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

BigMummaF

Kimitatsu wrote: »

....
I have to say I dont think that I ever disparaged value brands ....

Oops..:o..this wasn't directed at you personally so please accept my apologies. In my usual ham-fisted way, I was trying to say that reading labels is a good idea as you may just be pleasantly surprised

If you have a look on the current month's Grocery or No Spend Day Challenges, there are a wealth of ideas & recipes to be had. I'm copying the list I've made from the NSD so hopefully the links will still work..I'm not very good with poota stuff :doh:
January Grocery Challenge. First page of any Challenge has lots of recipes.
Tinned Food Recipes.
Leftovers? Don’t Throw It..
Exciting Sandwich Fillings on a Budget.
Lunch for Work.
Laptop Lunchbox Ideas.
Packed Lunches.
Cheap Healthy Snacks.
Cheap Snack Ideas to Stop Buying Crisps.
Homemade Snack Ideas…contains further links for ideas.
Sprouting Seeds to Eat.
Really Quick & Alternative Snacks.
Easy Homemade Biscuits.
Muesli & Cereal Bar Recipes.
Weetabix Cake.
HM Popcorn.
Smoothie Recipes.
Yoghurt Without a Yoghurt Maker.
Ham Economics.
Low Carb Kids Lunches...contains advice for diabetics.
Kids Lunch Box Ideas.
Back to School Lunches.
Healthy Kids Snacks.
HM Lollies.
Ice Lolly Ideas
Cheap Healthy Playground Snacks.
Homemade Fudge.
OS HM Sweets.
Forgotten Puddings.

kirstyreanne

JillD wrote: »

I dont pay for yeast, I ask at the bakery area (where the actual massive ovens are) in Asda for fresh yeast - they chop a bit off and its free. No idea why, I got the idea off here years ago , if you search the forum for "fresh yeast" I think there is a thread or two somewhere. The first time I did it I felt such an idiot, as if they would just stare at me blankly, but they said yes of course! and off they went to get some. I do have to quite often explain to the person on the tills what it is and that its free, but its now part of my weekly shop. I agree te sachets add up. And you can use sunflower oil instead of melted butter, and no milk powder, and less salt.

My BM manual has a recipe for pizza dough, let me know if you want me to type it out for you. It should work in any machine with a dough setting as it ust mixes it and leaves to rise then you have to knead, shape, leave and bake yourself. In our house we do all agree it makes the best pizza in the world. And we always make double which makes 6 8-inch pizzas, 3 of which we have for tea and 3 we roll out, separate and freeze. Then can be cooked from frozen - very handy for dinner in a hurry.
(Or can freeze dough in a big lump bu then have to defrost before use obv)

Hi,

Could you please post the pizza dough recipe? I had a breadmaker for Christmas & the selection of recipes (5) are very poor.

TIA

Allegra

kirstyreanne wrote: »

Hi,

Could you please post the pizza dough recipe? I had a breadmaker for Christmas & the selection of recipes (5) are very poor.

TIA

I know it wasn't me you asked, but as I just made a batch and have the recipe handy....

PIZZA BASE

Water 1 cup
Butter (melted) 1 tbsp (although I use sunflower oil instead)
Sugar 2 tbsp
Salt 1 tsp
Bread flour 3 cups (I made it with plain value flour on occasion, and it was absolutely fine)
Fast action yeast 1 tsp

Use setting for dough

When finished, tip out on to a dusted surface, shape into a ball, give it a quick knead then roll out or stretch into a pizza shape. Add toppings, bake on 200 C for 10-15 min. Stuff face

mark55man

Thanks to all above - will get round to trying the pizza dough - just we need to use up some stuff from the freezer first.

Reporting back for Wednesday 13th January

School cancelled for but DS2 (it's not fair) so work at home - lucky kids were out mostly so got enough done

Today's Summary - 14/18 meals 50p or under
Summary Total - 212/234 = 90.6%

Breakfast: 50p or under (6/6)
OP - Malties (Lidl Shreddies)
OH - Poorly - lie-in
DD1, DD2, DS1, DS2 - Cereal or toast + OJ or AJ

