Help! £40 to feed family for the month

determined_new_ms

I maek this regularly after finding it (I spend hours researching how to reduce costs further! lol)

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=336033

I use about 3 or 4 large potatoes (from a sack that costs me £6 so maybe 10pish?)
2x value toms 31px2
onion - 10pish?
salt, glug of olive oil
and grated cheese although alot less than the recipe says - maybe 50ps worth.

This makes enough for 6 meals. hths x

rachbc

no more jar pasta sauce- dried instant cheese sauce instead - sorry I just don't get it?? I thought this was OS - making from scratch, real cooking, not make cheap junk from packets

For the 30p it costs to buy a packet of sauce mix you could make your own, or if you can't cook stir thru half a pack of cream cheese to make a creamy tomato sauce - and none of this lot in it

Maltodextrin , Starches [Potato Starch, Maize Starch] , Vegetable Fat , Glucose Syrup , Processed Cheese Powder (8.0%) [Cheese, Salt, Emulsifying Salt (Sodium Phosphates)] , Yeast Extract , Maize Flour , Salt , Sugar , Milk Protein , Lactose (Milk) , Stabiliser (Potassium Phosphates) , Thickeners (Xanthan Gum, Guar Gum) , Natural Flavouring , Onion Powder , Caramelised Sugar , Acidity Regulators (Sodium Citrates, Calcium Lactate, Lactic Acid) , Colour (Carotenes) .

kezlou

Maybe i'm missing a post rach, but i can't see anything about dried cheese sauce on here. Well from the original poster anyway. I mainly put it uip as i've said before as it give in depth instructions on how to make chicken stuff from a carcass through to bulking out mince.

I make my own sauces from scratch whether its curry, pasta or white sauce. Taken me a number of years but got there in the end. I don't have any dried sauces here, except milk powder that is. Hate the stuff but good in an emergency.

For white sauce / cheese sauce i use the following.

2heaped tbsp of margarine
2heaped tbsp of plain flour
1 pint of milk
25 grams of strong cheddar (optional)
wholegrain mustard (optional)

Melt margarine,stir in flour.
Whisk in milk till thickened, (add cheese stir till melted, if making cheese sauce)
add mustard to taste, i think the mustard add depth to the sauce.

voila its done.

Add the above to cooked pasta, place in the oven and you have macaroni cheese. Or miss out cheese and use in lasagne.

I also place sauce the sauce of chicken and bake in the oven with veg.
Or mixed veg bake with cheese sauce over the top.

Quite cheap and really tasty.

rachbc

kezlou wrote: »

Maybe i'm missing a post rach, but i can't see anything about dried cheese sauce on here. Well from the original poster anyway. I mainly put it uip as i've said before as it give in depth instructions on how to make chicken stuff from a carcass through to bulking out mince.

I make my own sauces from scratch whether its curry, pasta or white sauce. Taken me a number of years but got there in the end. I don't have any dried sauces here, except milk powder that is. Hate the stuff but good in an emergency.

For white sauce / cheese sauce i use the following.

2heaped tbsp of margarine
2heaped tbsp of plain flour
1 pint of milk
25 grams of strong cheddar (optional)
wholegrain mustard (optional)

Melt margarine,stir in flour.
Whisk in milk till thickened, (add cheese stir till melted, if making cheese sauce)
add mustard to taste, i think the mustard add depth to the sauce.

voila its done.

Add the above to cooked pasta, place in the oven and you have macaroni cheese. Or miss out cheese and use in lasagne.

I also place sauce the sauce of chicken and bake in the oven with veg.
Or mixed veg bake with cheese sauce over the top.

Quite cheap and really tasty.

The recipe posted by Dom calls for instant cheese sauce. I'm sure the thread as a whole has tons of idea but the last page alone has 2 recipes the use highly processed, unhealthy and not cheap foods to create suppossed cheap and healthy food - it saddens me that people genuinely think these are good ideas, esp on this board when there are so many cheap healthy alternatives

dom300186

alright alright i didnt have much time to make from scratch so if you prefer to make from scratch go ahead it was only an idea and i happened to have a pack in there from 6 months ago that had not been used. just an idea to someone who may have some if not for god sake make your own if it does bother you.
but i would like to point out this is about trying to make do, i had no flour left as used it for my mustard and leek sauce which we had on cumberland and sausages.

