Eat for £12 a week?

curlydi

hi all
well i have started out well, last night i cooked shepherds pie with carrots broccoli and peas, Cost me about £5 .when i dished up i put 2 portions in freezer containers for another day. Normally my partner will go back for seconds and then there may be a little left enough to give my 8 year old daughter on another day, but this way i have made 2 adult portions.feeling very pleased with myself, sad eh!
Tonight is going to be cod which has been in the freezer (keep meaning to use it) with cous cous from aldi which i have to say is as good as Ainsley Harriots! and salad; Salad is the main thing i seem to waste as i buy too much! Followed by a mainly orange fruit salad as they have not been eaten as quick as the rest of the fruit (but then thats probably because i keep topping the bowl up with fresh strawberries, cherrys,grapes and plums, which every one eats very quickly) ,so i would normally end up throwing them away but tonight i will use them.
Hope i haven't waffled too much thanks for all the advice keep it coming

Cornishpixie_2

Hi:T Well Done you. You will be as addicted as the rest of us soon:D . You should have a look over at the Grocery challenge. You can pick up some great tips there, even if like me your a Lurker:rotfl:Also the save the pennies thread and the don't throw food away challenge. My DD took a bit out of an apple today and didn't like it. So I took it back cut it up (minus bite mark ofcourse), peeled it with some other fruit. And now they will be having friut puree topping on their ice cream tonight;) :rotfl: Hope u all have a great day. x

Cornishpixie_2

oystercatcher wrote: »

I'm another one who is amazed at how little people manage to spend. I thought I was quite thrifty and I've been trying to cut back and use value products and cheap brands. We are two adults , three teenage boys and two small dogs . I usually spend £120 -£150 a week on food and household stuff. We do eat quite a lot of ready prepared stuff and I am HOPELESS at planning, usually wait until everyone is starving and end up having something out of the freezer with oven chips. So one solution would be to have something homemade waiting in the freezer.
I'm lazy and hate cooking and rarely bake but think this will have to change.

It's not easy coming home shattered and then managing to cook something from scratch. On my days off I spend a lot of time here at the computer so that is one thing which could be changed .....

Need to get my head round this and start making small changes ....

Oystercatcher

:rotfl: I started of small. Come to the conclusion that I must have one of those addictive type personalities:D Hey Ho! Its all about making a start and ofcourse wearing down any opposition;)

daleigha

So, inspired by you lot and your fab budgeting, when the OH said he needed to stop in Lidl today for horseradish sauce, i thought i would go in too and see what i could get from my shopping list (i had done the meal planner & shopping list in work today - save my free time haha!! :rotfl: )

i got everything bar about four things on my list, and the bill came to £23.91 - i am soo chuffed!! and that included £1.99 for some compost!!

so together with the few other bits i need, i should only spend around £30 this week - not too far off the £12 per person per week!! yay!!! :T

curlydi

Hi all
Well what can i say my menu plan has gone out the window, have had to change most nights as things on at school and work hours changed!
Yesterday i tried to make fish cakes with some fish that needed using up, had the potatoes and fresh parsley left over from the weekend, sadley the potatoe was too sloppy and i couldn't make them in to patties so it all ended up in the bin(does anyone have a nice easy recipe for fish cakes)?
cous cous and roasted veg for lunch prepared yesterday with peppers that were on the turn, so that was a success!
Need to go to the shop today for milk and butter hope i don't get tempted to buy more than i need.
Have a good day all

trying-very-trying

curlydi wrote: »

Need to go to the shop today for milk and butter hope i don't get tempted to buy more than i need.

Oh, I know that feeling too well. It can be made a little bit easier by sending one of the kids in, but then I worry about what bargains I would have been able to get if I had gone in myself. Still it's all about saving the pennies.

Shame about your fishcakes, just a thought, could you maybe have added a bit of cornflour to thicken up the sloppy potatoes

curlydi

trying-very-trying wrote: »

Oh, I know that feeling too well. It can be made a little bit easier by sending one of the kids in, but then I worry about what bargains I would have been able to get if I had gone in myself. Still it's all about saving the pennies.

Shame about your fishcakes, just a thought, could you maybe have added a bit of cornflour to thicken up the sloppy potatoes

Hi thamks for your suggestion, i will remember that.
Well managed to not over do it at the shop but left my list at home and forgot to get butter and fruit juice!
Will try harder next time .

sreppaw

I see keeping the cost of our menu down to a minimum as a challenge, cook most stuff from scratch and try to grow a fair amount of veg.
e.g. (Main meals here)
- Monday - Gnocchi & Pesto & Bacon bits & Broccoli, followed by summer fruit pudding
Home-grown: Potato (got some free seed potatoes this year), Basil, Garlic, Broccoli, Blackcurrants, Raspberries (Overall cost of these for 2 persons ~ very little)
Plus a bit of stale bread, sugar, oil, 2 slices thick bacon, cream and flour
I’d guess a total of no more than £1
- Tuesday - Slow cooked beef curry followed by rhubarb fool
£1 for part of cheap cut of beef
Home grown potato, carrots, rhubarb and spinach
£0.10 for 100g of rice
Spices and some flour, oil, sugar, Custard powder
Est £2
Tonight we’ll have home-grown mange tout & baby carrot with some fishcakes I froze last autumn (last years potatoes), two 80p cans of salmon made about 16 cakes, so 2 permeal goes a long way...

curlydi

sreppaw wrote: »

I see keeping the cost of our menu down to a minimum as a challenge, cook most stuff from scratch and try to grow a fair amount of veg.
e.g. (Main meals here)
- Monday - Gnocchi & Pesto & Bacon bits & Broccoli, followed by summer fruit pudding
Home-grown: Potato (got some free seed potatoes this year), Basil, Garlic, Broccoli, Blackcurrants, Raspberries (Overall cost of these for 2 persons ~ very little)
Plus a bit of stale bread, sugar, oil, 2 slices thick bacon, cream and flour
I’d guess a total of no more than £1
- Tuesday - Slow cooked beef curry followed by rhubarb fool
£1 for part of cheap cut of beef
Home grown potato, carrots, rhubarb and spinach
£0.10 for 100g of rice
Spices and some flour, oil, sugar, Custard powder
Est £2
Tonight we’ll have home-grown mange tout & baby carrot with some fishcakes I froze last autumn (last years potatoes), two 80p cans of salmon made about 16 cakes, so 2 permeal goes a long way...

It must be great growing your own produce ,i used to have an allotment but sadly had to give it up , i do miss it, nothing better than going out and picking fresh produce and cooking it mmm.How do you make your fish cakes?

JJP_2

I'm new to this forum and so much of this stuff is just awe-inspiring... I've always suspected I needed a menu planner and now I know that I do! Thanks to everyone who has posted budget recipes, meal lists, shopping list - I honestly wouldn't know where to start without these.

I'm shocked that I spend circa 120 pounds per week on groceries / household goods - that's 2 adults, 1 child, 1 baby, 1 cat, and I shop only at Morrisons with BOGOFs etc... I won't compromise on organic dairy because of allergies, and buy free range eggs/chicken as I'd rather go hungry than get the equivalent... but everything else is cheap and cheerful, nothing expensive, only ready meals if they're on offer otherwise I cook bolognese sauce every week, low cost fish steaks etc.

What I was wondering is.......would anyone mind sharing with me their staple cupboard contents? Eg what do I need to have in my cupboards to enable me to cook nice, decent low cost meals? I always have dried herbs and tinned toms but don't know what else I should invest in?

Thanks to anyone who can give me guidance!!!