Fed up of crap diet and low income, anyone else?

[Piglets31]

I'm a healthy weight and slim, but my diet is bad and I've gained a pound this last month.
I find healthy eating to be quite expensive, I work 6 days a week and also tutor a couple of hours one evening, so twice a week I'm out from 7:30am-7:30pm.

So on those days I cant just take a packed lunch with me as that won't keep me going, I need various snacks too. I live alone so don't have anyone else to fall on for financial support.
I am working on getting a better paid role as im just fed up of 6 days a week to make ends meet.
Because I'm out all day and also try to walk most places to save money, I'm low on energy if I don't eat often, but healthier things are expensive, it's just a vicious circle.

I do have a sugar addiction but just finding it impossible to cut down, and I don't drink at all, don't smoke etc. It's one of the few pleasures in life.

Don't know where to start, im hungry around every few hours too, I try to not eat after 8pm though. Feel stuck in this cycle, when you're skint it's very easy to pick up a £1 frozen ready meal.
When you're out all day and then have to come back and start cleaning and so on you dont really feel like spending ages prepping fresh meals.
Anyone feel the same?

Get yourself a cheap slow cooker (mine was £20 and is brilliant) and batch cook huge portions of daal, bean and veg chilli, veg curry etc. pop these in the freezer and vary them up so you’re not always having the same. For example, with a bean chilli have with rice, stuffed peppers, quesadillas, crispy tacos/nachos, jacket potato /sweet potato. Much healthier than frozen meals and you could easily make 10 portions in one batch.

For snacks- veg sticks and hummus (homemade will be much lower in calories), fruit salad, crackers (healthy ones) with avocado and cream or feta cheese, homemade popcorn.

A pound gained in a month is neither here or there, its probably a bit of water weight. I've been losing weight with mounjaro and some weeks I either gain a pound or maintain, but that's due to hormones and other things that's going on. Try doing a slow cooker batch meal at the weekends to freeze and re-use during the week.

For breakfast, I'll have fruit and soy yogurt or porridge and berries.

I buy a packet of red lentils and a couple of packets of frozen mixed veg and that makes me enough soup for lunches for about 3 weeks, and literally costs pennies.

For dinner, I usually have tofu with brown rice, and a side of edamame beans and tenderstem broccoli (plus a couple of portions of whatever extra veg I fancy) and again, that's very cheap. I make it interesting by using different marinades and coatings (orange sauce, pepper sauce, salt and pepper coating, miso, etc), and obviously, if you eat meat, you can do this with any cheap protein of your choice. Takes very little time to cook, too.

I rarely snack, but I always have a few Nakd bars in (someone upthread said you can get cheaper versions at Aldi), just in case I need something on the go, as well as apples/oranges/bananas/pears.

Your problem is that you lack strong will, not your finances. You don't really have to cook every day for hours to eat healthily if you live alone. There are healthy ready-made dishes, too. Eat protein and salad, so grab a roast chicken and cut the salad yourself at home. A big, ready-to-roast chicken in the supermarket costs 5-6 quid - put some prunes inside and roast. Then you can eat it for 3-4 days with various sides. If you lack ideas, go to a Polish shop - they have numerous delicious beetroot and sour cabbage-based salads in the fridge or jars. Or smoked mackerel (yummy!). If you feel hungry, snack on fresh carrots and cucumber pieces. Don't eat sandwiches, bread, pasta, ready-made curries. Stop buying trash and sweets - you will actually save money.

I work long hours too and I do take a fair old amount of food with me to keep me going. If I don’t, I’ll just eat crisps and chocolate which I love but I realise don’t give me longer term energy (and end up costing too). So this is an example of what I take:

egg mayo sandwich on wholemeal or rye bread for breakfast or overnight oats with fruit

a lunch of whatever salad is in the fridge or left over veg or frozen veg that I steam with
any carb knocking around- usually left over rice/pasta/potato
Plus some easy protein- might be left over chicken or something but more often tinned fish or tinned beans of some kind
add sone kind of dressing or cottage cheese or hummus
Greek yoghurt and some fruit
banana and nuts for snacking

dinner at home is with my DD but easy stuff
eg Roasting a whole chicken works out really well in terms of cost as you can likely have a minimum of 4 meals from it eg roasted chicken breast with potatoes and veg one meal, same again the next day or chop the other chicken breast and veg and stir fry it with noodles in minutes, or chicken and pasta or chicken & rice or chicken sandwich/wrap. Any leftover potatoes (or chips) fry with onion and egg to make a Spanish tortilla. Any bits and bits and bobs left from the roast, put in a pot with water and stock cube and add lentils and any other species for a soup
bit random but just some ideas!
PS I sometimes feel lazy to make lunch to take but if I set a timer for 10 mins, I can usually put something together

Maybe add up what you spend on cookies, cake & chocolate, and think what you could buy with the money to improve your diet.
Edited to add, good luck OP, it's not easy (I've just had a very large bowl of Malted Shreddies for my lunch, with sugar 😩)

Thanks everyone, you've given me a lot of motivation and ideas! Going to try and bake my own flapjacks as suggested and invest in other kitchen equipment.