Is that £30 a week just for food? Apart from the odd takeaway i've been spending less than that ever since I left home 4 years ago. And you'd only have to look at me to know i eat well
Rice, chicken breasts, potatoes, pasta, vegtables, fruit, tuna, bread, soup, pizzas; none of these things are expensive. And if you have a sweet tooth or craving for 'crap'; crips, biscuits and cakes can cost pennies if you buy clever.
The only specific rules I have are:
1 - Talior your purchases to whatever is on offer that week.
2 - If a particular product is too expensive when it's not on offer than don't buy it. Go without.
3 - Avoid buying any branded products unless on offer
4 - Keep snacks and food that doesn't make up your main meals to a minimum.
5 - Keep your spending on deserts to less than £3 a week. Just buy a couple of packs of
yoguarts or ice lollies.
£4 does not sound much but you can get by on that. You need bulk so rice, pasta, spuds and bread all of which are cheap.
Lidl is cheap for fresh fruit and veg but sadly the days of it being a cheap store in general are gone and Tesco is cheaper, look for the Tesco value range (or Asda, much the same).
LEARN TO COOK next time you go home, don't let mom do it. Learn the basics, to make a stew, do a roast, make a spag bol, curry.
Take a pen and paper into stores and note prices, then work out a seven day menu, take advantage of buy one get one free.
Example from Iceland stores.
Small pack of fresh beef mince £1
Jar of Dolmao sauce £1 (I think)
BOGOF five minute pasta in cheese sause are about 50p each
£2.50 and you have a filling meal.
Next day
left over spag bol £0
BOGOF 5 minute rice £0.50
Curry Powder £1 (and you have enough for a few meals so per portion) £0.20
You now have a curry for 70p
Corned beef stew, enough for two days
Can of corned beef £1.50
Spuds £1
Fresh or frozen 'Stew pack' vegetables £1.25 in Iceland or Tesco
In a big pan boil your diced veg and spuds for 15 minutes in just enough water to cover them, add cubed corned beef, simmer until the CB dissolves, thicken with some gravy granules and eat. Less than £4 and you are full
The big thing is learning to cook, prices will come down for you as you use more fresh produce; try and get a small freezer, learn to use a pressure cooker. With a pressure cooker and a small freezer you could spend one night cooking and have enough main meals for the rest of the week very easily.
When in university spend nothing, zero, Nada, take a bottle of water from home, take a flask of coffee, take your own sandwiches and fruit. Make it your aim to spend nothing on food away from home.
Breakfast is vital, weetabix (type) cereal / chopped banana will set you up, beans on toast is a good option, better with an egg on top if you can spare one.
I am lucky that both my children love cooking, have cooked since they were very young so my daughter found it very easy at university to feed herself (and her housemates half the time), so get cooking, its fun, and in the years to come, when you are cooking something fine you will remember your student days
Basically i'm a student and from when i go back in February i'm on £30 a week to live on
Anyone got any advice on living on a low budget and how to make it work?
Thanks a lot
Appreciate it
Had you considered getting a student cook book, BBFanaticMark? That could help in three ways: you'd get a loads of recipes, they'd be relatively inexpensive, they'd be relatively nutritious.
beans/cheese on jacket potato, cheap sausages and mash (I bought smartprice ones and found they were fine, but now I eat better ones!), chicken curry/sweet and sour using smart price frozen chicken breasts, which are good and cheap. You can get cheap curry sauces, but not they're not great all the time (the value ones are sometimes 9p in the big 3).
The value sweet and sour is ok too, about 30p or so that is. I recommend tinned tomatoes with herbs for pasta sauces.
I rarely bought red meat at uni as it was expensive, well in my first year - had a job in 2nd and 3rd year.
Also for lunches I use to buy the cheap value ham for sandwiches.
I would recommend keeping an eye out for offers, but for branded products compare the offers to the own brand.
One tip that I don't think has been made here: buy dried pulses (peas, beans, chick peas etc) and not tinned ones. A 500g bag of dried chick peas will cost you the same as a tin of chick peas but will give you 3 times the quantity of food once soaked.
Also, bulk buy lots of spices, sauces, mustard, condiments etc - they give a lot of flavour and variety to boring ingredients for only a few pence a time. Vegetable curries especially are excellent, a huge variety of different variations can be made out of the same basic set of ingredients. Get the spices in the big bags from Asian stores and not the mimsy little jars supermarkets sell, they will easily last you a term if you remember to keep them sealed in a dark place.
