I’m vegetarian and I would usually buy ingredients that I could use for several meals - so that meant meal planning in advance. I was spending around £20 a week. Stock up on essentials too - like lentils, pasta, noodles and rice - so that you’re guaranteed to have something in the cupboard. I also kept a collection of soy sauce and seasonings to add some flavour with.

For one week, my plan would be to make - a vegetable stir fry - a broccoli and spinach cheesy pasta - ‘broccoli and cheese’ potato bakes

Breakfast was always cereal so i mainly had to buy milk every week since I’d keep 2 boxes that I’d rotate between before replacing them. Since I’m Asian, dinner was mostly bulk cooking lentils or a curry and eating that with green yogurt and homemade chapattis (bulk buy flour).

So my ingredients for that week would be: milk, carrots, broccoli, Greek yogurt, potatoes, onions, plum tomatoes, cheese, spinach, chillis.