Living and eating well with diabetes on a budget - useful tips

[pavlosn]

Assuming one has the motivation and willpower to adopt the lifestyle and dietary changes necessary to control one's diabetes, there are still three main obstacles one must negotiate to achieve this:

- Knowledge constraints;you must know what action to take in order to take it.

- Time constraints; it takes time to find and or prepare the right meal, to exercise etc many convenience food options are no longer available.

- Cost constraints; it may cost more to buy and prepare the right food from scratch, particularly if living on your own and can not enjoy economies of scale. If you have to buy your own medication or testing material then that is also costly business.

This forum does an excellent job of educating people about how to manage their disease.

To try and help with the last two constraints, I thought that it was worth opening a thread to act as depository for practical tips on how someone on a budget can cut the cost of living and copying with diabetes for the benefit of those of us on a tighter budget.

Feel free to contribute any ideas you may have. These can be anything but could include:

- recipes for lower cost appropriate meals
- recipes for meals that can be frozen and reheated at a later time
- recipes for reusing leftover food from a previous meal.
- ways to cut the cost of testing glucose or ketones
- ways of cutting the time of preparing food
- any ready made/ convenience meals that are suitable and/or less costly
- any suitable choices for lunch when away from home
- anything else that you think might be useful to a diabetic on a budget whether monetary or time.

I thank you for your contributions.

Pavlos

 

[loulou99782]

Soups stew carries chilli can all be frozen and repeated later. Pounded or 99p shops in UK do some great lunch boxes for the freezer that can go in the microwave.

Sent from the Diabetes Forum App

 

[kimbo1962]

Every time I do roast chicken I use the carcus in the slow cooker to make stock for chicken and leek soup, once I've made it I portion up into post from poundland (like takeaway tubs) for the freezer. Yesterday while doing the dinner I blanched the greens, cauliflower and green beans I wasn't using and froze them too, so now I have several portions of veg ready in the freezer, instead of leaving to waste.
Will keep adding to this thread as and when I get ideas- great topic Pavlos!

 

[Squire Fulwood]

Stir fry meals need only have the amount of meat in them that you can afford. Although they really need a sauce I find that you don't have to use the whole sachet (since that is what I buy). I put the rest of the sachet in the freezer.

I do not freeze whole meals. I freeze the components of meals when I batch cook. Half a dozen omelettes separately placed into freezer bags. Eggs are not too dear. High quality sausages cooked and frozen and microwaved when needed. Saves on time cooking them all at once.

If you can find a strain of potato that does not spike you then mash with butter in to cut the GI further in cheap plastic pots and frozen. I admit I even do a couple of trays of roast potatoes, bag them up and freeze them.

Buying meat in those plastic trays can be dear. I feel as though I pay the shop to slice them up for me. I look for the offers of pork or beef joints and slice them into steaks myself. Amazing how many meals you can get out of it. This does not qualify under the economy of scale rule when you first buy it but it gives great pleasure to go the freezer for free for the next 6-12 meals.

Anyway my point is - freeze meal components and choose which ones you will have when you prepare lunch or whatever, or maybe just snack.

 

[graj0]

- Time constraints; it takes time to find and or prepare the right meal, to exercise etc many convenience food options are no longer available.

- Cost constraints; it may cost more to buy and prepare the right food from scratch, particularly if living on your own and can not enjoy economies of scale. If you have to buy your own medication or testing material then that is also costly business.

Great idea, I hope my little suggestions might help. I'm the house spouse (retired) and incredibly lazy when it comes to cooking, I do not enjoy standing in the kitchen for too long because of the old arthritic knees (now one less. . . . ).
I eat a large quantity of vegetables, not necessarily root vegetables which I tend to avoid. I can buy a bag of what they call Mediterranean vegetables (courgette, peppers, onions, mushrooms, tomatoes - 400gms total) for £1.50 and that's enough for 2 lunches. I throw them in a small frying pan with a small amount of olive oil or coconut oil and cook for 20 mins. Or I can buy all the ingredients from my town's Thursday market and chop it up myself, parking and diesel might be more than a few bags at £1.50 but it's fresher and lasts longer in the fridge.
I also eat cauliflower, broccoli, leaks and carrots and I have a wonderful electric steamer that I got for free after spending money with Cotton Traders for T-shirts (piques or something), so they must be cheap to begin with. It makes cooking so much easier and arguable better because you don't boil the nutrients out of the vegetable.
I'd be lost without my slow cooker, a leaving present from a firm I worked for in 1986 (that's how long it's lasted). Just chuck the food in and leave it for 5, 6 hours or more. I'll eat stews all year round, probably because even our summer isn't great, how cold is it in Cyprus during the winter?
Just some little ideas, hope it helps a bit.

 

[pavlosn]

How cold is it in Cyprus during the winter?.

Hi @graj0

Thank you for your response. Much appreciated.

To answer your question, in comparison to more northern climes we have mild winters. It will get colder in January and February but for now daytime temperatures are quite high.

With little cloud cover it does get considerably colder at night but still well above freezing. We only ever get snow on top of the mountains.

Best bit about it to be honest is the sunshine.

We get something ridiculous like 330-340 days of sunshine a year. Even rainy days only feature storms that last for a few hours and the sun does break through at some point.

The flip side is that it does get very hot in the summer, particularly inland where I live it can get in the forties in July- August. A bit cooler in the coastal towns.

