25 pounds a week for food for one?

[BlackStrayCat]

Just that really.

Soon I will be in this position. After everything paid, I will have 25 pounds a week for me and a cat. I do not drive so would have to get a home delivery once a month (it is an expensive service where I live so could only do it once)

I think it is doable, any one else do this or any tips?

I am thinking lots of lentils, frozen and fresh veg.
Rice, eggs, frozen fish, big bag of potatoes, apples etc.

How much is your cat food? It doesn’t sound enough to me really, not with the cat food as well.
Is there anyway you can make more money and are you getting all the benefits you are entitled to?

It's doable if you batch cook in advance and freeze your meal portions.

I don't think it's doable sorry, even without the cat 😞

I really hoped it would be. I cannot make any more money. (I wfh and my situation is complicated re: divorce) It should be fairly temporary; a year or two.

Yes, batch cooking is a fab idea. Thank you all for your comments.

What do you think would be realistic? 40 pounds?

I would go with porridge oats and frozen/dried fruit and chopped nuts for breakfast. Stir in some Greek style yogurt for extra protein. Eggs are a great source of nutrients and protein so lots of those.... French toast, omelettes filled with cheap seasonal veg. Stew/Scouse/ casserole cooked in bulk and packed out with lentils/broth mix then frozen. It will be very very tight though and not pleasant long term. I do think £40 is better but £50 would be more sustainable long term and provide better nutrition and variety

£50 really

If you are getting a delivery I take it you have the money monthly? I would see if I could firstly get some money together to bulk buy some things - pasta, lentils, rice, oats. Will take the pressure off rhe weekly cost.

Batch cooking, using multi buy offers, cheap sardines and chicken, lamb, ox liver for cat. You can do it, it will be hard but possible.

For food alone, yes totally doable. It works out as about £3.50 per day. But difficult to include a lot of extras such as coffee or tea or even desserts.

But if you are adding toiletries and cleaning products and cat food in then yes it will be tight.

I don think its enough either sorry OP.
I would look for local help, food banks etc (some dont need a referral) also Olio app for unwanted free food?
Are you getting benefits?

Is it for just food for you and the cat or for toiletries, cleaning & laundry stuff as well?
If you can spend the full hundred in one go, stock up for the month, it usually works out a bit cheaper buying bigger packs of stuff like pasta. I know you've said you need to get a delivery but can you get somewhere in the evening now and again? There's some good reductions in many supermarkets and there's also things like too good to go where you get at least £10 of stuff for around £3 - though it's usually going out of date and might not be stuff you like, I've had some great stuff from local ones, chicken, lamb chops, sandwiches, fruit & veg, yoghurt but then I've also had a bag full of peppers, onions and random stuff that wasn't particularly great.
If you're really careful it's possible but it's not much fun and you can end up eating the same stuff over & over.

Well, I don't have a cat so I think that would make this impossible.
Without the cat food, it's doable if you are happy to batch cook and have a limited diet - mostly mince casseroles, potato and veggie bakes, pasta bakes, homemade soups, pies which will last for three days. I batch cook all these which make a meal for around a £1 each.
Puddings are batch rice pudding, crumbles, that sort of thing. Cereal, plenty of rice, lots of scrambled egg or omelettes and so on. Easy supper fillers like cheese on toast or cheese biscuits, I don't have much at night. The odd choc ice cream as a treat!! Depends if you're able to be happy with that?

Could you provide a lot more detail please ? I think a lot of people would like to get their food bill to that level

Don't forget olio and too good to go

It’s very worth checking out what other options are available to you locally. My small town has:

Food bank - you may need to qualify for this or be referred and often short term only.

Community fridge - these are normally free, voluntary groups collect food which will otherwise go to waste and distribute it from a central point. Generally short dated so best if you have a freezer.

Community larders - similar to fridge, but with a wider variety and there is a cost - for ours around £5 a year membership, plus £5 per shop for which you get 10 items plus fruit/veg.

Plus Olio and Too Good to Go.

If you have these, the time to access them when open, and a freezer, £25 becomes doable.

And community pantry's if you have one near you they're great.

Like I said it would most likely not include the extras that most people (myself included) would want, such as coffee or tea at home or occasional wine, or desserts etc.

But I would split it as 50p for breakfast (such as budget cereal and milk) or toast.

£1.50 for lunch which would be cheap fruit and cheap crisps, sandwich with cheese and salami etc. Or instead a homemade soup with bread on the side.

£1.50 for dinner which would be like a poster above said mainly bulked out one-pit dishes where you can get lots of veggies in. Chicken curry, Bolognese, chili etc or sausage casserole. Having a big piece of meat or something nice and prepared would most likely be out.

So yes it’s possible and can be healthy with veggies etc but quite limited in choice.

Hi, I'm single with 1 cat too :)
I spend £40-£45 a week as that's the minimum amount for a sainsburys delivery. Tbh I don't really budget, just get what I fancy and there's usually bottle of wine in that as well! I don't eat meat though which lessens the cost.
So I would say def doable

The cat food alone is probably going to be £6 to £7 quid a week minimum, even it's dry food. So your going to be left with just £2.50 a day for yourself really. If you get free lunch at work, then it could be possible, otherwise it's not going to be enough. There are some good food share schemes around which may help though.

I dont' know how much cat food is but i could feed myself for that i'd say but it would be frugal- porridge, pasta, eggs, not much meat.

Go veggie, it's cheaper. I did for a couple of years when I was "bottom of my overdraft, foraging down the back of the sofa for change so I can get milk" skint.

Batch cook and freeze of course. Stock up on things like lentils, chickpeas, legumes. Make the most of apps like Olio and Too Good to Go to get cheap or free stuff. Buy the £1.50 boxes of wonky fruit and veg from Lidl, you get about 5kg of stuff and with a bit of creative cooking, preserving or pickling can turn it into freezable meals. If you've got 1-2 hours of free time a day and like mobile games you can use an app like Mistplay to earn Amazon vouchers. It's not going to make you a millionaire but I made £10 this week and that's a lot of bags of pasta, rice, jarred sauce or whatever from Amazon.

Being skint sucks but it's survivable. Wishing you and your kitty the best 💐

I dont like sweet stuff and rarely eat in the evenings, or very little.

I will have to give up the booze! That is my equivalent to pudding.

I am used to cooking from scratch and am veggie (well I eat fish). I think I will have to just give it a good go. At least I will have paid all bills and have a roof over my head. Yes, to stocking up massively in the months leading up, also on bogoff shower gel etc.

Thanks everyone, very much.

This is 100% possible. I do it!

Batch cool your meals for the evenings and have them twice in a week or freeze to be used the next week.

A bolognese using lentils, carrots, celery, onion, mushrooms, courgette etc with tinned toms and herbs can be eaten with pasta, jacket potatoes, or to make a lasagne.

chilli con carne using carrots, onion, celery, sweet potato and tins of mixed beans in tomato sauce goes far and is also cheap. Eat with rice, jackets, in wraps etc.

curries are also cheap and easy. Any veg along with lentils, chickpeas etc chucked in with spices, tinned toms and coconut milk. Again serve with rice, jackets, flat breads etc.

You can't budget for booze and leave yourself hungry or the cat!
Iceland do delivery, is there a farmfoods near you? very good value

Exactly! In the wild 90s (post USSR Ukraine), my high educated parents didn't have money at all and yet we ( 2 adults, 3 children, 1 dog and 1 cat) had NEVER been hungry. At the time, my mum used to cook different types of soup on bones (usually beef bones) with bread and butter. Somehow we survived!