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

mark55man

As ever Weezl does it slightly better than me, but I have 3 apple purchases that end up at about 10p each

1. Tesco often do a buy one get one free on Cox apples for 1.99 and there are usually 9 or 10 apples in each so thats 10p or 11p an apple

2. Lidl do a bag of 10 English apples (usually cox) for £1.00 (and some odd shaped pears for the same)

3. Sainsbury's do a basics apple for 65p a kilo - I got 10 decent sized apples weighing 1.4kilo = 91p = 9p each possibly 8 or 7 if you look out for the smaller ones.

All the above are perhaps not quite as nice as a fine pink lady or a fuji, but they do the job

Elliesmum

phizzimum wrote: »

elliesmum - why wont OH eat things that have been frozen? would you consider being sneaky and just not telling him? after all, some dishes improve in flavour after they've been frozen and it's no different from a meal sitting in the fridge for a couple of days - in fact it would be fresher.

He's a bit OCD about food to be honest and I agree about food getting better in the freezer but he will not, says he can tell the difference and if he found out half way through, he wouldn't eat any more :rolleyes:

But when I first met him he lived on pizza and cherry bakewells :eek: he will eat other foods, but for him, this was the easiest thing for him to get on the way home from work!!!

When he first moved in the food budget was sky high, but now we are getting to more sensible spending with cooking from scratch and doing my own baking... He has decided that home made cakes and biscuits are far nicer than shop bought.


EM xx

mark55man

Reporting back for Friday 15th January

School back on, working from home today, OH finally got a day just with me on the phone to other people

Today's Summary - 11/18 meals 50p or under
Summary Total - 241/270 = 89.6%

Breakfast: 50p or under (6/6)
OP - Sainsbury's value Fruit & Fibre
OH - Lidl Crunchie Oat
DD1, DD2, DS1 - Cereal or toast + OJ - or nothing !!
DS2 - Breakfast Club - 50p

Lunch: 50p or under (5/6)
OP+OH : Half price Tesco Brocolli & Stilton Soup - 90p + Chunk HM Bread 10p = 50p each
DS1, DD1 : Sainsbury 1/2 price LM Veggie Sausages 94p - half pack between 2 = 47p + 1/4 Lettuce = 20p + 2 carrots = 20p = 87p for 2 - 43p each
DS2 : Ham Sandwich + Apple + carrots = 45p
DD2 : Friday cafe lunch with the girls at school £2.50 :eek::eek: (arranged and non-negotiable - but won't be more than once a month - might have to be pocket money going forward)

Supper: 50p or under (0/6) _pale__pale__pale_
All : Fish Pie & Broccoli (1/2 kilo £1.10 kilo frozen - 55p)

Fish Pie - 1kilo spuds - 50p, 1/2 pack tesco value prawns 77p, 1 piece frozen salmon 66p, 2 pieces frozen pollock £1.20 (Not quite sure of price but about 60p each it was half price), cheese, milk and flour 75p : Total 50 + 77 + 66 + 120 + 75 + 55 = £4.46 for 6 portions = 74p portion.

This is everyone's favorite. I had put about a third of it away to reheat tomorrow but seconds were required by all so my first 0/6 complete blank

mark55man

ElliesMum - that quorn recipe looks nice - have to work on the kids - I did a few really bad quorn micne meals - burnt / flavourless - so they will take a bit of persuading
Queen-Bee - will check out the curry sauce recipe - still have a number of tins to to use up - at a good price but a bit more than 9p!!

thanks for your help - it is quite a hard challenge, but we are all pulling together - and well - there will be slips now and again

nsimpson123

Hi Mark, I'm loving this thread, could you tell me, out of interest, are you shopping weekly or daily for your meals? thanks, Nicky

mark55man

nsimpson123 wrote: »

Hi Mark, I'm loving this thread, could you tell me, out of interest, are you shopping weekly or daily for your meals? thanks, Nicky

Myself or OH go shopping 2-3 times a week + still using a lot of stuff from the store cupboard and freezer from a while back

I usually go shopping while my DS1 and DD1 are at scouts (different days).

I record most of these on the GC challenge

firesidemaid

just going back to apples...

in the local asda, a bag of 5 'normal sized' smart price apples are 60-odd pence, whilst 8 loose apples of the same size (plus you get to choose your own) were only 70-odd pence!

Queen-Bee_2

As an alternative, I make fish pie with Sainsbury's frozen cod fillets - I think they are about £2.99 for a packet of 6x steaks, but they were on offer 2x for £5 last week.

I fry lots of onion, then mix in the fish (which I've previously microwaved and checked for bones), season very well and top with mashed spuds and a sprinkling of parsley. I usually serve it with whatever frozen green veg is to hand.

Subject to little appetites, this might come in at under 50p per portion. Alas, it only makes just over two servings when OH is eating it, but it's very tasty.
QB

mrs_moneyspinner

with the quorn I have found if you use a teaspoon or two of Jamaican everyday seasoning (powder, Dunns' River, Sainsburys's do it) in whatever sauce you are doing (bolognaise, curry, shepherds pie) it seems to remove that flavourless blandness without being overpowering - also if you fry it for a few seconds in a tiny bit of oil before adding the sauce, that seems to help as it doesn't swell up and go all sloppy. It works well as a stuffing for things like peppers if you mix it with rice as it goes a lot further.

twink

asda do loose apples at about 65p a kg look at the price labels beneath the boxes, tesco often has too but not always like asda, the variety i have just now is jonagold