Lunch: 50p or under (6/6)
OP, DD1, DD2 - Potato and beans and cheese = 60p + 29p + 20p for 3 = 36p
OH - Late breakfast with crunchy oat cereal
DS2 - Tuna and sweetcorn (same as yesterday)
DS1 - Cheese & Jam sandwich + slice pizza from yesterday = 20+18 = 38p
Supper: 50p or under (2/6)
OH - Potato and beans and coleslaw = 20p + 14p + 10p = 44p
OP - Egg Mayo Sandwich + Apple + leftover beans = 15+10 +14= 39p
DD1, DD2, DS1, DS2 - Fish Chips and Peas = Lidl Hake 4 for £2.19 (Pre challenge purchase - but they love it), Chips = 60p, 1/3 bag Peas = 40p = £3.19 for 4 = 79p each

SunnyGirl

Mark I bought myself an Easy Cook magazine today and thought of your challenge whilst I was reading the recipes. There are some great ones for all budgets and were mostly very healthy. If I can find an online version I'll do a link.

Edited to add: It's a BBC magazine so all the recipes are on the bbc food website I guess there wasn't an online version.

Cheese & Onion Flan is our family favourite cheap meal. It can be doctored up with any combo of veg you fancy/have available too. It works out at 27p per portion and serves 8 :T HTH

misscousinitt

I'm doing my roast vegetable tagine tomorrow (which I usually serve with fish of some description or HM Chicken Kebabs), but it could be made a meal in itself by adding Chickpeas to the cous cous for protein. This is the basic ingredient list from bbc good food web-site...from which I adapted the recipe.

4 carrots , cut into chunks
4 small parsnips , or 3 large, cut into chunks
3 red onions , cut into wedges (can use white onions if thats what you have in)
2 red peppers , deseeded and cut into chunks
2 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp each ground cumin , paprika, cinnamon and mild chilli powder
400g can chopped tomatoes
2 small handfuls soft dried apricots
2 tsp honey

I roast the vegetables with some olive oil and salt and pepper for 20 mins first then add to a sauce made with one of the onions, chopped and fried - the tomatoes, spices and apricots. I usually chop and change the vegetables for what I've got in the fridge - tomatoes, courgettes, peppers etc... or use more of one than another (often have alot of carrots) - you could also use raisins or sultanas if you have no apricots. I serve with plain cous cous, but as I said above you could add a tin of chickpeas for protein and an extra portion of your fruit and veg.

shaz_mum_of__2

Hi Mark i have been lurking in an effort to catch up

Loving the format of the thread i am quite a frugal cook but can't always be bothered with working prices out do you use a formula/calculator or just old fashioned maths ?

Chick pea and potato curry is a fave here as is the shepherdless pie as well as quiche potatoes and beans here is one of my latest quiches a potato and onion one



The muffins are cranberry ones made with fresh cranberries whoopsied at xmas and kept in freezer til now ........1p per 300g bag!


Where abouts in Lidl were the part boned chicken breasts ?

Shaz

phizzimum

hi shaz, saw the piccie of your quiche over on the mfw board and I'm attempting my own version tonight. at least it was inspired by yours, I read so many recipes on mse that I forget which is which!

shaz_mum_of__2

Thanks Phizzimum

i have pictures all over mse, my hubby thinks its crazy that i take pics of his dinner!!......





........and even more crazy that people seem to like looking at them!

mark55man

shaz_mum_of__2 wrote: »

Thanks Phizzimum

i have pictures all over mse, my hubby thinks its crazy that i take pics of his dinner!!......

........and even more crazy that people seem to like looking at them!

well it made me hungry and I just had supper.

the chicken breasts were in the freezer section - they were £3.99 not £2.99 for 1.3 kg bag with 7 in (My challenge stats OK as I was overbudget for that meal anyway, but my economy version might be harder to achieve).

I try to be accurate with costs (as that seems to make sense given the challenge), but I am not weighing exactly and comparing against shopping lists. I have a good memory and a lot of things are routine buys, anything I forget I just look it up. We usually use whole items - eg spaghetti is normally one pack, so its not too complicated dividing stuff up

Basically we are just trying to fight back against the multiplicative effect of having to pay for 6500 meals where every 10p a meal = £650 over the year. so if I am a penny over or under in the costs I don't mind so long as I am coming in at £0.50 or under more often than not.

The challenge is working in that my I am looking to come in well under my GC budget could despite having cut it. In Feb/March I am going to look at cutting back the snacking side - biscuits/chocolates/ ... but one thing at a time