[lauren_a]

I'm hoping that I'll be alright next year budget wise because I don't eat much meat and I'm lactose intolerant which pretty much rules out any dairy products or luxuries (cakes, biscuits, chocolate, cheese, etc) but do you guys think that me being unable to cook and eat with my flatmates everyday (because of the lactose thing) will mean I have to spend lots more?

[ad99797]

I spend about a £15 a week and for that i get four nutritious meals a day. You really dont need to spend £30, save it for cool stuff.

[Jadelyndsey]

(Original post by ad99797)
I spend about a £15 a week and for that i get four nutritious meals a day. You really dont need to spend £30, save it for cool stuff.

How on earth do you manage that? Please elaborate?

I am yet to go to uni, but have recently just sat down and worked out my finances and wrote a plan of my meals and snacks in a day. All in all, it came to just under £40 per week on food/loo rolls/toothpaste etc. What do you buy with £15 to make 28 square healthy meals per week?

[helen-a-ravenclaw]

(Original post by Jadelyndsey)
How on earth do you manage that? Please elaborate?

I am yet to go to uni, but have recently just sat down and worked out my finances and wrote a plan of my meals and snacks in a day. All in all, it came to just under £40 per week on food/loo rolls/toothpaste etc. What do you buy with £15 to make 28 square healthy meals per week?

£40 a week on food? That's so much! Crazy! What're you buying?

I spend around £15 a week on food/toliteries etc and I have breakfast, lunch, dinner and try to eat as healthy as possible.

Go for the supermarket own brands! Just by doing this I cut down from about £20/25 a week to £15. Don't be put off by them, I really can't tell the difference with a lot of them when comparing them to branded products. (For example, 500g for Tesco Value cornflakes for 34p lasts me two weeks of breakfasts!)

Plan you meals for the week, to make sure that you're not buying extra food that you'll either not eat, or only eat because you've bought it. Do you really need to buy all those snacks?

Don't eat out a lot! That takes up a lot of money for food. I only eat out every few weeks as a treat with friends.

Make meals in bulk, then freeze the leftovers to use as meals in the next couple of weeks. It's a cheaper option than buying ready meals!

Also, buy all of your tolietries (toothbrush, toothpaste, shampoo, conditioner, etc) from the pound store. You save a lot doing that.

Oh, and try and get as many loyalty cards as possible, and coupon coupon coupon! I've saved a fair few quid on a shop using coupons before.

EDIT: Also, make your own lunches! Much cheaper than buying pre-packed sandwiches!

[Jadelyndsey]

(Original post by helen-a-ravenclaw)
£40 a week on food? That's so much! Crazy! What're you buying?

I spend around £15 a week on food/toliteries etc and I have breakfast, lunch, dinner and try to eat as healthy as possible.

Go for the supermarket own brands! Just by doing this I cut down from about £20/25 a week to £15. Don't be put off by them, I really can't tell the difference with a lot of them when comparing them to branded products. (For example, 500g for Tesco Value cornflakes for 34p lasts me two weeks of breakfasts!)

Plan you meals for the week, to make sure that you're not buying extra food that you'll either not eat, or only eat because you've bought it. Do you really need to buy all those snacks?

Don't eat out a lot! That takes up a lot of money for food. I only eat out every few weeks as a treat with friends.

Make meals in bulk, then freeze the leftovers to use as meals in the next couple of weeks. It's a cheaper option than buying ready meals!

Also, buy all of your tolietries (toothbrush, toothpaste, shampoo, conditioner, etc) from the pound store. You save a lot doing that.

Oh, and try and get as many loyalty cards as possible, and coupon coupon coupon! I've saved a fair few quid on a shop using coupons before.

EDIT: Also, make your own lunches! Much cheaper than buying pre-packed sandwiches!

Thanks for that =D

But, at risk of sounding like a geek here, I have already sat down and wrote a week of ingredients out and the meals they would produce (no ingredients left over to make other meals) and it came to about £30 and that's with own make basic products! Then toiletries etc came to about £28 per month making my weekly average spend about £37 with £3 to play with really.

Here's a sample of my meals that I made:

1. 2X wholemeal slices of bread,2 tbspn low fat mayo, small can tuna, bit of salad =Tuna sandwich
2. 100g wholemeal pasta, 2 tbspn low fat mayo, small can tuna, 2 tbspn frozen peas, garlic, dried herbs=Tuna pasta
3. 125g lean mince, ½ diced onion, garlic, 1 cal spray, ½ tin chopped tomatoes, 22.5g tomato puree, dried herbs, water, served with with 100g whole meal pasta=Healthy spag bol
4. Bolognaise(half of spagbol), cheese (40g), 1 jacket potato, and handful of salad=Filled Jacket (with bolognaise and cheese)
5. 1 Warburtons wrap, 40g cheese, 50g chicken, few mushrooms, 22.5g tomato puree=Warburtons wrap pizza
6. 1 Warburtons wrap, small 50g can of tuna, 2tbspn low fat mayo, handful of salad=Warburtons tuna salad wrap
7. 100g chicken breast, ½ pack stir fry sauce, ½ pack egg noodles, ½ pack stir fry veg =Stir fry
8. 100g chicken breast, ½ pack stir fry sauce, ½ pack egg noodles, ½ pack stir fry veg =Stir fry
9. 100g chicken breast, ½ jar chicken tikka (WW), ½ bag boil in bag rice=Chicken tikka with rice
10. 2 rashers of bacon, 1 egg (fried), 1 egg (scrambled), 1 slice of toast, handful of mushrooms=English brekkie
11. ½ bag boil in bag rice, rasher of bacon, ½ onion, 40g peas, 50g chicken, soy sauce, ½ tin tomatoes =Whip round the fridge rice,
12. 2 eggs, 3 slices of bread=Dippy soldiers
13. 100g chicken breast, ½ jar chicken tikka (ww), large handful of salad, warburtons wrap=Chicken tikka salad sandwich
14. 2 slices of bread, 8 slices of ham, and 45g of cheese=Cheese & ham toastie

I always alternate my breakfasts already with a bowl of cereal on morning, and scrambled egg on toast the next, which I plan to carry on at uni, so the above meals would last me one week with one number for lunch and one for dinner. To make the above, I created this list:

• Small loaf wholemeal bread= £0.70
• Garlic=£0.50
• 3X small tin tuna=£2.20
• Pack of onions=£1.00
• 1 tin chopped tomatoes=£0.35
• Bag of mozzarella cheese=£0.85
• Large pack of eggs=£1.50
• Small pack baking potatoes=£0.70
• Warburtons square wraps=£1.50
• Salad pack=£2.00
• Stir fry ingredients=£4.00
• Chicken breast (500g)=£3.25
• WW chicken tikka jar=£1.00
• Milk=£2.00
• Pack of mushrooms=£1.00
• 7 bananas=£1
• Couple poundland extras, i.e. crisps, sweets,=£2

==£26.75

With this list, nothing is wasted and I would be eating probably better than I do now, and I really don't see how I could cut it down unless I ate cereal every night for dinner! :P x

EDIT: Just incase you wanted to see what I buy monthly, heres that one too!

• Shampoo & conditioner=£2.00
• 3X9 pack of loo rolls=£6.00
• 1X toothepaste=£1
• 4X pack of rice=£0.89
• 1kg pasta=£1.79
• Mayonnaise=£1.89
• Frozen peas=£1.90
• Sugar=£1.00
• 750g shreddies, 24 weetabix Cereal=£2.00
• 200g tomato pure= £0.49
• 12 bacon rashers=£3
• Pack of ham (and freeze portions)= £1
• 500g lean mince= £4
• Tomato sauce=£1
• Tea bags=£1

=£29

Ps, I am extremely organised albeit OCD where money is concerned haha!

[game of james]

130 a week!
That would be fine for a family of 4? Where do you shop? Waitrose?
Just by the own brand version of everything and try to plan your meals out.
Plain pasta may seem pretty boring but try and liven it up with some spices or something.

[Smoosh]

I do not understand how people are spending so much

I'll be spending the same as I spend now, which is £50 per week, but that's for 2 people and also includes cat food and any household items/toiletries needed.

[helen-a-ravenclaw]

(Original post by Jadelyndsey)
Thanks for that =D
...

No problem.

Oh don't worry about that! I always write out my meals for the week, plan how much I'll need to buy etc. It causes less panic in the evenings when i'm like 'what am I eating? ahh.'

First of all, £28 a month on tolietries? What are you buying? I usually go through about £10-£15 a month on that sort of stuff.

You seem to be eating a lot of meat and fish, which is probably contributing to the fact that you're spending a lot. A whole can of tuna for a sandwich? Mine usually lasts two sandwiches. Are you maybe over-estimating the size portions you'll be eating?

A cheaper option for sandwiches and wraps would be packaged meats. I don't tend to go for the chicken, ham and beef types because I'm not too keen on them. Have you considered cured meats, like salami, pepperoni etc in sandwiches and wraps? You wouldn't need to buy as much chicken, it would be less work and cheaper! Also, don't be afraid to buy a full loaf of bread (often cheaper than the small loaves) and keep it in the freezer and only take out the bread that you need.

Also, for breakfast, maybe stick to have cereal during the week and something special at the weekends (like a fry-up or scrambled eggs on toast etc).

It does seem a little strange though, how you're managing to spend so much.

My weekly food usually goes like this:

Breakfasts: Cereal with milk
Lunches: Sandwiches with lettuce, can of diet coke, apple, banana, yogurt.
Dinners: (now this is where i get uber geeky because on set days I have set things)
Monday - Ready meal (because I'm knackered on mondays.)
Tuesday - Pasta and sauce
Wednesday - Breakfast for dinner (baked beans and eggs are involved, sometimes i'll make pancakes)
Thursday - Chicken and rice
Friday - Soup or pizza
Saturday - Leftover soup or leftover pizza
Sunday - Something special, either a steak, i'll make some chilli, do a curry...something like that where I've got the time during the day to prepare it.

Also, for example I'll just give you an example of what I'll be spending on food on Friday when I do my shop:

Milk - 0.89
Salami - 0.99
Bread - 0.80
Apples - 1.50
Banana - 1.00
Lettuce - 1.00

Okay, it does sound like very little indeed, but it's just a case of i've had stuff building up over the past few weeks in the freezer that I can eat as well.

[Supertoaster]

Normally spend about £25 a week on food and something to drink and maybe another £5-10 if I get a take away. I don't buy/eat any microwave meals, only frozen stuff I buy are pizzas, chicken dippers, chips and prawns (I don't buy them every week).

[steveproxy]

I'm Spend £10 per week.

[Jadelyndsey]

(Original post by helen-a-ravenclaw)
No problem.

Oh don't worry about that! I always write out my meals for the week, plan how much I'll need to buy etc. It causes less panic in the evenings when i'm like 'what am I eating? ahh.'

First of all, £28 a month on tolietries? What are you buying? I usually go through about £10-£15 a month on that sort of stuff.

You seem to be eating a lot of meat and fish, which is probably contributing to the fact that you're spending a lot. A whole can of tuna for a sandwich? Mine usually lasts two sandwiches. Are you maybe over-estimating the size portions you'll be eating?

A cheaper option for sandwiches and wraps would be packaged meats. I don't tend to go for the chicken, ham and beef types because I'm not too keen on them. Have you considered cured meats, like salami, pepperoni etc in sandwiches and wraps? You wouldn't need to buy as much chicken, it would be less work and cheaper! Also, don't be afraid to buy a full loaf of bread (often cheaper than the small loaves) and keep it in the freezer and only take out the bread that you need.

Also, for breakfast, maybe stick to have cereal during the week and something special at the weekends (like a fry-up or scrambled eggs on toast etc).

It does seem a little strange though, how you're managing to spend so much.

My weekly food usually goes like this:

Breakfasts: Cereal with milk
Lunches: Sandwiches with lettuce, can of diet coke, apple, banana, yogurt.
Dinners: (now this is where i get uber geeky because on set days I have set things)
Monday - Ready meal (because I'm knackered on mondays.)
Tuesday - Pasta and sauce
Wednesday - Breakfast for dinner (baked beans and eggs are involved, sometimes i'll make pancakes)
Thursday - Chicken and rice
Friday - Soup or pizza
Saturday - Leftover soup or leftover pizza
Sunday - Something special, either a steak, i'll make some chilli, do a curry...something like that where I've got the time during the day to prepare it.

