To ask how you've lowered your food shop?

[coffeecoffeecofffee]

Recently come under a crap time, can't work due to chronic health condition, lost our UC payment each month of £400 as my partner now earns above the threshold (but still doesn't take home much due to debt he has unfortunately) & had my PIP review recently (I used to get £430pm) and may have that reduced/taken away completely.

I'm trying to think of ways to reduce my outgoings and have decided to reduce my food budget to £25pw. (used to have £35pw)

My partner and I buy our things separately but share the cost of regular household bits, cleaning and usually salad! We both eat two completely different diets, me vegan & him a meat eater. So about £6 per week of each of our budgets goes towards cleaning & toiletries.

Left with £19 for food for the week.

I already buy a lot of frozen veg and the only fresh produce I buy are apples (whatever's cheapest), strawberries or blueberries, tomatoes, salad (spinach, kale & rocket), avocados& sweet potato.

I usually buy 1 dairy free milk (£1.40) which lasts me most of the week as I don't eat breakfast every day.

I eat a lot of wholewheat pasta w/ no added sugar pasta sauces (tomato based & pesto) as it goes a long way, no added sugar & is cheap and delicious as well as healthy as I don't eat a tonne!

I also buy a bag of plain frozen fish for the week at £3.30 for 5 fillets.

I tend to find the fresh stuff & toiletries like body wash take up most of my budget, I've tried shopping at my local Lidl and Aldi but the fresh produce is often going off when I'm in there! Let alone getting it home, hence I find Morrisons/Asda/Tesco better for that.

Anyone got any smart ways to reduce/meal plan for a vegan? I don't like beans, lentils etc so that's annoying as I know they're really cheap!

@Squirrelblanket Haha I explained further down, I've always just said vegan as it's easier but I am actually fully dairy & meat free but do eat fish. I'll be saying dairy free from now on :)

Why bother asking if you're just going to shut down every suggestion? Avocados, berries and huge amounts of toilet roll and cleaning stuff are expensive. If you don't want to change anything you'll just have to suck it up.

Do you like spinach OP? It’s incredibly easy to grow in a pot and you can add it to salads, sandwiches, stirfrys and spinage and potatoe soup.

@StormcloakNord I explained that further down. It was a mistake.

Also fish isn't meat is it? It's fish so technically I'm a dairy free pescatarian. I only eat one kind of plain white fish though, no tuna or other stuff. (I'm not very adventurous with eating lol)

I find hot water, soap and a cloth is more effort plus never seems as clean to me.

OP if you want to save money then you actually need to make an effort.....

Using a cloth and spray does the job just as well. If anything I find them far better, there is no texture to wipes.

Make your own tomato sauce for pasta using tinned tomatoes, garlic, oil. Maybe an onion.

Costs pennies.

"@donajimena usually 40-60 wipes in a pack. We use them for kitchen surfaces after cooking, bathroom & in the car too when things get spilt.

I find hot water, soap and a cloth is more effort plus never seems as clean to me."

You need to use my disinfectant spray i mentioned earlier.... will cost you around £1 for ~3 months supply... well, in your case, probably 3 weeks seeing as you seem to use quadruple everything an ordinary person would...

but still, if you want to save money you have to change....

@RedSkyLastNight For protein I usually have plain white fish 2-3 times a week, nuts daily & Heinz baked beans (I know it's a bean lol but I don't like any others).

@coffeecoffeecofffee

I love my homegrown green beans, can't wait for summer. You can grown some tomato varieties on a sunny windowsill, same for basil.

Also it is a false economy to buy cheap toilet roll. You just use more.

@donajimena it's annoying to keep typing avocados sorry no I don't eat guacamole, I don't like it. I usually just do smashes avos () on toast.

my boyfriend does take a few out though and keep them in the car for tissues

I'd be asking my boyfriend what he did in the car that needed quite so much loo roll.

So you are not a vegan at all then. Righto.

@StormcloakNord I did explain it about 3 times 😂😂 read my replies to people lol. It was a mistake as I've always said vegan. I never eat fish out & only one kind too.

And I have taken advice thank you.

look, you keep on revealing that you buy REALLY expensive foods (blueberries.... avocados... nuts...)

why not tell us what you do buy, eg an normal week shoppping list
,how much you;re spending etc and we will be able to suggest alternatives.

@PatchworkGirl didn't want to go too into it but I have IBS. So yes we probably do get through more loo roll that the average household but I do think we need to change to another brand as it is quite thin.

you;re going to have to swap out your heinz beans as well, they're about 70p a tine, you can get them for less than half that....

@S1naidSucks Thank you! We don't have one unfortunately :(

@00100001 wow you're overly involved in my toilet business 😂

You can save a lot by eating eggs instead of fish. Eggs are better for you nutritionally than white fish.

(And yes, fish is meat.)

FFS, coffeecoffeecofffee I’m actually pissed of that you’re calling yourself a vegan. You eat fish! You’re not even a vegetarian, let alone a vegan! You’re a pescatarian! If you can’t tell the difference, it’s not a wonder you don’t know how to budget.

Ok, so you like haricot beans. Maybe try cooking with some of those and you might find some new meals to try.

Nuts are expensive - do you buy the bags in Lidl? They're quite good value.

its just that you use an extraordinary amount of loo roll.... you two use more in a week than our family of three does in a month.

@StormcloakNord One last time. I said vegan by mistake. Jesus Christ.

We have a puppy yes. He goes out about 8 times a day for wee's & has lovely walks too. We are currently looking to move to somewhere with a garden though they're few and far between around here.

I didn't say I'd refuse to stop buying them? I buy one pack a week for convenience calm down 😂😂 I'm sure you use no plastic then?