HELP!!!! On a budget of £10 per week till the end of the month!!!!

[Deleted User]

Nicoll wrote: »

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I once lived on jacket potato and beans for 2 weeks when I was broke! Sick of it by the end but I survived.

I too had a very broke patch nearly 50 years ago when single and living alone for the first time . I ended up living for five days on custard as the only thing that was left in the cupboard was a huge tin of Birds custard powder.It took me years before I could eat custard again :rotfl:but I survived, and learned that Mum wasn't always going to be there with a nice meal when you get home from work.Always kept a small store of tinned stuff 'just in case' ever since

lickylonglips

soup with pasta, rice, couscous, beans, lentils, potatoes or bread to fill you up and healthy too as you'll be using lotd of veg. get your five a day in one bowl! i've just put myself a pan on for lunch with one large carrot finely sliced (10p), a parsnip diced (4p - reduced packs in tesco for 20p), a small piece of cabbage shredded (6p), a teaspoon of value dried herbs (2p), a value chicken stock cube (2p - from tesco 10p a pack). i'll add a handful of dried pasta shapes when almost cooked (4p) - 28p for enough for 2 large bowlfuls.... you can always vary the veg, add a spoonful of pesto, a squirt of tomato puree, a pinch of chilli powder or flakes, some soaked beans or dried soup mix, a little bit of value bacon offcuts diced up (my spar has 300g pack of value bacon pieces for 44p at the moment, but i don't think it's nationwide).

purpleivy

If you have an Aldi near you there is a range called 'super 6' which changes every week. This week it's baking potatotes 59p big bag, tomatoes, peppers 69p for 3, pears, onions kg 29p. Swede 29p. GOing to do a lovely tray of roasted veg for tea tonight with that lot and hopefully some left for another day.

I try and base my meals on these, buying stuff that keeps well to use the next week as well as the current week. I hate it when I get something and then it goes on offer the next week! hubby "has" to have a banana and apple for his lunch, but I'm more flexible and eat whatever is cheap!

MrsChaos

You could try searching the forums for 'cheap meals'. There are a couple of threads with fantastic ideas already - also recommendations for budget brand products. I've come across a couple of threads with people in similar situations before, so you could look for those, too. Good luck!

larmy16

Waitrose tinned ratatouille (the best in my opinion) only 55p per can. If you coat a large amount of pasta with it, you can get 4 meals out of it. topped with some grated cheese and black pepper - delish. We tend to have this on a friday evening when we are too tired to cook or cannot be bothered.

If you are not slimming, you could get some reduced crusty rolls and spread with a little butter or spread and some minced garlic.

Nice with salad but I appreciate that may be out of your price range.

For any cleaning, value bubble bath or liquid soap. Does most jobs.
HTH

The rat, cheese and pasta dish is very filling.

BitterAndTwisted

A bag of potatoes, a wedge of cheese, half a dozen eggs and a few pints milk and you have the makings for a lot of different meals. DO NOT UNDERESTIMATE THE NUTRITIOUS VALUE OF SPUDS! Especially if you cook them with their skins on. Even one medium-sized cauli could be stretched to two or even three meals if you have flour to make a cheese sauce. If you're making a cheese sauce, make extra and then you can make some macaroni cheese as well. Lidl currently have half a kilo of fusilli pasta for only 50 pence. I just bought a huge red cabbage for the same amount. Their Fair Trade loose bananas also work out at 10 pence per fruit so half the price of a nana in Tesco Metro, so with a glass of fruit juice at breakfast you've already had two of your five-a-day.

My dear old mother used to be able to make half a pound of sausages feed a family of four. She made a Scottish dish called "Stovies" with them but I expect sausages aren't the traditional ingredient but then she wasn't Scots-born:

Sweat off some chopped onion in a bit of margerine or whatever you have to hand
Add sausages and brown off slightly
Add slices of potato
Add some stock or water to cover plus some pepper and salt
Bring to the boil and simmer gently till spuds are soft.

Another childhood favourite was cold-boiled potatoes sauteed in a pan with beaten egg poured over at the end. Cut up that rasher of streaky bacon hiding at the back of the fridge and cook that off with the spuds and it's delish. Even nicer with some onions chucked in.

One of my favourite budget-meals is sauteed potatoes with a whole egg nested in the middle and chucked in the oven until cooked but still soft. If you're feeling adventurous you could put a few slices of tomato on top.

Are you going to come back with your food/stock-cupboard inventory?

UnluckyT

id definatly second trying to plan, make a list as well as if you can getting the bargains by going later in the shops, and taking a lunch to work too. a nice sandwichdwich a cup of soup esp home made and taken in a thermos, or pasta with some tinned chopped toms, garlic/herbs and grated cheese, better still if you have a microwave in work that you can re-heat it.
if you dont mind beans on toast, then that can be cheap and filling, and for a change you can have a poached egg on top or some grated cheese.
batch bake esp if youve got a slow cooker as i find if i want something extra with a stew or soup ive made the bread and butter or extra veg/spuds come in handy too.

UnluckyT

also soda crystals are good plus if my skin wasnt sensitive id use economy washing powder, i know your on a very tight budget but it trial and error also to what you like/normally use and experimenting ie economy/stardrops.
i dont know how to do a link but as said before theyre is a fair amount of info here in the oldstyle section.

jamespir

at the moment thye have eggs butter and milk for 50p each in asda

Fire_Fox

Cheap healthy foods generally include fresh root veg (soups and stews), most frozen veg (cauli/ brocolli/ potato/ pasta bake), all dried beans and lentils, Value eggs (Spanish omelette, huevos rancheros), powdered milk, oats (porridge, flapjacks), tinned tomatoes, baked beans, Value sliced brown bread. If you crave meat buy some frozen mince and pad out with lentils, oats, onions and grated carrot or a Value chicken and do rubber chicken.

Read Weezl74's thread 'Eat Heathily on 50p per day'
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=1157641
and
http://frugal-cooking.co.uk/