I'm currently out of work and surviving on Jobseekers allowance at the moment. I'm struggling to come up with cheap and quick, and satisfying recipe idea's.

My problem is that if I eat the same things I get bored quite quickly and start going for cheap junk food instead. Any idea's people may have would be greatly appreciated!

x

I have loads of ideas and honey junk food is EXPENSIVE

Try brown rice, tin tuna, chili flakes and peas, its so filling and cost hardly anything - I do this and keep it in the fridge for lunches and main meals, my kids love it too!

buy a cheap chicken roast it with some herbs and fresh veg buy the class B veg just means they are not perfect shape and half the price cheaper. have a roast dinner then boil up the bones and any left over meat and make a chicken soup just add chunky veg in it or noddles, seriously low fat.

Sainsburys are doing a feed a family of 4 for a week for £50, have you tried that?

Making your own food from scrach really is the cheapest way, i go to sainsburys at the end of the day and get all the reduced things that are on the dates and freeze them, its saves mega bucks!
I was on benefits for a couple of years when my kids where young so i made all my baby food myself really saved money.

Pasta is cheap as long as you dont cover it in cheese its not bad for you, with a tomato based sauce and add some fresh veggies in is amazing.

Even now i have more money i still do all this as why pay max prices when you can even better food cheaper, i am a cr4p cook to so non of these are hard to do

Hope this helps xx

Eggs are good, and healthy. You can get 120g packets of smoked salmon trimmings for under a pound at Sainsburys, so a six-pack of eggs and one pack is two or three meals, depending on how hungry you are. Bacon can be surprisingly low in fat if you trim it carefully. With this in mind, also check out gammon steaks.

Oatmeal is cheap, and a nice breakfast - you can liven it up with powdered cinnamon, or sultanas.

Pound shops can be good for things like tinned tuna. Check the Best Before dates before stocking up. Also Aldi and Lidl's if you have then near you.

Beans, or course! Even cheap tinned baked beans can be nice, shop around until you find decent ones cheap. And dry beans are very cheap, and you can make nice stews with them. Or tinned beans like chick peas and kidney beans, mixed with chopped onion and low-cal salad dressing to make a bean salad - I add chopped celery and cherry tomatoes, and sometimes poached chicken. Lentils are also good, look up dhal recipes; experimenting with spices can keep things interesting.

Check the freezer section for cheap frozen chicken and fish. Sainsburys do very cheap packets of white fish and small prawns, and I expect other supermarkets do too.

Keep an eye on special offers. You might find the moneysavingexpert.com site useful for keeping track of offers.

Downshift brands - if you buy anything brand name, experiment with a cheaper own-brand substitute. Some might not do, but sometimes you can find good replacements.

Also, keep an eye out for when your local supermarket reduces things - I get a lot of vegetables reduced to clear around eight at my local supermarket. A big saving.

Hope some of this is helpful.

Hi. Keep an eye on the reduced section at the supermarket for meat and fish, and other bits....and have a look in the spice isle for Scwartz 'perfect shake' spices. They do BBQ, cajun, and lots more. They last a long time. Just shake over your meat/fish and bake in oven. Serve with pasta/rice/pots and veg/salad. Lots of different tasting meals with little work, little clearing up and little cost. Or you can stir fry them in wok (I use spray oil) with whatever veg you have for tasty stirfry...even better as this one only has a wok to wash up.

Thank you all so much, this is really helpful, I'll bear this in mind next time I go shopping :-)

I make myself batches of curry, chilli, bolognese, etc and then freeze bags of it.

I generally make curry with carrots, tin toms, onions, mushrooms, peppers, chickpeas and curry powder and then add chicken (if I've got any) as and when I eat one of the portions. With rice, it's super quick to do too, you just grab it from the freezer and defrost it.
Similar with the chilli, I just chuck in mince, kidney beans, peppers, onions, mushrooms, chilli powder and tin toms.

If you really wanna boost then have them with frozen/fresh veg instead of rice and you're cutting down on the carbs too.

I've started eating beans on toast/porridge for breakfast, buying fresh fruit (a pineapple and a pack of grapes goes a week) for snacking and then I make a pasta and egg salad for my lunch.

Other great ideas are chicken kievs... they're not to heavy on carbs or fat and go great with stir fry, frozen/fresh veg, even chips if you're having a naughty night.

I rent in central London and am never made of money... dieting and being broke is a really hard tightrope, so I feel your pain!! Junk food is definitely cheaper, but my weightloss is more important, so on average I probably spend £20 of my weekly £50 disposable income on buying fresh food.

I feel for you Isabelle Rose - I was out of work for 2 years! I still only have a part time job so still have to watch the pennies.

Although I am vegetarian and single, it was still a struggle financially. I did eat a lot of pasta and rice and lentils! I also got 12 eggs from Iceland for £1. I know they weren't free range but needs must! I mostly bought really cheap tins of chopped tomates for a pasta sauce (though if you pay a bit more it is surprising how tasty a tin of toms can be.

