Eat for £12 a week?

HOLsale · 23 February 2006 at 11:30PM

you're breakfast of champions sound similar to my homemade museli

i don't use crispy rice or wheat flakes but i buy a cheap luxury museli as a base then add more porridge oats and alot of the same extra ingredietns (plus wheat germ) in the coffee grinder til they are the right consistency plus cinnamon

dh loves this stuff and it's great for him because he's doing a 1 year very intensive MSc so he really needs the extra brain power in the mornings

think i might try your version too though, could be nicer for dd she's not a huge museli fan

jobbingmusician · 24 February 2006 at 1:12PM

arkonite_babe wrote:

Also to improve flavour, I throw in a bay leaf or two a splash of worcester sauce and have been know to add a dash of Maggi seasoning as well

Good idea! And if anyone else has Tabasco sauce left over from their disastrous free pizza promotion, that's good to chuck in as well

SueRob_2 · 25 February 2006 at 9:41PM

Here is my menu & costings I work on a rolling 3 week menu. All main meals serve 4.
Weekday breakfast is porridge, museli or toast, approx 12p a person.
Weekend breakfast is usually full english 48p per person, we tend to eat only 2 meals a day at weekends.
Packed lunches are 69p per person, this includes sandwiches, and/or yoghourt, choc bar/home made cake, crisps, 2 pieces fruit.
Now for the meals, where I have made more than one meal from a chicken or joint of meat I've added all the ingredients together for all the meals & divided the cost by the amount of meals.
I cook a joint every Sunday & use the leftovers for other meals. And so we don't end up eating the the same meat for an entire week when I cook the joint I also prepare all the other meals & freeze them. I don't often do a pud, but I bake a large traybake, such as flapjack, lemon drizzle, shortbread, choc chip or a plain iced sponge, we usually eat a slice after our evening meal.
Roast pork with all the trimmings, £3
Beef Casserole made with left over beef from previous week, dumplings & mash £2.73
Fish Pie carrots & peas £3.60
Spag Bol, made with fresh mince £1.24
Chicken ham & mushroom pie made with left over chicken from previous week £1.50
Toad in the hole mash & cabbage £2.30
Pork curry made with left over pork from previous week £3
Roast beef £3
Risotto made with left over chicken from previous week £1.50
Gammon & egg & chips & beans £2.19
Tex Mex Chilli Wraps £3.54
Sausage & Mash £2.10
Fish cakes £1.50
Beef Broth made with left over meat from previous week £3
Roast chicken £1.50
Pork in Cider/apple juice £3
Beef & mushroom pie made with left over meat from previous week £3
Carbonara made with left over meat from previous week £1.50
Cottage pie £1.54
Beef in red wine/beer made with left over meat from previous week £3
Chicken soup, made with left over meat from previous week £1.50

gravitytolls · 27 February 2006 at 3:36PM

swizzle wrote:

Anyway last night there was this expert saying you could eat-an adult for £12 a week, by only buying fresh foods and no processed stuff.

If it was priced per pound, you wouldn't be able to 'eat me' (you could eat an adult :-) for £12. I must diet....maybe that's how I can eat for £12 per week, I'll just stop doing it.

gravitytolls · 27 February 2006 at 3:41PM

We are 2 adults, 7 children, 3 cats, 2 dogs. I must spend an average £125 a week on shopping, though not all food.

I must trawl this area for ideas to cut back.

I buy little processed food, do use economy tinned toms etc., but do like to put healthy, tasty grub on the table.

We do get through vast quantities of fruit and veg. But have cut meAT (ESPECIALLY RED) CONSUMPTION DOWN to 3 TIMES (sorry didnt mean to shout, baby helping) per week.

Penny-Pincher!! · 28 February 2006 at 6:55PM

Evening

Have just my last weeks meal plan for you. Here we go....again..LOL

Chicken Curry & Rice-3 large portions + 2 jacket spud sized frozen portions
Spagbol-5 portions
Egg, HM chips, peas, bread and butter
Jacket Spud, salad, beans and cheese
Gammon Roast, roasties, yorkshires, parsnips, carrots, cabbage, peas and gravy
Gammon Curry with rice/jacket spud-3 large portions + 2 jacket spud sized frozen
Lamb Stew & dumplings-6 huge portions-2 given to Out laws..LOL

2 chicken thighs-50p
2/3 bag rice-26p
tin toms x 3-45p
onions x 3-12p
curry powder-5p
baked beans x3-42p
1/2lb mince lamb-50p
pasta-16p
10kg spuds-£1
eggs-£1.16 used for quiches, breakies, lunches etc too
cheddar-£1 used for quiche and sarnies too
gammon joint-reduced £1.50 HUGE 2.5kg
parsnips-20p
flour 1/2 bag-10p
carrots 2kg-49p-market
cabbage-35p-market
peas-1/3 bag frozen-16p
gravy-15p
lamb chump chops-£1.50
suet-15p