If this is the case how come sp curry sauce on page 9-11 and so on, has not been brought up? just a question as curry is so easy to make also, but if its in the cupboard use it up and save your money.
today ive had a screaming 4 year old and im 6 months pregnant trying to get everything done but thank god for the packet of cheese sauce looking at me in the cupboard!!

quintwins

it's just as quick to make your own sauce as a packet, however it's not always cheaper, i got 27 packets from approved foods for £1.50 (only ordered 20 so got a few free) so alot cheaper per pack than making your own so far i've only used them for potatoe bake and a base for pasta sauce but we don't use alot of cheese sauce anyway

i think i mentioned it before but i just had stew for dinner, beef shin at 90p a good 12-15 decent sized taties (from my sack i'd say 50p at the most) 2 onions 15p (again from a big bag bought in the wholesalers but value ones are just as cheap) 3-4 carrots (value ones) 20p water and gravy, £1.75 and did tea for 4 of us (hubbys sick he usually has 2 bowls) and there stil half of it left will do lunch tomorrow and a portion for the freezer, lovely and filling on a cold night

adelight

rach sometimes people don't have time to make things from scratch or don't have all the ingedients. I keep some packet type things (bread sauce, jar of pasta sauce, couple tins of soup, part baked bread) in stock at all times for occasions where i have 10 minuts to cook and eat, i'm tired/ill or i've been too busy to get to the shops for a while. Other people keep them in stock for times when due to circumstances their 10yo has to cook dinner, and unless your kid is heston blumenblahlah you probably wouldn't expect them to do much more than bung pasta, frozen peas and a jar of pasta sauce in a pan.
Personally I find it takes a lot of cheese to make cheese sauce erm cheesy enough for me and OH which can make it expensive, say £1.50 for 200g? We probably cook enough for four but he eats a lot and I take a little LO for lunch at work.

I have a tub of enriched nutritional yeast in my cupboard that I use to give new life to left overs or when I fancy something cheesy(i don't keep cheese in stock, only buy for a specific meal). It's not cheap, probably use 10ps worth each meal.

Everyone talking about tinned tomatoes, do an online Asda shop! They sell KTC brand tinned toms for 20p a tin and they are much better than value. Tesco have East End tinned toms for 29p 90% of the time too, equally good.

jpscloud

I too have some packet sauces in - I make from scratch when I can, but my life is very unpredictable at the moment due to family illness and working full time. I always get a few packs when I find them reduced. Some of them are past their bb date but I haven't had a bad one yet. I also have some white sauce granules and vegetable gravy granules, and I never make stock from scratch unless I'm batch cooking veggies. I realise this means I'm not strictly OS, but if this forum were only for purists there wouldn't be many posters, I think.

ETA my grandparents were as OS as you like but they also took advantage of various powders and processed stuff to ease the burdens of time and cost sometimes (e.g. [not instant] custard powder - cheaper than making from scratch, as I remember, potted beef and so on). They had things like powdered eggs in wartime - it all depends what you call old style, I think. I suppose none of us are really old style unless we're ready to chuck out our fridges and freezers, and go back to using the vegetable clamp and the meat safe (my grandma actually had one, a family heirloom).

kezlou

Okay fair there is some pre-prepared food on there.
But i also keep sauces etc in the cupboard. Right now there's sharwood black bean sauce staring right at me. I also have the curry sauce which dom mentions, no way can i make a curry sauce for less than 9p. Its mild enough for children but also makes a good base to start a curry off with.

I've tried to make black bean sauce from scratch, courtesy of the local asian food store and guess what it costs a fortune to make i.e more than £4 and its nowhere near as nice.

Not everything can be about truly being old style, after all i have a fridge and freezer which i can't without. Tried and failed miserably, i also don't have the budget to make everything from scratch. I try to but thats personal preference, but i can't beat A!di's quarter pounders, very nice and cheaper than i can make from fresh.

I also don't have a garden only a concrete yard to grow produce in, which also costs money in compost to grow veg in.


I'm sorry to upset you Rach, but if a beginner cook reads your post it might put them off from looking at the thread from the beginning. I truly understand what your saying, but unfortunately not everyone has time to cook from scratch.

I only highlighted this thread as a source of ideas, not to be judgemental or cause friction. So please accept my apologises if i have caused upset. If anyone wishes me to direct them to a specific thing i,e recipes please do not hesitate to ask. I and others will gladly assist you. No question is daft, i know i've asked plenty of them :rotfl:. If i don't know the answer someone else will know.

louise3965

Noone has to justify the odd packet sauce as this thread is about extreme measures. If the stuff is in the pantry, then you'd have to be thick not to use it. It's rather annoying to be lectured in that way - we're all adults and the fact we are posting on the OS threads means we must have a modicum of brains so please, no more tickings off.