Weekly food budget for a single person

Use a slow cooker for cheaper cuts of meat. It's really tasty too.

😮 Does one have a mustache?

Hi op

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Odd as this may seem, scout charity shops/book shops for old cookbooks ( pref ones that use ib's/oz's) to avoid having to buy new measures. These will have a lot of thrifty savoury dishes which you can use or find inspiration from. Buy meat from a butcher as you can regulate how much you pay and most will be happy to show you cheap cuts that will do will in the slow cooker or help fill an oven.

If you're in an urban area, shop in the biggest supermarket you can find - the smaller the shop, the higher the prices usually.

And sell your data to them - sign up for loyalty cards everywhere. If you shop clever using them, I'd say you could nearly halve your bill by only buying what's on offer (I have a huge Tesco near me, and some of their clubcard prices are outrageously low compared to the full prices - or maybe it's the other way around! And I don't have a Dunnes card, but I think they've gone down the same road) Pay close attention to per-unit prices and buy bulk offers when they're available (eg tins)

Scour the internet for recipes. BBC foods, Neven Maguire, Delia Smith are all go-to's for me - everything is available online these days, and you can shop for cheaper or bargain versions of their ingredients.

And I would often look at what's in my fridge, and just google "what can I make with X, Y, Z" and it's amazing what recipes will come up that you'd never have thought of. I hate wasting food and I'm not the most efficient shopper, so this keeps me happy, and expanding my cooking repertoire at the same time.

And I agree with the above poster - soup, soup, soup all day long. Cheap veg that's past its best for actually serving is perfect for soup - an onion, and a stick or two of celery (chop and freeze the rest in batches for the next time) add loads of flavour, and if you include a chopped up spud or two, it adds substance so it feels more like a meal.

A large pot and something to blend it with (if you want to blend it).

You can turn anything into a soup - great for avoiding throwing away food that's been in the fridge for a few days.

Another thing I'd say is that any time you are using the oven for anything, add in a tray of veg - potatoes, carrots, onions, peppers, broccoli, whatever. You can turn all of that into a very nice roast vegetable soup as well.

My mother always said 'you should never have just one thing in the oven'.

Lidl app is good too. Some of their stores let you build up points which u can redeem for certain goods, soap, yogurts, cheese etc. Handy if your located next one that allows it.

Slow cookers are great. Pop a chicken in and your sorted for a few days

You need to have variety and the odd treat thrown in. These people saying make 50 meals and freeze them etc seem to forget that isnt sustainable

Dont kill yourself. Enjoy life a little too.

Do try growing your own tomatoes from seed. They grow very successfully on my balcony and are pretty fail-safe once they have a nice decent pot to grow in. At end of summer you can have a great big crop to make soup, sauces, salads, whatever you fancy. Highly recommend it. Tomatoes have become so expensive, and your home grown won’t disappoint.

you won’t regret it, go for your favourite. I went for colour this year:

And the thing about frozen pizza is, theres nothing stopping you adding more toppings. I love spicy things and always have a jar of jalapenos in my press. Even a cheapy pizza can be augmented to something Mr Dominos would be envious of.

Don’t forget, too, you can make your own plant food, full of suggestions on Google, one will suit your circumstances.

My late aunt and her husband lived on a smallhold and were big into self-sufficiency, from having chickens, keeping a cow, growing tons of veg, making own superb beer, wine, “champagne” and having a pot still for use use. If you went out to them the fire would be roaring, a beautiful meal would be served, and a tipple of their home production, with classical music playing in the background. Made own clothes too, There made money go a long, long way and raised their 7 children to treat produce with great respect.

they are both de eased, she lived to 88 fully active, dropped dead of a stroke after a good party, he lived to 99. Active living, reading galore, singing together, holidays in Bulgaria and anywhere cheap. Both came from comfortable middle class Dublin households, he from a Protestant background, met in a solicitor’s office where they were legal assistants and he initially considering further studies in law; but had a much more dreamy inclination to live off the land on as little as possible. My grandmother was exasperated, as she said most people try and get promotion when getting married, he left his job, bought a plot of land and they built their own house, first child helping! As that child later said, it was the best upbringing anybody could have.

Their time was before solar panels, but knowing him, if he were around now he’d be doing diy panels from junk. Had the car running on slurry at one point. There was nothing he could not turn his hand to and she too. They were pure hippies at heart, love & peace and all that. Brought pigs to market via her old family home in Rathgar with neighbours looking askance. Honestly a TV series could have been made there.

At the start of the popular Internet era she set herself up in the 2000s, having trawled electronic wares skips adjacent to a tech shop. She had taken all the self-taught free computer courses on offer in the public libraries, and used the library books to learn about computer parts and how they work together. She enlisted her son’s help to physically carry the components as she had heart failure at this stage, but insisted on no help whatsoever with sorting them out as she wanted to retain her sharp intellect as she did til her last breath. She constantly learned new things, and declared that the later in life she was the more intelligent she became, and this absolutely proved true.

Simple basic living, using all the free resources, great food, enjoying culture, literally dancing on the street, all for free. My aunt thought the state pension was very generous as she had been managing with less money (in cost of living terms) earlier in life. Holidays abroad twice yearly, who guessed a person on subsistence could do it!

That's some serious beneficial information, cheers for this.👍