Also, for example I'll just give you an example of what I'll be spending on food on Friday when I do my shop:

Milk - 0.89
Salami - 0.99
Bread - 0.80
Apples - 1.50
Banana - 1.00
Lettuce - 1.00

Okay, it does sound like very little indeed, but it's just a case of i've had stuff building up over the past few weeks in the freezer that I can eat as well.

Whoops, didn't mean £28 on toiletries, I meant about that much per month on items such as mince which can be divided and frozen.

I have a giant sainsburys on the corner of the street where I will be living, so I made my list from their website (with prices) and used recipes I have already done myself before so I don't think it's over estimating. The tuna for example isn't one can, the £2.20 if for 3 individual tins that when drained are 56g, which is about half of an average sized tin so definitely didn't overestimate that!
You can find this 3pack of tuna here just for reference: http://www.sainsburys.co.uk/grocerie...reenWidth=1366

As for ready meals, a few years ago I was on weight watchers and ate ready meals about 3X per week. I found them to not be very filling, I was constantly bloated, and the sugar and salt in them is horrendous. Watched a documentary about them once and that was enough to put me off for life, so I could never have ready meals!

Also, I'm not too keen on jarred sauces with pasta, again it's to do with sugar and salt. I like to make sauces myself so I know where it's from and what I am actually eating. Mind, saying this, I recently bought a cheapo version of dolmio bolognaise sauce and it was so nice! (I think it was 27p haha)

I can see now how I could eat for cheaper i.e. basically not eat the expensive foods, but as I have £55-£60 (estimated) for food and socialising, I think I would prefer to spend £35 of that on food and know that I will never be hungry as although your diet isn't bad by most peoples standards, I really don't think I could live on it! I would feel hungry all of the time!

[helen-a-ravenclaw]

(Original post by Jadelyndsey)
Whoops, didn't mean £28 on toiletries, I meant about that much per month on items such as mince which can be divided and frozen.

I have a giant sainsburys on the corner of the street where I will be living, so I made my list from their website (with prices) and used recipes I have already done myself before so I don't think it's over estimating. The tuna for example isn't one can, the £2.20 if for 3 individual tins that when drained are 56g, which is about half of an average sized tin so definitely didn't overestimate that!
You can find this 3pack of tuna here just for reference: http://www.sainsburys.co.uk/grocerie...reenWidth=1366

As for ready meals, a few years ago I was on weight watchers and ate ready meals about 3X per week. I found them to not be very filling, I was constantly bloated, and the sugar and salt in them is horrendous. Watched a documentary about them once and that was enough to put me off for life, so I could never have ready meals!

Also, I'm not too keen on jarred sauces with pasta, again it's to do with sugar and salt. I like to make sauces myself so I know where it's from and what I am actually eating. Mind, saying this, I recently bought a cheapo version of dolmio bolognaise sauce and it was so nice! (I think it was 27p haha)

I can see now how I could eat for cheaper i.e. basically not eat the expensive foods, but as I have £55-£60 (estimated) for food and socialising, I think I would prefer to spend £35 of that on food and know that I will never be hungry as although your diet isn't bad by most peoples standards, I really don't think I could live on it! I would feel hungry all of the time!

I suppose this sort of thing does also include someone's appetite. My appetite and how much food i can put away has vastly reduced over the year since i've been living on my own since i was buying all my own food and making it all myself (so that may happen to you, who knows.)

You've certainly thought about it though and it's better that you're spending that much money on fresh ingredients and not having waste than buying lots of junk food and snacking on a lot!

If you have about £60 a week budgeted then you should be fine then!

It is interesting though, seeing other people's eating habits and food shopping.

Hope you have fun at uni!

[Blue Rose]

(Original post by Jadelyndsey)
How on earth do you manage that? Please elaborate?

I am yet to go to uni, but have recently just sat down and worked out my finances and wrote a plan of my meals and snacks in a day. All in all, it came to just under £40 per week on food/loo rolls/toothpaste etc. What do you buy with £15 to make 28 square healthy meals per week?

