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. 😋

I used to do things like jacket potatoes, savoury rice. I'd haunt the reduced sections . I was veggie through my "young and just starting out" phase, so I quickly found lentils were my best friend for things like veggie spag bol, Daahl and using things like chickpeas for burgers. Occasionally, my flatmates and I would split the cost of a giant bag of rice or lentils to make it even cheaper.

As a meat eater later on I would do things like buy a whole chicken and completely strip it of any meat. Use the bones the make stock for soups then split the meat between several different meals such as curries, fajitas, kebabs and Poutine. Again haunted the reduced section for cheap meats and then froze them to use when I needed.

I think my budget for around this time was about £10-15, so it's entirely possible. What I will say is that it was very intense with slot of planning and sometimes not alot of variation. I gets very tiresome after a while.

You can make your own rice pudding cheaply with a bag of pudding rice from a supermarket and milk. Baked with cinnamon it's delicious as a filling pudding. Tinned fruit with a shake of cinnamon would also be good.

OP, yes, you can feed yourself healthy food for one person on £15 per week, no problem. Get basics such as oats (if you like porridge), rice, pasta, pulses, cheap oil, frozen veg (if you have a freezer) from somewhere like Lidl or sainsbury's basic range. Buy veg and fruit at a market if there is one - our local market is miles cheaper than supermarkets, or from Lidl if not. Buy sliced wholemeal bread and keep it in the freezer so it doesn't go mouldy. The infamous mumsnet roast chicken for £3 (co-op) really does make about 12 main meal portions from one bird, however much people laugh, and is great for midday sandwiches.
Full fat milk goes further than semi as you need less of it in each cup of tea or coffee. I even know people who water it down for cereal but I hope you don't have to go that far.

I find couscous is a great easy and cheap meal - fry up some onion, garlic, other veg then add spices. Make up the couscous with a third of a chicken stock cube and mix the lot together. Can add meat if you have it too. My favourite easy meal.

I think it is definitely doable, just will require planning and probably batch cooking which could include mince but as a base to then make other stuff. Bet you could do a few stir fried etc too.
I think I need to follow your lead and start doing this too as I think I spend too much on our food. Good luck x
You've got some fab advice also look on money saving expert on the forum old style money saving board. That's s fab one to look at x

Veg stew/beans on toast/pasta and tinned value tomatoes with a grated carrot in. I'd start with these and then start freezing a portion of something once week.
I'd also get to a cheap place like Aldi and get some spices. This way, you can make a big batch of mince in a tomato sauce and turn it into different meals. Spag bol one night (freeze some), lasagne second night (again, freeze some) and then add cumin/chilli/cinnamon to turn it into chilli on the third night.
At least if you have a freezer of single portions, you won't be bored to death of the same food all the time.

Porridge for breakfast - you can get a huge bag for hardly anything and it'll last ages. Use half milk and half water to cook with, or all water to make even cheaper (but not as nice). Squirt some honey on top. I have this for brekkie every day. Not because I can't afford anything else, but because I like it.

Also someone previously mentioned "cooking on a bootstrap" or "a girl called Jack"
Can't recommend Jack Monroe highly enough

@LRDtheFeministDragon oh yeah, supporw you don't really need tinned toms to make a curry but I do like a nice saucy wet curry in the nice English style ;-)

Not read through so apologies if duplicating. Do you have an outlet of the Real Junk Food Project nearby? They collect surplus food from allotments and supermarkets and sell it for donations (money or time) some have a cafe too.

Seeing you live quite rural op and mention markets for your veg it might be worth seeing if any local farmers would sell direct from farm, some won't as they would rather have a bulk order but often those that do sell cheaper and when they get to know you will round down or throw in a bit extra (around here anyhow although I recognise NI might be different but we have friends in Lincolnshire and they are just the same)

When I was on a low budget I used to eat tea and toast for breakfast, cheese sandwich, fruit and chocolate bar for lunch and baked potato or something pasta based for dinner. It wasn't particularly healthy but I did manage on under £15 a week. I'm sure you could do better by including more vegetables, pulses and rice and some meat if you can stretch to it. Porridge might be a better breakfast too.

I think so. Apart from your allergies do you have any other health requirements? Are you a healthy weight?
Do you have space to store dry goods?
Do you see food as fuel, or as a comfort/indulgence?
Any friends or family who would give you a roast dinner once a week?

I would go for spend £20 and save £5 if you have to do it for a year and your accommodation is secure.

What are you studying? Are there grants or loans available to you?

