£50 for a months shopping

robpw2

check out your local butchers and market as well i have today - im making rabbit pie that costing me about £1 per head (based on 4)

also get mince and a bag of chepa onions - chop onions throw in with mince add cheap tomatoes and freeze then use it as you need it makes spaghettis , makes shepeards pie, chiili , mince and onion pie, etc

buy a bag of flour -44p max - milk - eggs get some spinach and use your tuna and sweet and sour sauce

make pancakes - mix spinach tuna and sauce in a pand then spoon into pancakes and roll each pancake and put in dish then cover with a cheese sauce
milk butter flour and cheddar in a pan then bake for 30 mins mmm

Toonie

Do you have any ethnic supermarkets nearby? You can pick up huge amounts of good quality, low priced food there and you could get pasta, rice, bread and vegetables there.

Do check if you are entitled to any benefits now that your OH has been made redundant https://www.entitledto.co.uk

ifonlyitwaseasier

ok check on mysupermarket.co.uk (?) and you can plan a shopping list at your normal supermarket (tesco, asda, sains or waitrose) and then if you go to lidl or aldi you can see the prices you would pay and compare as you go round.

have you got any car boot sales nearby you could go and sell things at? might bring in a few extra quid to the budget.

and don't hesitate to ask here,

and check out weezl's 50p a day thread, great recipes and all very healthy

bigsmoke

do you have a market near you? like whoopsies at the supermarket, if you can get to the market at the end of the day there's often spoilt stuff that you can buy cheap to use that day/chop and freeze. some people on here even manage to pick this stuff up for free!

Katie-Kat-Kins

Why not work out a months worth of meals (including breakfast and lunch) with ingredients and post them on here then the ladies can suggest cheaper alternatives or ways to stretch what you have to last longer??

Helps if we can see what sort of food is suitable for the family.

jayward

i think meal plan is good advice,
i am lucky and have a good range of supermarkets within a mile,which do you have danniian
and do you do much cooking

danniian

i have ASDA tesco morrisons aldi also have iceland and farmfood

lol dont do that much cookin but am willing to try

Little_Miss_Naughty

I freeze potatoes for roasting whien i buy a big bag that i know i will not use.

Part boil and drain.
Coat in flour
Lay on a baking tray so the potatoes are not touching and place in freezer. Once frozen store in bags this way thay do not stick together in the freezer.

I put mine straight from freezer to hot oil in the roasting dish to re cook.

Hope this helps in a small way.

jackieglasgow

Danniian,

Try the grabbit board for help with shopping vouchers for Tesco, if you have a printer at home to print them off, it will add a lot to what you can afford to spend, I recently used about £12 of vouchers on a £35 shop!

Jackie X

ETA here's a link!

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=1852031&highlight=coupons

babyshoes

My friend uses value baked beans in EVERYTHING - mince, stews, pasta sauce, curries, chilli etc. They are a good cheap source of protein and will stretch your meaty dishes a lot without overpowering the taste too much. I would do this but OH won't eat them. I tend to add lots of onion and value tinned tomatoes instead, which does the same job of stretching the sauce. I always try to make extra either to freeze or to have as leftovers for lunch, sometimes both! I have also heard of people using a handful of oats to bulk out such things. Perhaps you could use a careful mix of these three methods?

Peanut butter is also a good healthy sandwich filling for kids, though it is quite high in fat so I wouldn't give it to them everyday. It does contain protein and some vitamins, so if your kids will eat it then give it to them sometimes. Along with a piece or two of cheap fruit, this is a fairly balanced light meal, perhaps for a lunch or weekend supper.

Do you have a thermos flask? I believe you can make your own yoghurt with a normal plain yoghurt and milk, (ask google for a recipe) then just add your own fruit puree and put it in tubs for a packed lunch - a great source of protein and calcium and will have less sugar and fat than the average supermarket ones.

The carbohydrates are usually the cheap part of the meal - pasta, rice, bread, potatoes etc especially if you buy them in bulk, so serve a fair amount of those to fill the family up. The challenge is to add enough protein and vegetables to them so that it is fairly balanced without spending a lot of money. Beans (especially soya products) and cheese are good non-meat sources of protein, while value fruit and veg (or spoiled market veg etc) may look funny and may need a little more time cutting out dodgy bits, but they are still good nutritionally.

Home made soups are easy and filling, and can be a great way of using up leftover bits of meat and almost any veg - there are loads of ideas on these forums for soups and 'rubber chicken'...

Packed lunches are more difficult, but if you can get school lunches that's great, as long as your child knows to choose the healthy option of meat and veg, stew, pasta etc, rather than the ubiquitous jacket and beans/cheese or burger and chips that the kids where I used to work would always choose!

Do you have any garden space, or even a patio where you could put a few pots? At this time of year you can still grow some types of lettuce and radishes for cheap salad veg, as well as a few other crops to harvest in Spring. All it need cost you is your time and a few packets of seeds (check places like Wilkos for reduced seeds this time of year), especially if you already have tools or ask for some on Freecycle.