[Tycho]

(Original post by PinkMobilePhone)
oh really?

As it just so happens, here are some photos I prepared earlier :



Ingredients : ATLANTIC SALMON

Nothing else, just salmon







looks and tastes like pretty lovely salmon.

The herbs I added myself.

Incidentally by the way: I note the Iceland pack states "Farmed in Norway and the U.K. and Packed in Poland". It's clearly not the freshest salmon. That it's cost effective to shift it from the UK or Norway to Poland and then BACK to the UK again raises some serious questions about the quality of the "farming" techniques used and the wages of those packing it.

[iSMark]

(Original post by Dan1909)
Anywhere between £15 and £30 a week is fairly typical for the average student. No doubt there will be the people coming along as they do in every thread to tell you how that's "basically poverty", but they're just trolls so ignore them.

It can be done on less than £15 a week fairly easily if needs be, but that's a fairly average amount.

My honest opinion:

£15 a week is almost poverty. I somehow doubt this is your total spend. Sure we could get by spending £15 on cereal and evening meals. What a lot of people do forget is lunch, or that can of coke and a mars bar between a lecture etc. It all adds up.

I could get by spending your upper limit of £30, but some people on TSR are absolutely pushing it when they say they spend only £10 a week, which is less than 4 days lunch for me (Sainsburys Meal Deal £2.99). I know people can make their own sandwiches etc but I still don't understand how they aren't going hungry.

[Cressida]

around £120

50/60 on eating out. 50/60 on things like milk, cocopops, rice, lentils, pulses, beans, onions, vegetables, naan, cheese, nuts, chocolate, crisps, juice.

[iSMark]

(Original post by PinkMobilePhone)
I take it you've never been to Iceland - yes the food is mostly frozen but that doesn't mean it is all ready meals. I have gorgeous salmon fillets from there for example.

I don't have a superior attitude thanks. People are genuinely wanting to know how to eat for cheaper than they are currently doing! I thought that was the whole point of this thread?

Frozen fish, one of the worlds best delicacies.

[alexmagpie]

(Original post by iSMark)
My honest opinion:

£15 a week is almost poverty. I somehow doubt this is your total spend. Sure we could get by spending £15 on cereal and evening meals. What a lot of people do forget is lunch, or that can of coke and a mars bar between a lecture etc. It all adds up.

I could get by spending your upper limit of £30, but some people on TSR are absolutely pushing it when they say they spend only £10 a week, which is less than 4 days lunch for me (Sainsburys Meal Deal £2.99). I know people can make their own sandwiches etc but I still don't understand how they aren't going hungry.

I manage on about £15 a week - although I don't buy lunch out (sometimes one day a week on placement when I don't have time). Evening meals can be cheap if you cook from scratch. For example, a 500g pack of mince (about £3) will make me 4 evening meals (choose 2 from spag bol, chilli, cottage pie) and the cost of the other ingredients for this is pretty negligible.

[smallworm]

i live with ma boyfriend and we spend around £60 per week. We cook every day and eat a bit of everything

[iSMark]

It has just occurred to me, why do people who spend more on food get criticised?

I know someone who likes to spend his money on little models from 'The Games Workshop' and paint them using expensive paints, but I wouldn't criticise for this ridiculous activity, as it's his money and it's what he likes to spend it on.

Stop being jealous of people spending more and eat your cheap food

[iSMark]

(Original post by alexmagpie)
I manage on about £15 a week - although I don't buy lunch out (sometimes one day a week on placement when I don't have time). Evening meals can be cheap if you cook from scratch. For example, a 500g pack of mince (about £3) will make me 4 evening meals (choose 2 from spag bol, chilli, cottage pie) and the cost of the other ingredients for this is pretty negligible.

I think I just eat a lot, I too can cook spag bol, chilli and cottage pie, however I would get about 2 portions from the 500g mince, 3 at a push.

Girls don't need as many calories etc though, so its bound to be a bit cheaper.

[GdotL]

Looking at my bank statement, I seem to have spent £90 on food in the last week, excluding coffee/snacks. Terrifying.

[punkrockisfreedom]

(Original post by smallworm)
i live with ma boyfriend and we spend around £60 per week. We cook every day and eat a bit of everything

This. Also I think it is harder to keep costs down with only one person because package sizes only go so small so you end up wasting things if you can't eat it in time so that might also need to be factored in. It depends on what you buy though obviously.

