£15 how far can i make it go?!

Taye

Ok i have £15 in my purse .. i can if needed take more money out of the bank but i keep going over my food budget and im determind this month is going to be different.

I would like to see exactly how far i can make this £15 go because i suspect with the amount of food i have in my cuboards i can actually go pretty far, the only catch is that im currently "trying" unsucessfully to diet.. i just seem compleatly incapable of budgeting while dieting.. :eek:

I have lots of stuff in the freeze most of it is not very diet friendly but maybe i could feed some of it to the kids? but what about me?!

There are 3 people in the house, me and my 2 sons (7,9) both have VERY good appetites. i need packed lunches and dinners.

Currently i have...

2 small pork joint (marinated in hot and spicy)
1 gammon joint.
2 BIG bags of sausages (1 chilli, 1 pork and leek) not diet friendly.
6 beef burgers (large/lean)
6 chicken breasts
2 packets of lean beef mince
1 bag cheap sausages
1 bag chicken nuggets
2 small pizza


2 bags of peppers (need eating or freezing)
1 bag onions
5kg potato's
2kg sweet potato
3 leeks
2 courgettes
1/2 packet of mangetoute
12 pitta bread
10 wholewheat wraps
1/2 loaf of bread
10kg rice
2 small bags pasta twirls
2 packets of spagetti
4 tins of tomato's
4 tins of beans
2 tins of kidney beans
red lentils
barley
soup mix
chickpea's
frozen green beans
frozen sweet corn
frozen onions
frozen peppers
frozen carrots
frozen spinach
2 blocks of cheese
8 pints of milk
1 uht milk (for my easyo)
1 made up tub of yogurt

Chell

There are loads of ingrediants there to make soup, excellent diet food. The chickpeas and spinach could be added to a curry.

Butterfly_Brain

Aldi have Apples 49p celery 49p new potatoes 49p kiwis 49p broccoli 49p and mini beans 49p and 10 lge eggs 99p
Asda have some good deals on at the moment too and 2L milk is only £1 in Farmfoods

You could get at least 4 meals out of the chicken breast by slicing it and adding to a stir fry , curry or add to rice and veg, you could put it into wraps with some salad - It is surprising how far they actually go when sliced.
The mince could be split into 4 meals just bulk it out with veggies - cottage pie, spag bol or even mince and potatoes.
Try and leave a bit of pork from the joint and turn it into another meal

kunekune

If you cook something like a sausage and bean casserole, you could give yourself lots of beans and a little bit of sausage, and then the boys could have lots of sausage ... That way you can still eat roughly the same thing and keep your sausage intake down. Cold sausages also are quite good for lunchboxes.

hermoine_2

Hi Taye

Definitely food for thought there. I have spent £103 to day in Sainsburys!!!! I did get a lot of meat though - hopefully enough for the whole month.

I would say that you could spend your £15 on fresh stuff to go with the extensive list you have provided. Go to your supermarket and do not do what I did but get some fruit and some bread to provide healthy snacks. Also breakfast, you do not mention cereals or such like so maybe you need to get some of these.

Good luck.

H

freebiequennie

with the value sausages chop them up and add the peppers chopped a tin of tomatoes a couple of sliced onions, some mushrooms, some beans and pnt of stock fry sausages and onions then add other veggies, add tin of toms and beans and stock and simmer for an hr and you have a lovely casserole and can freeze the left overs.

falady

Roasted red pepper and sweet potato soup - delicious and healthy!

Roast the peppers and chunks of peeled sweet potato in the oven (approx 220 degrees, gas mark 6 - 7) for 30 - 40 minutes until coloured.

Meanwhile, fry some onions or leeks, throw in a couple of rashers of bacon if you've got it, courgettes, maybe a few mushrooms if you've got them (just leek and courgette would be absoluely fine). Cook them gently without colouring.

One the peppers and sweet potato are rosted, stick them in the pot with the onions etc,add some chicken or veg stock and simmer gently for 10 mins until the flavours have melded. Let it cool and bit then whizz it. Freezes well.

