Help! £40 to feed family for the month

noonesperfect

raphanius wrote: »

freeze it...men are foragers but they will think twice if they have to defrost stuff then have all the hastle of cooking it aswell. If you leave some cheap bread and cheese laying about they will think 'i'll have a sarnie instead'

loving the thread...i'm off work on sickpay at the moment so i'm taking notes.

A man make a sandwich :eek: LOL!

My ex and current fella would be likely to raid cupboards for anything "instantly" edible like crisps/biscuits/cake/chunks of cheese possibly fruit .

All credit to you OP, I hope your budget stretching goes to plan and next month will be easier for you. You've certainly inspired alot people - including me.
If you can go into Asda very early (5am-ish) there are often large quantities of meat reductions I've found.

mbaz

Soubrette wrote: »

Not sure if it is still current but one of Martin's articles HERE links to a free litre of milk from Sainsburys or Somerfield.

Good luck with the rest of the month.

Sou

Wow thanks - my printer is going into overdrive now :rotfl:

mbaz

Casserole in the oven. Smells lvoely but looking a bit watery at mo. Think I put too much stock in but never mind! Managed to get some eggs 12 for 50p to replace the ones hubbie used! Also got a massive bag of mushrooms that I've added to the casserole for 20p and have loads left so will add them to something else too. Will have a shift around as they'll need using by tomorrow I expect.

Still not got round to making this blooming crubmle I keep going on about but I have got sugar now so I'll prob do it tomorrow!

1st - carbonara (just found a jar in back of cupboard)
2nd Lasagne (with added lentils )
3rd chicken and rice
4th jacket spuds with smartprice beans
5th defrost a curry
6th lasagne
7th omlette
8th chicken dinner
9th casserole in giant yorkshire
10th canelloni
11th Bolognaise
12th shepherds pie (make 2 and freeze 1)
13th veggie sausages and mash
14th Beans on toast (gotta crop up somewhere)!!
15th chicken curry with 4p sauce
16th veggie burgers
17th pasta with cheese and tomatoe sauce
18th shepherds pie from 12th
19th risotto
20th Homemade soup
21th Chilli
22th Egg and chips chicken casserole
23th Shezza's sauce and pasta (I'll always call it that now!)
24th - Go to take away in middle of night when OH's salary goes in!!

jcr16

wanted to share this recipe , as i've just made it and I'm very impressed. hubby said it was gorgeous. anyway i've always bought a casserole mix for my sausage casserole. but last time i did it wasn't as nice.

the quantity's are a bit vague as i kinda just did bit of this and bit of that.

i use 4 sausages, could easily just less tho.
4 odd shaped carrots ( prob about 3 meduim size ones )
3 small onions,
hand-full of sweet corn,
2 small hand fulls of red lentils
1 pint of hot water with beef oxo in,
4 oz self raising flour
2 oz suet
pinch of salt
bit of water.

what i did was cook the sausages to give them colour, while cooking i chopped up the carrots into slices, put in s/c, cut onions in half then in slices , put in slow cooker. then added the sausages chopped up, 2 hand fulls of lentils. then poured over the beef oxo and hot water. i put it on high at 1pm. then at 4 i added the sweet corn and the dumplings. made from the flour, suet , pinch of salt and water to bind.we sat down at table to eat this at 5.i did turn s/c down to low at 4 tho.

served with mashed spud. result. 1 very cheap and extremely filling meal. was gorgeous. Followed by a apple crumble which i made last min as my landlord pop in with a bag of apples from her garden.

All the talk in this thread about adding lentils or oats to a meal to bulk it out really inspired me. so thankyou every one. as we all now have nice full tum's.

hope someone finds this as yummy as we did.

mbaz

I dont actually know what gruell (sp?) is but I imagine it's similar to what I've just served up for tea!!! :rotfl: It looked awful but it actually tasted lovely and OH impressed that he had 4 yorkshires anyway! Poor guy doesnt even ralise I've another batch frozen for later in month! :rotfl: Think I may have to diguise it in a pie or something!!

Blairweech

I've served up what looked like gruel before - Tried making meatballs, they fell apart when cooking, so thought I'ld do mince and cream sauce (I had a pcket from Ikea....wow, it looked horrendous.

donnajt

my worst offering - which OH and DD still whinge about was "cheesey chicken" trust me nobody wants the recipe! not sure it looked like gruel but it certainly was cruel

have tonight cooked my first lentil meal - red lentil dahl - OH loved it, will def start using them to bulk out spag bog/chilli but will have to be careful as DD wasn't overly keen

jcr your recipe sounds gorgeous - have noted it

mbaz you are an inspiration, really enjoying your updates

mbaz

donnajt wrote: »

my worst offering - which OH and DD still whinge about was "cheesey chicken" trust me nobody wants the recipe! not sure it looked like gruel but it certainly was cruel

:rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl:

you cant just leave it at that!!!! come on give us the recipe!!!!

patentgirl

mbaz thanks for the updates keeping me going as well and loved the recipe jcr16 definately one to try this week as got some sausages lurking and in slo cooker my kind of cooking!

donnajt

mbaz - it was 3 years ago (although OH and DD remember it as if it was yesterday). I will admit it would have been nice if i had cooked it straight away but here is the story...

it was something like a basic cheese sauce with finely chopped onion (and any other veg) poured over chicken and popped in the oven - stupidly i made it up when to collect dd from school - got dragged into the park on the way home - 2.5 hours later it finally went into the oven, it smelt delicious sadly the whole meal tasted like raw rotten onions, DD spat it out straight away, OH followed suit, I sat there and ate the lot because I did not want to accept anything other than domestic goddessness!!! Was literally heaving at the dinner table which OH/DD found hilarious, so as stubborn as i am i then helped myself to 2nds and spent most of the evening throwing up!!! SHUDDERING just thinking about it!!!