Help! £40 to feed family for the month

mbaz · 1 September 2008 at 1:19PM

Hi guys i'm new to this forum. Normally on DFW but you have been highly recommended to me.

Things sooo tight this month have hardly anything for food. Here is what I have in at the moment

- 6 frozen chicken pieces
- frozen veg
- 2 x frozen leftover curry sauce

- 12 eggs
- butter
- milk
- leftover bolognaise sauce (prob going to do a lasagne and another bol from this
- 3 peppers

- 2 x jars of curry sauce

- rice
- pasta
- spaghetti
- lasagne sheets
- jar of white lasagne sauce

- loads of poatoes

- bits n bob like flour, oil, spices etc

My question is what should i spend what little money I have (around £20 - less if at all poss tho) on to eerk this out to last the month? My plan was to buy loads of bread and beans but I'm sure you can come up with something better!! Also with things like the potatoes should i make and freeze some mash now so it keeps til end of the month?

thanks in advance

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OrkneyStar · 1 September 2008 at 1:39PM

Not sure if this helps....
With the £20 I would buy some mince (as good as you can afford-look out for whoopsies), red lentils, few tins cheap tinned toms, cheap kidney beans, couple of onions, (for a start anyway).
You could make
1. spag bol with mince*, lentils, onion, chopped toms and your spaghetti and hopefully you'd have some herbs you could flavour with
2. chilli with mince*, lentils, onions, kidney beans, chopped toms and have with rice or make wedges from the potatoes
3.frittata, with your eggs, some potatoes, a little onion, a little milk, maybe some of your veg defrosted.
4. chicken casserole with your chicken, some frozen veg
This is just some ideas and not sure if any good but hth anyway.
* you could make a big batch of mince/lentil and have enough for 2 days each of spag bol/chill (some people also eke out with oats).
hth a little and good luck.
x

CoD_2 · 1 September 2008 at 1:41PM

can you look for whoopsies? especially on bread, beans, cheese if 10p or under, making a huge vat of soup- potato and lentil? served with the cheap bread. I'd probably go as veggie as possible, bulk out the lasagne/ bolognese with lentils again, and any veg you have, and value beans, value lasagne sheets aren't too expensive but you may get more meals from pasta shapes or rice. do you have a lidl or aldi nearby? chicken pieces again do a casserole, pick the meat off the bones and then puree the leftovers into a soup?

add more lentils to the curry! any whoopsie mushroms and really whatever veg is cheap.

have you seen the supermarket comparison site where they list all the products in supermarkets under 20p? (some value, some due to reductions)

HTH

mbaz · 1 September 2008 at 1:43PM

No I didn't know about that site do you know the address?

thanks like the lentil bulking out ideas - never knew about that one and healthy too!

otterspasm · 1 September 2008 at 1:45PM

Hi there,
Sounds like a tricky month (i've been there sooo often myself:o)

Here are my first thoughts...

Freezing mash is great. You could also make roast potatoes and freeze them. They re-heat nicely.
As you have eggs you could make and freeze some batches of yorkshire puds/pancakes...didn't notice if you have any plain flour but can buy a bag for about 50p and goes a long way.

You could certainly get 4 curries out of your chicken and 2 jars curry sauce...bulking them out with carrots and onions make them cheap. I often add red lentils too which are very cheap, filling and go a long way. I think I just bought a 500g bag for 80p from asda. This will do loads. Lentil soup is easy quick and filling, and if you mix equal quantities of cooked red lentils to a made up pack of sage and onion stuffing you can make this mixture into great veggie burgers. Just form it into burger shapes when cool and dip in egg then flour then breadcrumbs and fry off. Served with homemade bread rolls they will serve 8 hungry people for about 15p per person and you should still have half left to freeze.

I don't want to go on too much about red lentils :rolleyes: BUT they will make a 500g pack of mince feed 4 for 3 meals if used to bulk it out....along with cheap tinned toms, grated carrot, onion etc Lots of chilli, bolognese etc.

I would definitely make bread instead of buying it. A bag of bread flour will cost about 50p and will make 3 loaves. MUCH cheaper than buying and much nicer. LOADS of thread on here about making bread if you haven't done it before. Its very easy.

