How to live on £10 a week?

tesco.jpg
 
lol, loving the spec images :D

I've survived the past year unemployed living on the basic student loan, £5000 a year for rent and bills. I've become an expert in living for cheap.
Essentially I find it's best to give up meat.
Buy pasta in bulk from a cheap supermarket.
Buy rice in bulk from an asian deli (much cheaper) and spices are cheaper from asian delis too.
Greengrocers are often so much cheaper than a supermarket if you buy seasonal, and especially round this area they do fantastic free range eggs for about £1 a box.
Stick to 3 square meals a day.

Watch the reduced section you can occasionally afford a bit of meat or something.
 
Giving up meat is a bad idea. Humans are designed to eat meat.

I get around - You should have signed on, I did and got ~£600 a month from jobseekers and housing benefits. Then I could have claimed tax credits aswell!

After bills that easily left £50 a week for food!
 
no one said iceland?

You can buy a microwave meal for a pound.... then you've got £3 to paint the town red with! :D

Or just cook a casserole which will make 3 or 4 portions and freeze it and then microwave...

Chopped tomatos (40p), pint of red wine(3 bottles for a £10), oxtail soup£1, caserole veg from asda for a £1, casserole steak x1 (2 for £10).

Total initial cost is a touch over £22 but will allow you to make 2 lots of caserole ((enough for a week) and you won't have to buy the wine for a while.

Oh, you need a slow cooker, a freezer, and a microwave btw!
 
Lunch ive just had

Tin of tuna, brown pasta, clove of garlic, egg, mayo (made into garlic mayo) a bit of chopped up pepper, bit of brocolli

All very healthy, tasty and filling. Granted the pepper is a bit more expensive but i'm not living on £10 a week. That is pretty much standard for my lunches when i'm not at work. In the evening I vary it between chicken, lean minced steak, noodles etc sometimes with some hot sauce like nandos on the chicken breast

If you are hungry and require a snack, have something like an egg. The cheapest source of protein
 
Guest2 said:
Giving up meat is a bad idea. Humans are designed to eat meat.

I get around - You should have signed on, I did and got ~£600 a month from jobseekers and housing benefits. Then I could have claimed tax credits aswell!

After bills that easily left £50 a week for food!
Click to expand...
Can't sign on if you're a student regardless of how poor your are the government doesn't care. I've lived on boiled rice for days and sold things to pay my food bills.
Pretty much given up drinking, dessimated my savings and maxed out my £1000 overdraft.

If you want to get enough fruit and veg you need to give up meat really, eggs have plenty of protein in them.
To have breakfast, lunch and dinner in reasonable portions with enough nutrients meat is too much for the budget.

Long ago people often couldn't afford meat on a regular basis, it is a luxury good. And as much as it sucks if you can't pay you can't play, you have to give up luxury to survive.
 
Last edited:
When I was trying to live off little I bought some stuff out of iceland but after having one of the things the rest sat in the freezer and I just stuck to pasta etc.. It might be a pound but it's really not worth it.

Make something you can make a good amount of (chili, spag bol etc..) and freeze it.
 
Go to the supermarket late on in the evening and join the "Reduced to clear" gannets like there are in my local Tesco. You can get some decent stuff, if you can't eat it straight away, whack it in the freezer.
 
Guest2 said:
Giving up meat is a bad idea. Humans are designed to eat meat.
Click to expand...

Yeah I read somewhere that humans can survive without carbs but they can't without protein. Its all about the protein for me anyway! However eggs are high in protein and low in carbs and cheap :) Recent research says that even the yolk is ok to eat now. At once they were concerned about the high cholesterol but it doesn't seem that way recently.
 
Lot of fud about cholesterol and how it all works about. They found people on Atkins actually had a much healthier cholesterol balance. Same with Inuits high fat high protein and amazing cholesterol levels.
Usual goverment try's to make one simple rule, guess what it doesn't work.
Same with salt, avoid salt. Well we actually need salt and unless you eat processed foods, you'll need added salt.
 
Last edited:
I get around said:
If you want to get enough fruit and veg you need to give up meat really, eggs have plenty of protein in them.
To have breakfast, lunch and dinner in reasonable portions with enough nutrients meat is too much for the budget.

Long ago people often couldn't afford meat on a regular basis, it is a luxury good. And as much as it sucks if you can't pay you can't play, you have to give up luxury to survive.
Click to expand...

bananas, brocolli, cheap mince and cheap tuna are all possible on a cheap budget

sweet potato is cheaper than normal potato and is better for you

I only did £5 a week for 2 weeks and it wasnt exactly healthy, but it also wasnt just pasta, bread and potatoes

Liver is also very cheap and good for you. Chicken liver pate is easy enough to make and makes a good lunch with wholewheat bread
 
all you need to do is buy milk
Click to expand...

Powdered milk is excellent value, for tea/coffee and if you reconsitute some of it and keep it in the fridge it's fine over cereals. Usually comes with added vitami D too.


As for bread, make it yourself loaves and/or chippatis.
 
three quid on cheapo loafs, four quid on the cheapo beans and a pack of multivitamins out the pound shop ( they last for 30 days so buy another loaf and another two tins of beans the other three weeks of the month)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom