Picture the scene: you decide to have a quick check of your bank balance before popping out for a food shop, confident in the knowledge that there’s a solid fifty in there to tide you over. A single figure flashes up on screen. There is much, much less than fifty quid in your account. HOW?
Your stomach flips, your pulse starts racing and almost instantaneously an involuntary film reel starts playing in your head of all the misguided purchases you’ve made in the past month: 84 chicken nuggets when you were a bit peckish at 2am; a spiraliser for the ensuing rebound health kick; a kilo of protein powder to keep your unused gym membership company; a scale model of Disneyland for your fish tank. You don’t even have a fish. We’ve all been there. And now you’ve no choice but to live off stale white sliced and instant noodles for the foreseeable future.
But it doesn’t have to be this way. Heed the advice in this article and you’ll realise there are so many ways to save money on food without developing anaemia and a vitamin deficiency. Assuming you have a few essentials like oil, herbs and curry powder already in your cupboard, you could learn to eat well for just £15 a week. Which leaves you with money left to spend on dumb shit without feeling guilty. Ideal.
Step 1: quit Pret…
Or whichever other ludicrously priced chain you buy your lunch from. Seriously, just stop. How much enjoyment do you really get from a flaccid wrap with some slightly sweaty fillings that mainly tastes of chiller cabinet? If you spend a fiver a day, five days a week on takeaway coffees and falafel, you’re spunking away up to £1,300 a year. Let that sink in: that’s enough to buy you a slightly dubious secondhand car, a decent holiday, or about seven Freddos (fucking inflation). But if you give them up for a week, you could use the £25 to buy yourself a reusable coffee cup for your morning cup of Joe, a box of teabags or a jar of coffee, and have enough left over to feed yourself for the whole week on 15 quid. Trust me.
Step 2: roll with it
In cold weather, swap your lunchtime meal deal for a bowl of soup – most supermarkets sell own-brand tins for 50p or less. If you pick up five of these and a packet of bread rolls, you’ll have lunch covered from Monday-Friday for way under a fiver. Freeze the bread rolls separately at the beginning of the week to keep them fresh, then defrost them the night before they’re needed – and ps. the rolls from the fresh bakery at the supermarket have a short shelf life, so are often heftily reduced at the end of the day.
Even better, at the weekend you can get up later, roll brekky and lunch into one meal and fulfil your Instagram brunch-wanker dreams. Knock up a batch of pancake batter for pennies using the basic ingredients you’re going to buy in the next step...
Lunches: £3
Step 3: budget for basics
Set aside about a fiver for basics, and look for shop own-brand products where possible, particularly when it comes to pasta and rice – for £1 you should be able to buy a packet of each. And if you shop wisely, you should be able to get milk, spread (budget slightly more if you can’t live without real butter), eggs, bread or porridge oats, flour, rice and pasta for around £5. The dry foods like rice and flour will stretch for way longer than a week, giving you money to spend on other bits and bobs in the following weeks.
Or alternatively, do a big shop once a fortnight and allocate £10 for all of your basics – that way you can afford the super-size bags of carbs, a large box of (free range) eggs and a couple of cartons of milk for the freezer. As a bonus, you get an arm workout lugging it all home so you can also sack off the gym. What thrift.
Basics: £5.25
Step 4: bargain hunt
If you want to take advantage of those sweet, sweet yellow reduction stickers, your best bet is to head to the supermarket at around 8pm or an hour before closing. Reduced fresh products are likely to be on the cusp of their sell-by date, so either stick them straight in the freezer or incorporate them into a meal within the next day. Then head to the ‘World Food’ aisle for all the ingredients your out of touch Uncle Bert would probably call “exotic”. Produce like coconut milk, seasoning, beans, rice and flour will come in much larger quantities here for considerably less money than big brands or even supermarket own-brand.
If you live near to a street market (I’m talking shouting vendors in flat caps, not man-bunned artisanal raw mylk sellers), find out what time it closes at and head there about half an hour before. There might be less choice, but the vendors will be clamouring to get rid of the last of their fresh produce, so you can bag hefty quantities of fruit and veg for next to nothing that will see you through the week. (Equally, there is no shame in being into hipster produce and farmers’ markets – just be sure to go down at the end of the day for reductions).
Step 5: bring home the bacon
Generally speaking, the less meat you eat, the cheaper your shop will be. If you’re not prepared to go fully veggie, try picking one type of meat and working out how you can incorporate it into several different meals. A packet of bacon, for example, could see you through your brunch pancakes, a couple of bacon sarnies, and a risotto or a carbonara (what could be cheaper than spaghetti, an egg, cheese and bacon?). A 500g packet of mince could make you a couple of portions of Bolognese or chilli and two burgers.
So with your remaining £6.75, set aside £3 for your chosen meat (or vegetarian substitute). The remaining £3.75 should cover a tin of coconut milk for a couple of vegetable curries, a carton of chopped tomatoes for two portions of Bolognese or chilli, and a selection of loose vegetables. Keep an eye out for reduced cheese, or budget for a couple of weeks then ask the deli counter to cut you a block for the price of what you have leftover.
Meat and cans: £6.75
And there we have it! A whole week’s worth of food for the same price as five day’s worth of grim meal deals, and not a sachet of noodle dust in sight. You’re welcome.
