Need help this month - £46 for food for 2 adults, 3 pets and toddler

Yorkshirechick · 3 January 2009 at 3:21PM

scotrae wrote: »

Congratulations on your marriage! People have already come up with some great ideas foodwise but I thought it worth adding a cheeky tip that I've picked up from the Old Style MSE threads in the past. i have to add that it's not one I've tried but ...

Get your wedding photos and arrange to call on different friends/family on different days to show them. With a bit of luck you'll get one or two invites to stop for something to eat (and if you feel bad remember that if it's someone you invited to the wedding they'll have had a meal on you recently!)

There - I can't belive I've even suggested it but others have mentioned having tea with friends and family as a great money-saver in the past and you've got a very good excuse to visit!

That's an excellent idea!! Also we had quite a small wedding (27 guests in all including children), so we know all the people really well and could probably be cheeky enough to say I'll come and show you the wedding pics if you make us some tea

Yorkshirechick · 3 January 2009 at 3:31PM

Hawthorn wrote: »

First thought that comes to mind is get a couple of bags of oats. 58p for Smartprice from Asda. You can use these as breakfasts, and adding it to the mince beef will double it's capacity. I can make 1lb of mince stretch across 12 meals by adding oats and veg.
What a fab idea - can you taste them?? Also, what about adding grated carrots too?

Get a big tub of margarine (around the £2 mark). Obviously useful as a spread, but by adding half marg to flour, rubbing it in and adding water, you have dumplings to add to your soups, making them more filling, cheaply.
Do you mean half the amount of marg than flour? e.g 100g flour and 50g marg? How much water do I use? and what do I do to cook them? I've never made dumplings, but I love them!

Have you considered dried milk for yourself and your husband? Lidl do an excellent one. We only use it in drinks - you can't tell the difference. It's £1.49 for a tin, and that will probably last you the month, or thereabouts.
Yes would definitely consider this, although TBH we don't have that much tea/coffee at home, it's more milk on cereal, or just drinking it straight from the fridge. I have thought of using blue milk for DH and I, and half filling it with water to make it semi-skimmed?

Potatoes - Smartprice potatoes are around 80p for 2.5 kilos. Versatile, cheap and filling.
Another cheap meal we like - we buy the smartprice pitta breads...23p for six I think they are?
I chop onions finely, fry them up in a little butter or oil, add beans and cheese and serve with a pitta bread. Do you mean baked beans?

The corned beef could be made into a corned beef hash, or cornish pasties if you can make pastry.
I would be tempted by an offer they have on at asda - three chickens for a tenner.
Each one could do a roast dinner, a sweet and sour, a curry and a soup made from stock. They wouldn't do huge servings, but that would about cover your meat intake for the week. That sounds like a great offer, think I'll pick some of those up.
make yorkshires/dumplings to bulk it out a bit, and serve with veg.
Carrots are 80p for 2k from asda at the moment. Onions are less than a quid for 2k. Swede about 80p a kilo?
A bag or two of lentils would be a good investment. High in protein and filling.
I've been looking for bags of lentils, but can't seem to find them, any ideas anyone??
Eggs - Asda do 30 cooks eggs for under £3. They would cover you for the month for a couple of meals a week.
Buy bread flour (48p for 1.5k), a pot of allinsons yeast and make your own bread. I'd love to make my own bread, but have no idea how?... could anyone help?
Pasta - cheap and filling. You already have pasta bake in your stocks.
I would also buy a couple of blocks of lard, and flour. Pastry is filling, easy to make and cheap.

Thanks for a really helpful reply.

Gigervamp · 3 January 2009 at 3:51PM

Bread is easy. 500g of bread flour, 300-350mls warm water, 1 teaspoon each of salt, sugar and dried yeast, 1 tablespoon of oil.
Put dry ingredients in a bowl, add the oil and then the water. I usually find that 300 ml is enough, but sometimes need to add some more.
Mix it all up and knead for 10 mins or so. If you have a stand mixer, like a kenwood or kitchen aid, use that with the dough hook. Takes the strain out of kneading!
Cover the bowl with cling film and leave to rise for about an hour.
Give it another brief kneading and pop into a bread tin or make rolls or round loaf and put on a baking tray.
Cover with a teatowel and leave again for about 1/2 an hour, then bake in a hot oven until it sounds hollow when tapped on the bottom (20-30 mins).

sexymouse · 3 January 2009 at 4:03PM

Another thing you can do if you have any room in your freezer, is buy reduced milk for your LO as they often have whole milk in our supermarket reduced section. Just defrost it over night and it'll be useable for a good few days after, but may need a shake to emulsify the cream and water content again.

Hawthorn · 3 January 2009 at 4:20PM

Originally Posted by Hawthorn

First thought that comes to mind is get a couple of bags of oats. 58p for Smartprice from Asda. You can use these as breakfasts, and adding it to the mince beef will double it's capacity. I can make 1lb of mince stretch across 12 meals by adding oats and veg.
What a fab idea - can you taste them?? Also, what about adding grated carrots too? Yes, any grated veg works I actually prefer bolognaise and chilli with the oats. It's much nicer.

