Can I do a heart healthy no-buy month?

It's been a while since the Saturday Savers Club has done a no-buy month. This is really a low-buy month rather than completely no-buy: you continue to pay all your regular household bills, savings and sinking funds, then you decide rules for your discretionary spending: what you can and can't buy.

It's always been one of the most successful activities that we do in the Club. It's a good opportunity to experiment: one person tried taking packed lunches to work for a month; another chose to do online shopping once a week for her family of five, sticking to the minimum threshold for delivery as the maximum for her purchses. Everyone saves money, every time.

This time round, I've decided to focus on my weekly food shop: can I do a heart-healthy, nice-to-eat, weekly food shop for £30 a week? I was intrigued by my frugal guru, Tania, who did a £15 a week food shopping challenge as part of her year long no-buy to re-build her savings.

When I worked it out, though, my weekly tea and milk bill alone came to £3.16 so a £15 budget was too extreme for me, at least as an opening gambit. If I'd got to the stage of building a stack of enough frozen milk and tea for a month, I might have a go, but that's a later.

The other motivation is to manage cholesterol. My GP has been very anxious to prescribe statins for several years. I've always been resistant, but over the past twelve months I've tried two options - one made me ill (my sister, too, she ended up with an inflamed liver), and the other made me perpetually hungry and sleepy.

I'm keen to see what happens when I try life-style changes, my cholesterol readings changed significantly when I was using the Zoe programme and made changes to what I was eating. I had wondered, watching frugal youtubers, about food quality when you had a restricted budget, so I'm interested to see whether you can have a heart healthy diet on £30 a week.

My nutrition goals

• adequate protein (75g/day) for strength and well-being.
• high fibre (50g/day) to lower LDL cholesterol.
• affordable healthy fats - olive oil, sardines, seeds/nuts.
• variety of plant-based foods aiming for 30 per week.

No-buy rules

• Can use up to £30 cash for weekly food shopping.
• Can buy from the 30 food items listed below.
• Can use anything already in the pantry or fridge.
• Can use coupons/discounts etc.
• Can use any savings for a weekly treat.

The cash business seems quite important: having £30 in your purse for the week and that's it. It doesn't sound very much, although one of my recent weekly shops was under £20 (obviously benefiting from purchases in previous weeks and things in the pantry).

I plan to start on 23 July 2025 and to run for four weeks. This is because UK state pensions are paid on a four-weekly cycle and it would be good to get into the rhythm of how this works. As most bills are monthly, I should end up with a bonus four-week payment.

I've chosen 30 foods partly for fun (30 days:30 foods:30 pounds) and partly inspired by a video by Grocery Dad which outlined a twenty item shopping list intended to save you money. My deal-breakers pushed it over the line, but with a bit of wriggling, I got it to thirty foods.

Limiting it to 30 foods appeals to the minimalist in me and I certainly like a stream-lined list that allows me room to investigate different aspects of the thirty foods without being overwhelmed.

Healthy Heart Food Budget

No	Grains	Fibre per portion	Protein per portion	Omega-3s
1	porridge oats	40g dry - 4g	5g	-
2	wheat/rye sourdough	2 slices - 4g	8g	-
3	barley	100g cooked - 3g	3g
4	wholewheat spaghetti	75g dry - 6g	10g

No	Seeds and nuts	Fibre per portion	Protein per portion	Omega-3s
5	chia seeds	15g - 5g	3g	5g
6	food topper seed mix ~	20g - 3g	4g	1g
7	walnuts	15g - 2g	3g	1g

No	Proteins and dairy	Fibre per portion	Protein per portion	Omega-3s
8	cottage cheese	-	100g - 11g	-
9	eggs	-	2 medium - 12g	-
10	sardines - tinned	-	90g - 20g	2g
11	beans and chickpeas ~	100g cooked - 6g	7g	-
12	lentils	100g cooked - 8g	9g	-
13	greek yoghurt	-	100g - 9g	-
14	semi-skimmed milk	-	200ml - 7g	-

No	Vegetables 100g	Fibre per portion	Protein per portion	Omega-3s
15	onions	1.7g	1.1g	-
16	garlic	2.1g	6.4g	-
17	carrots	2.8g	0.9g	-
18	celery	1.6g	0.7g	-
19	mushrooms	1.0g	3.1g	-
20	broccoli/leafy greens ~	2-3g	2g-3g	some
21	salad leaves/spinach	1.0-2.2g	1.5 - 2.9g	-
22	cucumber	0.5g	0.7g	-
23	tomatoes ~	1.2g	0.9g	-
24	beetroot/radish	2.8	1.6	-
25	seasonal: courgettes ~	1.1g	1.2g	-

No	Pantry	Fibre per portion	Protein per portion	Omega-3s
26	Extra virgin olive oil ~	-	-	-
27	Co-op spreadable butter	-	-	-
28	Raspberry conserve	0.3	-	-
29	Peanut butter	1.0g	4.1g	-
30	Teabags	-	-	-

Notes

~ food topper seed mix - pumpkin, sunflower, sesame and linseed.
~ beans and chickpeas - tinned or dried.
~ broccoli/leafy greens - any of the brassicas as available.
~ tomatoes - tinned, fresh and paste.
~ seasonal: varies - corn, aubergines, courgettes, beans.
~ EVOO - also have rapeseed oil in the pantry: 10g Omega-3 per 100g.
I eat around 7-8 x 80g portions of vegetables a day. For ease, I'm taking an average 4g fibre and 2.3g protein per 100g vegetables, with an average daily consumption of 640g vegetables - 25g fibre, 15g protein.

Treats

• avocado - fibre 6.7g, 2g protein per 100g, mono saturated fats.

Sample Daily Breakdown

Food Group	Amount	Fibre	Protein	calories
Grains	3 portions	13g	19g	450-500
Seeds/nuts	50g	10g	11g	280-320
Protein	1 portion	-	12g	120
Dairy	2 portions	-	12g	160-200
Legumes	100g cooked	6g	7g	120-140
Vegetables	640g	25g	15g	150-180
Pantry	30 ml EVOO	-	-	240
Totals	-	54g	76g	1,520-1,700