£50 for a months shopping

lynzpower

I would save the ham and slice it up and have it in a pasta sauce it wil stratch further.

The chiclken breasts you can shread up and use as a pie filling with carrot/onion/mushroom gravy ( value oxo cube and sppon of plain flour is fine if you have it) One will definately be enough for one pie for the whole family

The bread you can make into a french bread pizza this will stratch quite far with a couple of mushroms/ onions/ tomato puree watrered down a bit. You can serve this with a value potato baked.

Eggs can be a cheap thing to buy, 12 eggs often for a pound if you look hard enough ( eg iceland) Do farmfoods still have a 50p fridge? I used to get full size pies and other goodies from there, and will stretch quite far with a bag of frozen peas a few carrots and some mash.
I agree about morrissons, Ive had some of the 50 p chicken, and they have also done sausages/ cheese and other goodies for 50p. trhis week I got ham packets, cheese, lettuce, green beans. I felt I did quite well at morrissons recently.

Farmfoods can be really good, but you have to watch out sometimes they charge more than anywher else for some frozen items

I think your best bet is to look at all the offers everywhere and befroe buying anything work out how you can do it for such a small amount of money. Can your kids take a soup or a home made mini pasta ( eg leftovers) in a hot flask for pack up.
Veggie mince is cheap in asda and sometimes farmfoods and goes a lot further than meat mince IMO. You can make chilli serve with jackets potatoes, sometimes we use a frozen portion to have nachos with a blob of sour cream or natural yog and some value tortilla chips and spicy wedges. You can make a milder version fo your OH.

Likewise a spag bol sauce can be thickened up and used as a pie filling - have a look at farmfoods they uysed to do pastry for 39p. The other half could be made into a blackberry pie or pasties - eg cheese & onion. - again a cheapie filling and my personal fave

If you have a home bargains look out as they did pastry bags for 10p not long ago ( add water) and half a packet will make one family pie.

The sweet & sour could be done with just veggies and rice. Peppers seem to be on offer in a few places at the mo, and that with some mush, onions,a courgette, should be able to feed everyone quite comfortably

jayward

yes i too think farmfoods stuff has gone up for there frozen items
danniian i have sent you a pm ,

Butterfly_Brain

Sorry to hear your news = we were put in the same position last year but luckily we knew a couple of months in advance and so built our stocks up which lasted long enough for DH to find another job.
If your partner is on job seekers your children are entitled to free school meals and you will find that your tax credits will go up and you will be able to apply for council tax benefit and housing benefit if you are in rented accommodation.
We were actually better off after everything was sorted so my advice is to phone the benefits help line straight away and start the ball rolling.

QueenBeruthiel

danniian, have you any Tesco Reward or Nectar points? Boots Advantage points for toiletries?

Butterfly_Brain

Aldi have a new set of fruit and veg deals starting on Sunday and their eggs are 99p for 10 large ones, Farmfoods are cheapest for milk.
Mince can be stretched with veggies, baked beans and or pulses top with mash or pastry or make spag bol , chilli etc
Aldi have a large chicken for £2.99 and that will easily stretch to 3 meals
(see the rubber chicken thread)
You could make a Tuna Pasta or Tuna fishcakes.
Buy porridge instead of cereal it is more filling and you could make some Twinks world famouse Hob nobs, as a little treat for the kids.
Get some SR , Plain and Bread flour in and a few sachets of yeast then you can make your own bread, fruit buns, crumpets and pizza etc
Make sure you have Rice , pasta, potatoes for basic carbs. Also a packet of dried fruit.
Try making a savoury bread and butter pudding or a bread pudding if you have stale bread.
Buy some sausages - then slice them and add them to pasta with a tin of toms and veg or add a tin of baked beans and serve with sliced potatoes on top (cowboy stew)
Buy a few tins of Basics fruit and some packets of instant custard so the kids get some fruit or buy frozen fruit, or even as I have done go scrumping and Hedgerow shopping as my kids call it.
Have you any family or friends near who will help you out? Sometimes they are a godsend they might give you a few bits ( that's partly how we survived last year)
I wish you well and hope that you let us know how you get on x

slowandsteady_2

Definately contact the jobcentre, tax credits etc. I have had friends in this position, although they were single. You should be able to get a crisis loan from the job centre as you sound like you have next to nothing for food. You do have to pay this back bt at a small mount per week.
How old are your kids? If they are under 5 you should be able to get milk tokens (Healthy Start Vouchers) and you can get milk and fruit and veg with them.
Can you cancel any non essential direct debits so you can free up a bit more money. If it was me i would personally cancel the council tax direct debit as you will be eligible for council tax benefit by the sound of it so get the forms filled in ASAP and ring them and explain, and maybe you could then use that extra money.
I wouldnt obviously recommend getting into debt doing that but you have to eat.
Morrisons where i live do a 10kg bag of potatoes that are 'seconds', they are fine, probably not the right shape or something!
Its not ideal but Iceland do some really good bargains and i have filled my freezer for about £40 a few weeks ago with plenty. Probably not the most nutritious but i get what we can afford when i dont have the money!
Frozen veg is a good option too as about £1 for a 1kg bag which can last a while and wont go off. Poundland sometimes have some good deals on tinned food and cereals.

I hope you get things sorted, good luck

Glamazon

jcr16 wrote: »

sure i read in another post if u buy a daily star newspaper thsi week ( think today last day) there is a voucher for £5 off when u spend £30 at lidl. but not sure when it has to be used by.

It needs to be used by 31st August - I'm going to use mine tomorrow.

As my baby is due soon, I will start batch cooking next week. I have the world's biggest shopping list as I want to try and avoid going shopping in the first couple of weeks if I can help it.

I've spent the day checking out the ASDA website and checking the price of everything I need to buy - then I am going to LIDL tomorrow and whatever is cheaper I will get in there.

OP - not sure what to suggest mealwise as most of my batch cooking involves food that would probably irritate your OH's IBS.

notlongnow_2

robpw2 wrote: »

im making rabbit pie that costing me about £1 per head

£1 for a rabbit head??? Cant be much meat on that!! :rotfl: (JOKE)

robpw2

notlongnow wrote: »

£1 for a rabbit head??? Cant be much meat on that!! :rotfl: (JOKE)

yes these are sibearean giant rabbits lol


no thats the pie is £1 a head lol

Butterfly_Brain

robpw2 wrote: »

yes these are sibearean giant rabbits lol


no thats the pie is £1 a head lol

Doesn't Huge Ferny Twitterall advocate picking up road kill rabbits
:rotfl::rotfl: