Ask Lemmy

Cans of soup, microwaved, for the occasional hot meal. Cold meals most of the time. For various reasons, that I won't get into, I don't cook.

Breakfast is toast (2 slices) or cereal (1 small bowl). Soy milk. Cow's milk would be way cheaper, but I'm intolerant. Tea. What can I say, I'm British. I do like a cup of tea.

Lunch is mixed nuts (~30g) - technically a luxury, but I figure they have minerals I need - mixed dried fruit (~50g) and a slice of multi-seed bread. Another luxury, but again, this is mostly about nutrition. Apple juice half and half with hot water (~450ml total). Dilution makes it go further and the heat raises the flavour profile a bit from cold diluted.

Yes, I know apple juice isn't very nutritious.

Evening meal is usually a sandwich. Plain white bread. A slice of some pre-packaged meat or another. Sometimes processed meat, sometimes an actual slice. Those are more expensive. Salad also in the sandwich. Sometimes I have the aforementioned soup instead. Tea, of course.

An extra cup of tea here and there. I do have biscuits (cookies) in the house and I get through a handful of those a day. I should do without tbh, but they're pretty much my only food vice. If things get really tight, those would be the first to go. (I've already had to stop buying the "budget" chocolate bar I liked because it's three times the price it was three years ago.)

I have a few other canned goods (beans, meats, fruit) that I buy when I can and then break into occasionally. Sometimes I buy noodles when they're on offer for a treat.

Most of the above comes in two or three levels of quality versus price, and I get the highest quality I can of each while remaining in budget. If I have to buy toothpaste or toilet paper or whatever, I drop the quality of something else in order to fit it in.

If there's any general advice I can give here, it's substitute your snacks with a drink you really like instead. Preferably a cheap, low calorie one that's mostly water. Yes, it means you pee more, but you're full for a while, and you're hydrated.

I should probably also note that my BMI is, and has been, fairly steady around 25, which is the heavy end of healthy on the above diet for a good while now. If I became less sedentary, I'd probably lose weight at first and then level out around 20 or so.