Lower carb on a budget

I reckon a lot would depend on what kitchen equipment they have. Freezer? Slow cooker? For example.

My top tip would be "learn to cook". Avoid processed foods and ready meals. Buying them is like employing staff to prepare your food. Do it yourself.

Aldi and Lidl are great for raw ingredients. Batch cooking will save time and money. If you see a whoopsie/yellow sticker item, buy it and get creative.

Snacks - I never leave home without a bag of nuts so am never tempted to buy snacks when I'm out. I buy big bags of almonds then throw a few into a sandwich bag.

I don't particularly low carb, but the same applies to any healthy diet.

Fresh veg, the basics, rather than the organic.
Lots of veg is cheaper than meat, but end of date meat is ok, I buy it when it's there, and freeze it, but use it asap.
Separate it into portion sized amounts first though, I once froze 2kg of chicken portions, and had to live off chicken for a week when I defrosted it.
A catch 22 with spending, buy in bulk, once you get the ball rolling on that, you can use the savings on the next shop to buy another item in bulk.
Could mean a few boring weeks first though.
A lot of herbs and spices can change a basic meal, from a chinese, to a chili, to a curry, with much the same ingredients.

Lunchtime snacks are always going to be difficult. I've never found a decent 'snack' you can buy, or pre prepare, that can take sitting in my car for a summer morning. Fruit, so long as you don't need to buy it out, as 50p to £1 for a banana or an apple in the canteen is way too much.
Home made sandwich, now the weather is better, if you're ok with Burgen bread, but that's still pricey.

It would be interesting to see suggestions for 'budget' food, as my daughter is at uni now, After paying her rent, and buying a bus pass. she has £3.97 a week left of her grant to live on. As a typical student, she also has a 5kg bag of pasta, and 18 jars of sauce we got from the wholesaler, (end of shelf life), for 12p each, rather than £1.20, and a bulk 2.5kg bag of grated cheese for £4. (Not a good suggestion for low carb though).
She spends the day at the uni, 10 to 6, so normally eats what is in the canteen, and doesn't particularly want to carry a large lunch box around all day, or on the bus, along with all her books, laptop, Or takes smaller, energy dense, dry, (in case of spillage in her bag, some of the books are up to £100, and she intends to sell them on), snacks.

Firstly, I'd comment that we all have budgets, just some are more generous than others, and I would observe that a bigger the budget, doesn't necessarily mean the diner eats any better. How many trolleys have you seen checking out at Asda/Tesco/Waitrose/Morrisons where there's hardly any real food. Perhaps a bit of dairy, but fresh meat or veg?

But, moving on.

A decent store cupboard, and spice rack makes things much easier. My slow cooker went on this morning by 8am, having spent probably 15 minutes preparing the ingredients, with a batch of stewing steak, in curry format. The meat was bought at the local farm shop, so although a cheaper cut, not the cheapest source, but it's soooo good. Aside from the spices (chilli powder, cumin, coriander, turmeric, garlic, ground ginger, cloves, cardamom pods, black pepper and cloves), the ingredients probably cost under £5 (braising steak, yoghurt, onion, vegetable oil), and will be 4 or 5 portions. It smells fabulous, and I'll be able to eat whenever I feel ready for it this evening, without delays, and with minimal effort.

I'm not suggesting this is the most perfect recipe, but it's quick, flavoursome and should be fine after freezing.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/aromatic_beef_curry_90850

Braising steak, onion and yoghurt isn't the full meal though. So it's about a £1 a portion/person, for just the meat side, then rice for non lowcarbers, or a more expensive option for others, even with no other accompaniments.

Quick look at the recipe, for the really tight budget, there's also a can of tomatoes, and probably £1 worth of the spices, garlic, herbs in the quantity in there. All pushes it up a bit.

I'd probably suggest using pork or chicken, beef is quite expensive at the moment, even for cheaper cuts.

if you go to the supermarkets toward the end of the day, you can sometimes find reduced items such as meat, fish and veggies much cheaper. they usually have an area at the end of an isle or label things reduced on the shelves. these items usually have the same days use buy but I find if you are careful, they are still fresh-either cook on the or freeze immediately. be careful with fish and prawns though and always inspect food carefully for freshness. butchers meat can also sometimes be cheaper

Home made yoghurt.

You can't look past Aldi & Lidl for cheap fruit and veg, also the meat (especially Aldi) is much cheaper than the likes of Tesco etc.

With regards to berries, frozen ones are much cheaper than fresh and probably are more nutritious, was never a fan of frozen blueberries but have got use to them now, fresh blueberries in the winter can get ridiculously expensive and I'd rather go without than pay what some supermarkets charge, the frozen berries never seem to vary in price no matter what the season is.

