Aibu to think I can live on less then 15 pound a week?

[Mosseywossey]

I have just worked out my budget and I only have about 25 pound a week spare. Ideally I want to put 10 pound of it away in case of emergencies and treats.
I am allergic to chemicals so need to cook most of my meals from fresh, but can I realistically live on spending 15 pound on food a week?
And if people have any cheap recipes idea or meal plans let me know. 😋

Cheap eggs - when I was baking a lot I was getting 15 for about £1.50, so that's the protein content of a meal for 10p each.

A tiny amount of grated cheese can make a basic meal like beans on toast much more interesting as a treat.

Another thing I would do when I was completely broke would be to make myself up some well seasoned mince and have just a tablespoon at a time on pasta or noodles, freeze the rest in double portions.

Keep an eye out in places like Poundland, where they sometimes have Ambrosia Creamed Rice or similar at 2 tins for £1.00.

I am allergic to chemicals

Oh dear. No, you aren't.

If you were that allergic to something in particular I think you would have taken a minute to learn what that thing is, wouldn't you?

Yes of course this is possible. Pulses are your friend.
Lots of recipes online so a single person can eat for a £1 a day.

Yeah I do buy jars of sauce for curries and pasta ect that doesn't have any of the E numbers and sulphur dioxide.
But I have to be so careful if I eat them I get so ill and I really can afford to be ill, i try to cook from fresh where ever I can as it's just the best option

Is there any chance of sharing the cooking in the shared house? You make a nice cheap soup with bread rolls (or homemade bread if you hae the time/energy) and a house mate with more disposable income takes a turn and makes something a bit more pricey like a roast or casserole?

Saves filling the freezer if there isn't room.

There is a great book called One Pound Meals by Miguel Barclay that you might find interesting, and I wrote a blog post on how to eat for the kind of money you are suggesting (but it will be hard). austerityhousekeeping.wordpress.com/2015/01/02/the-crisis-diet-when-the-cupboard-is-bare/

Is this from your Gp?
Do you have DCs? Is this just for food after bills?

In Tesco you can get
1kg rice 40p
1kg penne 60p
Bag of frozen mixed veg 89p
Bulb of garlic 20p
Chillies 60p
2x can of tuna 65p each
A cucumber for 50p
An iceberg lettuce for 50p
1 kg of potatoes for 83P
Frozen peppers £1
Frozen stir fry £1
Loaf for 30p
Butter 65p
Milk £1
Flour 40p
Cheese £2
Canned toms x4 £1
Teabags £1
Mixed bean in tin 40p
6x pork sausages 80p
Bag of meat free mince £1.50
Chocolate digestives 35p
Bag of frozen fruit £1.50
Corn flakes value 500g 39p
Eggs 6 75p
Sugar 30p
Value juice 39p

All in that's £19.90
But lots will last you well past the week
You can have these breakfasts (could be lunches or whatever)
Toast w butter
Cereal with or without fruit on
Omelette with frozen peppers and cheese
Pancakes with sugar or fruit
1/2 can tinned tomatoes on toast

For mains
You could then have tuna melts
Tuna and cucumber sandwiches
Tuna salad
Tuna pasta
You could make meat balls out of sausages and have them in salad or cook in a tomato sauce and have with pasta
You could use some veggie mince and some of the tinned beans and frozen peppers in with canned tomato and chilli and garlic and have with rice or potatoes and have grated cheese on top
You could have cheese on toast
Sausage mash and veggies
A stir fry
Cheese sandwiches
Mince cooked in gravy with veggies and mash

There's lots more too.
And you can make microwave cake and pancakes for puddings or have chocolate biscuits and hot fruit too

All the best

Keep an eye out in places like Poundland, where they sometimes have Ambrosia Creamed Rice or similar at 2 tins for £1.00.

But that's 50 p for just a pudding without a lot of nutritional value and she's trying to feed herself for the whole day on just over £2. Much cheaper and probably much nicer and healthier to make it yourself.

Pork tends to be the cheapest lean meat at the moment. Buy in bulk and then freeze portions.
Frozen veg is almost always cheaper than fresh and is similar nutritionally.
Keep an eye on the bargain section, particularly on Sunday afternoons before closing time and stock up the freezer.
I'm not a fan of frozen fruit so I would still buy fresh, although more expensive. Good thing to look out for in the bargain section.
Rice and pasta can be bought really cheaply from the value range and they're ok.

You'll have to use your savings to get a 'store cupboard' together.

I'm Vegan and live on around that much. I drink only water and black tea, though.

I cook, Curries, Soups, Pasta dishes and occasionally I'll cook with potatoes.

I buy frozen, spinach, peas and sometimes peppers. I shop at Lidl, Aldi for most of my stuff and then other supermarkets.

Go on 'One Green Planet' for vegan recipes.

I freeze bread and take what I want out, so there is no waste.

Your skin will glow.

Pasta/noodles from basics ranges. Pasta once a week -fry an onion and garlic in a little oil, add tin of tomatoes to make a sauce. Use half one night and freeze the rest. If it won't fit in your freezer use within a couple of days- you could put it on a toasted pita with a little cheese as a kind of pizza. Corned beef hash is cheap and left overs can go in a pasty for lunches- when we were skint I would make corned beef hash, pasties and use the rest of the pastry to make jam tarts as they are dp favourite so a cheap treat.

