Fed up of crap diet and low income, anyone else?

Maybe add up what you spend on cookies, cake & chocolate, and think what you could buy with the money to improve your diet.
Edited to add, good luck OP, it's not easy (I've just had a very large bowl of Malted Shreddies for my lunch, with sugar 😩)

I work long hours too and I do take a fair old amount of food with me to keep me going. If I don’t, I’ll just eat crisps and chocolate which I love but I realise don’t give me longer term energy (and end up costing too). So this is an example of what I take:

egg mayo sandwich on wholemeal or rye bread for breakfast or overnight oats with fruit

a lunch of whatever salad is in the fridge or left over veg or frozen veg that I steam with
any carb knocking around- usually left over rice/pasta/potato
Plus some easy protein- might be left over chicken or something but more often tinned fish or tinned beans of some kind
add sone kind of dressing or cottage cheese or hummus
Greek yoghurt and some fruit
banana and nuts for snacking

dinner at home is with my DD but easy stuff
eg Roasting a whole chicken works out really well in terms of cost as you can likely have a minimum of 4 meals from it eg roasted chicken breast with potatoes and veg one meal, same again the next day or chop the other chicken breast and veg and stir fry it with noodles in minutes, or chicken and pasta or chicken & rice or chicken sandwich/wrap. Any leftover potatoes (or chips) fry with onion and egg to make a Spanish tortilla. Any bits and bits and bobs left from the roast, put in a pot with water and stock cube and add lentils and any other species for a soup
bit random but just some ideas!
PS I sometimes feel lazy to make lunch to take but if I set a timer for 10 mins, I can usually put something together

Your problem is that you lack strong will, not your finances. You don't really have to cook every day for hours to eat healthily if you live alone. There are healthy ready-made dishes, too. Eat protein and salad, so grab a roast chicken and cut the salad yourself at home. A big, ready-to-roast chicken in the supermarket costs 5-6 quid - put some prunes inside and roast. Then you can eat it for 3-4 days with various sides. If you lack ideas, go to a Polish shop - they have numerous delicious beetroot and sour cabbage-based salads in the fridge or jars. Or smoked mackerel (yummy!). If you feel hungry, snack on fresh carrots and cucumber pieces. Don't eat sandwiches, bread, pasta, ready-made curries. Stop buying trash and sweets - you will actually save money.

For breakfast, I'll have fruit and soy yogurt or porridge and berries.

I buy a packet of red lentils and a couple of packets of frozen mixed veg and that makes me enough soup for lunches for about 3 weeks, and literally costs pennies.

For dinner, I usually have tofu with brown rice, and a side of edamame beans and tenderstem broccoli (plus a couple of portions of whatever extra veg I fancy) and again, that's very cheap. I make it interesting by using different marinades and coatings (orange sauce, pepper sauce, salt and pepper coating, miso, etc), and obviously, if you eat meat, you can do this with any cheap protein of your choice. Takes very little time to cook, too.

I rarely snack, but I always have a few Nakd bars in (someone upthread said you can get cheaper versions at Aldi), just in case I need something on the go, as well as apples/oranges/bananas/pears.

A pound gained in a month is neither here or there, its probably a bit of water weight. I've been losing weight with mounjaro and some weeks I either gain a pound or maintain, but that's due to hormones and other things that's going on. Try doing a slow cooker batch meal at the weekends to freeze and re-use during the week.

Get yourself a cheap slow cooker (mine was £20 and is brilliant) and batch cook huge portions of daal, bean and veg chilli, veg curry etc. pop these in the freezer and vary them up so you’re not always having the same. For example, with a bean chilli have with rice, stuffed peppers, quesadillas, crispy tacos/nachos, jacket potato /sweet potato. Much healthier than frozen meals and you could easily make 10 portions in one batch.

For snacks- veg sticks and hummus (homemade will be much lower in calories), fruit salad, crackers (healthy ones) with avocado and cream or feta cheese, homemade popcorn.

