If you need urgent support, call 999 or go to your nearest A&E. To contact our Crisis Messenger (open 24/7) text THEMIX to 85258.
Take a look around and enjoy reading the discussions. If you'd like to join in, it's really easy to register and then you'll be able to post. If you'd like to learn what this place is all about, head here.
Comments
Unfortunately 99.9% of the time I don't have time to be trapesing to the local butchers (it's a good mile or two away from my house) as I tend to work a distance from home and work long hours when I do work. I've just done a 5 week contract which should see me right to take maybe up until after Christmas off work (just bought another apartment too, and so had a lot of outlay for that). The super market is the only option for the most part. Even that was a struggle to get to during the job I just finished.
I don't go overboard, rarely buy snacks (not exactly healthy), and the end figure I post on here will not include any alcohol bought.
What I may try and do, is taking into account I have some time off and am working my life in a Hugh Grant from About A Boy kind of thing, I will price up the meat from the supermarket, but pop to the butchers to actually buy it.
I *did* use the butchers for my meat in the past, and just freeze most of it, but it's just not that straight forward to get to a lot of the time.
Also - I pretty much HAVE to have meat of some sort with every meal. I have a super-high metabolism, especially when training, and unless I have something high in protein with the meal, I am hungry within about 30 minutes. Vegetarian stuff just never fills me up. I vary between chicken/turkey, red meats (usually steak) and various kinds of fish (large trout, salmon and a white fish - although am avoiding cod at the moment due to over-fishing concerns).
It's a nightmare, but I rarely eat less than 4 or 5 meals a day. 6 if I can/have time.
I never said there was!
WTF!? What on earth did you buy for so little??????????????? :shocking: :eek:
Meat, fish, fruit and veg mainly. I buy staples such as rice/potatoes/chickpeas/pasta etc in bulk, so it's mainly buying things to cook with those items. We've got a farmers market a bus ride away which helps. I also tend to buy cheaper cuts of meat on the bone to make stews with, I find it tastes better than more expensive choice cuts, and you can throw in all sorts of veg. I throw the leftovers in the fridge, so a shoulder of lamb can normally feed us for 2 days. I do the same with soups, handheld blenders come in very handy, and you can just throw in whatever veg is going spare, and refridgerate the rest for later days.
That's STILL very little!
So, I just got back from shopping. I bought almost zero meat and practically no treats. Minus the red wine the bill came to £47.
I'll type it out when/if I can be bothered.
The only treats I bought are 2 x Carte Dor (£3) - Ice cream is a vice of mine, and some giant gherkins (£1.88).
I bought a small thing of lean steak mince (£1.10), and that was the only meat I bought.
I didn't buy any ready meals, nor any pre-prepared foods apart from 4 tins of soup. The rest was a standard shopping trip. No toiletries, no breakfast cereals this time though.
If I'd have bought meat, the bill would have come to closer to £60. ... and I doubt that will last me a week.
Yeah - it sucks donkey balls that I can't stand tinned fish... especially tuna That would make life a lot easier if I did!
maybe these people spend so little because as go_away says she cooks her meals from scratch. think about making spag bol for instance. 1 jar of sauce compared to a tin of tomatoes and you see a big difference right there.
So what did you buy? I budget and try not to spend more than £30 a week, for 2 of us, cooking mainly from scratch...and it's very do-able, you've just got to be strict :yes:
I tend to plan our meals in advance, which helps a bit, as then I know exactly what I'm going to get rather than, "Ooh we could have this on Thursday," plus neither of us snack on snacks like biscuits etc, we tend to nibble on fruit, nuts etc.
Where we can, we'll buy basic things for breakfast, like Sainsbury's own porridge oats, and adding to it, rather than brand bought items which are more expensive, and have more sugar added. Another thing which cuts the bill as that we don't buy alcohol. I don't drink anyway, if my boyfriend drinks, it's normally in bars/clubs.
