Eating on a budget and I’ve gained weight. Any tips to manage better please!

[Wheredidmywaistgo]

I haven’t been dieting (although I should!) but I didn’t expect to gain weight either.
I’m on a very tight budget due to a number of big expenses.
Food has involved a lot more carbs… rice pasta mainly or soup made filling with bread. Cheap fruit. Sometimes when hungry I have had a banana and peanut butter as very filling but obviously very high calories.

i was feeling good as no takeaways, no eating out, buying lattes, no chocolate bars (although some crisps)
I felt a bit heavier and yesterday I couldn’t do my trousers up!!!

I need a new diet plan!!

My budget high protein meal is lentil Dahl. Bag of dried lentils, bag of frozen veg, stock cube, tin chopped tomatoes and curry powder. Lasts all week for lunches.
Also buy bags of dried beans, chickpeas etc from world food aisle of supermarket. They work out far better value than the tins, and are excellent sources of protein.

do you try frozen veggies and make sure your fruit and veg are in season?

If you include porridge and brown rice they will keep you fuller for longer, also cut down the carbs part and increase the veg part.

Dhal is an absolute game changer! I wasn’t into lentils until I went out to Mowgli at Christmas for a treat and now I could eat it every day.

This recipe is lovely. You can do it in a pan if you don’t have a slow cooker and use frozen veg plus chuck in any extra bits you have. I usually add frozen spinach and some chopped Green beans and fresh tomatoes.

It’s great on its own for lunches and you can add stuff to it if you want a more substantial meal.

I also make a ‘bottom of the fridge’ soup with leftover veg, can each of chickpeas and chopped tomatoes and garlic, ginger, cumin and chilli blitzed together which is really filling.

Tinned tuna is a good shout, eggs, buy a whole chicken and joint it yourself then use the carcass to make stock - you’ll find enough ‘leftover’ meat falls off to make a decent soup if you thrown in some veg.

https://www.tamingtwins.com/slow-cooker-dahl/

Frozen fruit and veg are good for you and cheap. As are porridge oats, which are very filling. How about this as a cheap/healthy/filling meal plan;
porridge with frozen blueberries and half a banana
lunch; 2 egg omelet with cheese served with frozen broccoli and spinach
dinner: bean and chorizo stew mixed beans, tinned toms, onion (a little chorizo goes a long way) served with rice. More frozen veg on the side.
The other half of banana could be eaten as a snack with a couple of spoonfuls of Greek yogurt.

Zingy Slaw (a v cheap low cal filling salad) which is also beautiful;
shred red cabbage with shredded carrot.
Dressing: lime or lemon juice , ginger (I always have a jar in the fridge for curries, the Indian / Asian section of the supermarket has cheap jars) but powdered is ok or grated fresh or frozen is fine too), salt, oil. I use sesame oil as I have it in for stir fries, but don’t buy specially.

A red cabbage is v economical, and keeps really well for ages if you just make a bowl or two at a time. I make enough for three days and have a few forkfuls as a snack or with lunch.

Look for salad ingredients that are cheaper than bags of leaves: celery, carrot, onion, one cheap apple etc.

I buy big packs of chicken thighs, with skin and bone, (really good value in Tesco’s) and freeze in smaller portions . And don’t eat the skin.

Oh yes, red cabbage is great. Sliced thin and use as a basis for a mixed salad. Add some legumes, onions, carrots and a nice dressing.

Or braised in a little water and a good splash of vinegar. Maybe add a finely sliced apple.

Re. Salad dressings: I always make up batches of my favourites and keep them in old vinegar bottles. Saves a lot of time - and money, as it's easier to use sparingly than when you make it individually.

What is your weekly budget and for how many?

Stretching decent food further is the way to go.

So cottage pies or spaghetti Bolognese, add lentils to the veg. I make cottage pie with frozen mixed veg and lentils and so a small pack of mince goes a long way.

I bought a reduced chicken in Lidl and cooked it yesterday. Stripped the meat off and put it into three different plastic tubs so the size for each meal is more controlled.

Last night we had enchiladas. I used the big wraps and cut them in half before rolling. Added onion and mixed frozen peppers (they cook once it's in the oven). I had a bit of pasta sauce left and mixed it with the remnants of a fajita slice mix (there's always too much). Bloody lovely and very low cost.

Today I'll make a chicken pie (not diet friendly but I only do pastry on top nit a full case and roll it thin). Pack it out with loads of frozen veg. The kids will eat this better disguised as a pie.

Will make Chinese style rice with the last smaller strips of chicken.

Bigger cuts of meat used across several meals are often more cost efficient, especially if yellow stickered.

You are better to focus more on cheap but decent meals as cereal isn't actually a cheap way to fill up and won't help with weight. Although porridge is good. I do ready brek with powdered milk sometimes as we live rurally and often need to make do without fresh.

Add mushrooms and onion to things like omelettes to bulk them up.

I hate beans and lentils but like mushrooms so tend to use them as they're cheap, quick to cook and soak up the flavour of whatever you add them to. Big mushrooms can be used as burger buns or stuffed with rice and veg, or garlic butter and stale bread as a side.

Carrots are always cheap too, often supermarkets have offers on big bags, grate them or chop them small and add them to mince in chilli or bolognaise and they again add volume.

The only problem with rice/bread/pasta/potatoes is that its incredibly easy to over eat in terms of calories, they're very moreish, a 'portion' doesnt look anywhere near enough for one person so its easy to over load yourself with them

So really cutting back on the size of those products and filling the gap with pulses and veg (which are cheap)

Nothing wrong with fruit

Thats probably all you need to do

Fasting! Costs nothing! At the moment im
either skipping breakfast or lunch and breakfast. Sometimes I’ll have a few nuts if I do get hungry. I also find that I basically can’t eat any pasta or rice really, if I want to lose weight. But I can have small amounts of potatoes, I think they’re more filling and less moreish. Can eat a normal evening meal that way and fruit, yoghurt or healthy ice lolly for dessert even. Feels easier to me than eating something small, unsatisfying and ‘healthy’ for three meals. And cheaper.

I’ve started having tomatoes cut in half with a very small sprinkle of salt flakes as an alternative to crisps. The 75p M&S ones are perfect

Have you thought about intermittent fasting? I love food but I started fasting to help with some health issues and lose weight, but I'm now saving a fortune on food.

You could listen to some Gin Stephens podcasts to see if it sounds like your sort of thing.

I started fasting for 12 hours a day between dinner and brunch, and I now fast for between 18 and 22 hours most days. I can honestly say I'm less hungry than when I ate 3 meals a day.

That sounds awful. Id lose weight by not being able to eat it. Could you not just nake soup?

When you say smoothie do you mean you drink it cold? Or warm it up like soup? On the face of it, your recipe slightly makes me want to retch but maybe it's a bit like gazpacho???

Does the half a banana you're saving not go slimy? I'd rather just have a whole banana in one go but appreciate others do it differently.

Does the half a banana you're saving not go slimy?

Not if you keep the skin on and cover the cut end with cling film

I think I'd find that a waste of plastic to wrap the end of a banana. If you're going to eat a whole one in a day anyway, surely it makes more sense to just eat it in one go?