You don't need to roast the veg - it still tastes great. You can add them raw when the onions etc is cooked, just simmer the veg in the stock for longer top let the potato and peppers cook through.

You could also add some soup mix with the stock to bulk out the soup.

HTH,

Ali xx

mrcow

Can I just say I'm with you!

I've got exactly £15 cash this week too (will get it Monday) and I'm going to make it last the week for feeding me and my 3 children (OH is working away, so he'll have to slum it with hotel food).

We've got to pay for our holiday this month and I don't want to go over budget. I'm going to go through the fridge/larder later, but could do with some help menu planning.

Will be watching this thread closely.

[Deleted User]

Keep your cash for things like milk & bread and use what you have in the way of veggies to make soup.If you have a slow cooker this is great as you can make gallons of the stuff fairly cheaply and its not high in calories. Sausages are not too bad if you grill them,in fact grill everything if you can .I have a George Forman grill and its amazing the amount of fat that comes out of it.I even bring up mince to the boil in a saucepan of water and drain it off before I cook it to help get rid of the fat content first. Good Luck it can be done with a bit of inventiveness

Taye

2 small pork joint (marinated in hot and spicy)
1 gammon joint.
2 BIG bags of sausages (1 chilli, 1 pork and leek) not diet friendly.
16 beef burgers (large/lean)
6 chicken breasts
2 packets of lean beef mince
1 bag cheap sausages
1 bag chicken nuggets
2 small pizza
2 small bags of marinaded chicken (1 hot and spicy, 1 barbque)
1 small bag of gammon scraps (for soup or quiche)
1 bag mini sausages
1 packet Hot and spicy pork steaks
2 packets peppered kababs

2 bags of peppers (need eating or freezing)
1 bag onions
5kg potato's
2kg sweet potato
2 leeks
1/4 packet Stirfry
3 carrots
1/2 packet of mangetout
12 pitta bread
10 wholewheat wraps
1/2 loaf of bread
10kg rice
2 small bags pasta twirls
2 packets of spagetti
6 tins of tomato's
4 tins of beans
red lentils
barley
soup mix
chickpea's
frozen green beans
frozen sweet corn
frozen onions
frozen peppers
frozen carrots
frozen spinach
Frozen peas
frozen baby corn
1 small portion of frozen mushroom
frozen cabbage
2 blocks of cheese
8 pints of milk
1 uht milk (for my easyo)
1 made up tub of yogurt
chilli egg noodles
plain egg noodles
6 eggs
1 tub cottage cheese
7 gingerbread men
2 packs of jelly
1 packet of pancakes
2 packets of mirangues
7 frubes
small selection of made up sandwiches/wraps for kids lunches.

Ok so my guesstimates about what where in the cuboards where not totally wrong, but not totally right either haha... ok here it is the full list, there are other "bits" about .. flour, marg, suger etc etc which ive not counted as im trying to focus on the stuff to make meals.

Breakfasts should not be too much of a problem, i'll need milk (but have dried if needed) and i have 1 box weetbix, 1 pack cornflakes, 2 packs of sugery crap for the kids and 2 bags of porridge oats.

As i said i do have more money in the budget, but i keep over spending and it would be nice this month to come in UNDER!!! besides my fridge and cuboards are bursting i have no-where to put more food, so this is just my own personal storecuboard challenge i guess.

Maybe someone could merge the thread for me.

Ok plan's for today ... 1 packet of mince, load of peppers, onions, 2 tins of toms, 1 tin of beans and of course lentils = CHILLI served with rice, i figure as long as i keep the size of the rice portion reasonable that shouldn't be too bad and i should have at least 1 extra portion to tuck away for later in the week, i also have a tub of Squash soup in the fridge that i;ll have more my lunch i'll make the boys a butty or beans on toast or something.

Ok what else i'm seriously lacking in the "sweet treat" department, i do have 5 banana's which have grown legs sitting on the dining room table which im going to turn into Banana cake and banana flapjacks this afternoon that should keep the boy's going for the week in there packed lunches and some snacks in the evening.

