Is it possible to eat healthy on £10 a week as a vegan?

[LionSpirit]

...and in a way that fills me up? By "healthy", I don't mean "weight loss"; despite adverts suggesting the contrary, the two are not the same thing. I'm underweight already (even when I was a meat eater; high metabolic rate). I mean getting plenty of nutrients.

On an omnivorous diet, I've discovered by buying Tesco Value food I can easily spend LESS than a tenner a week and have lots of food and enough money left over for non-food essentials like toothpaste. Can I do the same now I'm a vegan?

[cstadt]

You just have to use specialty vegan items sparingly.
Don't buy frozen, prepackaged, or boxed meals. You'll have to do more cooking but it's cheaper that way.

buy dried staples like rice and beans.
Bread can be found cheap but I'm not sure how common vegan bread is in the UK.

Buy in season veggies and fruits because they'll probably be cheaper. Local may be cheaper too but I have no idea what produce is grown where in the UK

Frozen may be cheaper than fresh, and canned may be cheaper still but I always use canned as a last resort, personally. It's hard to find canned veggies without salt in them down here. The no-salt veggies are usually over a dollar more than the others

[MrFalafel]

I would say that would be quite easy if you had the time to cook for yourself from scratch.

You can get big bags of dried pulses and rice that last for weeks for not much money per week. Rice + legumes = protein. Add to that frozen veg and cheap tins of tomatoes and you can make all sorts of things really cheap and easy. With flour, salt and yeast you can bake your own bread.

Here's a very interesting thread on how to feed a family for a month for £20! Lots of tips, many of them are not veggie, but easily adaptable. http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=1129333

[Miso Jace]

if there's a lidl or aldi near you, they do fresh fruit & veg pretty damn cheap.

as the others have said, you'll need to do more prep & cooking but buying bags of rice, beans, pulses, pasta etc will help you save money, and just adding your own vegetables etc.

[Begonia]

Hi there! To all the excellent suggestions above, I would add: try to get whole grain products (pasta, bread, flour) as much as possible for maximum nutrition. Buying in bulk and from places where you serve yourself. Also seeds (sunflower, sesame) and quinoa. This latter item which though more expensive provides a lot of minerals and protein and can be sprouted. Also: look into sprouting grains, beans and pulses that lend themselves to it for added vitamins, especially when vegetables are more expensive and less available. You can sprout greens with sunflower seeds, unhulled buckwheat, etc., using containers with earth and covering with wet newspaper until they begin to grow then removing newspaper.

[The Lurker]

when I were a poor student back in t'90's I used to live on £20/week (including beer!!) - all I ate was vegetable soup or rice, potatoes or pasta with curried baked beans or curried spaghetti hoops, then chips and a macaroni pie at 2am.

A varie ddiet it was not but it made me tha man I am today . . .

[LionSpirit]

Thanks everyone. Posted a few replies below, but also does anyone by any chance have a list of all the healthy food I could buy from places, totalling under a tenner (eg. Tesco Value Rice £_._p, Sainsbury's Pasta £_. _ etc... total £10/£9.97/etc)? Asking a lot I know but worth a try :)


You just have to use specialty vegan items sparingly.
Don't buy frozen, prepackaged, or boxed meals. You'll have to do more cooking but it's cheaper that way.

buy dried staples like rice and beans.
Bread can be found cheap but I'm not sure how common vegan bread is in the UK.

Buy in season veggies and fruits because they'll probably be cheaper. Local may be cheaper too but I have no idea what produce is grown where in the UK

Frozen may be cheaper than fresh, and canned may be cheaper still but I always use canned as a last resort, personally. It's hard to find canned veggies without salt in them down here. The no-salt veggies are usually over a dollar more than the others


if there's a lidl or aldi near you, they do fresh fruit & veg pretty damn cheap.

as the others have said, you'll need to do more prep & cooking but buying bags of rice, beans, pulses, pasta etc will help you save money, and just adding your own vegetables etc.

Where do I get cheap big bags of rice and pulses though? In Tesco buying several bags of Tesco value rice works out cheaper than buying one of their normal brand massive bags. And vegan bread is very common in the UK - more so than the USA. Virtually every loaf is vegan in the UK.

I'm not bothered about the amount of salt intake. It's good for your brain and despite what the government say about it, I've never heard of someone dying from "a heart attack caused by salt intake"). Plus the amounts they list are just guidelines anyway, and unlike every other nutrient that they give guidelines for, there's no difference in the amounts listed for men and women. So I reckon I should be fine with about 10grams of salt a day.


I would say that would be quite easy if you had the time to cook for yourself from scratch.

You can get big bags of dried pulses and rice that last for weeks for not much money per week. Rice + legumes = protein. Add to that frozen veg and cheap tins of tomatoes and you can make all sorts of things really cheap and easy. With flour, salt and yeast you can bake your own bread.