Get a big tub of margarine (around the £2 mark). Obviously useful as a spread, but by adding half marg to flour, rubbing it in and adding water, you have dumplings to add to your soups, making them more filling, cheaply.
Do you mean half the amount of marg than flour? e.g 100g flour and 50g marg? How much water do I use? and what do I do to cook them? I've never made dumplings, but I love them! Yes Rub the marg into the flour, add a pinch of salt, then add cold water slowly until you have a dough. It's that easy! Then you ball them and drop them in the soup for half an hour, or bake them in the oven at gas mark six for half an hour, until they brown. If you have an suet in, use the same half fat to flour ratio and you have the best dumplings ever

Have you considered dried milk for yourself and your husband? Lidl do an excellent one. We only use it in drinks - you can't tell the difference. It's £1.49 for a tin, and that will probably last you the month, or thereabouts.
Yes would definitely consider this, although TBH we don't have that much tea/coffee at home, it's more milk on cereal, or just drinking it straight from the fridge. I have thought of using blue milk for DH and I, and half filling it with water to make it semi-skimmed?
You could do that, but it tastes horrid *bleugh*

Potatoes - Smartprice potatoes are around 80p for 2.5 kilos. Versatile, cheap and filling.
Another cheap meal we like - we buy the smartprice pitta breads...23p for six I think they are?
I chop onions finely, fry them up in a little butter or oil, add beans and cheese and serve with a pitta bread. Do you mean baked beans? Yes, baked beans. Value ones are great for this.

The corned beef could be made into a corned beef hash, or cornish pasties if you can make pastry.
I would be tempted by an offer they have on at asda - three chickens for a tenner.
Each one could do a roast dinner, a sweet and sour, a curry and a soup made from stock. They wouldn't do huge servings, but that would about cover your meat intake for the week. That sounds like a great offer, think I'll pick some of those up.
make yorkshires/dumplings to bulk it out a bit, and serve with veg.
Carrots are 80p for 2k from asda at the moment. Onions are less than a quid for 2k. Swede about 80p a kilo?
A bag or two of lentils would be a good investment. High in protein and filling.
I've been looking for bags of lentils, but can't seem to find them, any ideas anyone?? Tescos were the cheapest last time I bought some, but health stores should have these too. Most supermarkets stock them
Eggs - Asda do 30 cooks eggs for under £3. They would cover you for the month for a couple of meals a week.
Buy bread flour (48p for 1.5k), a pot of allinsons yeast and make your own bread. I'd love to make my own bread, but have no idea how?... could anyone help? I'll post my recipe further down - have to dig out my book :rotfl:
Pasta - cheap and filling. You already have pasta bake in your stocks.
I would also buy a couple of blocks of lard, and flour. Pastry is filling, easy to make and cheap.

Hawthorn · 3 January 2009 at 4:34PM

Ok, bread recipe

Preheat oven to gas mark 8

3tsp dried yeast
2tsp caster sugar (granulated is fine though)
1 pint of tepid water.

Dissolve sugar in water, add yeast and leave until it froths up. (keep in a warm place for this)

2lb strong plain flour (bread flour)
2tsp salt.

Make a well in the bread, and add yeasty liquid.
Mix until you have a dough.
Knead until dough is smooth and elastic (about 10 minutes.....give it some welly! Very therapeutic....imagine the dough is someone you don't like, or think about something that makes you cross

)

make into loaves/buns and leave somewhere warm to prove. I cover mine with a teatowel, and leave on the trays on top of the oven.
Test in half an hour. If the dough springs back when you touch it, it's ok and ready to be baked. If not, check every ten minutes or so until it does spring back.
Bake in the oven until lightly brown. Test if it's ready - tap the bottom, and if it sounds kind of hollow, it's done!

For loaves, you'll need at least 30 minutes. For rolls, around 20 minutes.
I tend to do rolls, then you have a set serving per person. If I do a loaf, it disappears in seconds LOL.

You can also do half quantities of this recipe, if this is too much - this is for a family of six.

Recipe from a well old, good housekeeping book

sexykellylovespink · 3 January 2009 at 4:59PM

here are some ideas hope they help..........

flat bread / crumpets / bagels / - pizza style with drained tin toms, cheshire cheese etc
veg mush - make into soup with a bit of your veg and tinned soup stock ect
sausage casserole in york pud
mince - chilli with your toms, beans, kidney beans, - spag bol, with your onions and bolog sauce
curry keema mince - with onions, beans ect
cottage pie
chicken tonight with your chicken and tinned potatoes
fish in breadcrumbs with tinned potatoes and peas
cornbeef hash with your corned beef
tuna pasta bake
tuna, onion and sweetcorn pasta
sweet and sour veg and noodles
casserole with mini york puds
chinese / carbonara / fish in sauce is another 2 meals
cheese and onion slices beans and tinned potatoes
hope this helps kelly x

sexykellylovespink · 3 January 2009 at 5:28PM

also
sausage rolls and veg or beans
steak casserole and dumplings
sausage pasta, casserole, curried sausages and beans
spaghetti and meatballs
more fish and chips
salmon pasta or cous cous

i would just buy basics and dog food ect

Patchwork_Quilt · 3 January 2009 at 5:37PM

Something else to do with your yukky soups is to use them as cook-in sauces. Cut up some chicken, add lots of veg - cheap ones like onions and carrots - and then cook slowly. The soup gets flavoured by the meat and veg. You could also try adding a drained value tin of kidney beans or something to stretch the meat a little. Good luck.

greenbee · 3 January 2009 at 6:19PM

Given how tight your budget is, I suggest you start off with things that you can do just using what you've already got in, and only buy things as and when you need them. This may mean you pay a couple of pence more for the milk by buying locally rather than in the supermarket, but it does mean that you won't be tempted to pick up a couple of other bits and pieces while you're there.

That way, at the end of the month, if you've done better than your budget, you can use some of the savings to stock up on staples like lentils, oats, pearl barley, bread flour and whoopsies for the freezer ... and you'll know what you LIKE eating on a budget, and will be able to work out what it's worth you buying when you see a bargain, rather than buying on impulse and discovering you have vast amounts of something you loathe!

Maybe you could use the 'wedding photo' visits as a way of making this month a real cheapy so you've got a bit of a safety net and have stocked up for the next few months.

Good luck!

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Need help this month - £46 for food for 2 adults, 3 pets and toddler

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