Diet on a Budget

We all have tried different kinds of diet plans, and more than once we have experienced the difficulties of choosing the right foods and planning their ingestion. I am not here today to talk about what to eat. Actually that is a mystery to me. In the end, the point of the diet should be to eat healthy and most important of all, to plan what and when you eat. If you do not plan your meals you will be eating things you don't need at the times you should not be eating them and you will be wasting money.

There is a misunderstanding that if you eat well you spend more, but this is absolutely wrong, just because if you follow a diet, you will control what you eat and therefore what you spend. And you will save more money than improvising and getting hungry in the middle of Oxford Street. This post is about how to save money with your diet by doing your weekly shooping in Iceland, Poundland, the cooperative, Lidl and street food-stalls.

I am currently following a basic diet that consist of 6 mini-meals per day and includes lots of protein, low-fat (but nothing radical, I like to enjoy life), and moderate carbs (last time I tried not to get carbs I was fainting in the evenings). I allow myself one day of indulgement, on which I go out with my girlfriend to eat something 'tasty'.

Especially if you are a student, and you are living impoverished, you will find this tips very useful and relieving. I have calculated how much this diet costs me a week and the calculator shows £30. It must be said that I am buying non-organic products and this diet is not the most environmentally responsible. You will be buying food that travels by plane all over the world, and perhaps supports unethical business practices. But it is cheap.

A saving tip is that you can somehow replace expensive protein shakes for home made ones. A simple recipe is half pint of milk, one whole egg, three egg-whites and a banana (Courtesy of my friend Luis). You blend that and you get a delicious shake full of proteins and potasium.

So let's go shopping.

Street markets

In the UK you find street markets. In East London there are several street markets such as Whitechapel and Crisp Street, where you find Stalls run by Asians who sell fruits and veggies very cheap. Some people I know are very apprehensive to these stalls and think that they sell rubbish. That is because they have never bought from them.

I visit their stalls to buy tomatos, onions, carrots, potatoes, which I use to make a soup for my lunches. You usually get bags full of veggies for £1. The same applies to fruits; you get a lot of fruits such as bananas, oranges and apples for £1.

Lidl.

This German food chain does not shine for its sophisticated brand. Everybody I know hates the company but everybody craves its presence in their neighbourhood. I am lucky enough to live 5 minutes away from one. I must say that its brand is not cool, the service is slow and the products do not look brilliant, but it helps me out with some choices, such as olive oil and dairy products. Here is a list of things you can find for your diet:

Cottage cheese 200g 46p

Quick oats. 500G 39p

Milk, 4 pints £1

Eggs 15 for £1.25

Wholewheat bred 1 loaf 47p

Smoked salmon 200g £2.37

Olive oil 700ml £2.25

Poundland

Well, this is not Waitrose if you know what I mean. I used to be suspicious about this chain until a friend of mine introduced me the endless land of the 'one pound worth' stuff. You can actually find very interesting things for £1. Use your imagination and you may embarrass the interior designer of the average Waitrose customer. They also sell food for £1:

Tuna flakes. 2 cans (170g each) for £1

Oxo beef stock for your soups 9 cubes £1

Iceland

Another luxury brand, but they sell more than frozen products!!! Yet here we will be buying only frozen ones. Mind that some of the products such as the chicken breasts may contain some chemicals that we do not really want.

Milk, 2pints for £1

Chicken breasts, 1.2kg for £5

White fish, 900g for £4

Broccoli, 900g £1

Wholeleaf Spinach, 900g £1

The Co-operative

Another brand I dislike. The good thing is that they have specialised foodstuffs at a good price (but normal groceries are too expensive).

Brown rice 1kg £1.69

wholewheat pasta 500g 90p

raw beans and lentils 500g £1.09

Butcher's

 Especially Halal butcher's offer good quality meat for cheap prices. Non-muslim people are usually dubious about these places, but I strongly recommend them (and I'm not muslim)

Chiken breast fillets 1kg £4.99

Beef Mince 1kg £4.99

To be honest, I wish I could do this shopping in Waitrose, and also have a cool interior designer. Meanwile, one has to think how to get more for less.

Good luck with your diet and personal development!