Weekly food budget for a single person

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.👍

lol, unless you have a little set up for beanstalk growth, could be charming! A few luscious strawberries dangling.

If money is tight for food, see if there are other parts of your grocery shopping that don't really need to be in the trolley. One of the most wasteful things are paper products, i.e. kitchen towel and toilet paper. Seeing as this is essentially a food thread, I won't go into details, but there's a whole corner of the internet where you'll find advice on living without one and the other.

Ah jeez lets not depress the OP even further. There is saving money, there is being thrifty, but looking for alternatives to toilet paper??

Tesco Luxury Soft is 9 rolls for 4 euros. One roll a week (which would be extravagant), adds up to 44 cent a week. or 6 cent a day. I think the OP can afford that.

Funny anecdote. I worked in Intel in Leixlip for a while and lived in a shared house with about 4 other engineers. It was slightly above minimum wage, everyone was permanently broke. Practically everything in the house by way of furnishings had been boosted out of Intel. The toilet roll dispenser in the toilet, was one of the industrial level ones like you see in restaurant bathrooms. I asked, "What happens when we run out?" and the senior tenant said "We wont, Mick stole about 10 replacement rolls and he can get more any time".

I was laughing cos i was thinking the same thing re toilet paper. I got 24 rolls for 10 euro in dunnes, and it was better than the tesco brand. I bought two lots and some milk, had a 25 voucher and i won't run out of bog roll for a long time! always check the unit price FYI.

I am guilty of swiping a few sachets of brown sauce (only use it for stews) and mustard (mix with breadcrumbs for a cheap batter). I draw the line at the sugar sachets though!

I buy cheap flour and if lemons are reduced /on sale I find pancakes are a tasty treat and something different.

re toilet paper, I wish wish wish that Japanese toilet paper were here. I no longer have to wipe my rear(removed by radical surgery 😱😁) but I am living proof in being an expert on toilet paper. Since having the ileostomy I require a nice “bedding” to empty upon, that disappears upon a flush. Ireland has worst toilets/paper. I am sick and tired of replacing toilet paper for my current needs, any advice welcome.

3L of milk, I actually add one 3l container and whatever is open and on the go in the fridge. I now have a controller I bought from Amazon at £8.00 I will give you the delails if you want them but for a one off you can do it by watching and waiting.

Without a controller I just leave the pot on full heat, but you need to watch the temperature.

Use any milk, low fat, full fat or raw milk is available and I have used it.

Watch the temperature go up to eighty five to 92 degrees C. then switch off.

Allow the temperature to fall to 42 to 45 degrees and drop a dollop of cheap own brand natural yoghurt in. Use some from a previous batch or even some whey if you have any left over.

I did buy live cultured yoghurts, but the cheapo stuff from Lidl or Aldi is fine, I look for Greek style natural that has the strain of bacteria listed. It's not sold as "live" but I have yet to find a tub that isn't extremely frisky.

The quantity added does not seem to make much difference, I stick about half a pot in and give it a stir with a plastic or wooden spoon.

Then with a controller you want the lowest heat setting and walk away for a few hours or I have left a batch for a couple of days.

If you don't have a controller or if you want to save the small amount of power wasted, wrap the slow cooker in a few towels to keep the heat in.

You will have to return from time to time just to see the heat does not drop too much though.

You will find the yoghurt start to thicken in three or four hours or less.

The longer its left the more the whey separates and if you want a fairly solid Greek style yoghurt a sieve will separate out the whey.

I ran a test and half a litre of the whey takes around a level teaspoon of bread soda to neuteralise it, so that's the quantity I base my soda bread on.

Buttermilk is an added expense and I don't like the idea of using naturally soured milk using whatever is in the air. Basically because I want to remove variables, so the whey is perfect.

The one thing I do to soda bread that I have not seen in any recipe is liberally coat the surface of the loaf with the whey and lightly rub it in before baking.

When I remove the loaf from the oven I wrap it in a tea towel to cool and it provides a nice pliable crust that is not too brittle at all.

Once you start you tend to find that the yoghurt making becomes a small part of the proceedings, it's really versatile and the downside is that when yo have tubs facing you every time the fridge door is opened, it's hard to resist.