Pavlos

 

[Brunneria]

Bacon offcuts
homemade yogurt
frozen berries, not fresh
fruit bought in season and frozen for later
buying from market stalls not supermarkets
make your own hummus and taramasalata
make your own kale crisps and onion crisps
special deals on tuna tins (there's often one brand with a brilliant deal at any one time)

There are also some really bad false economies too - things that you think will make a saving, but end up spiking bg terribly
things like:
chicken goujons (usually mashed chicken bits stuck together with high carb goo)
fish chopped, squished and shoved in batter (like fish fingers)
anything you DON'T like - it will just get shoved to the back, ignored and then get thrown when out of date
expensive individual portions - when possible, buy in bulk
ready meals have to be one of the most money-wasting ideas in the history of the universe. if you actually look at the ingredients, the portion size and the nutrition, you can usually make 5 decent meals for the price of one of their silly, minute, carb-padded trays.

 

[pavlosn]

anything you DON'T like - it will just get shoved to the back, ignored and then get thrown when out of date

Thanks @Brunneria for some wonderful contributions.

The above has to be my favorite as it goes hand in hand with my own philosophy that in order to stick to a diet or exercise regime it is important that we enjoy it. It is much easier to do something that is good for us because we enjoy doing it, than it is if we just do it because we know it is good for us.

Pavlos

 

[AnnieC]

Buy Burgen bread from Iceland for a £1 costs up to £1.65 in the supermarkets. Afraid that is about the extent of my being cost effective apart from shopping in Lidl and Aldi which is cheaper than the big supermarkets especially for meat. As there is only two of us I do not find buying stuff in bulk then cooking and freezing it is any more cost effective than cooking us a meal from scratch every day but.it probably is for larger families

 

[angelicbaby]

Lidl are currently selling a Stew pack, with Parsnip, small/medium Swede, 4/5 Carrots and a medium Onion for £1. Don't know if this is ok for you Low-Carbers but those that are GI/GL friendly this is a good deal. I made a beautiful stew with it and got 4/5 big servings.

 

[tim2000s]

We also operate the buy in bulk when in season and cheap and stick in the freezer. We do this with things like peppers and aubergines to provide a source for the winter. Also basics like buy whole chickens, strip as much meat off as you can for roast, then curry or something similar, and then use the carcass for soup.

Also, buy cheap meat cuts - beef shin for example, and use slow cooking techniques to get tender, tasty dishes at a fraction of the cost of more expensive cuts.

 

[noblehead]

Shop in the budget stores such as Aldi & Lidl, the fruit & vegetables are much cheaper than the likes of Tesco's and Asda.

 

[izzzi]

My tip would be . write down your shopping list and stick to it. Do not to eye buy. ( you can be permitted to get veg and fruit with yellow labels if it is a real bargain.)
There is far many Christmas gimmicks around that you really don't need.
Merry Christmas, from Scrooge.

 

[AndBreathe]

How's the knee coming along @graj0 ?

 

[cold ethyl]

Buy frozen cauliflower for making cauli mash. It's only 99p on the Asda smart price range and is perfectly ok for mashing with cheese and butter to top a shepherds' pie or accompany stew or sausages.
Always make extra portions of stew or curries - easy in the slow cooker- and freeze for a quick meal later on. I bulk out the meat with slices of chorizo ( the rings are cheap in Aldi and as nice as some of the more expensive ones I've tried) , or cans of chickpeas or other beans- they don't spike me much and and are filing.
Like brunneria I make my own hummus and I also make my own tomato and onion salsas to have with curries. Just finely chop a red onion and a large tomato and pop in dish with lime juice or lemon juice, tsp mint sauce from jar and a sprinkle chopped coriander. Similarly make raita with cheap natural yogurt and tsp mint sauce and some chopped cucumber.
Buy tins at Aldi as much cheaper than Asda.

 

[Brunneria]

Been thinking about this thread...

Possibly the best advice I can think of is buy the basic ingredients and cook from scratch.
Every step the the food it processed before it reaches you, bumps up the price.

 

[AndBreathe]

Been thinking about this thread...

Possibly the best advice I can think of is buy the basic ingredients and cook from scratch.
Every step the the food it processed before it reaches you, bumps up the price.

And Keep it Simple............. (What's the 4th letter?)

 

[pavlosn]

Perhaps someone could post the link and discount codes for the freestyle meter and test strips please.

I would myself but I do not have them.

Thank you

Pavlos

 

[Kezzer4321]

Another way to make it cheaper... Eat out at friends and neighbours

 

[douglas99]

I buy whatever is on offer.
I never plan a meal.
Anything on the reduced shelf.
I had an excellent selection of veg, meat, fish, all down to 5p recently.

I don't use butter, minimal low fat cheese, but instead tend to flavour with dried spices and herbs, although I do have a selection of lemon grass, lime leaves, ginger purée, garlic purée, and fresh, dried, and bottled chilis.

I don't mind repetition. A decent meat, or fish, and veg base can be a chilli, or a curry, or a decent stew, if I make a big pot of the base.

Most veg gets recycled. Any thing from any meal is fridged, and normally it gets put into the pot on friday, depending on what the main bulk is, it'll be turned into another meal to suite.
Same with leftover meat and fish.
Even most salad stuff, apart from maybe lettuce, ends up in it as well.

Even tins of 'stewing steak' from poundland, (once I filter out the fat and gristle) have gone in to make a reasonable meal.

Really it's just using whatever is in the fridge, that'd be going off.
I rarely use a recipe, even when baking I rarely measure, I prefer to taste the food, and season accordingly

I tend not to fry, so stir fries whilst quick, tend to be more steamed, but I can cook one in few minutes, so they're good when there is nothing else about.
More heavy on the sauce though, rather than the dry oily type.