Sometimes I shop for two weeks ...and make meals to freeze ...all harder work I know but it can work out cheaper at times ...but easy for me to say because I am a veggie and I can make a lot out of veggies and lentils ...
I collect tins of chickpeas etc when they are on offer and try to keep in extras .....
I prefer fresh veg where possible for soups frozen veg can be just fine...

Interesting this thread because we are all on budgets ( not all the same ) and the food we may want to buy , we may not always be able to ...
Great to share tips and ideas though .....share where the offers are ....

Bags of frozen veg and berries ensure none of it goes to waste. Shopping in the evening when fresh meat veg and fruit gets reduced in price.
Value tins of chopped tomatoes make a good base for sauces.

If you usually buy a branded/luxury product, try the shops own for one week. If you usually buy the shops own, try the shop's "value" product for a week. Worth trying to see if you like/can live with the cheaper product and save yourself a bit of money. If you can't, at least you've tried it.

Home cooked meals can be made in large batches with reduced price ingredients and frozen in portions for future eating so you don't have to repeatedly eat the same thing over and over. Of course that means you need access to a decent freezer.

Actually just has a result.
In Morrison's on the way home, king prawns reduced to £1.55, if I was on a tight budget, it would probably stretch to two or three meals worth, with veg, peppers, onion etc, but I have decided fry a few cloves of garlic in butter, toss in the prawns to warm through, then have with a slice of rye bread for my evening meal.
Also picked up half a dozen beef sausage, from their signature range, for £1.59. Probably brown them in the George Foreman, slice them, and dry stir fry them with onions, peppers, green beans, and whatever else is in the fridge tomorrow.

I am a low and more medium carb diet....but yes ...more expensive ...
I use just one teaspoon of flax seed a day ...but it is not cheap ....
I think you have made a very good point about the cost ....
Interesting question .....

Even the quality of food you can buy goes down.
Mince meat from the steroid fed scrapings that no one else wants, high nitrate intensively farmed frozen veg, chopped into unidentifiable cubes.
'Vegatable' oil from non specified sources.
It may be low carb, but it's probably not nutritionally good.

This is why I have some sympathy for the NHS 'healthy plate' as most of the time I'm been in the diabetes clinics here, they are dealing with 'turkey twizzlers', and mars bars for lunch, and no money left over after that.

I think a classic diet of no sugar, no donuts, etc.
A diet of omission to start.
Interestingly, I have a customer, who is a surgeon, and his father is T2. He has suggested a mainly vegetarian diet which works well for his father.
So for a family, certainly processed food is cheap, but a good start is the healthy veg, fruit for snacks, porridge rather than sugar coated cereals,
All the usual suspects here.

donnellysdogs said:

The family I refer to are carb, junk foodholics. Unbelievable. I think they will be beyond my help tbh....the kids have never ate fruit except the strawberries from my garden!! Thats it. Have told dad how to add up carbs and to go for 200!!! As currently double this..he wont go to gp either...
He is interested in lowering carbs but the "feeder" in the house (his partner) is not....

I guess there's some people that just are so addicted to the carbs that they will never be able to change?

The surgeon by me ..(foot in mouth and plain speaking) got told as his partner so thin he must be shovelling too much food!!! Made him laugh, but still requested recipes n diet that we eat.

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I never really found carbs 'addictive'
I still don't. I ate a lot, but it was more habit, and something to do.
I also liked high fat, like bacon, pepperoni, cheese, just food!
As to carbs now, I eat them when I need to, even junk, but can easily put them down again.
I just count the calories, and balance it out.
I believe it's simply routine, and people always do what they're used to.
It's one of the principle's of the Newcastle Diet, remove the food, then re-introduce a new diet.
Once you break the cycle, it's relatively easy to make a change, the hard part is breaking the cycle.
That's why the 'eatwell' plate is touted by the NHS. It tricks people into thinking it's a healthy plan, but it also retains a lot of familiar foods, but it does leave out the really bad sugary stuff.
And when people start eating 'healthy' they gain an interest in being 'healthy', and start to build on it.
Exercise, even better diet, it snowballs from there.
It may not be the gold standard, but you have to ask, is it better than they're eating now?

Yes I can see where you are coming from ....it is a starting point for a lot of people ....
And who,can buy flour like low carb flour and good quality sugar sweeteners , when they may not even bake ...just buy everything ...substitutes can be very expensive .....
Yes people do need to be interested in what they eat ....that is a good point ...

Kat100 said:

Yes I can see where you are coming from ....it is a starting point for a lot of people ....
And who,can buy flour like low carb flour and good quality sugar sweeteners , when they may not even bake ...just buy everything ...substitutes can be very expensive .....
Yes people do need to be interested in what they eat ....that is a good point ...

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Who knows what 'low carb' flour is?
ground almonds?
seriously?
Almonds?
Like marzipan under icing on cakes?
Next to the jam doughnuts in the cake section?

We aren't 'normal', that's what we often forget.