some advice please

mamabear09

hi everyone. i have very little left in my store cupboard , dried herbs and 200g pasta, my cleaning cupboard contains 2 falling apart sponge scourers and a cup of washing up liquid. i have no veggies. cereal that has only got 3 days worth left. my freezer is empty and im totally stuck.:eek:
can anyone advise me on how to restock all for 2 weeks for a family of 4 for a maximum of £40! thanks.

MrsBartolozzi

Hiya mamabear :hello:,
Could you give us an idea of what kind of meals your family will eat? There's no point suggesting lots of pasta or potatoes if no one eats them , and how many people is it for (if including children let us know how old they are - teenagers eat soo much more than little ones.)

MrsB.

mamabear09

i have my partner who loves meat and hates a lot of veges. my son is 4 and eats the same as his father. my daughter is 9 and eats everything like me.

freebiequennie

make a bolgnese mixture with 500gms mince, 4 grated carrots, 2 diced onions, 200gms sliced mushrooms, 200gms sliced peppers (can use frozen mixed peppers), teaspoon of mixed dried herbs, crushed clove garlic, 2 tins of chopped tomatoes, handful of porridge oats mixed with tablespoon of gravy powder (this makes them taste a little meaty!).

This mixture will then make spag bol for 4

add mashed potato (can make a cauliflower and potatoe mixture to go on top to get more veg in) for a cottage pie for 4

and add kidney beans and teaspoon of chilli powder for chilli and then do some rice or just have the mixture with rice if above not liked.

shouldnt cost more than £2.50 for all the above ingredients. if use all value stuff.


also make a sausage casserole (marks and spencer do pack 8 sausages for 99p) and chop the sausages into the casserole so looks like more meat per spoonful should make enough for 2 meals with carrots, onions, mushrooms, peppers and tinned toms served with mash pots

so I guess I would buy

value spaghetti
value pasta shapes
value tinned toms (prob 6-8cans)
value mince
8 pack sausages for around £1 (most supermarkets have them)
pack of frozen mushrooms
pack of frozen peppers
value porridge oats (bulk out mince, use to make flapjacks and also for brekkie)

Any

I would also go to Iceland and see what kind of meat they have on offer... Sometimes you can get real bargains...

mamabear09

i'll have a look in iceland when i can get a lift. good ideas for the mince.

arhino30

I would do a toad in the hole. A bag of 20 frozen value sausages are around £1 and you can either get value batter mix or make your own.
How about bacon roly poly. A pack of value bacon is less than £1 and the suet pastry doesn't take much to make up. You can add leek or onion to it too. I serve this with Mashed potato and veg.

zippychick

Hi Mama, this thread of Mazs is truly inspirational and you will get a lot of ideas from there

£20 to feed a family of 4 for a month

Also Weezls 50p a day meals

Found a list of threads Squeaky had previously linked to
- Cheapest cake to feed six
- Cheapest meal
- Feed six for £1.62
- Full cupboards
- Got £1 and hungry
- Store cupboard Challenge

Some more links Pink previously quoted

Your cheapest evening meal

Cheapest meal

The cheapest healthy meal ever

Cheapest recipes

The list of threads could go on and on, this board is a minefield of useful information!

I would suggest writing a meal plan, working out your ingredients costs and then taking it from there , leaving yourself a small remainder for things you will need fresh for the rest of the time. You may have to chat to your partner as on that budget you may not be able to provide a "meat heavy" meal each time, so there will possibly have to be some compromise?

Don't panic, you can do it. If Maz can feed 4 on £20 for a month, Im sure we can all help you last 2 weeks on £40 :D Happy reading with those links.

squeaky

I'd suggest, since money is tight that apart from grabbing ideas from all the links so helpfully quoted above you also consider building in just a few (inexpensive) treats.

Life is gonna be pretty miserable (I'm guessing, if you are at the moment on a drastically reduced budget) with no treats at all.

I don't know if you're any sort of hand in the kitchen, especially baking, but making your own sponges, biscuits and pies is nothing like as difficult as many people might think - and apologies if you already know

So while crisps, chocolate bars, sweets and soft fizzy drinks may be off the budget for the moment - you can still provide a couple of yummy things per week just to take the edge off things.

AND... if they are into nominal junk food like burgers or pizza you can make your own too, and again, a lot easier than people who have never tried them might think.

So if you let us know whaqt type of puddings, pies, biscuits your family might be interested in, and any "junk food" I am absolutely sure we can sort you out with tried and tested recipes that are pretty much bullet proof. Not to mention that you may have noticed that if someone is in the middle of baking something and have a problem that they will often get an answer in less than five minutes. Quicker than ringing your mum!

So... a list of puds and junk...?


Edit: Sorry but I'm having computer problems at the moment - does anybody have the time to grab a couple of threads links such as store cupboard basics (AND the store cupboard challenge) and maybe the microwave sponge and suet puds in the Old Style Recipe collection and, while I'm asking for the moon... twinks hobnobs thread?

OH, and browsing the GRocery Challenge can help with ideas too

zippychick

squeaky wrote: »

I

Edit: Sorry but I'm having computer problems at the moment - does anybody have the time to grab a couple of threads links such as store cupboard basics (AND the store cupboard challenge) and maybe the microwave sponge and suet puds in the Old Style Recipe collection and, while I'm asking for the moon... twinks hobnobs thread?

OH, and browsing the GRocery Challenge can help with ideas too

I've put *** beside your recommendations Squeaks.

Store cupboard stuff.
Store cupboard essentials ***

store cupboard ingredients ***

store cupboard challenge ***

Desert and baking ideas

microwave sponge pudding ***

Sponge cake recipe

Twinks yummy hobknobs ***

rice pudding

bread and butter pudding

muffins muffins muffins

traybakes

Suet pudding ***

Sorry i was in work when i replied earlier so hope my reply didn't seem rude.

Meal planning

How do you meal plan? - this one might be worth its weight in gold.
Found some pizza links Pink Linked to

Pizza ***

how do i make pizza

Home made Pizzas....mmmmmm

Quickest pizza ever!

Mince ideas

More exciting mince recipes

HM Burgers

Sorry, got a bit carried away! Gosh, i hope that's not too many links for you? Sorry if it is, I just thought if you had them all in one place, you can refer back without always having to find them. As Squeaky said if there is a particular recipe or anything you need, just ask and someone can help you out here

When you are meal planning, if it was me, I would try and incorporate one toast based meal a week and one potato based. So fried eggs and toast , and baked potatoes and beans another for eg. Im sure you realise meat is a big cost so avoiding meat the odd night will also help your costs. It probably seems like a big daunting task, but once you are done with it and know the plan I am sure you will feel much better.

Also, are you able to find out when your local shops do their reductions? Might be a good way to get some cheap cuts of meat too. Also, a good "skill" is beefing meals out with things like lentils, oats, instant mash etc and grated carrots. I know your OH doesnt like veg, but will he know if he can't see them? There is a thread on hiding veg too here

Also if you are having meat, try and avoid Meat, pots and veg meals as your meat will not go as far - if i have a chicken fillet on its own, for me it is a kings way to eat! I simply can't afford it so incorporate the chicken into another meal. The rubber chicken thread should give you heaps of ideas on how far you can stretch a chicken .

squeaky

zippychick wrote: »

I've put *** beside your recommendations Squeaks..

LOL Yeah, like I own them

You've done a great job there.

In fact there's loads of good stuff in all the replies - there's probably an entire book's worth of reading!