Help! £40 to feed family for the month

Trinny

Bounce Bounce Bounce

This is such a great thread - helped me lots as a newbie

Enjoy

Trin:D

kippers

I've read up to page 21 and i just wanted to say this thread is wonderful. Don't know how i managed to miss it for so long....i'll carry on reading to catch up.

msgnomey

what an inspiring thread

shelovestobuystuff

It saw this thread mentioned on another and am glad I did.2 weeks till payday and £32 left so I will be going back to the first page and taking notes.
Thanks for posting.

supama

I have never read these posts before & am a first time poster but will def be back again!

WOW!!! I started reading yesterday morning and have just finished!! SO inspiring (I broke off to go buy a pack of mince, lentils, a large block of cheese & a pack of sausages) and now I know I can feed my family of 5 (includes a teenage boy & a DH with large appetites) for at least 5 meals with what I have in. Meals will be Dublin Coddle (will add recipe), spag bol, shep pie, chilli & savoury mince with jacket pots! My shopping came to £11.50 in Asda and I was VERY impressed as on a friday I usually spend nearer £70!!

Dublin Coddle (taken from another forum so I hope this is ok):

about 1kg of spuds (more if needed) peeled & cut into bite-size chunks
1-2 rashers of bacon per person chopped
2-3 sausages per person cut up
2 celery sticks chopped
3 med carrots chopped
some fresh (or dried) thyme & rosemary
Stock to cover (or I guess you could just use water)
Sometimes we add onions and/or mushrooms if available for variety

Bung it all in a pan, bring to the boil & simmer for at least an hour until everything is cooked.

I was worried at how filling & "meaty" this would be but it is GORGEOUS and very very satisfying. Never tried it in a slow cooker but I guess it should be ok.

The above amounts feed us all well and there is usually some left over for a portion or 2 as soup the next day - well there is if I get it cooled & stored quickly enough.

MBAZ have you kept up with the budget? How are you doing a year on? I've noticed you haven't posted for a while - hope all is well.

Wonderfully inspiring & I hope I can do half as well - I'm determined to get out of debt as fast as possible & this will def help.

I would also like to add that Morr & Asda reduced the prices of dried onions & dried veg to about 20-odd/30-odd pence per box so I've stocked up as they go for miles - just bung a quick handful into stews, mince, stock etc to pad out dishes & make a quick soup.

PS, would have loved to have added smileys but don't know how lol

Keeping_Motivated

supama wrote: »

PS, would have loved to have added smileys but don't know how lol

Supama if you go to the bottom to reply and then click go advanced you will see the smileys there.

supama

:TOh thanks for that!

Bogof_Babe

Admittedly I haven't read the whole of this thread, just dipped in and out, but £20 for four people for a month works out at 5.5p per meal/person/day, assuming it has to cover breakfast, lunch and dinner. To put it another way, 67p per day for all meals for the whole family.

You don't get many rashers of bacon, or mince, cheese etc. for that! Unless you start off with a large stash of ingredients and a freezer full of stuff, it really isn't possible. If you do start off with loads of basics etc., the challenge isn't really what it seems.

missychrissy

:THi Supama

I do a very similar sausage casserole in my slow cooker. I'm doing one tomorrow in fact, though I'm using half a jar of chopped frankfurters instead of normal sausage as I have a jar opened. I have just put 2 tablespoons of yellow split peas and 2tblsps of green in to soak. Tomorrow morning I will add 4 tablespoons red lentils, a tablespoon of barley, an onion and whatever other veg I have in fridge or freezer and flavourings. I like the bags of flavourings from Aldi - Italian, French, Hungarian and Chinese (99p for 500g). I should get several meals out of it and will have some to go into the freezer as ready meals when I need them, usually for taking to work with me.:j

lightisfading

Bogof_Babe wrote: »

Admittedly I haven't read the whole of this thread, just dipped in and out, but £20 for four people for a month works out at 5.5p per meal/person/day, assuming it has to cover breakfast, lunch and dinner. To put it another way, 67p per day for all meals for the whole family.

You don't get many rashers of bacon, or mince, cheese etc. for that! Unless you start off with a large stash of ingredients and a freezer full of stuff, it really isn't possible. If you do start off with loads of basics etc., the challenge isn't really what it seems.

I don't think it's really meant as a '£20 a month challenge', more an 'omg, £20 for the rest of the month, help!' kind of thing! (though mince + bacon (meat) and cheese aren't the cheapest forms of protein out there if you do really need to eat at minimal cost )