To ask what are your food shopping essentials?

[jennie0412]

When you're on a very low budget?

Bread and something to go on it (cheap spread, jam, pb, etc).
Coffee, milk, and sweetener (I’d genuinely rather go with out food than give up my coffee).
For cheap meals.. pasta and sauce, eggs / beans / cheese on toast, jacket potatoes with a basic topping, lentil soup (pulses are often cheaper in the world foods aisle), frozen breaded chicken and chips with frozen veg or beans. It might not be super healthy but that’s what I’d go for.

If it's for one person shop at the reduced counter. Even ready meals for one can be very economical. It would be cheaper to bulk cook and freeze though. Eggs are very nutritious and can be used in many ways. Pulses, potatoes, rice and pasta to bulk. Tinned tomatoes are the base of so many dishes. Frozen veg or fresh stew packs of veg. Mushrooms in place of meat. Cereal like weetabix makes you feel full for longer. Cupasoups for lunch.

My situation is possibly a bit different than most peoples. I'm living with my parents (as I'm mid-teens still) and we are constantly having arguments over what food i can eat and what is needed for meals, what meals we're having as I don't like most of them etc, so we decided it'd be easier to just give me 1/4 of the shopping bill as a weekly allowance (£12.50) to buy my own food! But the agreement was that I can't use any of the food we've already got other than the stuff that was specially brought for me.
Obviously if i has no money left and was starving they'd relent on this but it's more of a building independence thing and it was actually suggested by me

On a budget, I eat loads of vegetables with potatoes and lettuce.
Something like pepper / tomatoes / cabbage / carrot / cauliflower / broccoli / parsnip / spring onions / red onions / brussels sprouts

All these guys go in the oven, salt, pepper, olive oil, just need to adapt heat and time according to vegetables.

And with that, potatoes for the "stomach filling effect"
And lettuce because I just love having lettuce with a drizzle of olive oil and balsamic vinegar with each meal.

Another staple for me is pasta salad. Roasted peppers, grilled halloumi (or fresh feta cheese), roasted cherry tomatoe, spring onion, farfalle or penne pasta, olive oil and balsamic vinegar.
I make a big batch and it lasts 2 to 3 days.

Rice salad: Rice, tuna, boiled eggs, tinned sweet corn, bit of olive oil and chilli flakes.

Lentils stew: Lentils, carrots, you can add bacon or sausages, laurel leaves and other herbs, stock cube

As someone who lives alone and eats just once a day, I tend to cook for several days each time, love having leftovers.
I also always bake something rather than having processed deserts or biscuits in the fridge

Morrisons often reduce fish on the counter at the end of the day. Also their butcher is very good. Even if you don't have the budget for meat you can buy bones for pence to make stock for soup or buy chicken thighs, freeze in small quantities. You can use them for a roast dinner, strip the meat for a sandwich, baked potato filling or curry etc then use the bones for stock.

Do you like to cook OP?
Haven't realised you were so young!
My tips are very much old person grown up food 😂

What is it that you don't like in your parent's food?

Good on you, you're learning great skills. What do you like to eat? Maybe people can suggest recipes or meal plans if you say what you like. Does this include your lunches too?

What do you like to eat?

If you have access to the freezer, go into the habit of freezing half the meals (that can be frozen, not an omelette obviously).

but any pasta, chili con carne etc..

Jacket potatoes cost nothing, but mind the toppings: tuna is not cheap.

Ohhh I actually made an example meal plan but if you don't eat most meals that might be pointless.
Are you allowed to use some oil and salt?
Also what do you like to eat then?

When I was a student, my menus used to look a bit like this (no such thing as healthy meal plans then)

banana and coffee for breakfast
quiche/omelette and salad for afternoon snacks (no such thing as lunch in those days)
soup and pack of biscuits and an apple for diner.

Probably some pasta salad occasionally. Time and will to cook matter just as much than your budget!

So what do you like, when will you cook, when will you have time to eat.

If you mean from having completely bare cupboard then
Rice or pasta ( you don't need both at once)
Onions
Veg oil
Potatoes
Flour ( If you can bake )
Tinned tomatoes
Basics herbs and spices pepper, chilli, basil, Italian seasoning, garlic , ginger, curry powder
Marg / butter
Stock cubes
Peppers
From the above you could make a basic but ok meal

Then add one from each group
Pulses -
lentils, chick peas , cous cous, bulger wheat kidney beans , baked beans

Vitamins / iron -
kale, spinach , broccoli, carrots, spring green cabbage,

Veg -
Mushrooms , courgettes, bean sprouts, lettuce, cucumber ,.green beans , corn , peas , Chinese leaves , cabbage

Protein-
Chicken ( thighs are gen best value / taste )
Cooking bacon , stewing steak , fish tinned or fresh, eggs , cheese, tofu,

Filling stuff
Bread , noodles, wraps, sweet potato, porridge,

Sauces-
Mayo, brown, tomatoe, Worcestershire , chilli , mustard, one salad dressing.

Nice extras -
jam / marmalade / nut butter , brekfast cereal , frozen mixed friut , yoghurt, crisps.