[alexmagpie]

(Original post by iSMark)
I think I just eat a lot, I too can cook spag bol, chilli and cottage pie, however I would get about 2 portions from the 500g mince, 3 at a push.

Girls don't need as many calories etc though, so its bound to be a bit cheaper.

Oh I wasn't trying to insult your cooking - don't worry

I think it's less that I'm a girl and more the portions I'm used to at home really - my parents always cook portions that are sensible erring on the too small side so I'm used to it. There's a guy I live with who eats portions easily three times the size of mine, I don't know how he does it.

[iSMark]

(Original post by alexmagpie)
I manage on about £15 a week - although I don't buy lunch out (sometimes one day a week on placement when I don't have time). Evening meals can be cheap if you cook from scratch. For example, a 500g pack of mince (about £3) will make me 4 evening meals (choose 2 from spag bol, chilli, cottage pie) and the cost of the other ingredients for this is pretty negligible.

Sorry for the multiple replies but you demonstrated what I believe to be the problem here.

Lets take Spag Bol

Mince = about £3 ish

Spaghetti = ok this may be negligible but lets say £0.10

herbs to go in it = £1 a jar but these can be used many times so maybe another £0.10

tomatoes = 31p (tesco value)

mushrooms = 40p

garlic = 30p

olive oil = £1.60 a bottle, maybe use £0.05 worth?

onion = 16p

so those negligible ingredients (the dirt cheap versions) come to a total of £1.12

So it does add up really, from what you may have considered a meal to have cost less than £1 (purely just the costs of the mince) actually cost you over £2.

£2*7= £14 for main meals


you haven't even had breakfast or lunch yet, let alone any snacks. So you still think £15 is easy to live on?

Lots of people's mums and dads buy stuff like olive oil etc to start them off so they never realise that these things are quite expensive.

[alexmagpie]

(Original post by iSMark)
Sorry for the multiple replies but you demonstrated what I believe to be the problem here.

Lets take Spag Bol

Mince = about £3 ish

Spaghetti = ok this may be negligible but lets say £0.10

herbs to go in it = £1 a jar but these can be used many times so maybe another £0.10

tomatoes = 31p (tesco value)

mushrooms = 40p

garlic = 30p

olive oil = £1.60 a bottle, maybe use £0.05 worth?

onion = 16p

so those negligible ingredients (the dirt cheap versions) come to a total of £1.12

So it does add up really, from what you may have considered a meal to have cost less than £1 (purely just the costs of the mince) actually cost you over £2.

£2*7= £14 for main meals


you haven't even had breakfast or lunch yet, let alone any snacks. So you still think £15 is easy to live on?

Lots of people's mums and dads buy stuff like olive oil etc to start them off so they never realise that these things are quite expensive.

Yes, I realise there are start up costs so possibly I should amend my OP - I'm talking more about what I will physically go into the shop and buy every week. Also some of my meals cost less than this, and I shop at aldi which cuts costs a fair bit. For breakfast and lunch I mainly eat toast/cereal/sandwiches/soup and all of this probably costs me about £4 a week. I don't know - I'm just going by my personal experience of the money I hand over at the till!

[Dan1909]

(Original post by iSMark)
My honest opinion:

£15 a week is almost poverty. I somehow doubt this is your total spend. Sure we could get by spending £15 on cereal and evening meals. What a lot of people do forget is lunch, or that can of coke and a mars bar between a lecture etc. It all adds up.

I could get by spending your upper limit of £30, but some people on TSR are absolutely pushing it when they say they spend only £10 a week, which is less than 4 days lunch for me (Sainsburys Meal Deal £2.99). I know people can make their own sandwiches etc but I still don't understand how they aren't going hungry.

Personally I'm more around the £20 a week mark, but there's the occasional larger shop to stock up on the longer lasting items. I know plenty of people who can get by on £15 or less though, should they need to. It's all about knowing what to buy.

[iSMark]

(Original post by Dan1909)
Personally I'm more around the £20 a week mark, but there's the occasional larger shop to stock up on the longer lasting items. I know plenty of people who can get by on £15 or less though, should they need to. It's all about knowing what to buy.

