Food shopping on a budget while trying to diet

A question about : Food shopping on a budget while trying to diet

Tried to search the thread and could not find a topic like this - apologies if I have missed it?

In attempt number 7618761365581 to diet I have recently became a proud owner of a food steamer - that is after trying every diet under the sun, including WW, Slimfast, Slimming World, Lighterlife, Lipotrim etc etc.. and failing misearably.

So will try to do it solo - with my steamer.

But have you noticed how all that is healthy is expensive?

Fresh fish, free range chicken, fresh fruits and vegetables are a small fortune.

I work full time and have to rush home to my dog (yes, I know.... sad... but hey this is my life) so do not really have the time (or energy) to cruise around various places to pick bits here and bits there. Also I have no shop or market anywhere within walking distance so any shopping involves but trips and a lot of time which I rather spend walking the dog 9and loosing calories this way ) Tend to do all my shopping at Asda.

Anyone on a budget and trying to diet? Any suggestions?

Daughter is going away for summer for 2 months so will be just one fat me at home and won't have to cook twice so hoping to use that time and oportunity to get rid of some fallby bits.

Any receipes? For a steamer or not, for cheap low calorie meals?

Thanks a lot.

Best answers:

• Not really on a food front, but if you are trying to loose weight what sort of exercise do you do ? ....... other than dog walking lol!
  Regarding the food well the usual suggestions would be:
  1. try butcher for meat (often cheaper and more helpful staff).
  2. reduced section (try it every time you are in- you might be surprised!)
  3. pulses/beans etc- can be low fat and also a lot cheaper than meat every meal
  4. buy veg in season and eat that
  5. grow your own (even small scale on a window sill, eg tomato plants, lettuce, peppers, chillis)
  6. freeze any leftovers and then have a freezer surprise day!
  7. quorn products are a good meat substitute, healthier, cheaper and often on offer.
  8. buy frozen veggies- just as good as fresh and a good stand by!
  Okay, thats all for now, not sure if it helps or not but I thought I'd at least reply!
• Lidl is brill at the moment for fruits and vegetables.
  Also the free range/organic stuff is expensive, i only buy this if in the reduced section.
• OrkneyStar and Lilmrsmullen thanks for your posts.
  You mean any exercise other then 3 hours dog walking per day with a pedometer? LOL Got a stepper too, you think I should use that too?
  ;-)
  Have no decent butcher or fishmonger or veg/fruit market anywhere near by - or a supermarket for that matter so really order my shopping online which does not have reduced section
  Have nowhere to grow anything - if I try indoors cat or dog will have it....
  Always freeze things.
  Have to try that quorn one day....
  Beans are good idea, love beans
  Got 2 stone to loose - I guess it is the 40th birthday approaching fast (late August) that got me in that mode LOL
• Oh, another reply and in PINK LOL
  Thanks a lot
• How aboutorridge for breakfast, made with water,very cheap.
  Then home made veg soup for lunch,just veggies and stock very low calorie and inexpensive, lots of low fat pulses for supper with rice.I lost a stone last year on a similar diet.
  hope that helps. Good luck
• How about buying a whole chicken, you can have it with some veg (roasted) the first day, and other days have maybe a chicken salad (I'm weird and like fruit in salad lol), then maybe you could make a chicken soup (stock from bones)?
  Aldi are really good for their 6 fruit/veg that are on offer every week... Fruit like apples and bananas are always pretty cheap for snacks.
• Jacket potatoes - with low fat cottage cheese and freshly cut chives (from a chives herb pot you could have in your window sill). Mustard is also interesting with a potato and is very low in calories. Could eat with a salad (buy heads of lettuce, not bags for better quality and cheaper).
  Homemade soups with beans/pulses with salad for lunches or tea.
• Nooney, BC3000, JenniO - thanks a lot for your ideas.......all great
  I know Aldi is great but haven't got one for miles from me buuuuuuuuuuuuu
  Got LIDL on the way back from work though where I change from tube for bus so will be shoping there now.
  Whole chicken sounds great but I do not like chicken breast only legs and tights LOL
  Trying to work out my own meny accoring to Green/Red days re one of the diet clubs - found the book at home from days when I tried it and failed as I was trying to follow their receipes and they proved to be just simply way to expensive to maintain.
  But gouing to follow the "rules" and make my own stuff - hate ready meals, always cook at home and after a month, still in love with my steamer.. vegs and fish tastes great