Drinks - coffee , squash , hot chocolate or horlicks and if the budget will stretch to it a bit of booze .

I like rice, i eat a lot of fried rice (kimchi fried, egg fried etc), my favourite thing at the moment is rice, spam and omelette
I also like carbonara, sweet potatoes etc, and udon noodles with meat and stir fried vegetables.
Most days I eat a blueberry muffin or an omelette for breakfast, but I'll probably buy some frozen blueberries and I can try and make my own muffins (I've already got sugar, flour and eggs on my list).
For lunch I usually eat a cold panini (grill at home and then put it in the fridge), a nakd bar and grapes, but nakd bars are very expensive usually, and I already have dates and walnuts so I can probably just take those instead since that's basically what they're made of
And then for dinner I eat something of what I've written for examples of what I like to eat.

Oh also I really like baking and cooking so I will definitely be doing a lot of that from the things i already have.
From going through my cupboards this is what i actually 'own':
2x udon noodles
7x instant noodles
Mirin
Soy sauce
Sesame oil
Spring onions
Oranges
Gochujang
Sesame seeds
Walnuts
Dates
Kimchi
Ritz crackers
Cheese strings
Readybrek
Cereal

Have a look at Jack Monroe’s website Cooking On A Bootstrap for lots of ideas. You’ll need to shop mindful of building up a staples pantry - so buy rice one week, pasta the next, different essential spices different weeks etc.

Oh and half a can of rice pudding

On my £12.50 list week 1 I’d have

Rice
Frozen peas
Frozen spinach
Tinned tomatoes
Garlic
Potatoes
Lentils
Cheese
Eggs
Bread (pitta, maybe)
Butter
Apples
Cucumber

Week 2
Tinned tuna
Tinned tomatoes
Pasta
Chilli powder
Frozen sweetcorn
Eggs

and so on

I can probably use a little bit of oil, salt etc. If I needed curry powder for example, I could use some of that.
Here's what's already on my list, but obviously I'll adjust it once I see the prices of everything, any replacements for cheaper etc:
Full fat milk
Veg
Nakd bars (maybe!)
Tea bags
Sugar
Flour
Onions
Spam
Grapes
Banana's
Canned tuna
Frozen meat/fish
Peanut butter (maybe!)

Hi@jennie0412 do you mean that you "can't use" things like butter, spread, salt etc - so you're having to start from scratch with only £12.50 per week?
I get your parents are trying to make you think about things more - but this seems almost a bit cruel? Are you happy with this situation?

Sorry - just re-read (am on th app and can't scroll up when replying) and see you suggested it yourself. Good for you - but don't make things too difficult for yourself!

@TheRealMrsJamieFraser yes I was the one who suggested it! It's only fair really as I'm choosing not to eat what they provide!

That's true, but £12.50 isn't much when you have everything from salt, flour, seasoning etc to buy. Obviously you won't need these things every week - it's certainly a challenge!

You will need to drop the Nakd bars, and choose between peanut butter and frozen fish.

£50 is a low budget weekly already for 4 people. £12.50 is obviously very small indeed as you don’t have economies of scale. Things are cheaper in bulk.

I expect this was probably the point of the thing for your parents so you’ll see it’s hard if 1 member of a family wants things that are too expensive to feed everyone.

Good luck!

Very basics? I’d be thinking things that go together to make simple meals. And I’d try to get a balance of calorie-dense plus healthy.

Bread
Spread
Cheese (cheddar for versatility)
Apples
Bananas
Oranges
Milk
Oats
Pasta
Pasta sauce
Onions
Soy mince (the freeze-dried stuff)
Baked beans
Eggs
Sugar
Raisins
Peanut butter
Celery
Carrots

That does beans on toast, cheese on toast, egg on toast, pasta’n’sauce, pasta bake, toasties, breakfast porridge, cheese sandwiches, egg sandwiches, PB sandwiches, omelette, oat’n’raisin cookies, PB cookies, and plenty more. Add some fruit and raw veg and you won’t get scurvy.

Next tier up would be to add stuff like oil, flour, spices, lemon juice, ketchup, sausages, fish, frozen veg, yoghurt, tinned tomatoes, cream cheese, tinned fruit (peaches, pears etc.)... at which point you’re basically living like royalty and can also make a decent carrot cake

I have just seen your update , will you be allowed to used herbs / spices/ oil etc or do you have to / want to buy all your own stuff ?
I did exactly the same as you when I about 14/15 I even bought my own fridge frezzer and a food cupboard that i kept in our celler as i got fed up with family 'borrowing ' my food. The hight of luxury for me was a small box of coco pops
I had a great book called some think like cooking for one , have a look on line for something simalar or student cooking .

Stick with it , even when you don't feel like it or DM is cooking your fav meal .
It will help you understand planing ( knowing what to buy from where ) budgeting ( big brands are gen a rip off )
Time management ( how to get everything cooked st the same time )
There were some days I hated it but most of the time I enjoyed it.
After a while I bought my own very basic pans , knives, bread board , presure cooker.
I still have the pressure cooker and one other pan 30 years later .