6000 meals under 50p in 2010; feeding your family on a low budget

Hi - so this is a personal challenge, but anybody wants to join in I would be more than happy.

There are 6 in our household and than means 6 x 3meals a day x 30 days in a month x 12 months in a year = 6480 meals this year. I want to set myself a challenge of how many of those meals can be under 50p. Now my target is to get 90% of those meals under 50p ie around 6000

For breakfast (which is always cheap) - I don't see a problem as I have a nose for cheap cereal.
For lunch - weekdays will be lunch box challenge under 50p each and weekends tend to be cheese on toast or a baked potato
For supper: We have 3 veggies and 3 carnivores and we tend to have the same 3 or 4 times a week and different the rest.

Some basic thoughts.
* This is to help me for the GC challenge
* I am going to be reasonably strict in accounting the money
* For dishes lasting more than 1 day I will try and average the cost
* I will try and post recipes and meals (but not if they are from GC)
* will try and keep up daily

I know 50p will be a luxury for many but its quite a saving for me based on last year so fingers crossed

thanks for listening

EDIT 11/01/2010: UPDATE especially for new readers. This thread was merged with another by nikki, at about the same time there was a heated debate around nutrition and cheapness and 5-a-day. Thus it gets a bit confusing around post #50 and a bit heated until about page 6. After that its fine - and please feel free to comment critically if you think I need it. Main lessons:

* It is doable, and it is focussing my mind on shopping and meal planning
* It is really helping focus on portion control
* Some start up issues with more expensive things bought before the challenge
* If any of us is absent I claim the meal (0p is less than 50p)
* If friends come round I count the cost of feeding them as well and average over 6 people
* After 10 days I am running at 91.6% or a bit ahead of target namely 165 meals from 180
* Excluding fruit/other things taken as snacks does confuse the issue, but its not any more than pre challenge so I am leaving it out
* In first 10 days we have eaten 100 pieces of fruit 10litres fruit juice 2kg of peas and 1Kg sweetcorn

EDIT 24/01/2010 - Still going string - lots of recipes in the thread - and a bit of banter. Main lessons:
* Top Lesson: portion control - if you serve less it costs less
* Next Lesson: shopping - if you buy it cheap you can serve more or do more
* Reminder: Unless its just you - you do need to check if everyone is still happy
* 5 - a - day: Its easier than you think to get extra veg in - carrots are great for this
* Home Made Bread: My kids hated brown bread until they had HM bread - now they hate sliced
* Relax: Once in a while you can go over budget for a family meal but don't blow it and order caviar
* Preciseness: Most stuff gets used in whole packs, that's easy to cost, other stuff is done by look and feel not on the scales
* Support: Everyone on here has been great thanks to all, even those with whom heated debates have been had
* Snacking: Possibly more snacking going on (even before the challenge) than OH and I realised - will be looking at that more closely now we are the swing of things.

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