But yeah, making things from scratch really helps. If I'm doing a meatball sauce, I'll make the meatballs myself at the weekend. Then I pack them into those foil boxes and stick them in the freezer for weekday nights. As the crocodile says, you have to be strict, and my boyfriend and I will normally eat out once/twice a fortnight, but there are loads of ways to cut a shopping bill.
I think that's the difference - I'm not trying to be strict.
Just cooking up some stuff but the thing reads like this:
Fresh milk: £1.40
Branston beans: £1.78
Tomatoes: £1.37
Ice cream x 2: £3.00
Blueberries x 2: £3.98
Finest raspberries: £2.99
Giant gherkins: £1.88
Loose oranges x 6 (18p each): £1.08
Organic yoghurt: £1.28
Broccoli: £0.45
Org spinach: £1.19
Steak mince: £1.10
Salmon fillet: £2.40
Satsumas: £1.28
Innocent smoothie: £3.25
Innocent smoothie: £1.97
Soup £0.57
Soup £0.57
Courgettes: £1.64
Spring onions: £0.62
Organic carrots: £0.68
Pasta quills: £0.62
Bananas loose: £0.48
Jersey tomatoes: £1.29
Chicken broth: £0.69
Chicken broth: £0.69
Loose onions: £0.52
Large kiwi loose: £1.40
Mature cheddar: £1.69
Mushrooms: £0.32
Cashews: £3.49
Granny smiths: £1.26
£47.81
I avoided buying anything "fancy" in this shop, keeping to only what I "needed" (bar the couple of things mentioned previously. This was a much smaller shop than usual.
Yeah - I think the difference is I'm not trying to stick to a budget and just buy what I want. After today's little "experiment" I can see that it is possible to live for less, by cooking in bulk, buying in bulk etc... Buying the stuff *I* usually buy though, it certainly isn't possible though as many of the things in the list were on special offer and so I probably saved a tenner there.
Good that I know that it CAN be done. So, the experiment had some success
I make my own sauces - I tend to find the jar sauces a little "lacking", unless making a stir-fry where I find the Blue Dragon sauces to be a winner.
My food bill throughout the week, when you take into account food when at work easily tops £100 a week. A true figure would probably be closer to £120-150 a week... More if I go out for a fancy dinner.
Hehehe - aye, those Saffa's tend to be big lumps... :yes: I'm 5' 8" and eat like an absolute horse! It's annoying, expensive (especially when eating at work in the city) and takes up a lot of time! Hahahah
I don't include my drinking bills in my totals - those are another thing altogether
urgh no never!
one day say i might have a jacket potato with tuna and mayo or cheese and beans. that's fairly cheap. another i might have something like pie and veg which is fairly inexpensive..then another day i could have pasta and pesto with a variation of things. stuff like that.
A couple of tips for cutting down your food bill:
Avoid buying fruit out of season except for a treat - you spent £7 on berries in this shop, which is a pretty hefty amount. If you want to make sure you get your 5 a day, stock up while they're in season and freeze them.
Buy a blender and make your own smoothies - your money will go much further than if you buy Innocent ones.
Cashews are pretty pricy nuts - if you want to eat nuts on a regular basis, there are other types that are cheaper for everyday eating, and save the cashews for a treat.
Thanks for that, but I'm not looking to cut down my food bill... The things I buy I simply don't class as luxuries... I sometimes make my own smoothies, but as is often case, I simply don't have the luxury of time (one of life's most precious commodities). I actually own a smoothie maker
Also, if you buy enough berries etc etc to make smoothies, I actually don't think it works out that much cheaper to produce a litre than buying Innocent (or any alternative brand). Think about it and how much you would need to put into a smoothie to get a decent amount out.
The blue berries I bought were already down from £2.99 to £1.99 a punnet on special offer, and I do actually avoid buying them when at full price. Berries are never much cheaper than what I paid for them - the raspberries being a possible exception simply because I find the "Finest" range tend to keep that little bit longer than the standard ones. Also - there's only so much storage in the freezer when sharing with 3 other people!!