Make use of reduced price food -properly reduced price not half price. If you get the times right and accept what there is you can get some very cheap stuff then decide how to use it up best.

I am overweight unfortunately, but that's more to do with over eating.
I have as much space as possible for dry foods not frozen, so I propose to get lots of stuff from approved foods and store them under the bed.

No grants unfortunately! I've tried :/
And just got turned down for yet another job.

Some people do online surveys and things like that to earn a bit more money/vouchers.

Can you walk to a supermarket for reductions if you live rurally? Sometimes the coop or petrol station franchises have good ones, but if you can't get to them you can't get to them.

Could you get a freecycle bike at all? If you could save bus fares that could free up a bit of cash.

You are likely to lose weight if you live on £15 a week home cooked food for a year.

Good luck with the job hunt, even 5 hours a week would make a difference.

I lived off £13.50 a week when I went back to uni to retrain. It is tight but doable.
I am allergic to aspartame which is in so many ready made sauces etc so I also cook from scratch where I can. My advice is plan plan plan and batch cook. I used to plan all my meals and shop to the last carrot. Places like B&M bargains became my friend for tinned tomatoes and the like. I also used to buy quorn instead of meat and Aldis super six was a god send. You need to shop around with such little budget.
Porridge was good for breakfast as super cheap for oats yet filling.
It amazes me now when I look back how far I could make that money stretch. Today for example I nipped to costa for lunch and after a salad, drink and cake I spent more than I used to for a whole week!

Ooooh and yes go to supermarkets half an hour before closing for mega reductions!

If you have a local co-op find out what day new deliveries come in, loads of stuff usually gets reduced the day before.

but can I realistically live on spending 15 pound on food a week?

Is the £15 budget just to cover the food?
If so, how many people is it to feed? (Sorry if already been answered, had a quick look but couldn't see.)
I think you could, if you bought basic brands.
Big bag of oats for porridge breakfasts, bag of potatoes/pasta/rice/lentils/basic tinned tomatoes/frozen peas all really cheap and will last ages and make meals.

• jacket potatoes
• lentil bolognese
• risotto with peas
• chilli con carne

It's doable, but there won't be any room for extras!
Do you have an Aldi near you? If so they're brilliant - bags of fruit for 69p, biscuits for less than 30p.

Ooooh and yes go to supermarkets half an hour before closing for mega reductions!

Yes to this! Love the reduced times at the supermarket. doesn't lurk near the yellow sticker person, oh no...

Sainsbury's best time around 5.30 - 7pm.
Morrisons 7pm - can get loaves of bread, muffins, and meat pies from ours for 9p at that time
Asda bakery section at 7pm too for bargains.

You don't need to butcher the chicken, just roast one cheap one a week. Eat as roast the first day, then carve/shred meat for two more meals and pick the carcass clean for risotto/pasta/couscous/soup. You won't want to do this every week!

Could do something similar with mince - buy 500g preferably when marked down and cook up a big batch of bolognaise bulked out with onions, tinned tomatoes and lots of lentils. Divide and add chilli spices and tins of kidney beans to half. You can freeze in individual portions and space it out.

if you aren't too bothered about having variety and aren't fussy it can be done, I feed 4 of us (2 adults, 1 teenager and 1 child) on £20 a week but that includes a fair amount of whatever fruit/veg are on offer and pasta/rice/spaghetti. We eat a lot of chicken, eggs, Aldi bread and potatoes.

Toiletries wise, I highly recommend Wilko, their 50p shower gel goes surprisingly far for cheap shower gel and smells nice, not fancy but clean, their 75p shampoo isn't bad either.

oh and as disloyal as this is to mn, frozen chicken breast fillets go a lot further than a whole chicken and are cheaper. also Sainsburys basics frozen white fish fillets (£2, does 3 portions)

Yes, I had to do this recently (well, my daughter and I on approx £20/week, minus her free school lunches). We ate nearly all vegetarian food though, apart from fish fingers and tuna.
My most frequent meals were -
Wholemeal toast, baked beans with a fried egg on top
Lentil bolognaise
Lentil and carrot soup with potatoes
Pan haggerty (potato slices, onions and cheese) and tinned tomatoes
Baked bean curry with rice.
I lost loads of weight on this diet in spite of eating plenty of bread, pasta , rice and potatoes. Felt absolutely fine and didn't find it boring, though I expect other people might. My best advice is to try and have the odd treat though.
Aldis is great for toiletries and cleaning stuff. Cheaper than poundland.