me and dh and ds need desperate food shopping help

leiela

Porridge is a good idea with raisns made with water you can add flavor by adding abit of suger/sweetner and some vanilla essance.

Lunchs, Soup!!! buy a huge bag on soup mix (buy it on the pulses secton) add any veg you can find in your freezer or perhaps scour the veg aisles carrot/onion/swede potato's are all cheap and go great in soup. Boil it in a pan or stick it on the slow cooker over night ... yum .. also ad some ham/gammon if you budget can stretch it.

Dinner .. stir fry ... Asda/tesco etc often have whoop's on stirfry veg, but it's dead cheap anyway you can buy a huge bag of mixed stirfry veg in asda for 50p ... easy last 2 meals. Add chicken (iceland do huge bags 850g for £4 that would easy last 3-4 days), serve with rice (again cheap smartpice is penny's for a big bag) can even turn it into egg fried rice with 1 egg and some soy sauce.

Another idea is Spag bol, buy some decent mince (try your local butcher as they are often cheaper and better quality than the super market) add onions, peppers, mushrooms, carrots hell any veg you can find.. couple tins of tomatos, and half a bag of lentils, serve with cheap pasta (again asda do huge bags really cheap) that will last a good few days bettween 2.

Try the butchers for a ham shank .. should be about £1.50 should do a meal with potato's and veg, and the leftovers meat and bone can be used in the soup.

Butterfly_Brain

Breakfasts - Toast, Boiled or Poached Eggs, Porridge, or try American Panncakes they are easier to make than you think yummy with a bit of streaky bacon and maple syrup.
Lunches - Try making your own bread rolls or bread works out a lot cheaper,l Soups either HM or buy the packet ones, they are a lot cheaper than HZ and they will do 4 good bowls
I buy sliced Edam cheese in Aldi for £1.19 for 10 slices that does 2 lunch boxes for 5 Days and I make the world famous Twinks Hob nobs to put in them too. I don't buy bottled drinks as a rule because they work out expensive - My OH and DS have flasks with juice or a hot drink in them
Dinners- Mince goes a long way and you can make all sorts of meals from them (I add a handful of porridge to mine to make it stretch further, Sausages are also cheap and versatile.
Believe it or not it is cheaper to buy a joint of beef than braising steak - Buy a cheap joint and chop it into cubes. Brisket is a lovely cut of beef for this because it likes long slow cooking.
You can get cheap chicken and that can do at least two meals (use the carcass to make a warming soup)
If you search the forums there are plenty of recipes for cheap meals on them
HTH and Good luck x

kezlou

This site has some recipes on it which are cheap but very healthy too.

http://www.netmums.com/coffeehouse/home-living-541/house-garden-194/money-saving-budgeting-bargains-609/215635-frugal-living-club-49.html

If you look around the site they are other recipes that may be useful.

I make home made bread and pizzas as well as home made potato wedges, instead of buying takeaways. My kids love making they own toppings and with the pizzas you can make them all different shapes.

Try and look at reduced meat,fruit and veg that way you can chop it up and freeze it for another day. My freezer is jam packed with chopped up parsnips and peppers at the mo, all ready for me to shove in a pan.

eggs are great and versatile i use them in quiches, omelettes treats for the kids, curries etc

Try and look out for value noodles in sainsburys they are about 15p, i use them in stir frys and soups. ~They nowhere near as nice fresh noodles but they an okay substitute.

Pack lunches:-
Buy some plain yoghurt and mix with either fruit, raisins, honey etc for diffrent flavourings.
Pitta breads for sandwiches.
Boil up some pasta, let it cool down and mix up with mayonnaise tuna and sweetcorn, let spoon into containers ready for lunch at school.

Storm

If you could pop up an idea of what you normally eat, then we may be able to suggest some cheaper alternatives. The other thing is to look at going down a brand for regular items such as bread, cereals etc or switching supermarket.

mummytoash

we tend to 1 day of each of these -
lamb
beef
pork
pasta
chicken
fish
vegetarian

mouseymousey99

Do you have anyone nearby who sells sacks of spuds (here its currently £5 a sack).I bought one of those and a huge (5lb) bag of onions for £2. Together they are saving me a fortune! Its very basic, but they are the core of most things.

Barneysmom

mouseymousey99 wrote: »

Do you have anyone nearby who sells sacks of spuds (here its currently £5 a sack).I bought one of those and a huge (5lb) bag of onions for £2. Together they are saving me a fortune! Its very basic, but they are the core of most things.

mouseymousey99, I get a sack of spuds too, it really saves money.
But I've never got the big onions as I'm not sure the best way to store them?
I usually keep the veg in the conservatory as it's quite cool in there, would it be ok?

Mummytoash I often go late to the supermarket and get the whoopsies, have you one near you that you could use?

purpleorc

Another way to jazz up plain yoghurt and cheap. This is to add a level teaspoon or 10grams of jam of any flavour. They suit any sweet tooth members of the family. I know this from my DH who has a really sweet tooth

Brisket is an excellent joint if cooked slowly and much cheaper than top side or silver side cuts. If you want it to go further cube it up and add vegetables and pulses.

A whole Turkey leg which are still on the bone if you cook them slowly by roasting carve meat off for a meal and then strip the leg of the remainder of the meat. Boil the bone in water to make a lovely stock for soups etc. The rest of the meat can make curries, stir fry or sweet and sour. It is suprising how far this can go as there is quite a bit of meat on the leg.

top_drawer_2

marri_lou wrote: »

Cheap whoopsied mince if you can get it made into burgers.

hello, Ive seen this word used a lot in this board - what does it mean???

Jen

top_drawer_2

kezlou wrote: »

1kilo of mince(doesn't matter if meat / soya) ( i use the cheapest mince in the supermarket)
2carrots chopped
1 tin of tomatoes
handful of red split lentils or 1 handful of porridge oats
2 onions chopped
2 cloves of garlic crushed
Put in about a pint of water
salt, pepper
herbs (optional)

Shove in slow cooker on low for about 6hours or on the cooker till it becomes thick but may need more water on the cooker.

How would I go about adapting this for normal cooking as I dont have a slow cooker?

Thanks

Jen