How would you stretch a tenner?

gailey_2

I remembered me in lidls this time last year with just a fiver as a family of 3 were skint until pay day and had 2adults, 1 toddler and brought things like

baking potato
golden syrup to make biscuits.
tins of beans
tins of soups
bread
milk
pasta
passata

I remember reading a fab post on this board one lady fed her whole family of 4 on £20 a month!

I remember the mad suggestions everyone had that i tried.

red lentils became very popular!

I bulked out mince with lentils if wasent too much hubby dident notice.

Nicked ideas from store cupboard challange of lentil and paxo burgers not one hubby wishes me to repeat!

So my question to you this december if ypu had to go cold turkey and only had £10 to buy whole weeks shopping how would you make it stretch?

How do you get best value out of £10 and make it stetch?

where would you shop?im guessig maybe go to a few.
would you go daily and try find silly reductions?Think you would need to.
would you go meat free and live off baked beans on toast?

everyone seems to think skint=beans- I dont even like beans!
I dont know if it is doable tempted to give it a try.
I try to keep cupboard stocked up of basic like flour, tinned tomatoes, passata, herbs/spices ect.

The 45pbasics toiliet roll 45p for 4 not too bad.

we but meat drumsticks and thighs to make casserole, chicken casserole costs me £3 to make but feed 2 so £1.50 a portion.

I could do spagetti with tomato sauce, chese and garlic bread to feed 2-4servings making it £2 for lot by buying

single basic sainsbury garlic bread-45p
basics spagetti
passata
basics mozzarella

As a student I could live off pasta and supernoodles but hubby cant.

I love curry flavoured supernoodles with choppeed tomatoes and peppers and black pepper on top.

I love cereal as snacks but even ow brand cereal and milk can work out pricey*3

Hubbys not that ito quorn and likes his meat.
Find quorn quite pricey to buy.

Would the £10 cover household like washig up liquid/toiliet roll?
could it just fund meals no snacks?

Find sainsburys bit rubbish for reductions not sure if im going in at wrong time. Co-op expensive shop but reductions can be good sunday and evenings.

lil_me

On £10 I wouldn't be able to buy everything I need if I didn't have some items in as a store cupboard, I find some posts misleading as they are not starting from scratch, reductions are not plannable as we get none here worth having. We get 10-15% off at best unless there has been a massive over order on something then it's maybe from £2 to 50p. Washing up liquid isn't essential. Toilet rolls we go through up to one a day (family who won't 'go' elsewhere) If I was broken I'd probably try to get away without washing powder. I could personally survive on pasta with a little cheese or passata & herbs, I reme,ber being a broke homeless teen & being given a tray of spaghetti hoops & bag of spud so I had spaghetti & chip/mash/boiled spuds for a week which was ok for me but my family couldn't & I wouldn't allow it to happen. If all else fails & I incorrectly manage our income to the extent we are left short I'd cancel a DD for a month or something.

cuddlymarm

Hi

I tend to wait intil Quorn is on offer and then stock up, I agree it is a bit pricy. But one bag of mince will do us (2 adults ) for 3 or 4 meals. (Chilli or lasagne I tend to put in a sprinkle and then top with lentils and plenty of veg)
I recently have started using turkey legs (£1.50 approx) and either cook in oven when I'm doing something else or in slow cooker. Then stripping all meat for curry or sweet and sour. The meat doesn't look as nice as chicken or tukey breast meat but in a curry who cares as long as it tastes OK.
My OH does tend to winge if we eat too many veggie meals but does understand that when money is really tight needs must.
I think the important thing that OS has taught me is to be organised and have plenty of basics in so that in an emergency you will cope.

Cuddles:rotfl:

Primrose

I'd certainly agreed that a well-stocked storecupboard is an essential aid in stretching food expenditure as far as possible, with basics like rice, pasta & pulses, plus herbs and seasonings being the base of many tasty inexpensive meals. Also, the better cook you become in learning the arts of making sauces and adapting recipes, the more confident one becomes about making "Ready Steady Cook" type meals with whatever ingredients you have to hand. It often takes quite a while to reach this stage, but you certainly reap the benefits when times are hard and money needs to be stretched.

duncan303

Keep it damp in a flower press :rolleyes:

wont go far though.....

