Eat for £12 a week?

Penny-Pincher!!

Hi Sue

No problem! We are lucky in the fact that OH doesnt work as he's my FT carer as Im disabled, so getting to a market could be difficult for regular workers as many are through the week.

PP
xx

loopylass

Hi PP
can you tell me where you get your spuds from because they are really cheap for a 25kg bag we pay £6 and did you get all your recipes off here because im looking for more meal ideas thankyou

Penny-Pincher!!

Hi

There from a gent on a local allotment-MIL gets them for us. Sometimes when we travel to see family we buy from a lorry at the side of the road heading towards tunbridge wells.

Recipes are mainly what me mam did when I was little. Main meals are normally based around meat, spuds and veg IYKWIM, but regularly have toad in hole, roasts, chops, sausage and mash, spag bol, HM Pie, curries, chillies, egg and chips, shepards pie, lasagna etc

PP
xx

loopylass

thanks i would like a cheap recipe for stew and dumplings but if i took the recipe from what my mum used to make then the dumplings were so hard its a wonder there wasnt any damage to the floor if dropped ha ha and do your meat come from a supermarket because people on here say they buy from a butchers but i find it very expensive but i do sometimes buy mince from there

Penny-Pincher!!

I usually buy 1lb of mutton from the local butchers and he dices for OH (£1.50).

Normally fry an onion with a little butter, then add the mutton and cook for about 3 mins, so all meat is seared and juices kept in meat. Add this to the SC, then add raw chopped carrots, raw chopped spuds quite small chunks (use new potatoes sometimes if I have some needing using), add raw chopped swede, tin of baked beans. I buy a sachet from Lidls...its for sausage casarole but is delish for this stew (18p) and add extra water to requested amount. Put this on high for 2hrs, then add frozen peas and turn temp to low. Cook for a further 3-4hrs. Then make the dumpling mix with 4oz of flour, 2oz suet and a little water to make a doughy but quite dry consistency. I add this mixture about 45 mins before needed and turn temp to high. Dumplings always are soft and delish.

Serve and normally makes about 5-6 portions.

PP
xx

seraphina

I make my dumplings with
4oz self-raising flour
2oz marge
2oz strong cheddar
2tbsp chopped herbs.

Rub in marge, shape into walnut-shaped blobs and pop in the stew towards the end of cooking time. Ready when they are puffed up, in about 15 mins.

moggins

You make your dumplings with marg? I always make mine with suet.

4oz SR flour
2oz Suet
1 tbpsn mixed herb
pinch of salt

Shove all in food processor, whizz around till mixed, whizz again adding slow trickle of water until mixture forms a ball and then add to the stew for the last 20 minutes.

seraphina

Moggins - should have mentioned I'm vegetarian, hence the marge instead of suet!

moggins

Aaaahhh I see now

Spendless

Suewre wrote:

I have come to the conclusion that there is no way I could cut my shopping bills down this much. We all eat so much more than other people. PennyPincer has used 2 chicken thighs to make 5 meals, I could barely make two meals from them and last week, 10 sausages went to accompany 6 roast dinners plus toad in the hole for 4. There were 26 meals with potato, all from a 10kg bag. My lot eat so much more than that.

Where do you get your shopping from Penny? I see you get your fruit from a market, it seems so cheap, I think I had better look and see if I can find somewhere cheaper, we get through so much fruit.

Apart from that, dh insists on wholemeal pasta, and wholemeal rice, wholemeal wraps and organic peanut butter. And I am on slimming world, so I can only have certain things (ie, not the cheap yoghurt). But I am reading all these threads with interest, and tonight I cooked a tuna pasta bake for 3 of us, and if I have worked it out right, it cost me 86p for the three portions.

We also eat more Sue so you're not on your own. DH won't eat a meal unless there is meat somewhere in it:rolleyes: . I live in a big market town and always buy my meat there. I regularly get 3 joints for £10 but unless one of them is very large, they only make one meal with us, sometimes there's enough for sandwiches the following day. Fruit and veg are cheap on our market too and I should get myself more organised to go in. I live 5 miles outside the town centre so don't always get.