I also bought apples, bananas and oranges, which combined with my berries and numerous vegetables bought will more than provide me with my 5 a day. I'm a good boy when it comes to that!
Cashews are nice, as are pistachios, but they're a pain to eat just due to having to dispose of the shells. I like a few types of nut, but there isn't THAT much difference in price in the end and so it's just down to buying what I want.
I have quite a few friends who are on the dole, they are all single males and they all get their rent paid in full and only one has spent time in a hostel and atleast one of them lives in private accomodation, he has yet to be threatened with eviction.
Admittedly the accomodation itself is a small flat in a "less salubrious" area of town (which also happens to be my area of town) but it isn't exactly the "manky 1960's tower block" that you have described, it really isn't bad and it is certainly no worse than what I would be able to afford on my current wage, the few properties I could find in my area for £400 or less (using google) wern't actually that much better than the places that my friends live.
Tribal: thing about living on the dole is that if ANYTHING goes wrong, you're skrewed! If your bike needs a new tyre - there's no money for that and you can't exactly do dole overtime. Dole can tide you over in hard times but I can't imagine being able to live on it satisfactorily (sp? - whatever)
Erm... no.
As I mentioned before, perhaps I'm not working to the same budget as other people because, well, I'm not working to a budget. At all... One of the things I mentioned was in reference to the point of making my own smoothies. Innocent SEEM expensive, but when you actually attempt to do some of the maths involved, they *aren't* such bad value.
I think this one comes down to what people's definition of a luxury is. I would say a carton of smoothie at around £3 (usually less, when on offer, as one of the cartons I bought shows) is not a luxury - especially when, if you do the sums, to produce the same volume of product out of fresh produce, I believe there would be very little difference. Been there, done that... Just easier to buy a product where somebody has gone to the effort beforehand (breakfast, especially).
So - If £3, which will last for 3 breakfasts in smoothie form, is a luxury... I am thinking it would take (going on my usual consumption) 2 x punnets of blueberries, 1 x punnet of raspberries and however many bananas etc etc to make the smoothie. Let's do the maths on the standard prices. £2.99 x 2 = £5.98 for the blueberries. £2.99 for the raspberries and however much for whatever next?! Either way - for 3 days worth of Innocent smoothie, my GOD, it would cost more in fresh produce. Dun dun dun.... Sorry if there was a trace of sarcasm there. It *was* intended.
What exactly is "wrong with my fruits"? Elaborate please (with nutritional/economical detailing) and I shall respond appropriately. If you'd have said there was something wrong with my NUTS I may have been concerned. *guffaw*
G.
P.S. Also, small bottle of Innocent smoothie (150 or 200ml) is nearly £2. So, if buying the larger carton (750 or 1000ml) is £3, it is hardly a false economy!
Smoothie is still a luxury, and a bit yucky too.
No. Smoothie is YUMMY.
Here's a big :razz: to say otherwise
I feel the need to be administering a swift boot to your behind
Smoothie *should* be thick! :yes:
I also reckon you've been drinking a bad batch hahaha :eek2:
Agree to disagree? :thumb: Can't rain all the time
Ooh thank you :flirt: Just what I need.
We don't buy value or economy brands, we buy very expensive orange juice, and we eat a lot of meat, but our weekly shop for both of us is never over £55-£60. And that's with us pushing the boat out because we have the joint income to do so (but we've just spent an obscene amount of money on a new fire so its value beans till we get paid:().
Innocent smoothies are over-rated. I make a nicer smoothie with my crappy old blender;)
Tribal, I think that either you are a liar or that your friends are incredibly lucky. I haven't decided which yet, but I know from family who've been on the dole and friends who work for the DWP that it is very hard to get full rentals paid on places. I know how hard it was for my sister to get her rent paid on a place that was £300pcm, and then they only agreed to do it until the end of the tenancy. Perhaps you should go and live on the dole for a while if you think its so fantastic- I expect that after a week of Jeremy Kyle and no money to leave the house you'll be glad to get a job.