  Thanks a gain
• Buy chicken legs and thighs (not breasts - expensive) and only when they're reduced. Then freeze the ones you're not going to use.
  Chicken is lovely and lean, and very versatile. I love making chicken chowder.
  Boil your chicken legs/thighs for as long as possible to make a tasty stock (remove the skin and skim the top of fat regularly!). Then take them out and pick the meat from the bones. It will fall off without much effort.
  Chop up loads of onions (you can get a bag of basics ones for very cheap that will last a couple of weeks) then fry them in low fat spray oil at a very low temp. When they have sweated a bit, stick your chicken in there with the stock (freeze what you don't use for another day).
  Pick any veggies you want, whatever's cheap. Basics mushrooms are a bargain, and they bulk it up. Carrots are dirt cheap as well. Frozen sweetcorn is gorgeous, as is broccoli. After the veggies are cooked, add a bit of flour mixed with milk at a time to thicken it (this replaces the cream and still tastes gorgeous). If it tastes bland, add a stock cube.
  If you really want to bulk it up, add some egg noodles (really cheap at Asian food stores, although dried ones are not too bad either in the supermarket) and serve it when everything's nice and hot.
  Best thing about it, stick it in a tupperware and freeze it/keep it in the fridge for another day!
  I also make a seafood one as those mixed cooked seafood packs are 2 for Ј5 at the moment at Sainsbury's and each soup I make makes at least 4 bowls so is very cost effective. Great for using whatever's kicking around in the fridge to minimise waste!
  I'm a student but won't eat ready meals since MSG and stuff makes me feel sick as a dog and I love healthy eating. So it's all about balancing cost and health for me, as well as being able to have fast food after a day at work. To be able to just microwave some soup you made the night before is a real joy.
  My advice, stock up on the cheap basics vegetables like onions, carrots and peas and just go crazy making soups, risottos and stews. As long as you're not eating junk food, the weight will fall off you, because it's all home made and full of vitamins.
• Hi, If I want to shed a few pounds I start of with cutting out Alcohol and junk food, and eat wholemeal bread, pasta, and brown rice. I also try to drink more water and herbal teas. Could you plan a rough menu natural yog with a few tablespoons museli, or fruit for breakfast is nice. Salad bits would last a few days, with a few seeds and some fish, sardines, tuna, tinned mackeral, or some chicken. I think variety is the key with healthy eating. Look for offers online. Sainsbury's has tiger prawns on offer Bogoff. Summer is here so take advantage of offers on seasonal veg and fruit. Good luck. I'm confident you will soon get into the swing of things.
• The most amazing thing I've found for dieting is White Tea. Similar to Green Tea (which I'm sure will work just as well), drink 4 cups a day and shed weight without changing your diet at all, as it boosts your metabolism.
  It's no miracle cure, but see it as a supplement to your diet and exercise plan and you'll see a great improvement as it boosts metabolism, keeps you drinking plenty of water (eliminating water retention), keeps you occupied (ending boredom eating) and stops you getting so hungry.
  There's a reason so many wannabe-drugs manufacturers grind it up and shove it into pills, because they want to take advantage of the properties. But it's best for you to drink it, as it is amazingly helpful not only for weight loss, but for preventing all kinds of illnesses, including most cancers.
  https://www.jingtea.co.uk has some really nice green and white teas at wholesale prices. I drink the Silver Needle tea, which is the most expensive in the world, but the price here is insanely cheap, considering it's Ј20 a cup in Harrods, and when you taste it, you'll know why.
  And I find I lose weight within a day or two when I have it.
• NattyVee - good receipes but I am trying to loose weight not to gain any (fried onuions, noodle etc LOL) thanks anyway
  Cornishpixie - thanks, I actually do not drink at all so nothing to cut on there I also do not eat seefood at all, can nto take the smell of prawns etc.. Love "normal " fish though
  NattyVee - I have white tea at home, same as green tea and red bush and876538659 other varieties, I am tea addict will definitely look at the link to teas.
  Thansk again everyone
• I have qualifications in fitness/ nutrition/ weight management to degree level, so the following guidance is based on cold hard science. Are you holding your weight around your waist area or round the legs and bottom?
  Exercise ... once we pass age 30ish we start losing an average of 1lb of muscle a year: this means your metabolism will slow down. Repeated dieting will tend to accelerate this process; weight training/ toning exercises (done properly) will reverse it!! If you are fit enough to walk for three hours a day then the exercise is not intensive enough to burn any significant amount of calories/ fat. You need to add in some hills or power walking or jogging (up to you which), intermittently working harder and easier. You should be getting very out of breath, then recovering, then very out of breath, then recovering, etc.
  Healthy eating ... no food combining/ red green day/ very low calorie/ crash diet rubbish. You need protein and carbohydrates in the same meal to be absorbed properly to maintain and build/ tone muscle. The metabolism slows overnight and whenever we don't eat for a while, so eat breakfast as soon as you get up, then little and often to keep your metabolism high - eat something every four hours.
  I recommend eating low glycaemic index foods as this is healthy and keeps you fuller for longer. Cut back hard on: anything with sugar or white flour added (read labels), white rice, mashed and skinless potatoes, white pasta, white bread, refined cereals such as Special K. Replace with: fruit and vegetables (five to nine portions a day!), granary or stoneground bread, brown pasta, brown basmati rice, wholegrain breakfast cereals, old fashioned/ jumbo oats, barley, Ryvitas, beans and lentils, new potatoes in their skins, sweet potatoes.
  Try to have at least two portions of low fat dairy daily as calcium is associated with fat loss, also a portion of essential fatty acids daily as omega 3 helps encourage fat loss. Best cheapish sources of omega 3 are Columbus eggs, LesKol half-fat cheese, tinned pink salmon, fresh mackerel.
  Frozen veg is often cheaper than fresh and makes excellent soups. Pad out all meat into a stew with lots of cheap seasonal vegetables, tinned tomatoes, lentils, pearl barley etc. Cheap forms of protein suited to dieting include tinned pink salmon, turkey drumsticks, eggs, Quorn, all beans and lentils.
  Hope that helps!
• Fire Fox, that post was amazing, thanks so much!
  (Hope I don't sway the forum thread too much) but while you're around, I thought I'd ask you some stuff.
  I heard reducing calorie intake by about 500kcal a day is good for about 2lbs a week weight loss. At the moment I'm trying to burn about 200kcal a day through varied exercise (I have an EA Active game on my Wii which is helping me with workouts), and also reducing the amount of 'heavy' foods I eat, similar to the carbs you described above.
  Also drinking lots and lots of white tea to make sure I'm drinking enough water and that my metabolism is still moving. I've been doing this for about a week, but I'm not losing a lot of weight, but I'm going to see it out. However, I've noticed my muscles on my legs and arms looking a bit more toned already. Is this to do with muscle weighing more than fat, and does this mean my metabolism will start speeding up, resulting in weight loss?
  In short, am I doing the right thing? If so, I can start offering this as advice, haha!
  Sorry for hijacking your thread, TottalyLost, I will reign it back for you! :P
• If your lucky enough to live near an asian area check out some of their fruit and veg stores, general deal seems to be the less they sell, the cheaper the veg is. Dirt cheap compared to supermarket prices and you can buy as little as you need of some items. When I lived on the same street as one i'd regularly go in for a couple of chillis or mushrooms and just get told to take them free! Usually a great source of cheap milk as well, 4 litres for a quid in my local.
• FireFox- thanks a lot for your very informative post, motivated me enough to take the wrappers of the 872957969867 fitness DVDs I have had bought (and never even opened) over the years ;-) I am drinking about 3 litres of water per day (4 to 5 litres at the weekends when I can stay close to the loo LOL)
  All round the waist... When I loose weight by bum dissapears but my tum and rolls of fat on the back (how does it get THERE????) stays put.....
  NattyVee - so we in the same boat kind of? LOL :-)
  El_Gringo - I pass through Asian only area on the way from work but usually only buty coriander there..LOVE fresh coriander...hmmmmm never got anything offerd for free :-)
  OK- now, the main issue in my life chocolate
  I am confessing to be tottaly absolutely addicted to chocolate.
  I do nto normally like swetts or ice cream or crispas and I am fine all day. But I wake up in the middle of the night and can have a whole kilogram of chocolate (easy) and the prrof lies on the floor by my bed in the form of the wrappers.
  Please do not tell me just not to buy any. If I have no chocolate - I won't be able to get back to sleep.
  Heard abot some patches for that ages ago - anyone knows anything?
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