Total £10.17

Other stuff for breakfasts (toast, eggs, bacon, OJ, cereal etc) lunches for us and weekends (sarnies, egg/toast, soup, jacket spuds etc) and dd's packed lunch (sarnie, yogurt, apple, banana, raisins, crisps, HM biccie, squash):

Bread x 3-75p
Butter-53p
Ham-£1
OJ x 2-66p
yogurts-90p
apples x 15-75p market
lettuce-45p
cucumber-40p
tomatoes x 4-20p market
bananas x 15-75p market
milk-£1.18
crisps-50p
SR Flour-17p
squash x 2-32p
cheddar above already priced
eggs above already priced
salad cream-33p
cooking marg-33p for HM biccies etc
tuna-35p
Heinz soupx 2 -50p
raisins-35p
mushrooms-35p market for quiche and on toast/pizza
cornflakes-45p
sugar-56p
bacon-£1

Total £12.78

Total for everything £22.95 for 3 people with plenty left for frozen meals and store cupboard leftovers etc. Think ive remembered everything. So thats £7.65 per person per week.

Again, there are items for the store cupboard and some bits i have used that ive already got. We do have our quota daily of fruit and veg though. DD is entitled to free school meals but we've had alot of problems with her only being offered a roll and a desert as they go in last so have started giving her a pack up again. Her sarnies are normally marmite, cheese or ham.

Hope this helps someone.

PP
xx

Suewre · 28 February 2006 at 8:28PM

I have come to the conclusion that there is no way I could cut my shopping bills down this much. We all eat so much more than other people. PennyPincer has used 2 chicken thighs to make 5 meals, I could barely make two meals from them and last week, 10 sausages went to accompany 6 roast dinners plus toad in the hole for 4. There were 26 meals with potato, all from a 10kg bag. My lot eat so much more than that.

Where do you get your shopping from Penny? I see you get your fruit from a market, it seems so cheap, I think I had better look and see if I can find somewhere cheaper, we get through so much fruit.

Apart from that, dh insists on wholemeal pasta, and wholemeal rice, wholemeal wraps and organic peanut butter. And I am on slimming world, so I can only have certain things (ie, not the cheap yoghurt). But I am reading all these threads with interest, and tonight I cooked a tuna pasta bake for 3 of us, and if I have worked it out right, it cost me 86p for the three portions.

Suewre · 28 February 2006 at 8:50PM

Right I have just fininshed my final calculations.

250g (1/2 packet) Tesco Value pasta quills 9 1/2p
1/4 onion (I will buy cheaper next-time) 6p
Mushrooms (from a value pack) 5p
Tin of Value Plum Tomatoes 13p
50g sweetcorn from a frozen pack 5p
Tin Tesco value tuna fish 29p
50g grated cheese (Cathedral City - £2.99 for 400g BOGOF) 18 1/2p

Cook onion and mushrooms, add them to tinned toms, blend it all together (this is so my youngest doesn't notice the onions and mushrooms!) add sweetcorn to this mix, warm through then add tuna.

Meanwhile, cook pasta, drain well then add to tomato sauce mix. Put in a dish and sprinkle cheese on top, put in oven for a bit.

This served three of us - ds 13, ds 10 and me.

The pasta was so well covered in the sauce, that I think that I could easily add more pasta without this tasting too dry.

Penny-Pincher!! · 28 February 2006 at 9:06PM

Hiya

Shopping is mainly done at Asda. The chicken thighs were large and I added baked beans to pad out abit. There is OH, DD (11) and me.

OH goes to the local market towards the end of the day and bags some great bargains. My DD eats at least 5-6 portions of fruit/veg daily and OH & I have the recomended 5 at least. Bread is bought from Aldis at 25p a loaf and is delish, when we go, I buy 12 loaves at a time for the month and freeze. Tinned food is also from Aldis.

I buy a 25kg bag of spuds for £2.50 every 3-4 weeks and we do eat quite alot of spuds. DD's fav is roasts and mash. There were roughly 16 portions of spuds with the 10kg of spuds, but meals are bulked out with veg. All our veg and fruit is fresh except peas. I did forget to put a swede down too but that was about 35p for the stew and swede/carrot mash.

The yogurts I buy are Ski smooth as DD doesnt like the ones with bits in them

(they are 8 for 90p)these again are bought from the market as are the crisps, cheddar, bacon and Heinz soup.

HTH

PP
xx

Suewre · 28 February 2006 at 9:15PM

Thanks PP, we don't have an Asda (although they are building one reasonably near) or an Aldi (but we do have a Lidl) When I have defrosted the freezer in the shed, I will start to bulk buy my bread from Lidl, as it is the cheapest place (39p for a wholemeal loaf).

I also can't imagine my dh going shopping on the way back from work to get bargains unfortunately, in fact he isn't very keen on the idea of going shopping at any time, and when he does, it always seems to cost more!

Your market sounds great, you have definitely got some bargains there.

Thanks for your answers.

Sue

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