Just curious, is your uni in the North or South?

I was in Manchester and even then I struggled to keep to a similar budget. Definitely wouldn't fair well if I was closer to London.

[PinkMobilePhone]

(Original post by Tycho)
Incidentally by the way: I note the Iceland pack states "Farmed in Norway and the U.K. and Packed in Poland". It's clearly not the freshest salmon. That it's cost effective to shift it from the UK or Norway to Poland and then BACK to the UK again raises some serious questions about the quality of the "farming" techniques used and the wages of those packing it.

(Original post by iSMark)
Frozen fish, one of the worlds best delicacies.

I don't think I would be able to buy unfrozen salmon in Barnsley that is any fresher to be honest, considering I highly doubt I'm anywhere near any salmon farms. Nor am I near the sea (Barnsley being pretty much bang smack in the middle of the country, if you take Scotland into consideration) - so any salt-water fish wouldn't be a fresher alternative either.

It would be lovely if I lived in Bridlington and could get freshly trawled fish, or if I lived near a salmon farm, but sadly tis not the case.

(Original post by Tycho)
I hope you're not referring to me. I didn't suggest that it was impossible. Clearly it isn't impossible if you manage to do it. Credit to you for that. It's not my place to judge what you eat or cook for your kids. It's good that you take an interest in the nutritional qualities of what you buy for them. I happen to disagree with you, but that's a different matter. I asked you how you manage it, and you've explained it to me. I now understand. Personally; I couldn't do it that way. I'm not fond of buying vegetables and whatnot from Iceland. Those carrots don't taste like real carrots to me, for instance. Perhaps their nutritional value is the same as fresh carrots, or perhaps not, but if they don't taste as nice then I wouldn't buy them.

Okay, if you want to disagree with me, that's fair enough. I admit frozen carrots taste a little different to fresh, but personally I prefer frozen peas for example, they are sweeter. Personal preference. And I'm glad you don't judge what I cook for my kids because I don't think there's much you could fault considering I'm on evidently a tighter budget than you are.

[Dan1909]

(Original post by iSMark)
Just curious, is your uni in the North or South?

I was in Manchester and even then I struggled to keep to a similar budget. Definitely wouldn't fair well if I was closer to London.

Surrey, pretty much as expensive as you can get outside of London.

A strange point is that cooking your meals from scratch is often more expensive than ready meals. Completely the opposite to what everybody says, but true nonetheless. Not something you would want to live on every day, but good for a few cheap meals.

[Chiko 1001]

Anywhere from £25-40, with meat every lunch and dinner and plenty of treats to make sure I don't buy stuff out and about. Everything cooked from fresh. Varies because some weeks I'll stock up on meat, cook massive bolognese pots and freeze portions. Also whether or not I buy wine makes the difference...

[PinkMobilePhone]

(Original post by iSMark)
It has just occurred to me, why do people who spend more on food get criticised?

I know someone who likes to spend his money on little models from 'The Games Workshop' and paint them using expensive paints, but I wouldn't criticise for this ridiculous activity, as it's his money and it's what he likes to spend it on.

Stop being jealous of people spending more and eat your cheap food

Nobody is jealous of you eating expensive food. If you have the money to spend on expensive food, then marvellous. However that doesn't mean that you can't eat relatively well on a cheaper budget. You are the one who seems to be looking down your nose at people who manage perfectly well without spending a fortune.

[iSMark]

(Original post by PinkMobilePhone)
Nobody is jealous of you eating expensive food. If you have the money to spend on expensive food, then marvellous. However that doesn't mean that you can't eat relatively well on a cheaper budget. You are the one who seems to be looking down your nose at people who manage perfectly well without spending a fortune.

Hang on now, I wasn't speaking from a personal point of view here. I've been to uni and been on a tight budget.

I wasn't speaking down at all. I was speaking from a level which can see some people getting annoyed at others spending more.

It just comes down to choice, everyone has a budget to some extent. e.g. I decide shall I go for the Waitrose Rump Steak tonight or shall I grab a Pizza and also buy a DVD?

Who cares whether I buy the steak or decide to spend the saved money on a DVD or whatever. This thread it pretty simple, just say how much you spend and what on. No need for people to comment on saying that's over the top etc.