I looked at the list and you're not gunna be buying things like sugar and garlic every week, they'll last you months so maybe those sorts of things are causing you to overestimate how much you'll spend a week x


This was posted from The Student Room's Android App

[Jadelyndsey]

(Original post by helen-a-ravenclaw)
I suppose this sort of thing does also include someone's appetite. My appetite and how much food i can put away has vastly reduced over the year since i've been living on my own since i was buying all my own food and making it all myself (so that may happen to you, who knows.)

You've certainly thought about it though and it's better that you're spending that much money on fresh ingredients and not having waste than buying lots of junk food and snacking on a lot!

If you have about £60 a week budgeted then you should be fine then!

It is interesting though, seeing other people's eating habits and food shopping.

Hope you have fun at uni!

I completely agree! I was secretly wishing you would show me what you eat, I like seeing what people eat and how much is spent etc

I think I will have a look to see how much I could save buying in bulk though. I know that I saved 30p or something buying 1kg of pasta monthly instead of 2X500g every other week.

Hopefully I will haha! You going into your 2nd or 3rd year now?

[helen-a-ravenclaw]

(Original post by Jadelyndsey)
I completely agree! I was secretly wishing you would show me what you eat, I like seeing what people eat and how much is spent etc

I think I will have a look to see how much I could save buying in bulk though. I know that I saved 30p or something buying 1kg of pasta monthly instead of 2X500g every other week.

Hopefully I will haha! You going into your 2nd or 3rd year now?

It's a little bit of an insight into someone's life which is always interesting!

Bulk is always good, especially with dry foods! Maybe buy your rice in bulk as well, instead of boil in the bag? That'll save you a bit!

Oh, I'm going into my first year in september, but I've been living away from home this year doing a Year In Industry work placement.

[Jadelyndsey]

(Original post by Blue Rose)
I looked at the list and you're not gunna be buying things like sugar and garlic every week, they'll last you months so maybe those sorts of things are causing you to overestimate how much you'll spend a week x


This was posted from The Student Room's Android App

I go through a lot of garlic! the weekly cost of 50p is two bulbs/head of garlic which will derive about 30-40 cloves. 8 of those go into bolognaise, 3 or 4 go into the pasta etc etc.

The sugar is on the monthly list I have sugar in my tea every morning and on my cereal every other morning x

[Jadelyndsey]

(Original post by helen-a-ravenclaw)
It's a little bit of an insight into someone's life which is always interesting!

Bulk is always good, especially with dry foods! Maybe buy your rice in bulk as well, instead of boil in the bag? That'll save you a bit!

Oh, I'm going into my first year in september, but I've been living away from home this year doing a Year In Industry work placement.

Good idea, although my rice always comes out like rice pudding when it's just the normal dry stuff haha I am useless with rice!

Ah well we're in the same sort of boat, kind of! Haha aw that sounds interesting! It's good that you've had a taste of what is to come, and you won't be one of the ones who doesn't know how to put bed sheets on or how to cook pasta :P

[helen-a-ravenclaw]

(Original post by Jadelyndsey)
Good idea, although my rice always comes out like rice pudding when it's just the normal dry stuff haha I am useless with rice!

Ah well we're in the same sort of boat, kind of! Haha aw that sounds interesting! It's good that you've had a taste of what is to come, and you won't be one of the ones who doesn't know how to put bed sheets on or how to cook pasta :P

I'm sure you'll get a hang of the rice! It's easy when you master it.

Indeed! I've got a year on my own already so uni is going to be a breeze!

[robthefool]

Loo rolls are so expensive! I'm going to uni this year and my friend who went last year said that he saved a lot of money by going to the toilet in public toilets in supermarkets etc when he needed to let loose. It made me laugh but that could actually save quite a bit of money!

[Emaemmaemily]

I spend £30 (usually a little under) on my shopping, and it lasts me 2 weeks. I have no idea why people think they need to spend a fortune on this stuff.

Edit: you know guys, if you disgree you could always actually reply to my post. I don't see what's wrong with pointing out that you can do it for a lot less.