Here's a very interesting thread on how to feed a family for a month for £20! Lots of tips, many of them are not veggie, but easily adaptable. http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=1129333

If I bake my own bread will the amount of loaves cost less than 38p a loaf? It's currently 38p for a loaf of white Tesco Value bread (I think wholemeal is about 45p).


Hi there! To all the excellent suggestions above, I would add: try to get whole grain products (pasta, bread, flour) as much as possible for maximum nutrition. Buying in bulk and from places where you serve yourself. Also seeds (sunflower, sesame) and quinoa. This latter item which though more expensive provides a lot of minerals and protein and can be sprouted. Also: look into sprouting grains, beans and pulses that lend themselves to it for added vitamins, especially when vegetables are more expensive and less available. You can sprout greens with sunflower seeds, unhulled buckwheat, etc., using containers with earth and covering with wet newspaper until they begin to grow then removing newspaper.

The whole grain stuff seems to cost more, often a lot more. For example a packet of Tesco value normal pasta is around 43p. There isn't a Tesco Value wholemeal pasta. And what are the places where you serve yourself?


when I were a poor student back in t'90's I used to live on £20/week (including beer!!) - all I ate was vegetable soup or rice, potatoes or pasta with curried baked beans or curried spaghetti hoops, then chips and a macaroni pie at 2am.

A varie ddiet it was not but it made me tha man I am today . . .

I can live on a tenner a week if I buy rubbish. But I wanna get more nutrition. Specifically I wanna get fatter.

[hoodedclawjen]

yeah, you can do it. economy baked beans are wicked cheap. so is bread. and big bags of potatoes. try broadening your horizons beyond tescos. and go about 30 minutes before closing and check out the marked down stuff thats just about to hit its BBE date- sometimes things get marked buy one get one free, then marked down to 5p each, and the epos system to process the free version is screwed up and they end up giving you money at the till to take them away. thats always fun.

[Jon_Veggie]

I would imagine basing meals around rice and dried beans, dried herbs and spices (which last for a while), cheap tofu from Chinese supermarkets and fruit and veg from local markets or greengrocers would be a good starting point.

You may find this link helpful:

http://www.frugal.org.uk/recipes.html

[Miso Jace]

Where do I get cheap big bags of rice and pulses though? In Tesco buying several bags of Tesco value rice works out cheaper than buying one of their normal brand massive bags.

that's what i meant by 'big' bags, sorry m'dear i should have been clearer.

[.ghost.]

You can plan your shopping from here (http://www.mysupermarket.co.uk/) if you're shoppnig in Asda or Tesco and add up the total if it would be any help to stop you going over budget.

Also, depending on how close you like to supermarkets, if you shop everyday you can get all the almost past of 'best before' date reduced. Obviously if you have to spend money to travel there it might not be ideal though.

Peanut butter is usually fairly cheap and is calorie dense.

Also, asda is generally cheaper than Tesco so if there's one near go there instead of Tesco.

[queenarmadillo]

I would avoid massive bags; you will need to spend more than £10 per week on a massive house to store them all in if you are only feeding 1 person, and you're right, value bags etc. are cheaper.
Go for value rice, lentils, pasta, flour as your staple starches to keep in. The largest value bags they do I would say; it will be more than £10 as an initial investment, but 1 bag of lentils lasts me about 1 month so in the long run, if you stick to the staples you will be well under the £10 per week threshold.
I dont think making your own bread is cheaper than tescos value bread, but for more unusual items such as dumplings, bagels, tortillas etc. you might find it is cheaper to do your own (if you are a decent cook and dont waste 90% of your ingredients on failed attempts).
Own brand tinned veg is a godsend when trying to live cheap. Be realistic about how much you need though. If you want to make a pizza and a pasta sauce in 1 week, dont buy the supersize tomato tin cos it will be wasted so is a false economy.Mulitpacks are awesome though cos tins dont go off.
Herbs and spices turn boring meals (lentil dal, pasta sauce etc.) into far more interesting affairs, and whilst you could easily spend £10 just setting yourself up with indian and italian seasoning stapels, my curry spices have lasted over a year, and my herbs do about 4 months. You could also try growing herbs in a pot if you do better at watering than me.
Fresh fruit/veg is good for health; try to look out for special offers and plan your meals around them; helps with the budget and the balanced diet. Also they usually have date of expiry salad stuff VERY cheap, so try to plan to eat salad in the evening after your supermarket trip, and thats a meal for under £1.

Limit intake of dietary replacers (soy milk, fake meat etc) as that is the only place where you are still likely to pay full price every time you shop.