If you have an ALdi or Lidl near you you are very luckly! Mine is two buses away or I stock up when at my friends. The Aldi baked beans and tinned spaghetti are a make called Corelli and in my opinion are superior to Heinz! Well certainly better than most companies' economy range.

As I share a kitchen I cannot really bulk buy but you may be able to. Is there a local market or can you find out where your nearest allotment is - if you befriend them you may be able to get stuff free or at least cheaper. Also haunt the bargain bit of the supermarket - they all have an end of aisle bargain section - or ask an assistant when the best time to come in is. Very often on a sunday stuff gets marked down. If you have a freezer and the product is freezable you are laughing!

Bulk up on potatoes, pasta and rice and get hold of cheap fruit and veg. Don't go for the fancy plastic wrapped stuff. It might mean a bit of bother washing your veg but still......

Google onto frugal recipes - it should come up with something even though most sites may be American. Also haunt the Money saving expert site - the one by Martin Lewis - http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/....html?t=180748

is one thread. There is a mega huge cooking one on there. Some people on this site have very bad money problems so they will know where you are coming from!

The reduced shelves are a blessing for those on a low income you can get some really good stuff. Last week my boyfriend and I got a gorgeous beef joint, that was just big enough for the two of us. Meat and veg is usually the best deals on reduced shelves, so keep your eyes peeled. Also don't be scared of Tesco value, I know the bread tastes like cardboard, but its not all bad, plus its cheap which is what you want. For good value chicken buy a big bag of individually packed frozen breasts.

P.S. I used to live in Somerset, where abouts are you from?

Roo bear-I'm from a town called Frome it's about 13 miles south of Bath or so. My mum gets asda smart price stuff which is good although I find bakery bread is cheaper, I can tell when she's short on money because there is nothing but green and white labels in the fridge and her cupboards. lol.

Peacock princess- I do have a lidl just down the road so I'll be popping in and seeing what they have to offer. I have had great experiences with them as I shopped there when I was a student...Although I'll admit my choices weren't entirely healthy.

I have developed some other tips on saving money.

1) If you buy bread, freeze the whole loaf then just take out a slice as and when, so you don't have to worry about it going mouldy.
2) Frozen bags of Iceland vegetables and chicken or vegetarian mince/quorn chicken pieces are a god send-I usually spend about £10 per week. I've found in iceland that vegetarian mince and quorn are cheaper to buy than actual chicken and taste really nice and have the added benefit of being lower in fat.
3)Try and shop at local shops like the bakery and fruit and veg shop-The other day I bought a cabbage the size of my head which is lasting forever for about £3 and 2 whole fresh pineapples for a £1. They are cheap and very often have reduced stock as well.

Again thank you for all your suggestions, they've really helped me out, and I'm becoming more adventurous with recipes while on a tight budget.

I know Frome, I didn't live too far from there, used to go there all the time. Has lots of nice little interesting shops.

Isobel - agree with you about Iceland - I buy my Quorn from there. However, I never buy fresh veg from there as it seems to be stored badly - oh and I bought some scheese there once that was mouldy! Quorn and eggs and frozen veg are fine though!

Supermarket value stirfries, fruit, frozen veg, frozen white fish, frozen chicken breasts, tinned soup, wholewheat couscous and porridge oats are what kept me going all year.

I'm a student and my housemates and I have a massive fridge and quite a small freezer, yet we never seem to have more than milk and fruit in the fridge and the freezer is always stacked haha! Its usually cheaper, quicker to cook and to me its a good enough substitute for fresh. Make sure to get in on as many offers as possible (my local Tesco's had a 2 for £3 on fresh soups that used to keep me going for a weeks worth of lunches!) and stock up on freezable bags or plastic containers so you can cook and freeze in batches (I made quorn chilli last week and I've got tons left that's gonna keep me going a good few weeks! just take it out to unfreeze before work)

Good luck!

Oh! and my other tip which I discovered last year as fresher: if you're not already on skimmed milk, swap to it now because it lasts longer than semi or whole. My friend and I reckon it's the lack of cream in it but whatever it is, I only drink milk in tea and a splash in porridge, so sometimes my 2 pint will have gone "off date" before I'm halfway through it but actually its fine and lasts me another week! I've literally never had to throw a bottle away of skimmed milk because its gone off so its worth swapping not just for the low-fat factor

hey

i know where your coming from the price of food now is so expensive!

i am just trying to cook more from scratch as this seems to work out cheaper.

yesterday i had a jamie oliver recepie for a simple pasta with tomotoes rocket and olives, very simple cheap and healthy. also i bought a big bag of stirfry veggies in sainsbury for 95 pence and it made about three meals for me and the hubby so very good value there :-)

much love

shaz

Try Martin Lewis's website, moneysavingexpert. The forums on there are stuffed with people on food budgets, it's an AWESOME place to get loads of ideas for cheap shopping, cleaning with vinegar etc. Moneysaving Old Style board is a lifesaver when the pennies are tight.