Zech wrote:
In my student days I had a book called 'Grub on a grant' - can't remember the author. Cue hollow laughter at the idea of student poverty including a grant!
'Grub on a grant' was by Cas Clarke. She's since followed up with 'More Grub on Less Grant'. Both recommended, as are other books I've listed on my blog (link below). I eagerly anticipate the climactic end of the trilogy, which can only be entitled 'Infinite Grub on No Grant'.
My top tip for surviving on a limited budget (I'm on benefit, and was a student, once) is to plan your week's food in advance. Decide your ingredients, take the list with you shopping, and buy only the items on it. Supermarkets get custom on the footfall generated by low prices for basics, but they make their profits on impulse purchases. You can, and should, take advantage of this strategy by resisting the desire to 'save' by buying stuff on offer that you wouldn't ordinarily have bought, anyway.
As for recipes: potatoes, tinned tomatoes, carrots, onions, pasta and rice are all cheap right now, if you shop around. Swedes and turnips are normally cheap, and, I discovered recently, really quite tasty. Try to find an ethnic food shop for garlic, chillies, herbs and spices, (much cheaper than supermarkets), add some pulses like lentils or beans, and there you have the makings of a week's menus, if you ring the changes. If you want meat, chicken thighs and minced pork, lamb or beef are versatile and good value, especially if there is a good offer attached to them. Offal - hearts, kidneys, liver - is also nutritious and flavoursome, as well as being a cost effective feature of a stew or casserole.
Hope this helps.
Best wishes, 2RM.
, but it's just too hot over here in the summer to bake very often. I succumbed and bought a bread machine last year to help feed the hordes of helpxers we get in the summer, but still light the pizza oven one evening a week and bake several loaves at a time.
