Feed for for a fiver - with no storecupboard!

debbym

No storecupboard? Well I have just moved house to another country and as a result gave away any stocks I didn't manage to use. Not a situation I have been in for about 20 years (since I went to uni in fact) only this time it will be no storecupboard and a family of 5 to feed eek!

I have been looking at the stuff I normally cook (and the many excellent recipes on this site) and realised that most of the costing for the HM from scratch stuff use a bit of this and that from the stores. I mean think about the number of times a recipe will use a splash of oil, or a pinch of herbs, or even just a pinch of salt. Normally I use the unit price approach to compare recipes, you know where you use 1 egg so you take the pack price of the 6 you bought and divide by 6 to give the unit price and so the pinch of this and that usually gets put down as say 5p here or there but imagine if you wanted to cost out a chilli and had to put the price of the whole pack of chilli powder - 89p instead of say 9p for a tsp and oil at £1.19 for a litre instead of a few pence. It can easily blow most of the weeks grocery budget on just a few meals. I thought maybe this is why the infamous "feed your family for a fiver" is so expensive, but no, I check the Mr S website and these recipes also have notes like "add 1 egg from storecupboard" (what a cheat!).
I suppose costing out the weeks recipes in this way is more realistic as if you want to try a recipe and it uses something you don't have you can't exactly walk into MrT and ask for 8p worth of ground coriander...But at the moment I have a feeling that we either have to overspend to build up the storecupboard or live on relatively bland stuff for a week or so and build up gradually. Maybe this is where the money really goes every week:)

So my challenge to you all is this. Put yourself in my situation; if you were denied your emergency stores/herbs and spices/freezer contents/garden (grown yourself) produce etc etc etc and had to start from an absolutely empty cupboard what meals would you produce. Just to level the playing field we'll add a few groundrules - no cheap from my market or asian supermarket prices either (not all of us are lucky enough to have this facility - even where I used to live was standard supermarkets or nothing!) go on scare yourself silly on how much your shopping could really cost! Any suggestions welcome.....

flissh

I was in this situation at the end of March. I moved back to the UK and my store cupboard was bare.

To be honest it hasn't been too bad. Each week I suppose I add more herbs etc, but only when called for in a recipe. I have had a few moments when I've gone to reach for something like cornflour and it has not been there, but I just put it on the list.

The thing that has really helped me through has been meal planning. Doing this means I buy only what I need. Mostly there is stuff over for the store cupboard, and I won't need it next time, like chilli and oil etc.

My cupboards still look a bit bare though. And yes, the meals cost does seem greater because you have to buy everything, but to be honest, when my shopping is expensive it is because I have bought things off list that we don't really need for the meals that week.

charliee_3

when i moved into one house i didnt have any stores or food and ended up eating tuna with pasta and ketchup.. it was vile!!
i think you wil have to invest in some of the real basics, oil, salt, garlic, etc so will be expensive to start with, but then maybe buy yourself a herb/ spice a week until you have your stocks back..

jc2703

What would you usually use most of? buy that this week - i would say dried thyme is my most versatile as i can use it in chicken or beef soups or stews. Even if you bought one main thing per week say thyme, mixed herbs (for tomato/italian sauces) chilli powder and paprika - you'll get a pretty good mix in a month. In the meantime watch out for fresh whoopsied herbs that can be frozen and roast a chicken or two to get some stock (as well as meals!)

Hope that helps

J x

Penelope_Penguin

debbym wrote: »

I thought maybe this is why the infamous "feed your family for a fiver" is so expensive, but no, I check the Mr S website and these recipes also have notes like "add 1 egg from storecupboard" (what a cheat!).

So my challenge to you all is this. Put yourself in my situation; if you were denied your emergency stores/herbs and spices/freezer contents/garden (grown yourself) produce etc etc etc and had to start from an absolutely empty cupboard what meals would you produce. Just to level the playing field we'll add a few groundrules - no cheap from my market or asian supermarket prices either (not all of us are lucky enough to have this facility - even where I used to live was standard supermarkets or nothing!) go on scare yourself silly on how much your shopping could really cost! Any suggestions welcome.....

I thougth the Sainsbury's recipes included everyting you needed to buy, too Can you post a link to the website of recipes, as I can't find it

We have a thread of Recipes for a Fiver here Admitedly, some of them use a proportion of a jar or packet and charge for that, but plenty are 2 or 3 courses for £5, so you could just make the main meal for your £5 outlay

My tip would be to eat locally and seasonally - that's by far the cheapest way to buy fruit, veg and meat.

I'll add this thread to that one later to keep ideas together.

Penny. x

Oldernotwiser

The simplest thing to do would be to return to the traditional meat and 2 veg pattern where the only additional item you would need would be salt. If you buy seasonal vegetables and cheap meat (belly pork,chicken pieces,sausages,liver,kidney - fish of course) you could go for weeks without having to buy anything extra.

ceridwen

I would say that one just has to "bite the bullet" and buy THE most basic items of all. In my book they are:

extra virgin olive oil (but I would make do with sunflower oil temporarily if need be)

salt

black peppercorns

curry powder (one doesnt need modern-style curry pastes - and they are a lot dearer)

Italian style mixed herbs

tomato puree

mixed spice

a basic type flour (wholemeal in my case)

balsamic vinegar (but I would substitute cider vinegar for the time being until finances improved)

yeast extract (bearing in mind I am vegetarian)

One doesnt actually NEED any more than that - the rest can come later.

(At a rough guess - using the cheaper oil and vinegar pro tem - I could get that lot for less than £10 I reckon.)

kunekune

I've done this several times, after big moves. I tend to do a big shop at the beginning, to stock up on the basics, but with some planning it could be done a bit at a time. I don't bake very often, and don't usually make puddings, so my list of essentials would be: olive oil, sunflower oil, salt, black peppercorns, stock cubes, lemon juice, grain mustard, italian mixed herbs, cumin, coriander, chilli. Those are the ingredients that get used most, but life would be boring until I had them. After a bit I'd add more herbs and spices, different oils and vinegars, and flavourings like anchovies and capers. You don't buy these thiings very often (apart from olive oil!) so it'll be a while before you need to get them again.

If any extras are a problem, plan each week around a particular group of flavours: for instance, in your first week you could get, say, some italian herbs, olive oil, stock, a couple of lemons and some mustard .

culpepper

you can always use substitutes for things or buy main ingredients.
For example, I have had strong flour for bread and also used it to make pasta and pastry just because they are already in the cupboard so to speak(ingredient form anyway). Flour can be used instead of cornflour to thicken if you carefully blend it like you would a custard powder.
You can use fat from meat for pastry, it is a little less beautiful than using lard but edible and tides you over .Pretty much anywhere you use oil in cooking, fat will do.