When I lived alone, I would say I spent about £20 per week on food as a veggie, and that involved a lot of fake meat and name brands, and didnt involve any budgeting at all.
When I went significantly over that it would be because of some special cookery project I got into my head when I usually ended up accidentally catering for about 5 people, or expensive impulse purchases (e.g. fancy stuffed tortelini at £3 per pack).

[LovelyPerv]

I recently read an omni article about eating healthy on a budget in light of the economy. Experts fear that more people will turn to cheaper unhealthy foods, thinking that healthy foods are too expensive.

Google this guy: Dr. Adam Drewnowski

His point is that "Eating healthy" doesn't mean exotic foods...and that more common foods pack a pretty big punch nutritionally, such as: Value bags of potatoes, value bags of small red apples, dried beans, dry rice, iceberg lettuce, etc...

Personally, I'm blowing the dust off of some old canning jars to try and sprout some dried beans I have stored in my kitchen (blackeye peas, chickpeas, pinto beans, lentils, and lima beans) I also read about seeds/grains that can be sprouted...whole wheat, oat groats, fenugreek, whole rye, quinoa, etc... These items I buy very cheap at ethnic food stores.

Remember, a lot of the dry bulk items you can find at health food stores are 1/10th the price if you go to an ethnic store... You know, the places where if you have a question they have to find the English-speaking employee. They have GREAT bargains!!!

[.ghost.]

Remember, a lot of the dry bulk items you can find at health food stores are 1/10th the price if you go to an ethnic store... You know, the places where if you have a question they have to find the English-speaking employee. They have GREAT bargains!!!

I agree with htis statement a lot! Some of the bags of grains in the ethnic food store in town are stupidly cheap compared to supermarket ones!

[Duke Nukem]

My top tip for fresh fruit and veg is to avoid supermarkets if you have a proper market available. Here in Brum we have a market with tons of fruit and veg and it is significantly cheaper than the supermarket. The cost of course is the time spent wandering around the market.

If tied to supermarkets, never buy packaged fresh foods as the price-per-Kg usually doubles or more for having it packaged.

I think a big problem though with such a tight budget is getting started; making in bulk and freezing portions is fine, but of course you have to buy that first bulk !

If you know someone else who could share shopping that might help. They need not be on a similar budget but you can share on all those two-for-one offers such as oranges where alone you'd stand no chance of getting through all that fruit before it went off.


Remember, a lot of the dry bulk items you can find at health food stores are 1/10th the price if you go to an ethnic store...

Entirely agree.

TTFN,
Jon

[Indian Summer]

To all the excellent suggestions above, I would add: try to get whole grain products (pasta, bread, flour) as much as possible for maximum nutrition.
I'm not sure I would be too concerned about that. It's probably good to get at least some whole grain products, but on the other hand they have a lot of fiber and I'm not sure underweight people should eat too much of that. Also, white rice has actually longer shelf-life than whole grain rice. (But that's probably unlikely to be a problem unless you buy really big bags.)

[Andromache]

Tofu + rice + vegetables = cheap and healthy meal.

[singing hinnie]

Try and find a local food co-op, to get your veggies from. Our local community center runs one once a week and it's brill. Most are run as non for profit business so tend to sell good quality veg at astounding low prices.

Also the cheapest place to get tofu is Chiness supermarkets. You can buy fresh blocks at around half the of price supermarket ones. Then use what you need and freeze the rest.

I would also try and grow some salad leaves and herbs on a window sill/box/backyard or garden. You don't need much, some compost, a couple of pots or trays (old mushroom trays are fine) and a couple of packs of seeds and your away.

Good luck

[LionSpirit]

I agree with htis statement a lot! Some of the bags of grains in the ethnic food store in town are stupidly cheap compared to supermarket ones!

What's an ethnic store?

[MrFalafel]

What's an ethnic store?

Its a store that sells ethnic orientated foods. For example, I go shopping in Chinatown in Manchester every so often to buy Chinese food ingredients I can't get elsewhere. They also have great deals on rice, much cheaper than Tesco etc.

Here's one:

http://www.woosang.co.uk/



There are also similar type of shops that sell South Asian cuisine and Afro Carribean cuisine and more.

[Andromache]

I love the Chinese supermarkets in Manchester, too.

[EphemeralPanda]

wow great thread, lots of amazing tips!

[yally]

So out of interest, how are you getting on LionSpirit? Are you finding it possible to eat a healthy, vegan diet on £10 a week? :)

[LionSpirit]

yally, not very well. I don't really know what to make out of those things, I'm kinda confuzzled. I needs a personal shopper :)

But they is espensive (it was gonna say 'expensive', but 'espensive' sounds better)

[Toast]

Some great advice here. I have noticed my shopping seems to be more expensive lately so I should take these tips on board too.

If you are in the UK the 99p shop sometimes has spices/ rice/ lentils /gram flour etc (all for 99p unsurprisingly.)