help - £40 to feed 1 person for a month!

frugalmumof4

hi,
I think that £40 for the month will be do-able for you. Everyone has chipped in with some great suggestions already.
If it was me, I think the best way to get as much for my money would be to eat vegetarian, but im pretty bias being a vege!
I was thinking that if you had the freezer space and you dont mind a 7 day plan of meals then repeating some of it each week for a month, that you could live quite well.
I have included a fish pie recipe, that isnt vegetarian but can be made really cheaply.
sorry i havent finished my plan, as my little one is waiting for me to hunt for woody the cow boy!but to give you an idea!

so i was thinking,

make a big slow cooker curry, using value chopped tomatoes 28p, value curry sauce 4p, frozen mixed vegetables £1.00, tin chickpeas 40p, this should make 4 portions. You can then serve with boiled value rice think thats about 72p for a bag, i didnt look up that price!

Value pasta served with homemade pasta sauce, using 2 tins chopped tomatoes, couple of onions, some mushrooms, value vegetable stock cube. This should make 4 servings.

fishermans pie
tesco 4 pack cod portion £1.99
value sweetcorn 34p
condensed mushroom soup 43p
value tin of peas 12p
mashed potato to top 1 2.5kg bag costs £1.23 just top with as much as you like.
this will make 4 servings

vegetarian sausages £1.00 box of 6 in tescos linda mcartney or whatever is on offer
value tin of beans 28p
mashed potatoes
will make 2 meals

lentil dhal with rice, served with brocolli and carrots, can find you out my recipe makes enough for 4! leftovers can make pate

sorry have to go, toy story cant wait!

Fire_Fox

Quite a few Value/ Smartprice breakfast cereals are edible - I have fruit and fibre which has the same amount of fruit as the standard own brand but is half the price!! Porridge is probably the cheapest breakfast made up with powdered milk and a handful of Smartprice/ Value raisins.

I eat a lot of homemade soup for my lunches which is very cheap if made with reduced or frozen veggies, and filling if you add pearl barley, red lentils or potatoes. Homemade houmous and homemade chicken liver pate are also cheap and of course there's beans on toast or cottage cheese and jacket potato.

For evening meals eggs, tinned pink salmon, turkey drumstick and pork mince are all fairly cheap and bulk out well. If you make some meals vegetarian based around beans and lentils, again it will be cheap, healthy and filling. If you fancy a jar of sauce both Home Bargains and B&M have short-dated ones from 10p and you might find the same in a market or boot sale.

Dr_DiNg_DoNg

If I was doing it, I would get some dried chick peas, and a few store cupboard things like curry powder, onion, garlic

Then you got falafel, chick pea curry , Italian chick pea and pasta stew, humous.

I love eating that anyway.

jackieglasgow

Fire_Fox wrote: »

Quite a few Value/ Smartprice breakfast cereals are edible - I have fruit and fibre which has the same amount of fruit as the standard own brand but is half the price!! Porridge is probably the cheapest breakfast made up with powdered milk and a handful of Smartprice/ Value raisins.

Sorry to hijack, but could you tell me what brand you buy fire fox, I love fruit and fibre but cant justify the cost at the moment, also are the flakes as tasty?

Jackie X

Trinny

Hi There

Good luck with the food budget this month.

I would suggest - listing what you already have in the cupboard / freezer on here - and let the seasoned OS'ers help with menu plans

Otherwise - can you eat at other peoples houses - get invited round etc, or host a feed where everyone brings something - that way you get leftovers.

I would also suggest checking out the Whoops section of the supermarket - some real bargains can be had when stuff is reduced.

There is also free wild food - things like blackberries and apples are around now - add a little sugar and its an almost free pudding.

Otherwise - cereal, reduced bread for toast, value noodles, basics rice / pasta - and check out B&M who have cheap food near the sell by date.

Trin

determinedtodothis

Well i had a sort through my cupboard and I really think I can do this I kinda knew this tight month was on the card so I have been stocking up but i was shocked when i actually wrote it down I always look and think I don't have much!! *LOL* I have:

In the freezer:
2 leg of lamb chops
Chicken Breast Pieces
4 Chicken Breasts
2 Makrels
2 Steaks
5 bags of steam veg
Bag of Yorkshire Puds!
Bacon
Roll Pastry (for pies)
Birds eye Waffels

In my Fridge:
2 Onions

In the Cupboard:
9 Tins of chopped tomatos
2 Tins of condensed Mushroom soup
5 tins of soup
2 tins of spag hoops
1 Tin of pineapple slices
1 jar of tikka sauce
2 tins corn beef
2 boxes of oats so simple
2 sachets of chow mein sit in sauce
egg noodles (4)
Loads of rice & pasta
2 pints of milk

still can't belive i have all this!! think I need to concentrate on the fridge contents with my £10 a week - what does everyone think? i've got to make 30 breakfast, lunches and dinners so i'm thinking buy:

Pot's (Normal ones to freeze mash - thanks ifonlyitwaseasier)
Cassarole veg (thanks butterfly brain)
Milk
Bread
Chick peas
Tinned fruit sounds like a plain (thanks again butterfly brain)
Mince
Lasgne

I reckon I might even come under £10 a week - i feel a bit silly worrying about it now you guys have given me all these ideas!

Thanks everyone

angchris

you could make a sweet and sour with some of the chicken breast and some of the pineapple with noodles or rice, use the thickened pineapple juice to use as a sauce...you would just need to buy a red pepper. i`d also buy a bag of value sr flour and make a pineapple upside down cake with value sachet of custard yummm.
also looks like the mandatory corned beef hash has to come into play this month
could also make chicken n mushroom pie withe the chicken breasts and use the soup as a sauce with the pastry just need to buy a few mushrooms and make your own chippo`s or mash.

veersix

angchris wrote: »

you could make a sweet and sour with some of the chicken breast and some of the pineapple with noodles or rice, use the thickened pineapple juice to use as a sauce...you would just need to buy a red pepper. i`d also buy a bag of value sr flour and make a pineapple upside down cake with value sachet of custard yummm.
also looks like the mandatory corned beef hash has to come into play this month

Can one freeze corned beef hash?

veersix.

angchris

veersix wrote: »

Can one freeze corned beef hash?

veersix.

i dont see why not, just make sure it is properly defrosted and reheated to a good hot temperature...might not look a pretty picture on the plate second time around but im sure it would still taste delish

Fire_Fox

jackieglasgow wrote: »

Sorry to hijack, but could you tell me what brand you buy fire fox, I love fruit and fibre but cant justify the cost at the moment, also are the flakes as tasty?

Jackie X

Good question! **toddles off to check** I had to go to my outside store for the recycled cereal box, as I transferred the cheap stuff to the non-cheap box ... It's Tesco Value and I was pleasantly surprised, thought it would be all cardboardy. Mr. Fire Fox said he could tell as it was sweeter, but according to the box it has virtually the same sugar and fruit content as Tesco own brand.

The pieces of coconut are smaller but for half the price of the own brand and a quarter of the price of Kelloggs I am not complaining. It's about 60p so I figured I could either make chocolate 'cornflake' cakes or dilute with the better stuff or even chuck if dire.

There are a couple of threads on which Value stuff is decent, might be worth getting a few viewpoints?
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=150104
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=405198