Keeping food cost down - work

^ triple post! :o

I always make my own sandwiches and lunch, Normally cover myself for breakfast & lunch as it can cost nearly £6 easily to feed me. Nescafe' coffee satchels are the way forward for coffee as well, 89p for 7 cups of very nice creamy coffee, covers me for each morning of the week.
 
tuna pasta mayo
chicken, eggs, beans
sweet potato, chicken, peppers
chilli
spag bol
chicken & rice

most of the time i just cook ingredients randomly depending on what i feel like eating. yesterday i had 3 eggs, chic peas, runner beans and 2 chick breasts. healthy, tasty and easy to cook (I just cook 2 portions at night)
 
Tin of Soup and a tin of Fish (Sardines or Mackeral). Job done! If I'm lucky or gonna treat myself, I'll have a naughty pack of supernoodles instead!
 
Soup! Easy and cheap to make, freezable, reheatable and tasty. Buy some baguettes or similar crusty rolls for under a quid if you need to bulk it up.
 
Clipsey said:
Leftovers!! Always cook too much the night before for guaranteed delicious lunch :)
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True, I often make a little too much. Its a great way to loose weight actually. Forces you to eat less in the evening, when you don't need it along with saving money for lunch as you can take it in for lunch the next day! :)
 
Shouldn't this be in LC?

I'd have a look at doing more prep at home. You could have leftovers from dinner (which you can heat up), you could make soups for yourself, you could make salads, have wraps. Anything you like to eat really! Only thing you have to do is make it in advance and put it in a tupperware and bring appropriate cutlery in with you.
 
JBod said:
£5 sounds pretty cheap, I usually end up spending £8 just on lunch!
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Yeah, I work at a dept store where they do food and I get a discount so I never bothered bring my own food.

But really need tighten the belt now, hoping to get it down to £2, (£5~1400 a year!) there are some really good idea on this thread actually, now must learn how to switch on the hob.....:D
 
My two go to ones when being frugal are;

Homemade 3 bean chill with rice and cheese. Usually get a dinner and two lunches out of the following. Works out at about £1.50 a portion;

Can of 3 bean salad
1 Onion
Can of chopped tomatoes
Garlic glove
1 tablespoon cumin
1 tablespoon chilli
Salt and pepper to taste

The other is just sandwiches. The cheapest one I've made that is filling and and tasty is ham and cheese (always grated) with dijon mustard instead of butter.

edit: Ultimately you can save a lot of money reducing the amount of meat in your meals.
 
250g Chicken (Seasoned with nandos herbs and marinade)
Brown Pasta
Brocolli

Make 3-4 Meals per week and freeze them.

ez
 
glen8 said:
Funny you should mention this as I've been thinking the same

well the weather is warming up....I'd recommend

Tuberware box

Tuna
light mayo
Chopped up Lettuce
Grated carrot
Cherry toms
green peppers
boiled eggs
black olives
salt and pepper

....
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elmarko said:
Rubbish.

Show me a balanced nutritional meal that costs pennies.
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Don't take it out of context. We're talking about lunch.

Given the number of people who skip lunch altogether (and don't suffer too badly), I think you'll find it's entirely possible.

If you divide the cost of a week's worth of sandwich ingredients by 5 days, you can easily live with a budget of 99p for lunch.

It can't be rubbish because I've done it for years...
 
Can you not make your own food at home and take it to work with you? I used to buy a meal deal from Tesco every working day for about 3 months because I was lazy. Once you add all the costs of it up it's way cheaper to make your own food and take it in with you.
 
£5 a day?! Wow - that's like a whole chicken and salad a day for lunch! That'd make me happy! :D

Just over-cook the night before, or pre-prepare your food and freeze it in Tupperware boxes and microwave at home.

I buy lots of spinach and rocket, cherry tomatoes, cucumber, lardons, avocados, chicken breasts. And have that every day for lunch. That in total costs maybe £15 at the most, which equates to £3 per day or less - and makes for a very healthy nutritious lunch (I obviously put olive oil, salt and pepper, and sometimes add some pine kernels). Sure I have to cook it either first thing or the night before, but since I cook a big breakfast every morning it's no bother to do it.

Or as said, make a big vat of chilli or Bolognese or similar, freeze it and then take it to work along with some salads and or cous cous/pasta whatever you fancy. Just takes a bit of preparation.

I avoid bread, but there are food doctor pittas which are pretty good and not too disastrous nutritionally speaking.

Even if you save £10 per week, that's over £40 a month, and over £500 a year - not insignificant amounts.
 
rotters said:
smoked mackerel fillets chopped into a nice salad, spinach is far tastier than bog standard lettuce too. you have loads of option here really.

fail to prepare, prepare to fail...or pay loads for lunch ;)
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cant stand spinach. tastes weird to me. and mackeral will down well in an office. one of the owners here is in the gym all the time and eats fish for dinner. place smells like a whore's knickers.

OP: i just go to asda on a monday and grab enough to make sarnies for the week. do you have a fridge at work? costs me about £5 a week for some nice deli meat, loaf of nice bread and some salad. luckily we have a kitchen at work so i can make my own stuff.
 
realBabelfish said:
cant stand spinach. tastes weird to me. and mackeral will down well in an office. one of the owners here is in the gym all the time and eats fish for dinner. place smells like a whore's knickers.

OP: i just go to asda on a monday and grab enough to make sarnies for the week. do you have a fridge at work? costs me about £5 a week for some nice deli meat, loaf of nice bread and some salad. luckily we have a kitchen at work so i can make my own stuff.
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Simple way to make the place not stink of fish: don't stick it in the microwave. Microwaving fish is one of the most antisocial behaviours in an office I can think of.
 
FrenchTart said:
Simple way to make the place not stink of fish: don't stick it in the microwave. Microwaving fish is one of the most antisocial behaviours in an office I can think of.
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I've made that mistake once, and once only. With homemade crab cakes.

The stench was absolutely rotten. I thought my boss was going to attack me the way he reacted. Not to mention the office was open plan at the time! :o

In terms of cheap lunches, leftover chilli/spag/curry from the night before + medium to large potato + microwave = cheap and tasty lunch.

At the moment I'm on a bender of Ainsley Harriot branded Rice packs(Mexican, Szechuan, Golden etc.). Can do them in the microwave and then add a bit of hot sauce and cooked chicken/ham a few minutes before the end. Lovely, and far below £5 a day.
 
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