£50 a week to feed family of 6, does anyone do it cheaper??

dollydaydream07

Penny-Pincher!! wrote: »

£4.50 is too expensive for 3 people for Shepherds Pie!

Shepherds Pie (3-4 portions)

250g Minced Lamb (£1)
Baked Beans (29p)
Onion (5p)
Few Spuds (20p)
Oxo Cube (4p)
Half cabbage (18p)
3 Carrots (12p)

Total £1.86.....enough for 4 portions

Roast Chicken Meal

Chicken (£2.50 1.7kg-enough left to make a small curry)
Yorkies x 4 (20p)
Spuds (25p)
Half Cabbage (18p)
Sprouts (19p)
Carrots (15p)

Total £3.47.....enough for 3-4 portions plus enough chicken for a curry and soup.

HTH

PP
xx

Where do you buy your chicken from for that price??

i buy the asda/tesco/morrisons value chicken and it still costs me about £3.50ish

if you serve sausages as well with the chicken dinner you will use less chicken and have more to stretch it out to an extra meal...........<wonders off muttering, must take own advice>

Lindy_-_Loo

Netto do chickens in 3 sizes from £1.79. We buy The £2.89 feeds the four of us for roast, then tea the next night and some left for sandwiches. Not sure of exact size but cheaper than the same size in tesco value.

OrkneyStar

Lindy_-_Loo wrote: »

Netto do chickens in 3 sizes from £1.79. We buy The £2.89 feeds the four of us for roast, then tea the next night and some left for sandwiches. Not sure of exact size but cheaper than the same size in tesco value.

See up here we have Tesco, Lidl, Coop and small local shops, so it is so much harder to get stuff for those prices!
I did get Willow Farm chicken reduced in Tesco today (breasts as that is what we use) and reduced lean steak mince so that was a bonus- would have got more (there was lots) but we were bussing it due to snow, well we were but ended up getting a lift which I did not know about when buying the meat!
I am not sure there are even any Netto's on the Scottish mainland either (we are on an isle!).
x

[Deleted User]

yesterday I got 250 gms of minced beef from my freezer (cost around £1.35p) and made two good sized lasagnes with it for my DD she picked them up last night and she fed herself and OH and DGD Holly with one of them and she put the other in the freezer.I bulked them out with some tomato pasta sauce from the freezer that I had reduced down just before my holidays in August.I had four tomatos that I didn't want to bin back then so I peeled them and cut up small and chucked in sonme herbs and lazy garlic and simmersed them down until thickened up.once cold I had filled one of those 'chines take away boxes with the mixture and froze it alos I chucked in some chopped up mushrooms that were past their best so I guess the whole lot came to around £2.40 including a jar of white lasagne sauce that i had left over from our holiday
So for two lasagnes which will feed at least six meals it costed out at £2.40 or around 40p per portion with some crusty bread and salad she phoned me last night to say the meal was gorgeous .(she is not like my youngest DD she isn't keen on cooking I'm afraid) and if Mum can make it she loves a bit of home cooked food.
Tonight I have some lovely beef casserole that I cooked yesterday in the SC I did around a kilo and portioned it up to six portions.This was from some whoopsied beef from the freezer which cost me about 2.20.With veggies added and mash it will cost around 45 per meal.I do like to try and extend my food by adding lots of veg.luckily I do like stuff like cabbage,carrots ,greens ect which helps .Also I either have a soup starter then main meal or a pudding, but never both.Tonight I will have the last bit of swiss roll in the cake tinn with some hm custard over the top.The rest of the custard will go to enhance my apple crumble which I will make with some left over apples which are looking a bit 'wrinkly'
I think the best idea is to try to use what you have in the cupboard as much as possible and just add bits to it to stretch it a bit.But it is possible to eat quite well for less with a little bit of planning .I live alonone and can eat very well on £30.00 a week but usually manage to do it on less then put the left over bit into my holiday savings

OrkneyStar

JackieO wrote: »

yesterday I got 250 gms of minced beef from my freezer (cost around £1.35p)

Is that beef mince or steak mince ? I find the beef mince too fatty and end up buying the extra lean steak mince if in Tesco, or ideally proper steak mince from butcher (although our local butcher has changed their steak mince and it is really fatty now ).
Thanks
x

[Deleted User]

OrkneyStar wrote: »

Is that beef mince or steak mince ? I find the beef mince too fatty and end up buying the extra lean steak mince if in Tesco, or ideally proper steak mince from butcher (although our local butcher has changed their steak mince and it is really fatty now ).
Thanks
x

beef mince ,but I always break it up and before cooking I put it in a saucepan of water and bring slowly to the boil and they strain it off.This seems to get rid of any residue fat in the mince

Penelope_Penguin

HappySad wrote: »

What can I buy to feed my family for £40 a week?

As this has fallen from the front page of OS, I'll add it to the thread for feeding 6 for £50 - lots of tips and ideas :T

claret1980

Hi all

I'm new to this forum, but have read it on and off for a year or so - always good for a few tips!

Having recently been made redundant I've had to review our spending and the most obvious area for me to look at first was food. We would never spend an extortionate amount on food, but we would quite often go for the more expensive, quicker and easier to cook cuts of meat as we were both working.

Now I'm carefully planning all of our meals and I'm spending £40 a week, for two adults. I think that's pretty good going as we are eating plenty of fruit and veg as well as plenty of meat and fish. I am shopping at the market where I can pick up all my meat/fish and fruit/veg and then also Aldi for everything else.

I love the market. Some weeks I can buy two pineapples for £1, 2 bags of 6-8 peppers for 90p, 2 aubergines for £1 etc. It has also inspired me to experiment with the other cuts of meat. I've tried pork cheek, chicken hearts, ham hock and spare ribs. Obviously I now have the time to cook a lot and to be honest I'm quite enjoying having the opportunity to give different things a go. Everything, so far, has actually been quite tasty which is encouraging me to keep trying.

Does anybody else seek out these unusual cuts, to save on money, but also to try something different?

familyoffive

I think MUMOF4 does really well and I couldn't do it any cheaper! I'm not managing to! My problem is coeliac member of the family meaning many recipes with cheap ingredients are out of the question for us. The Sainsburys feed a family for £50, 5 out of 7 nights contain gluten so we can't do. Any pasta free, sausage free, gluten free ideas welcome!!!?!?

imogen-p

Familyoffive, one my cheapy favourites is veg chilli. I tend to cook a large batch of it and freeze some.

4 onions.
2 cans chopped tomatos.
2 cans kidney beans
2 cans baked beans.
1 large can sweetcorn.
A couple of dessert spoons of tomato puree.

plus any veg lurking in the fridge that needs using, like mushrooms, carrots, peppers, or sweet potato.

I tend to use 2 teaspoons each of cumin, corriander, tumeric and chilli powder for flavouring. And a stock cube.

Just fry everything off in a pan and then tip in stock and simmer for a while.

Using value/basic range I used to be able to do this for about £1.50, but it generally comes in around £2 now (mainly because tomatos have got a lot dearer) but you can get 4 to 6 portions out of it. Especially if you serve it up with plenty of rice or potato wedges.