicken! As with most things meat related, the key thing is to find somewhere that isn't a supermarket if you want quality at a decent price.

Think of the whole carcass tho. Large freerange is ~ £7 for 2kg. 2 breasts, 2 thighs, 2 legs, 2 wings. One carcass which will make a load of stock which has a multitude of uses.

I'd also suggest that you are getting that mince a an insanely good price. You can't even get the mediocre stuff from supermarkets that cheap. If chickens were relatively priced to that mince, you'd be able to get 2 med / large.

 

[Jonny69]

I'm going to (respectfully, since I know you know your way around a kitchen ) challenge that, it really does depend where you go. My local farm shop is excellent and I paid about £7 for 2 kilos of good mince - in terms of portions that's a lot more meals than a 2kg chicken! As with most things meat related, the key thing is to find somewhere that isn't a supermarket if you want quality at a decent price.

That's true, and sadly I only have access to supermarkets because there aren't any butchers round here any more

 

[mikester]

we eat on that kind of budget, everything made from fresh, well pretty much.
best saver is buying a sack of rice , from tesco , just over a tenner and lasts us months and months.
from our local butcher massive bag of onions for a quid.
garlic and chilli from where ever and tin tomotoes from where ever we see them on offer.
garlic , tomatoe, onion and chilli is a great base for pasta dishes... add what ever meat,for us its chorizo or good sausages.

fave rice dish excluding the lamb and spinach curry i have cooking now is chinese curry, takes 15 mins to cook and tastses awesome. rice done on the rice cooker , just add equal spoons of sesamee oil and soy sauce
sauce is origanal chinese curry sauce, can be bought in tesco , its a paste, just boil the kettel and add water . quorn chicken style pieces for meat , few peas an onion garlic and abit of chilli, quick and tastey week night meal!

corn beef hash is another quick and cheap one as is tuna pasta bake

Again, while this is a great suggestion I can only add one rice meal per week, and one pasta meal per week. This is due to dietary constraints in connection with starchy foods.

Oh, and I severely dislike quorn.

Tuna pasta bake is an option - not had that in a while. Never even made corn beef hash.

 

[boxman2000]

Personally I find one of the best ways to reduce costs is to make things in bulk batches.

Absolutely, what he said!

We buy a load of whole chickens and cook them in the oven at the same time, pick off the meat and then use leftovers for stock (that's my job tonight!) Cooked three medium chickens and had some for Sunday lunch, enough to do 3 days of sandwiches, leftovers last night and froze enough for two meals for another time.

At the weekend I also cooked a 3kg pork shoulder which did 6 for Sunday lunch and enough leftovers for 4 more meals, one of them a pork stew after using the veg/potatoes/pork juices from the trivet - NOM.

Total spend including veg, stock, meat and sundries was about £25 (16 large servings)

Easily substitute potatoes for salad and some other veg.

Soup is always a winner in our house, again can be made in batches. I have about 14 servings just sat in the freezer for when we need.

Chilli con carne is another cheap dish if made en masse (I tend to double the beans as it fills out the dish and they're much cheaper than meat, plus better for you).

I also make curry in batches. I found a great veggie recipe which is so quick and easy (tastes great too) and is pretty flexible as to what you add.

 

[Lil old me]

Tofu is great and cheap! Also an incredibly good source of protein, virtually far free and delicious! You can make a soy sauce and sugar sauce to put on it and have it raw or coat in flour and fry. Serve with rice and mushrooms, also in soy sauce.

If you want to bulk up curries cook a batch of lentils and mix them into the sauce. They add great fibre and protein. Same goes for chick peas, which are slightly easier to cook.

 

[Kezmo]

Again, while this is a great suggestion I can only add one rice meal per week, and one pasta meal per week. This is due to dietary constraints in connection with starchy foods.

Oh, and I severely dislike quorn.

Tuna pasta bake is an option - not had that in a while. Never even made corn beef hash.[/QUOTE

delia smiths recipe is the one i use, stir frys is another good midweek meal, we often grab the 3 for £2.50 from tesco ( veg, noodles & fresh sauce)

 

[Voltjunkie]

I personally spend £25-30 a week on food and would consider my diet a balanced one so I feel that I could quite happily feed a couple for £50.00 per week. I find most of my food ideas on websites e.g. BBC Good Food and adapt them for my own uses.

I appreciate that you have restricted carbs and probably have good reason to but just to add some perspective my last two weeks of food have consisted of the following:

Week 1

• Cheerios and a cuppa for breakfast
• 4x Chilli and pepper burritos
• 4x Tofu and mixed pepper stir-fry
• 4x Chicken and pesto pasta
• 2x Peppers and eggs with rice (avec spices)

Week 2

• Cheerios and a cuppa for breakfast
• 4x Chicken and pesto pasta
• 4x Chilli with rice
• 4x Courgette lasagne
• 2x Courgette salad

As you can see I tend to cook 4 portions of a meal and eat them throughout the week. For your dietary requirements, I don't see why you couldn't simply replace the carbs with vegetables.

(P.S. Yes I know my diet is pretty static but I tend to go through phases where I eat similar dishes and then get sick of them and find something else.)

 

[mikester]

I personally spend £25-30 a week on food and would consider my diet a balanced one so I feel that I could quite happily feed a couple for £50.00 per week. I find most of my food ideas on websites e.g. BBC Good Food and adapt them for my own uses.

I appreciate that you have restricted carbs and probably have good reason to but just to add some perspective my last two weeks of food have consisted of the following:

Week 1

• Cheerios and a cuppa for breakfast
• 4x Chilli and pepper burritos
• 4x Tofu and mixed pepper stir-fry
• 4x Chicken and pesto pasta
• 2x Peppers and eggs with rice (avec spices)

Week 2

• Cheerios and a cuppa for breakfast
• 4x Chicken and pesto pasta
• 4x Chilli with rice
• 4x Courgette lasagne
• 2x Courgette salad

As you can see I tend to cook 4 portions of a meal and eat them throughout the week. For your dietary requirements, I don't see why you couldn't simply replace the carbs with vegetables.

(P.S. Yes I know my diet is pretty static but I tend to go through phases where I eat similar dishes and then get sick of them and find something else.)

That's not bad at all, cheers.