I also have a packet of plain pancakes ... don't ask me why i have ready made pancakes i have no idea they must have been on offer but i thought for a nice treat tonight i would do the boys pancakes, icecream and some golden syrup.. yum .. but none for me *sob* stupid diet.

It just annoy's me i can budget fine, im pretty good i think making food stretch and making meals cheaply but i can not seem to do it and diet at the same flipping time.. grr.

My main worry atm it the pita's etc i'd normally freeze them so they don't go bad but i have no room in the freezer whatsoever.

Basically my plan is to live out of the cuboards as much as possible and try and save this £15 for perishables, milk, bread, salad stuff etc.

JillD_2

Hi
I am doing Weightwatchers at the minute so like you am on a diet, and also to confuse things further my husband and I are vegetarian. I have a 6 yo, a 4yo and a 18mth old.
I am not brilliant at sticking to my budget but I know that a lot of veggie meals come in cheaper anyway so you could try eating veggie some / some more of the time.

Ideas to enable the rest of family to eat meat and you not:
- sausage caserole - make it with onions, peppers, beans , do the sausages separately mix theirs in at the end after you spoon off a portion for yourself
- veggie noodles - I am addicted to smartprice/value 10p noodles, with a handful of stir fry mix thrown in. I buy Asda smart price big bag stir fry mix and freeze, then just add to asemi cooked noodles straight out of freezer. I know your freezer is full but maybe once you hae space ? In the meantime you can just do it with froz peppers/sweetcorn/peas. The rest of the family can have fried chicken pieces stirred in
- pasta is always good for healthy meals. You could do a pasta bake with tinned tomatoes and veg and cooked pasta.
Sprinkle breadcrumbs and grated cheese over everyone elses portion but sppon cottage cheese over yours. It sounds vile but its actually quite nice.
I also discovered ricotta cheese last week. A spoonful stirred into pasta makes it delish. As long as you dont add too much its not too bad, and one tub lasts for a lot of meals.
- veggie curry is always good - sweet potato chickpea and random veg would be lovely. If family object you could always cook a cicken breast separately and simmer that in a bit of the sauce and mix it into theirs at the end.
- enchilladas - fry up some veg. Add in some chilli or other mexican spices. Mix in tin of tomatoes. Fry some chicken piees separately. Fill a tortilla wrap with the veggie mix and then set into a square lasagne dish so its semi rolled up but open at the top.
Fill another wrap the same way, and do 2 more so they are all side by side in the dish, open. Place the chicken bits in the ones needing meat (or you could have mixed it all oin at the start). Mix some cheese into the non diet ones. Normally youd just mix veg, tomatoes, chicken cheese all in together and it isnt so fiddly)
Close the wraps. Pour some more tomatoes over the top. Sprinkle cheese over the bits that need cheese. Bake at 180 for 20 mins or til top golden. YUMMY

I know these things sound like faff but I think if you are wanting to lose weight whilst eating as a family sometimes you do end up eating the seemingly less intersting thing and going to more effort but hey ho!

If the others are having sausages and burgers you could serve with jacket potato and backed beans, and you could just have the jacket potato and beans.

For breakfast porridge is a gret=at healthy choice as it should make you stay full for longer therefore less likely to snack mid morning!
I try and have pasta or jacket potato or couscous or soup for lunch.
Pittas or wraos are great for lunch.
I set out bowls of sweetcorn, grated cheese, grated carrot, chopped ham and let the kids assemble their own. Or with the same plus a few chicken nuggets for tea. They love it, its one of their fsvourites.
I have the same but I roast/chargrill some veg (pepper, courgette, onion etc) and fill with that. If I am feeling generous I allow myself a tablesspoon of grated cheese as well.
My treat is always a biscuit of some sort mid afternoon with a cuppa before the school run.

Goign forwwards when you next shop, I buy lots of smart price scotch pancakes and crumpets. These are great for puddings. My older two have fruit of some sort after tea and then if they are still hungry they have pancakes or crumpets or toast. The pancakes are also good for a lunchbox treat.

Hope this helps, good luck with the budgeting and the dieting