i cant afford to eat :(

Former Member

Hi blah,

i think everyone has given enough suggestions on how to get through this month and i'm sure your boyfriend won't let you starve

I expect it's something you don't feel like thinking about right now but how did you get into this situation? Do you think the same might happen next month or is it just a one off?

Former Member

I'm in pretty much the same situation as the OP at the moment. Ecomomy bags of potatos are good - I think somerfield is doing a beast for £1 at the moment. Tinned tomatoes are pretty cheap and are a good base for most stuff. You can get big ol' bags of carrots cheap. I tend to make vats of soup - potato and leek, carrot and corriander, any old mixed veggie soup - and then freeze portions of it.

I think Jim's reply quite comprehensively covers most stuff.

Jim: I'd not heard the Orwell quote before, but he's fucking spot on, as usual.

Former Member

sneer wrote: »

Hi blah,

i think everyone has given enough suggestions on how to get through this month and i'm sure your boyfriend won't let you starve

I expect it's something you don't feel like thinking about right now but how did you get into this situation? Do you think the same might happen next month or is it just a one off?

how did i get myself into this situation? well this month, ive got to pay £200 as im off to do the lpc in sept and they want a deposit so as ive maxed out my credit cards/overdrafts, obviously, this £200 is my food/spending money.

its probably gonna be like this next month too. after all bills next month, i have just short of £100 spare but i can live off that just for next month everything will be alot better from march onwards as im moving into my boyfriend's place in april and my last rent payment is beginning of march.

Former Member

You can use lentils in pasta sauce instead of mince so if you were makign a spag bol you would add them at the same time as a tin of tomatoes they usually take about 20 mins to cook through.

For lentil soup you need the following

1) An onion (you can buy value bags of onions)
2) about 200g of lentils
3) a tin of tomatoes
4) a stock cube plus seasoning

Fry the onion in a tiny bit of oil

Add the lentils tomatoes and the stock cube made up with water and boil up for about 20 mins or until the lentils are soft.

You can make this taste really nice by adding in cabbage and any over veg you have spinach and carrotes are good and it tastes divine if you pour balsalmic vinigar over the top before you eat it.

To keep up your protein levels you should try and eat lots of beans and chickpeas which you should be able to get quite cheaply.

Definately make soup and eat it at lunch time.

Take a calculator with you to the shop when you go this evening and add up everything as you go round.

JsT

Get friends to take you out for dinner one night!

If thats not a hint I don't know what is

Former Member

are you gonna take me out for dinner then james????? :flirt:

haha!

JsT

If you want Don't get your hopes up for anything posh though

Former Member

oh damn.

i was thinking of getting one of my posh dresses out.

kfc it is then, haha

JsT

Thats about the limit, yes.

Back on topic then

Former Member

CptCoatHanger wrote: »

Jim: I'd not heard the Orwell quote before, but he's fucking spot on, as usual.

Oops, think I may have paraphrased him a bit there - he actually said

'You discover the boredom which is inseparable from poverty; the times when you have nothing to do and, being underfed, can interest yourself in nothing.'

But hey, 'poverty is tedium' gets it across in a nice snappy way

Anyway, sorry blah, going off topic again

Former Member

Jim V wrote: »

Hard one I'm afraid - here's a few suggestions that might help, feel free to ignore owt you balk at though

Should be clear I'm not suggesting ways to eat well, just ways to eat. It's mainly about bulking up on cheap, processed carbs more than anything.

First things first, do you have a freezer? If you do then you need to be looking at make large amounts of food and freezing it - especially pasta, etc.

On the money front try phoning your bank and explain the situation, consider calling the local council to see if they have emergency support available. There may be something there - maybe even weekend volunteering at say a homeless shelter. You'll likely to get fed if you're helping out feeding other people.

Make sure you don't buy anything that isn't economy or basic ranges - it's the only way to try and drag that out amount of money. It may be worth checking the supermarket shelves for reduced stuff, but normally that would still be too expensive.

Meat, cheese and milk are probably out I'm afraid. Basic pasta normally comes in around 40p-ish for 500g so go get say 6 packs of that. As Orwell said, poverty is tedium, so you might have to get used to being pretty bored when you eat for the next few weeks.

Pasta sauce might be alright - but may be best to look at what you can water it down with or getting tinned tomatoes and if you have enough spices in using them to keep yourself going. Pasasta used to be much cheaper than sauces so may be worth checking as well.

Economy beans can be a pretty survivable option instead of pasta sauce. Guss you're looking at about 10p a tin so maybe pick up one can for every day of the three weeks - till only about 2 quid.

Chickpeas and Dahl always get mentioned to me, but not my usual kind of thing so I don't how cheap that option is.

Other tinned veg could be worth exploring - tuna isn't bad if you can find economy tuna - don't touch anything over 30p a can. Combine that with 20ish p can of mayo and 12-15p cans of sweetcorn and you can actually feel you're close to a real pasta meal.

For lunch you can stick some of that in a pot and bring it in. Economy bread, economy chicken roll and economy marge would be about 1.50 and might see you through a week of lunches.

Eggs are pretty damn good as well - again, battery farmed, economy range brands should get you close to 18 for a pound.

Potatoes - always a good choice but shop around the find the most and the cheapest. With a bit of cheap gravy and some marge that'll keep you going.

Basically you're eating like a teenage boy. Might be worth looking at economy oven chips if you have a freezer, there are what, a pound for a huge bag?

Strong spices help as well but are not worth wasting a penny on. However if you have sage, basil, garlic, ginger, anything that will change the taste of the food then that will help. Anything to make the same food seem like a different meal.

Old trick that sometimes gets mentioned is the breadcrumbs instead of meat in pasta - helps make the food feel like it's got something real in it.

Most importantly, if you really need to live for 3 weeks on this kind of money then buy as much as you can at once. If you spend a fiver in the first week and save the rest you're likely to be desperate just for a mars bar or can of coke or some other luxury as the days go on.

Maybe save a bit to replace anything like the eggs, but try to stock up in bulk and you really need to think about avoid any treats even if you think you're doing okay.

As a last resort and only if you can repay it it's worth seeing if any of your local corner shops will let you have anything on tick. That's only really something that you should consider for the last couple of days but you'd be surprised at how many shops actually like to feel they are helping people out. Especially somewhere that may know you.

If you've got money after the 3 weeks then start to draw up a list of all the staple food you should have in your cupboard for when the 3 weeks are over. Budget what you can and remember online ordering often doesn't charge until dispatch. So maybe book an order to turn up the day you'll have money again. Hopefully that'll mean you have stuff in for the future.

Hope some of that helps - main thing is get down to the supermarket and start counting the pennies and think of anyone else who could help. But not a path you want to go down regularly, best of luck though.

Jim V is a God.

Former Member

lol u cant afford to eat my problem is i cant cook

Former Member

Ten big eggs for a pound in aldi, me likey.

Former Member

How have you been doing blah?

Former Member

You don't have to be homeless or anything to accept soup and sandwiches from a soup run, just queue and eat. If you're friendly with your local corner shop people, they might give you the bakery section before they throw it out at night. Tell all your friends that you're really skint and see if you can scrounge a cooked meal off a different one each night.

Former Member

Cabbage. Seriously. They are unfathomably dense. You can just keep using them and using them: cabbage soup, braised cabbage, steamed cabbage...i've even seen cabbage bakes (like pasta bake).