Newly diagnosed with type 2 and food shopping has become a nightmare

[Essex-nanny]

Hi, I have recently been diagnosed with type 2, I know a fair amount about it,
I also know I need to shift some weight
but oh my shopping bill has gone up so much, I am just shopping in the fresh produce area, not even venturing towards the chocolate or crisps or fizzy drinks My bill has increased by almost £10
I do buy and use frozen veg
I have also noticed after a walk my BG goes up I thought it was supposed to go down
My morning BG was 6.0
56 female obese 15 stone 6lb 5ft 4 in

 

[Inka]

Welcome @Essex-nanny 🙂 Well done on making changes to your shopping. Yes, good food is usually more expensive than junk food. I don’t think it’s been helped by the bad weather reducing the availability of veg either. Money well spent though🙂

 

[chaoticcar]

I find that the freezer is my friend for shopping I look out for bargains and freeze them as soon as I get home .I use a local butcher which is a little more expensive than the supermarket but as a regular customer I get good service and the meat is fresher it can be divided into smaller freezer portions .If you can manage shop towards the end of the day when the prices go down. I am sure that you will get lots of advice from the forum
Carol

 

[Leadinglights]

I found that our shopping bill went down as by adding extra veg and reducing portions so meals which would have done 4 portions were doing 6 so some could be put in the freezer for home made ready meals.
Batch cooking can make more economical use of ingredients.
Have a look at this link as there are some menu plans including one for budget meals. https://lowcarbfreshwell.com/
Something like a cooked chicken can make many meals, there are two of us and a £4 cooked chicken will usually do 8 portions for various meals.

 

[rebrascora]

You can still have chocolate if you like, but it needs to be high cocoa solids dark chocolate.... generally 70% or more and then just one square a day but if you have it with a spoon of peanut butter it is quite satisfying.

You can eat reasonably frugally on a low carb diet but you need to be quite inventive.
For me a whole large cabbage will last me a week and I will have it in all sorts of different ways on different days. I have it with bacon and eggs or black pudding and eggs or pork chops or curried with onion and mushrooms and tomato or in soup. I was very sad last week as Lidl had no cabbages at all when I went shopping but they had kale on special offer, which is not as good value as I only get a couple of meals out of a bag of kale but I do really enjoy it as it is "meatier" than cabbage. Butternut squash is another great veg. Keeps for months if you don't cut into it so I buy 2 when they are on special offer. You can make soup with them or roast it or make stews or boil it. I like it diced and cooked in the microwave with a knob of butter. You can then use it to make bubble and squeak instead of potato with onion and cabbage and left over meat and eggs.

 

[Leadinglights]

Home made soups from a few veg as they will go a long way. I am always surprised just how far they will and again can be frozen.

 

[everydayupsanddowns]

Welcome to the forum @Essex-nanny

Well done on the changes you’ve been making to your meals.

Hopefully you’ll find some ways to reduce your shopping bill while keeping your meals diabetes-friendly.

It never seems to be the fresh ingredients that have the special offers on does it?

There are some meal plans put together by Diabetes UK here, one of which is a budget-conscious option:

Meal plans and diabetes

Eating nutritious, healthy and downright delicious food is that bit easier with our meal planners. We've created multiple different weekly meal plans to suit all types and tastes. They're nutritionally balanced, are calorie and carb counted, and can help if you want to lose weight. They also...

www.diabetes.org.uk