..

anguk

cuddlymarm wrote: »

Hi

I tend to wait intil Quorn is on offer and then stock up, I agree it is a bit pricy. But one bag of mince will do us (2 adults ) for 3 or 4 meals. (Chilli or lasagne I tend to put in a sprinkle and then top with lentils and plenty of veg)
I recently have started using turkey legs (£1.50 approx) and either cook in oven when I'm doing something else or in slow cooker. Then stripping all meat for curry or sweet and sour. The meat doesn't look as nice as chicken or tukey breast meat but in a curry who cares as long as it tastes OK.
My OH does tend to winge if we eat too many veggie meals but does understand that when money is really tight needs must.
I think the important thing that OS has taught me is to be organised and have plenty of basics in so that in an emergency you will cope.

Cuddles:rotfl:

I agree. I always make sure I have a basic store cupboard stocked at all times with things like, flour, pasta, rice, tinned toms, baked beans, pulses, oil, herbs & spices etc. The fridge always has cheese & butter/marge in and I also always make sure I've got a couple of cartons of UHT milk and the ingredients to make bread. Then if we have a skint week I can get by with just having to buy fresh veg and perhaps a chicken & a pack of mince.

gailey_2

Yes I agree its tricky as you mention you have 2variables buy buying certain basics like herbs and spices does allow you to make more meals. plus you cant always rely on reductions so its best to focus on value ranges.
Where we would struggle is huge amount would go on milk and bread and we probably get through one roll a day too..

its just amazing when budgets tight on what meals you can invent.

About 6months ago got bag of white fish fillets 6 in a pack from frozen section at lidls.

put fish i baking tray, pour value tinned tomatoes on top, grated cheese, dried basil, salt, pepper spash of oil and bake for 30mins, serve with basics new potatos and butter-approx cost to feed 4 £4 £1 each meal.

We use washing powder and use not much when skint.
have tried £1 washig up powder been good.
Not had much success with super cheap aldis/lidls washig up liquid.
supaermarket own brand seems good comprimise.

I think if i was single I could manage it as a family would struggle.

maybe if £10stetched well per person family would be £10per adult +£5 per child so for 3 of us , not including baby whos not on solids £25 a week would be managable yet thinking £100 a month seems mad!I breastfeed baby and use cloth so no costs there.

I might try that in January and see if we can do it !Although jan skewed month as always buy extra in December than normal month so usually have some leftovers!

Penelope_Penguin

gailey wrote: »

I remember reading a fab post on this board one lady fed her whole family of 4 on £20 a month!

So my question to you this december if ypu had to go cold turkey and only had £10 to buy whole weeks shopping how would you make it stretch?

Since the thread you mention was started, we have a Grocery Shopping Board. I'll move this over there so that the experts can give you their opinions

Hi, Martin’s asked me to post this in these circumstances: I’ve asked Board Guides to move threads if they’ll receive a better response elsewhere (please see this rule) so this post/thread has been moved to another board, where it should get more replies. If you have any questions about this policy please email [EMAIL="abuse@moneysavingexpert.com"]abuse@moneysavingexpert.com[/EMAIL].

huston_kw

If I had to I'd probably be able to. My milk alone at the cheapest place would be 6.75 a week, so I'd have 3.25 left for fruit & veg - I've got enough stuff in too feed us 2 adults & 2 kids for longer than a week (inc bread making supplies). I have weeks worth of other stuff as well (laundry/toiletries etc). So for me it would be doable but not week in week out as eventually my store supplies would run out!

Happyjaw

In my student days I had a few weeks before my grant came through and I was surviving on rice, tinned tomatoes and bread. I actually developed a liking for tinned tomatoes eaten as a soup with a liberal sprinkling of salt and some well buttered bread to dip in it.

The last day before the grant came through I was on rice alone, with either melted marg or salt to flavour it and I was really hungry but sooooo sick of rice. When the money was in my account I had fish and chips for lunch and chow mein later, food with flavour at last!

flippin36

This is what I would do (a nightmare situation). OP you have really made me think hard about this one. This would also depend on having a few basics in the cupboard and it being a one off for a week. Just over £10 but if I hunted for a few yellow stickers I'm sure I could get it down to a £10. My prices are for cheap value items.

bag potatoes 99
beans x4 116
bread x4 200
fishfingers x20 94
frozen mix veg 70
eggs 91
cheese 120
yoghurts x8 58
bag of apples 100
bacon 125
= £10.73