To spend £30 a month on ALL food and drink?

[Jumell]

I’m single and live alone. I want to set myself a good budget and admit I’ve overspent /been wasteful in the past.

As a single adult female living alone - is £30 per month on food doable do you think ? Includes eating out etc

Yes

Posting about starving yourself for weeks while cosplaying as someone in utter poverty is in such poor taste I can't even find the words.

…but for £1.57 a day, you’ve just basically bought snacks. There is nothing on your list which would constitute breakfast, lunch or dinner. So no actual food to nourish and sustain you.

How old are you, OP? Are you feeding yourself for the first time in your life for some reason? Do you understand basic nutrition and cooking? What did eating look like when you were a child? I can’t help thinking that, if this is a real thread, something is badly wrong in your relationship with food, and if you can unpick it, you’ll do better for yourself and your health.

This is the first time due to family commitments I’ve really tried to get my house in order regarding my eating and spending .. so I’m going through a period of trial and error for the first month with admittedly much more error

So no vegetables? No fruit?
no complex carbs?
most of this is ultra processed food. Will I ever shame somebody for eating like this if that’s all they can afford? Or all they can eat (arfid etc)? No.

But you’re doing this to “challenge yourself”?? Wow.

I know that really need to include fruit and veg .. I will next month . I know my diet is seriously lacking I’ve learned a lot this month

Right I had to do my shopping today so I have costed it and you could actually nearly do a month of meals- I make it £30.99 (yes it was bloody close)
It is boring and repetitive but nutritious and balanced
From this you get the following for breakfasts either or (not together):
porridge, cereal, toast, yoghurt and frozen berries
Lunches:
Sandwiches (cheese), pizza slice- generally not much lunch though! (I do not eat lunch myself so not my priority)
Main meals:
3 x bolognese and penne
2 x chilli and rice
6 x baked potato with either baked beans or cheese
3 x roast chicken dinner
3 x spicy chicken rice and peas
2 x pesto and pasta
3 x homemade chicken broth with veg
2 x carrot soup
2 x pizza slice
2 x tomato pasta

This includes buying things like garlic, chilli powder, stock cubes, tomato puree
I can type out the prices if you make me but largely this is using the Aldi essentials range and wonky veg.

Years ago (8ish) I managed under £2 per day per person. Prices have gone up loads since then.

My only suggestions:

Essentials wholemeal bread and 1/3 tin baked beans on two slices. (Aldi are ok taste) (20 slices per loaf approx) (No spread)
Essentials porridge made with water and sultanas. (Only 30g per portion so packet goes a long way.)
Carrots and onions and essential tinned tomatoes based main meals.with dried red lentils added.
The odd tin of essentials kidney beans. (Cheapest tinned bean apart from baked beans. I know someone who uses those in Bolognese type dishes.
Smart price mixed herbs
You'll have to buy lentils in bulk and divide the cost over the month and the spices on world food as they are cheaper there.

Batch cook from scratch.
No meat. No cheese.
No snacks apart from toast
Either jam or spread not both.
Coffee or tea once per day. (Freeze 4pints milk into icecube portions? Because more than one bottle is going to be too much cost.)

Not very healthy as not a lot of variety.

The fact you're avoiding about 80% of people's questions is what's leading people to believe you're just trolling.

Your list looks like what a young teen might buy if they were let loose on the supermarket with 40 quid. 😂 Don’t you feel ill from all that junk?

If you’re serious about budgeting (not to mention your health), forget about the convenience foods. Buy real ingredients, as PPs have suggested. It will work out cheaper in the long run (though I doubt you could live on £30 a month realistically) and you’ll feel better too.

No, it's not reasonable. When I was a student - 30+ years ago - I spent about £20 a week on my supermarket shop. Didn't really go out to eat much - once a week at the most - lunch on a Sat in town or very occasionally for someone's birthday.

This is bonkers, and you’ve basically just spent 30quid on snacks, as everyone has said you will make yourself ill.

I’ve had to live on very little before, and you can’t just have a junkathon. Cheap rice, oats and pasta for carbs (and not tuna pot combos that’s too expensive), a decent spread of freezer veg if you have a freezer, if not yellow sticker veg is great way to get a bargain and for meat and tbh all sorts, you can freeze all sorts of things, I’ve picked up hummus pots for ridiculously cheap on yellow sticker before and flung them in the freezer, for sandwiches etc
if you have a Lidl the Lidl boxes are also a good source of fresh veg/fruit cheap. Lentils/beans you can get some very cheap cans
boil eggs instead of pre boiled ones
and if you’re struggling look into local food pantries mine locally is open to anyone and often has veg in

I saw the list you gave - where's the fruit and veggies?

😮No fruit or veg for a month ? You will get scurvy.https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/scurvy/

Some good advice here

I think perhaps OP could survive on £30 per month eg

porridge and water for breakfast

for lunch and dinner, huge bag of Aldi potatoes. Add value beans, or cheapest possible cheese

Alternate with value pasta and butter, or Dahl

No tea / coffee

But, it wouldn't be healthy

Shopping list for post above 1 month
2 x 4pts semi- skimmed milk
2x large pot essentials yoghurt
frozen berries
1kg porridge oats
cereal (basic cornflakes)
2 x large wholemeal sliced
block cheddar
2 x4 packs baking potatoes
1kg onions
1kg carrots
1 pack beef mince
1 pack butter spread
1kg long grain rice
1 pack penne
1 jar chilli spice
4 x tinned tomatoes
4x baked beans
2 x kidney beans
garlic
300g pizza
chicken stock cubes
beef stock cubes
tomato puree
frozen peas
1 medium chicken (biggest cost makes a lot of meals though)

Thank you - this is very useful 🙌

It’s basically all UPF, little nutritional value just fat, carbs and sugar.
i can’t imagine how lousy you’re going to feel if this is what you consider to be a suitable diet for anyone.

Why do you eat like an 8 year old would if they could?

How did you make the pesto pasta from this? Aside from the frozen berries there is no fruit. How did you make “chicken broth with veg” when the only vegetables were 1kg of carrots and 1kg of onions and a bag of frozen peas that have already been accounted for in other meals (3 roast chicken dinners, “spicy chicken rice and peas”, carrot soup). I’m guessing “bolognese and penne” is just penne, tinned tomatoes and beef mince, and a bit of garlic as there is nothing else on the list that would flavour it. So “tomato pasta” is the same without the mince? How do you make “spicy chicken” when you didn’t buy any spices except chili powder (which is not the same)?

It’s not really helpful and it’s woefully inadequate in terms of nutrition, flavour, and variety. No oily fish. Nowhere near enough fresh produce. Very highly processed foods. Too much cheese and tomato.

This is what you've eaten since 12th November? Seriously? That's hardly anything and barely any nutrition. Really worrying Op I don't think a tight budget should be your main focus.

A menu containing tomatoes, frozen berries, carrots, onions and peas is a damn sight better than what the OP's come up with though isn't it? I'm also not sure where you got "too much cheese" from - there's one block of cheddar...

Also, you do realise that "fresh produce" isn't somehow morally superior to frozen fruit and veg don't you?

@MemoryFaker
Right I typed all that out and forgot the jar of pesto - so shoot me I am trying to help.
To answer your questions-

I am encouraging the OP to make chicken stock from the carcass of the chicken. The "veg" is not all accounted for it is half a baking potato carrots peas onions stock cube and you could put some penne or rice in it too if hungry or serve with a slice of bread. Then you flake in cooked leftover chicken at the end. I would thicken slightly with cornflour- should I have costed that. Yes if unlimited budget I would put barley in it, parsnips etc- but I am trying to get meals from a small amount of ingredients.

"Rice and Peas"- is not frozen peas it is kidney beans- I am sorry I thought most people knew that? As well you were here to point it out!

Bolognese- no I put onions garlic, grated carrot ( I actually put celery in mine -sofrito but did not think the OP would eat it based on her ) stock cube, tinned tomatoes, tomato puree- yes I add read wine to mine but we are cooking on a budget here

Tomato pasta I would use tomatoes, onion, garlic and chilli like arrabiatta- very different to bolognese and maybe put a little bit of cheese on- I guesss she has salt and pepper

Spicy chicken make paste out of tomato puree garlic and chilli and rub on the scored chicken legs and roast ( I would have taken these off the whole bird when raw)

Oily fish is really expensive so I excluded it but recommended to OP ate it in my original post.
This recommendation does not contain a lot of UPF except for the Pizza- which it looks like she will eat anyway and the baked beans.
There is more veg and fruit than she was eating.

So I think you have been somewhat critical of a genuine suggestion to improve from biscuits and pringles and put together meals balanced in protein, carbs, fats.
So if you think you are so clever do the same and put together 28 main meals and breakfast that will offer the OP nutrition on a tight budget

How is this comment helpful, really?

The posters menu is fine and actually realistic for those who need quick meals on a budget.

I’m not seeing a huge amount of “very highly processed food” and who actually wants to eat oily fish!?