Trying to cut costs but need to follow a certain diet for medical reasons

[maggiethemagpie]

I have a medical condition which means I am very carb sensitive/intolerant, due to this I can't base my meals around many of the cheap options I see on here such as potatoes, rice, pasta. Even pulses whilst ok in limited amounts I would struggle with as the main component.
I need to base my meals around meat and vegetables, or I could replace the meat with a protein source such as eggs but would get bored of doing this too much so really need some meat in for variety.

Although I'm trying to improve my finances, my health is more important so I can't really budge on this.

Does anyone know what cheap meals I can make with the above restrictions? Or cheap ways to buy meat etc. I am sick of seeing cheap meal ideas that always involve the things I can't have ie carb heavy!

How much freezer space do you have access to? Can you buy up meat and fish that has been marked down, freeze, and eat at a later date?
Do any butchers do a bulk box that works out cheaper than individual bits?

What happens if you google "low carb on a budget" knowing how popular low carb is at the moment, I wouldn't be suprised if there were some blogs out there with some ideas.

zoodles? Courgettes are in season.
Watermelons are £2 each in Sainsbury's today. That's pudding for a week.

Cheaper cuts of meat that need slow cooking are good for this, skirting or shin beef -stews & casseroles can go far and add plenty of veg.
Cottage pies with root veg top.
Whole chickens at aldi are £3.50 & will stretch a couple of days.
Look out what's on offer in the supermarket, tesco butcher counter had pork loin this week for £6 a kilo, that's a good few boneless chops. They have offers every month.
Look at the local butcher, ours is the same price as the smkts, but you buy better quality and what you want not big packs.
Look for gammon slipper joints - reasonable in price goes a long way. Gammon with veg, use trimmings for soup.
3-4-£10 are an option.
Omelettes, frittata type things for lunch, tinned fish into cakes.
Can you eat gluten free, if so pasta bakes or lasagne with vegetables in the sauce.or, there's a hairy dieters recipe for lasagne that doesn't have pasta in it.

Go seasonal. If you know anyone with a veg plot they will now have a glut!

Check out the mygreekdish site, lots of lovely veg and meat stuff there.

Thank you for these ideas. No, gluten free doesn't make any difference - it's all carbs. Maybe it's time to dust off the slow cooker!

Offal? Chicken livers 57p for a big pack, try a chopped liver recipe or fry up with onion and have with green veg. Can you have things like marrow? Stuff with Bolognese sauce made with frozen mince.

Offals really good for you. Muscle foods do cheap meat.

Eat plenty of fat I.e. Butter to fill you up and not need lots of other stuff!

We use a local butcher. He is the same price as the supermarket for most things, but the quality is so much better that we use a bit less. We can also buy the exact quantity we need. There are three of us and most things are packaged for two or four people. I bought some mince from Morrison's the other week. Never again. I bought the most expensive they had and I ended up with a pan full of water. It also did not taste of beef.
Our butcher also does trays of marinaded meats that are cheaper offcuts which are very cheap.
With your veg, buy the basics stuff, and check if loose is cheaper than bagged. Mysupermarket.co.uk is good for price comparison. Aldi's super 6 fruit and veg is good too. As a pp said, buy seasonal.

Hi, I tried low carb but found it too expensive plus I don't like to eat much meat.

Anyway, one thing I do love and is quite cheap, is pander cheese. You can also make it yourself quite easily. I aksi have made tofu, though I'm not so keen on it.

Look on YouTube for ideas. Paneer with spinach, curry spices, onions and cream for instance is divine. Have it with cauli rice

Paneer cheese!!

Don't know if it applies to you but you get a lot of dietary products like gluten free on prescription...