Wraps! Tuna, cucumber, sweetcorn in a wrap - can take it with you or have at home.
microwave rice, beans, cheese in a wrap. Again travels well in tin foil like a burrito.

Aldi do a cheap version of a Nakd bar. So it's just dried fruit and nuts. Very handy on the go.
Also, not sure if you are into Asian food but find a decent Asian super market - we stock up on cheap snacks like seaweed, rice crackers, dried peas / beans.

One of the major reasons women fail at keeping g to an eating plan is that they don't eat enough. I'd suggest taking two packed meals with you. If you don't want sandwiches twice a day look at pasta, couscous etc.

Always cook for 2-4 and save in batches for 1.
So eat 1 save 3...

In your shoes I would lookalike your diet and food shopping with fresh eyes and have a rethink and be totally honest with yourself.

Are you eating a lot of calorie high but nutrition poor foods. For example many ready meals, breakfast cereals and snacks come into this category.

You say you are hungry often. I would suggest you may be need to eat more protein to full you up at meal times. Eggs, cottage cheese, Full fat Greek yogurt are all reasonably priced and fulling. A small tub of cottage cheese is the same price as a Mars bar but more filling.
This should cut out the need for snacking.

Meal planning is helpful.
I'm hearing people say its time consuming and takes mental effort. Everything takes a .mental effort even nipping to Iceland for a ready made pizza takes effort. However I would say planning saves time and money in the long run.
It takes 15 minutes max. People will find time to watch Coronation Street,Eastenders or whatever and then say they haven't got any free time. Do your meal planning then.

Surely that is easier than

wondering whats for tea every night and having to do an emergency dash to Spar or the co op to buy something.

So on those days I cant just take a packed lunch with me as that won't keep me going, I need various snacks too.

On these days I would be having a second meal at work, not just snacks , A sald wrap with cheese ,egg or hummus would be cheap and filling.

What snacks are you having by the way, some will make you feel like crap, won't help with your energy levels and you may as well through your money down the grid.
Also, are you drinking enough water. You need to stay hydrated and this can ward off hunger.

Any soup with the consistency of thick lentil will keep you full for a long time. Carrot and coriander with potatoes and then blitzed will cost 50p a portion at the most. I make 2 pots of soup at the one time, that's a weeks worth of soup that you can eat when you arrive home at 7:30.

I always have frozen veg, potatoes, rice and chicken breasts in.

For example, I went in last night, I had a precooked chicken breast, I cooked a packet of brown rice in the mic, heated the chicken up in the mic, mixed it together and added some BBQ sauce. I couldn't be bothered to add veg but i would have just stuck it in a pan while the other stuff was cooking.

I pre make paninis and stick them in the foreman.

I cut the potatoes up and season and put them into bags of portions ready to go in the air fryer.

I try and do a large meal on a Sunday like a pasta bake or a spag bol or something and portion it up. There are loads of batch recipes if you look - it does save time and money.

And if you don't have one invest in a slow cooked, you can cook almost anything in there and there are plenty of books where its 4/5 ingrediants, stick it on and its ready when you get in and again you can make bigger portions to save for later in the week.

I'm not on a budget, but I'm very into healthy eating and, for me, it lends itself to eating pretty cheaply.

• Breakfast - porridge
• Snack - banana
• Lunch - a 3-egg omelette with a tiny bit of cheese
• Snack - Greek yoghurt and honey
• Dinner - chilli, made with beef mince, but stretched by adding 3 or 4 of tins of beans (kidney, black, canellini)

I do sympathise - I work long hours (16 hours at least three days a week) but I spend an hour on Sunday meal prepping. There are loads of good people to follow on insta. I do overnight oats for breakfast, snacks and jar salads with pasta and plenty of protein and take them with me each day. It does take energy though

I agree OP. I think the combination of money and a lack of time makes it really difficult to eat healthily. Yes, porridge is cheap, but it takes cooking (and cleaning) time that isn't available in the mornings. It would be great to batch cook dhal etc, but if you're out all day every day, you really do need to factor in rest time, and shopping, cooking and cleaning isn't restful. And also, you want a varied diet, not just lentils, potatoes, pasta and the other carby stuff that's always recommended for people on a budget. Even a nice root veg soup, whilst being cheap and nutritious, takes time and effort to make.

