How to feed a family of 5 on a budget

Gillby1

My favourite cheap meal at the moment is a sort of cheat's cassoulet - a French dish. The ingredients i tend to use are below, but can be varied - try extra or different meats, and add extra veg or herbs.

Ingredients:

Pack sausages
cheap/leftover bacon bits/lardons
Tomato based sauce (Ragu, or homemade with tin toms, herbs, onions etc...)
Tin mixed beans
Tin lentils
Celery, carrots and other veg - optional

Method:
Brown sausages and bacon bits in casserole dish in the oven (approx 200C), then chop up sausages into bite-size pieces. Add the tomato sauce and any extra chopped veg, plus drained beans and lentils. Mix well, then return to the oven for 30 mins to cook through.

After about 15 minutes in the oven I take it out and add a savoury crumble topping, using bread crumbs and oats with a little butter, salt and pepper.

Very filling and delicious, served with potatoes and any other veg. The lentils and beans really pad it out, too.

kiwichick

Hiya,

I'm relatively new to MSE but my home from home is the money saying oldstyle board. The biggest change for me (we are a family of 5 too) is the way in which I shop/cook.

I was shopping every week and cooking from scratch every night. Inow do a BIG shop every 3 weeks or so with top ups for fresh veg/milk/bread etc in between. I also have tesco deliver and with the codes on the voucher threads I save money too, even with the delivery charge!

I did invest in a slowcooker which wasonly £24 from amazon and is 6.5L, it makes HUGE curries, soups casseroles etc and even when we have all had some there is some left over for the freezer. Maybe you could do HM curry on sat night and pop the left overs in the freezer for you and yours to eat during the week? Also, you really can getaway with very cheap cuts cause being cooked slow means they do go tender. Again,maybe do a big casserole andsave the leftovers for a weekday meal?

Also, try and go to themarket for fresh fruit/veg near toclosingtime. I can get LOADS ofapples cheap this way and then do a big crumble pudding for next to nothing.

Give the old stylers board a go, they are a GREAT bunch and will help you loads.
Al.