Do you live near a market? These are a variable but I used to get some absolute bargains going at 1.30-2 ish on a Saturday. They would often be selling fruit and veg off very cheap but it needed to be used pretty quickly, I would pick out the best for the fridge for later in the week, make something for that night and something for in the week.

Have and look in pound land, home bargains and b&m for tins/stock/pasta. Don't assume that any one shop will be the cheapest. Shop around. We used to make prepping and planning the weeks food an activity on the weekend- I enjoyed cooking though.

Do you get on with your housemates? There are economies of scale, would they be up for pooling cash? Perhaps with you offering to cook in exchange for a smaller contribution to the pot?

Seeing as you have herbs and spices already and are used to cooking with them, I'd suggest looking at Indian/Asian vegetarian food. Nicer and more nutritious than pasta, instant noodles etc.

Fresh veg is cheap from markets and some Asian grocers, as are big bags of dried pulses. Pulses are also filling, tasty and very very cheap (assuming you can get both of these where you are; I know not everyone can). Pulses do require a bit of organising, admittedly, as you have to soak most of them overnight before you use them. But with some cheap canned tomatoes/veg stock and spices, they make really good dhals and curries etc.

Sorry if you already know/cook like this and I'm teaching grandmothers to suck eggs .

Traditional vegetables like carrots and potatoes are cheap. I ate lots of vegetable soup with pulses when I was living on very little. I actually think I ate better than I do now, but it was boring at times.
I don't actually think it is that hard once you accept you can not buy lots of foods.
Pasta with home made sauces, omelettes, jacket potatoes, veg curry with pulses, poached white fish - buy it frozen in places like Iceland.

I'm not a fan of frozen fruit so I would still buy fresh, although more expensive.

great for smoothies and baking though

Also home made pizza, make the dough as well, is very cheap to make.

It is possible - but there will be a lot of repetition and planning.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-22263706

Lentils are cheap and healthy and are blackeyed peas, kidney beans and chickpeas. Bags of dried pulses and beans are cheap and taste better imo.

But that's 50 p for just a pudding without a lot of nutritional value and she's trying to feed herself for the whole day on just over £2

A tin of rice pudding can serve as a filling meal with protein and probably vitamin D in the milk. You wouldn't have a whole tin as a pudding for one person after a meal, unless that person was possibly an active manual worker.

Thanks for all this advice.
But can I just say for all those people that say your not allergic to chemicals. I am allergic to sulphur dioxide, sorbitol and sorbate, I just said chemical in the op to give a indication that was why I had to eat as fresh as possible, as this is a op about how I can manage on 15 pound a week, not whether people can be allergic to certain chemicals.
Sorry to sound a bit stroppy, but I do know that I'm allergic to these chemicals as they make me ill, but I eat fresh as I can never be certain it's these particular chemicals to I try to avoid as many enumber in general.
Thank you for the advice! Will defiantly look into those option. I live near a market and they have some lovely big and cheap veg and fruit there so I'll depend on that a bit more I think. Thanks for the links and the book ideas will definitely look at them.
The vegan and vegetarian approach seems to be the idea. Defiantly give pulses ago.
THANK YOU SO MUCH.
Might up my weekly budget to 20 pound.

I lived on £20 a week when I was in a bad situation. I bought mince for £2.50 and batch cooked a chilli con carne, that lasted me for 3 evening meals and a pasta bake which lasted another 3. Loaf of bread, toast every day for breakfast and lots of cheap veg to make soup for lunches. It's doable but not very enjoyable.

Not sure where you live OP - but we are coming up to fruit season... you can pick blackberries (everywhere - try woodland, canal sides, edges of fields) and bilberries (on the crags and moors if you are up north).

I used to walk home from work in the blackberry season the long way round to pick a bag a day as a love them so much.

Also I've come across a site called approved foods which send you a box of dried foods quite cheap which I think I'll give a go.
Apparently you get flour, yeast, pasta, rice, oats ect so it looks like a good deal. :D

The berry thing is amazing! I live in a in a semi rural area with lots of fruit bushes, load of sloe's. So I can make loads of sloe gin! ( not that I can afford the gin😂😂😂) Not sure what other sloe dishes I can make.

If I'm craving something sweet I buy a jar of Aldo's version of Nutella and if I can Strawberries and make pancakes.

Whoever said that it would be grim, is wrong.

It is do-able, but can be very dull! I've done it myself as a vegetarian, soya mince ( that you rehydrate, rather than Quorn) can be an excellent source of protein. Also, would REALLY recommend looking up the Thrifty Lesley website. She has worked out a number of week meal plans for about £1 a day! Seriously, loads of great ideas, and coated meals, if you don't fancy following a meal plan. Search "Thrifty Lesley" on Google, her website is the first result (www.thriftylesley.com) and has saved me loads! Also worth checking out is the Approved Foods website, which sells groceries that are close to their best before date (NOT use by). They usually have excellent deals on snacks, flour, drinks sauces, spices and toiletries. It's about £6 for up to 15kg delivery, so you can save loads on the RRP. Think my last shop cost £30 with delivery and would have been over £90 if I'd got it in normal supermarkets. Again, search for Approved Foods. With good planning, is it possible, but perhaps don't count of having meat every day.

I would totally eat a whole tin of rice pudding. With jam on. I think £20 is more realistic. A big salad would last a few days, one day with tuna, ham, egg each or something. Omelette (and chips for extra filling) overnight oats, that sort of thing.