Help! £40 to feed family for the month

Penelope_Penguin

Take a look at this thread on feeding a family on £20 for the month. It's definitely do-able :T I'll add this thread to that one later to keep ideas together.

Good luck :j

Penny. x

purpleivy

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=1157641&highlight= here it is.

IF they have to have meat, then the secret is to give them the sort of thing that you can get away with smaller quantities padded out with other things...eg, tortilla wraps with some chicken strips, but beans etc as well. Pasta carbonara has a modest amount of bacon/ham, but onion and mushrooms added will make it more interesting. Same with pasta bake, you can add small amounts of cooked chicken, can of tuna or some bacon or ham.

Also use cheaper cuts of meat, then beans and veg in with it.

A HM soup before the main course will take the edge off their appetite for the main event and if they will eat cakes then plain stuff like scones might be a 'bread' substitute.

FOrgot to wish you luck. You might also look in the weekly meal planning thread to see what other people are having. That gives me ideaas.

There must be a thread here for rubber chicken!

jasperconran

just started reading this thread. wow! u guys are an inspiration! most definately. I need to read more of this i think, cos I can spend like nearly £50 a week and theres only 3 of us!!!! one prob i do have is my OH is allergic to cheese, so thats a no go area, but is soya mince cheaper than ordinary mince? would OH notice the difference do you think??? I think we eat too much meat, i think thats why my bills are so big most of the time!!! looking forward to reading some more ideas! thanks

mumoftwo

And you might be lucky, are you getting paid early before Christmas? So it might make the month a bit shorter, if you know what I mean. Good luck Chuzzle.

kazwookie

How old are the 2 children?

Norman_Bean

This was us in September ... you can do it x

Although I must admit not every meal had meat in it ... rubber chicken was a godsend, I did buy cheap chickens ( I know, I know but it needed to be done)
Reuse ALL scraps and don't spend a penny you don't have to. Accept all offers of free food x
Loads of pasta meals, kids just had HM bread and jam for breakfasts when the cereal ran out

Good luck x

Norman x

ps: oh and I'd be inclined to tell them that you can't afford for them to be so bleeding fussy this month and to be grateful for the great job you're doing :kisses3:

Bogof_Babe

jasperconran wrote: »

is soya mince cheaper than ordinary mince? would OH notice the difference do you think???

Yes and yes . You need to be very creative with soya mince to make it taste of anything at all!

valk_scot

Chuzzle wrote: »

My lot won't consider a veg meal as a meal it has to be meat of some sort. They get nasty if I give them the same thing twice in a row. And they're not keen on ready meals either, so it all has to be home cooked. And they won't eat my homecooked bread but they will eat my home baked cakes

Bearing all this in mind what would you do with £40 till nxt payday? This is for breakfasts, lunches and teas. Yellow stickies at supermarkets only ever seem to come out when I'm at work :-(

If they're that fussy or, gawd forbid, nasty (!!!!), give them the £40 and tell them to get on with it. I get entirely sick of hearing about families not being grateful for what they get put in front of them when they know that money is tight and mum is working her !!!! off just to meet their nutritional needs. Yes, of course one has to work with preferences and any genuine medical needs or allergies, but bottom line is that not everyone can demand their favourite foods all the time, surely? De-mand and nasty, for goodness sake. Tell them to get a grip on their manners.

Norman_Bean

here, here valk-scot, well said

x

hot.chick

Well done for not wanting to go over your budget!

And I agree, explain the situation and tell the family they will have to bare with you on the food front, they should never be nasty to you for feeding them.

Good luck

xx