Comments
Sometimes the savings they make are swallowed getting to the supermarket they suggest, well that's what I found.
Rice, chicken breasts, potatoes, pasta, vegtables, fruit, tuna, bread, soup, pizzas; none of these things are expensive. And if you have a sweet tooth or craving for 'crap'; crips, biscuits and cakes can cost pennies if you buy clever.
The only specific rules I have are:
1 - Talior your purchases to whatever is on offer that week.
2 - If a particular product is too expensive when it's not on offer than don't buy it. Go without.
3 - Avoid buying any branded products unless on offer
4 - Keep snacks and food that doesn't make up your main meals to a minimum.
5 - Keep your spending on deserts to less than £3 a week. Just buy a couple of packs of
yoguarts or ice lollies.
Lidl is cheap for fresh fruit and veg but sadly the days of it being a cheap store in general are gone and Tesco is cheaper, look for the Tesco value range (or Asda, much the same).
LEARN TO COOK next time you go home, don't let mom do it. Learn the basics, to make a stew, do a roast, make a spag bol, curry.
Take a pen and paper into stores and note prices, then work out a seven day menu, take advantage of buy one get one free.
Example from Iceland stores.
Small pack of fresh beef mince £1
Jar of Dolmao sauce £1 (I think)
BOGOF five minute pasta in cheese sause are about 50p each
£2.50 and you have a filling meal.
Next day
left over spag bol £0
BOGOF 5 minute rice £0.50
Curry Powder £1 (and you have enough for a few meals so per portion) £0.20
You now have a curry for 70p
Corned beef stew, enough for two days
Can of corned beef £1.50
Spuds £1
Fresh or frozen 'Stew pack' vegetables £1.25 in Iceland or Tesco
In a big pan boil your diced veg and spuds for 15 minutes in just enough water to cover them, add cubed corned beef, simmer until the CB dissolves, thicken with some gravy granules and eat. Less than £4 and you are full
The big thing is learning to cook, prices will come down for you as you use more fresh produce; try and get a small freezer, learn to use a pressure cooker. With a pressure cooker and a small freezer you could spend one night cooking and have enough main meals for the rest of the week very easily.
When in university spend nothing, zero, Nada, take a bottle of water from home, take a flask of coffee, take your own sandwiches and fruit. Make it your aim to spend nothing on food away from home.
Breakfast is vital, weetabix (type) cereal / chopped banana will set you up, beans on toast is a good option, better with an egg on top if you can spare one.
I am lucky that both my children love cooking, have cooked since they were very young so my daughter found it very easy at university to feed herself (and her housemates half the time), so get cooking, its fun, and in the years to come, when you are cooking something fine you will remember your student days
Had you considered getting a student cook book, BBFanaticMark? That could help in three ways: you'd get a loads of recipes, they'd be relatively inexpensive, they'd be relatively nutritious.
http://www.google.co.uk/#q=student+cookbook&hl=en&prmd=ivnsb&source=lnt&tbs=ctr:countryUK|countryGB&cr=countryUK|countryGB&sa=X&ei=I8BETfarKpGKhQeL-LjJAQ&sqi=2&ved=0CA0QpwUoAQ&fp=d774a698b7263073
http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_i_0_16?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=student+cookbook&sprefix=student+cookbook
Good luck there, BBFanaticMark!
beans/cheese on jacket potato, cheap sausages and mash (I bought smartprice ones and found they were fine, but now I eat better ones!), chicken curry/sweet and sour using smart price frozen chicken breasts, which are good and cheap. You can get cheap curry sauces, but not they're not great all the time (the value ones are sometimes 9p in the big 3).
The value sweet and sour is ok too, about 30p or so that is. I recommend tinned tomatoes with herbs for pasta sauces.
I rarely bought red meat at uni as it was expensive, well in my first year - had a job in 2nd and 3rd year.
Also for lunches I use to buy the cheap value ham for sandwiches.
I would recommend keeping an eye out for offers, but for branded products compare the offers to the own brand.
Also, bulk buy lots of spices, sauces, mustard, condiments etc - they give a lot of flavour and variety to boring ingredients for only a few pence a time. Vegetable curries especially are excellent, a huge variety of different variations can be made out of the same basic set of ingredients. Get the spices in the big bags from Asian stores and not the mimsy little jars supermarkets sell, they will easily last you a term if you remember to keep them sealed in a dark place.