If I can think of anything else I'll post again later.
Hope that helps
Tess

LearningToSave. · 1 September 2008 at 1:46PM

try to work out what time your local supermarkets do their mega reductions.......for example at about 7.30 my morrisons does everything left to 9p.....can normally get all number of bread,rolls etc products from backery,salad stuff,stir fry stuff and always theres a few things like ready meals,bits of meat,sausages,yogurts in the dairy chiller.
if you could hit something like that once or twice a week you'll eat very well all be it perhaps a bit differently to normal.
most things freeze and most things would also last a day or so extra in the fridge than the date on it.

otterspasm · 1 September 2008 at 1:46PM

Ooops! Cross posted with everyone else! Lentils is a definite theme!
Tess

CoD_2 · 1 September 2008 at 1:55PM

not sure how to add links but if you google for supermarket special offers it should come up.

to get your 5 a day i'd think about dried fruit, much cheaper per portion, otherwise i guess it'll be anything in whoopsies, look at frozen fruit and veg too.

jacket pots with beans, value noodles with veg, pasta with bolognese (keep it really runny, it'll go further, soup and bread, stew and bread, stew and potatoes, breakfasts what about porridge? or whoopsie toast, lemon curd is 20p a jar at tesco (no butter needed) 4p tesco curry sauce, with veg and boiled rice, make big yorkshires, fill with gravy and leftover veg. value kidney beans are 14p a can and could be used in bolognese instead of meat. value pasta quills and a tin of soup could make a pasta bake? or whizz up a tin of value tomatoes (19p) reduce, add herbs and serve with more pasta. look out for whoopsied sausages, cooked, chopped and stirred into rice or pasta i'd probably do 1/2 per person. homemade pizza with the reduced tomato sauce again, make the bases, and add any veg roasted or otherwise, and any whoopsied cheese,

if you buy a huge amount of veg whoopsied then you could chop it all up and roast, then bag once cold, i just reheat a bag when needed or pop into curry sauce, or in gravy, or with a stockcube and make soup/ stew.

mbaz · 1 September 2008 at 1:56PM

Lentils are top of my list!! along with oats to bulk things out (and make a few sneaky flapjacks or I'll go mad!!! lol) Thanks for all your ideas they are fab. Keep them coming.

Feel so much more positive now. Making a list and will go shopping late tomorrow for bargains!

CoD_2 · 1 September 2008 at 1:57PM

otterspasm wrote: »

Hi there,
Sounds like a tricky month (i've been there sooo often myself:o)

Here are my first thoughts...

Freezing mash is great. You could also make roast potatoes and freeze them. They re-heat nicely.
As you have eggs you could make and freeze some batches of yorkshire puds/pancakes...didn't notice if you have any plain flour but can buy a bag for about 50p and goes a long way.

You could certainly get 4 curries out of your chicken and 2 jars curry sauce...bulking them out with carrots and onions make them cheap. I often add red lentils too which are very cheap, filling and go a long way. I think I just bought a 500g bag for 80p from asda. This will do loads. Lentil soup is easy quick and filling, and if you mix equal quantities of cooked red lentils to a made up pack of sage and onion stuffing you can make this mixture into great veggie burgers. Just form it into burger shapes when cool and dip in egg then flour then breadcrumbs and fry off. Served with homemade bread rolls they will serve 8 hungry people for about 15p per person and you should still have half left to freeze.

I don't want to go on too much about red lentils :rolleyes: BUT they will make a 500g pack of mince feed 4 for 3 meals if used to bulk it out....along with cheap tinned toms, grated carrot, onion etc Lots of chilli, bolognese etc.

I would definitely make bread instead of buying it. A bag of bread flour will cost about 50p and will make 3 loaves. MUCH cheaper than buying and much nicer. LOADS of thread on here about making bread if you haven't done it before. Its very easy.

If I can think of anything else I'll post again later.
Hope that helps
Tess

those veggie burgers sound YUMMY!

mbaz · 1 September 2008 at 2:01PM

I love lentil soup too. How do you make it?

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Help! £40 to feed family for the month

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