6000 meals under 50p in 2010; feeding your family on a low budget

Augustus_the_Strong

I haven't read through all the posts so not sure if someone has said this already, but a great cheap food is beans - butter beans, flageolet, kidney beans, chick peas etc. A tin is about 50p, cheaper if bought in bulk. Probably cheaper to buy them dried, but have to then factor in cooking costs. Beans are a great basis for a cheap meal, and are really good for you and are vegetables. If you don't like them, keep eating them until you do (this does work) - it's worth it.

Easy cheap one-pot recipe for peasant-style cabbage & beans dish: in casserole, fry onions, add cut-up cabbage, beans or lentils, some rice, vegetable stock, herbs, caraway seed, anything else you happen to have like bits of bacon or left-over meat, seasoning - cook till the cabbage/rice is done, eat with bread. You can make lots of variations on this basic format - could use left-over potatoes, or couscous instead of rice.

Another good cheap thing: Chicken stew - brown some chicken pieces (thighs), & onion, add carrots & potatoes, bay leaf, drop of worcestershire sauce, some stock - simmer till chicken is cooked.

Happy cheap eating.

A-the-S

miss_holly01

Kimitatsu wrote: »

Potatoes do not count as a vegetable for the purposes of your five a day.

I admire all of you on this thread but my query would be that there should be fresh fruit and veg included in there - as a guide for the purposes of a financial statement for any financial institution they allow £25 per adult and £15 per child per week for food (not including toiletries and cleaning products) which is deemed to be sufficient to have a healthy balanced lifestyle.

I will be following the thread from the sidelines but I am afraid I wont be joining in your challange :beer:

Im a student at university, I get a full loan, maintenance grant bursary ect. I have £10.52 per week for food that's it, there are no jobs, I have a budget and have to stick with it, not everyone has £25! There is no money in my budget spare, seriously I am limited, but by buying most of my food reduced at the end of the day (fruit and veg especially, as I love fruit!), buying value own brands and making a plan for meals every day I can do it easily and be healthy. To be fair I usually spend over my £10.52 a week as many recipes for one person obviously, for example don't need a whole 4 pack of chicken breasts but that's the cheapest way to buy them so that's what I buy. I manage to have a balanced diet, I snack less and make do with what I have and I don't eat out. I can tell you one thing for sure, many of my friends funded by parents spend about £30 a week, and eat terribly, buying 36 packs of crisps, 7 ready meals, loads of snacks, cheap sausages, and pot noodles. I have the biggest dinners im quite a tiny person and everybody cant understand how I seem to eat so much, yet after their tiny microwave meal they always snack where as I don't.

It can be done, I think this thread is great

HappyMJ

miss_holly01 wrote: »

for example don't need a whole 4 pack of chicken breasts but that's the cheapest way to buy them so that's what I buy.

How about buying a whole chicken for as little as £2 and cutting the breast meat off yourself. I do that and all the rest of the chicken is effectively free.

MushyPeas

Augustus_the_Strong wrote: »

I haven't read through all the posts so not sure if someone has said this already, but a great cheap food is beans - butter beans, flageolet, kidney beans, chick peas etc. A tin is about 50p, cheaper if bought in bulk. Probably cheaper to buy them dried, but have to then factor in cooking costs.

I've been swotting up on the OS board and you can buy dried in bulk, cook in the slow cooker (maybe overnight so cheaper?) and then freeze - I think they work out really cheap then, something I'm going to try.

Mark - hope your family are enjoying eating something warm tonight

pagangirl

Great idea :beer:

just found this thread, will be following avidly, as job finished 31st Dec, now skint & jobless !!!

Haven't read all posts yet, will now go & play catchup !

mark55man

So reporting back for Friday 8th January

Was at work today so OH kept up the good work at home. She is signed off for a week and had kids home for 3 days and me for 2 - lol.

Today's Summary - 16/18 meals 50p or under (one portion went for DD1's friend but kids average OK). Smoked mackeral seems quite expensive - any alternatives?:
Summary Total - 134/144 = 93.1%

Breakfast: 50p or under (6/6)
OP - Cereal (Muesli with chopped apple)
OH - Lidl Crunchy Oat Cereal
Kids - Cereals or toast
(Short on fruit juice and veggies - need big top up - managed some from Mr T but not much about!!)
Lunch: 50p or under (6/6)
OP - 2 apples at work + HM Bread = 30p
OH - Oatcakes & cheese + HM pickle = 35p
Kids - leftover salad (50p) - HM bread and butter (40p loaf) Cheese 50p (Veggies) + Ham (DS2 20p) - £1.60 or 40p each (Warning: *Was bit Self service with people in and out at different times - but that seems to be the damage!!*)
Supper: 50p or under (4/6)
All: Macaroni Cheesy Peas 750g Macaroni (80p), 200g cheese £1.00, marge for sauce - 5p (Mr L Sunshine Spread 50p) - half bag peas = 50p. = £2.35 (for 10 portions) = 24p each (Adults added 1 portion mackeral pate each = 29p). So kids 24p - Adults 53p

MK~_3

Apologies if anyone has already posted about this but:

QUORN MINCE is 88p in morrisons (500g bag in freezers)
In my local store they also had a little leaflet holder on the inside of the freezer door where the quorn products were with a 25p off coupon inside

So bag of quorn = 63p

Not sure if the voucher was nss or not, may have been morrisons only

Even without the voucher, still a good deal at 88p and for anyone whose not tried it, as someone who enjoys meat I think its not too bad, no it doesnt taste the same but if you try not to compare it to eating meat and consider it another food entirely iyswim then its quite nice in tasty chilli con carne (chill con quorn?!), bolognese, pasta bake etc

mark55man

Thanks - unfortunately no morrison's around for 30 miles - but will keep an eye out.

someone mentioned buying dried vege mince from holland&barrett - need to check that out

Rachel021967

Tesco do their own Vegetarian mince. 454g 2 for £3. Need to check that offer is still current. It's quite palatable.

JillD_2

Loving this thread Mark, thanks

Have you tried making your own tortilla wraps - see this thread
I use Asda Smart Price flour, they are so so so much nicer than shop bought wraps, and can be frozen successfully. Bit fiddly but worth the effort

Can also make fajita seasoning to add to veggies or quorn/chicken to put in the wraps:
2 teasp chilli powder
1 teasp salt
1 teasp paprika
¾ teasp stock powder
¼ teasp cayenne pepper
¼ teasp cumin
Large splash lime juice

Also do your children like pasta ? We do a nice veggie pasta bake - Asda SP pasta cooked as per instructions. Fry up some onion, and any other veg of choice - I do peppers, carrots, courgettes (SP of course) and tinned sweetcorn - Asda normal is marginally cheaper than SP when buying 3 tins. Pour on (SP!) Passata and spirnkle in dried herd. Mix in cooked pasta and sprinkle with cheese. Bake til golden brown.
DH and children have SP cheddar. I have cottage cheese on top as I am on a permanent diet LOL

Oh yeah and HM pizza. Admittedly we do the dough in the BM. We use Asda bolognaise sauce as the tomatoey sauce but SP passata with a blob of tomato puree to thicken is just as nice. SP cheese and whatever veg etc lying around. Much much nicer than bought pizza and a lot cheaper.

If I think of anything else I will add it. I look forward to seeing how you get on. Very inspiring, good luck!