I think that a lot of well-meaning people recommend cheap and healthy meals for poorer people without realising that firstly, poor people are usually also time poor so can't spend time slaving over a stove, and secondly, poverty affects women more than men, and women have the added responsibility of unpaid caring responsibilities. There's also an unconscious bias that people think that poorer women do not need the same amount of leisure time as men, or middle-class women, when in truth, the financial and practical responsibilities placed on working class women are so huge, they really do need time to destress.

I really, really wish fruit was as affordable as biscuits, and that to make a nice salad would be as cheap to make as an Iceland frozen pizza.

I agree its more time that will hinder you than cost.

Shop well and you can get good value 'wonky' veg or yellow sticker to batch cook healthy and satisfying soups, stews or roasted veg for salads. Having a freezer full of ready to go meals makes life so much easier.

But it takes lots of time, planning and mental effort to do this in advance before you get the benefits.

Have you looked at the batch lady books? Her plans are for a family, but in my opinion makes them even better for a single, as you get so many more ready meals for the same one hour effort. Plus batch cooking reduces waste and buying bulk can reduce costs.

For snacking - fruit, apples, pears, bananas, the cheaper ones. Yoghurt with tinned or frozen fruit, carrot sticks are healthy and filling and can be cheap. Home made flapjacks are not expensive, though do take time to prepare. We also make freezer biscuits or rock cakes and freeze them until we want to eat them.

Hmm.

My "baseline" (if I didn't move all day) is around 1200 calories.
28,000 steps is around 1000 calories, so that would take it up to 2200.
A can of cider is around 200 kcal, so if you're eating 2000 kcal (and nearly everyone underestimates their calories by a bit) + 2 cans of cider, that's 2400 calories a day so I would have been "over" by 200 kcal a day.

Based on that it's very unlikely that you gained 5lbs in 6 days, some of it is probably water retention.

I agree OP, it’s a shame that healthy eating can be expensive. It also takes a lot of planning which is tiring after a long day/week!

Perhaps trying to incorporate frozen/tinned fruit/veg would be helpful, it’s often so much cheaper than fresh fruit and veg. Also try chicken thighs instead of breast and frozen or tinned fish.

I include cannellini or butter beans in salads or quinoa/rice dishes as they are cheap and provide bulk while also being good for you. A chilli made with black beans, kidney beans etc is also very quick and easy, good for freezing too.

But also - if you have had a long day, there’s nothing wrong with a quick pesto pasta or scrambled eggs on toast just to make sure you are fed!!

You need a freezer to do well at cheap healthy eating. Also since Covid and COL crisis, chicken breast is quite often cheaper than boneless skinless thigh fillets per kilo so don’t fall for that old chestnut. The supermarkets are hoping no one noticed.

Frozen chicken breasts are 1kg for £4.29 at Tesco for example. Frozen green beans dropped into boiling water is very quick and easy as a veg. Don’t need to worry about sell by dates.

dhals are good too in glass Tupperware.

bananas, apples - cheap seasonal fruit, both are good baked with butter and brown sugar in winter and make healthy portable snacks.

could make your own flapjacks for something treatier.

This sounds like more of a time issue, planning and making/batch cooking healthy food can be done of course but it requires time and mental energy.

Put yourself first and consider giving up at least the tutoring.

I understand the issue of time, but I don't agree that healthy eating is expensive.

DH and I have recently decided to start eating better as we've gained weight, and our shopping is a good 1/3 cheaper now it's mostly fresh fruit and veg and no snacks.

Why are you trying not to eat after 8pm? That's obviously not going to work if you're out until 7:30.