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

Gillir2000

PolishBigSpender wrote: »

Complete rubbish.

You should be eating 5 different things a day to achieve a balanced diet.

Sorry Polish, but this is completely untrue. Sure variety is great, but for veggies you need to evaluate weight to estimate portion sizes and you can count the same vegetable more than once as part of your five a day.

Gillir2000

Mark88Man, this is a great thread! Thank you.

Any advice about frugal snacks? I used to buy cereal bars, but was thinking of making up some of my own. I am on my own, and the only recipes I've seen only keep airtight for a few days.

Also I wanted to say...there seems to have been some debate on this thread about nutritional value when living frugally. I would like to say that from my perspective as a new budgeter, I find myself eating more healthily now, than when I was throwing money at M&S and Waitrose. I am aiming for 50p meals and know I eat better now than I ever used to.

boredofbeingathome

mark88man wrote: »

Reporting back for Tue 2nd February

Work from home today as was going to London, but that fell through (hurray). OH got flu & was sick so TLC needed at home

Today's Summary - 16/18 meals 50p or under
Summary Total - 541/588 = 92.0% = Target 91.3%

Breakfast: 50p or under (6/6)

Lunch: 50p or under (5/6)
OP : Ham & Cheese sandwich
OH : Cereal
DD1, DS1: sainsbury's gouda slicesx2 = 20p + Bread & carrot & apple
DS2: Ham sandwich (30) & Apple (25p) & Wotsits (25p) - didn't get out shopping yesterday so had to top up at Mr T - annoying a bit mroe organisation and this woul be easily <50p
DD1 - Bread & Butter sandwich, apple (too fussy for any fillings I could offer so left the middle bit out)

Supper: 50p or under (5/6) - Chicken a la king
£1 quorn chicken pieces, 2 thighs = 66p 500g rice 80p + peas 30p, (sauce = blob marge, & flour & stock = 20p = £2.96


(Only 5/6 as DS2 likes to munch on a chiken leg so he had seconds!!)

Sorry to hear about OH but at least it saved a trip to London:D

Ha, at DD1- you always get one, i must admit i never gave mine a choice, they all got the same filling with a variation on salad- i did give a bit;)

boredofbeingathome

Gillir2000 wrote: »

Mark88Man, this is a great thread! Thank you.

Any advice about frugal snacks? I used to buy cereal bars, but was thinking of making up some of my own. I am on my own, and the only recipes I've seen only keep airtight for a few days.

Also I wanted to say...there seems to have been some debate on this thread about nutritional value when living frugally. I would like to say that from my perspective as a new budgeter, I find myself eating more healthily now, than when I was throwing money at M&S and Waitrose. I am aiming for 50p meals and know I eat better now than I ever used to.

I agree, more thought goes into the budget and you look carefully at what you are eating.

Re the frugal snacks- if you look on the grocery challenge thread there is a whole list of menus at the front. I make cereal bars myself, but TBH i prefer fruit as a snack.

mark55man

Thanks Bob for helping Gill* - snacks here tend to be LO portions not adequately hidden, or crisps or fruit which I very rarely pay more than 10p for. Noone is significantly more guilty of snacking than anyone else although OH tends not to snack, but has a weakness for for some gaint cadbury buttons once in a while

I like the sound of the weetabix cake earlier in the thread - but haven't done it yet

Gillir2000

boredofbeingathome wrote: »

I agree, more thought goes into the budget and you look carefully at what you are eating.

Re the frugal snacks- if you look on the grocery challenge thread there is a whole list of menus at the front. I make cereal bars myself, but TBH i prefer fruit as a snack.

Thanks so much for the tip...I'm off to check out the recipes!! :T

Fire_Fox

Gillir2000 wrote: »

Sorry Polish, but this is completely untrue. Sure variety is great, but for veggies you need to evaluate weight to estimate portion sizes and you can count the same vegetable more than once as part of your five a day.

I hold degree level qualifications in nutrition and I can assure you that the official guidelines are for a variety of fruit and vegetables so each can count only once. Five portions is the minimum recommended for basic health not the ideal amount, so it variety is key to getting a range of vitamins, minerals and phytochemicals. The reason five was chosen in the UK is that is was felt to be manageable given that the average person manages two or three portions. In fact many countries recommend seven or even nine portions! :eek:

You may be getting confused because the more basic advice only specifies that fruit juice and pulses count once only. This is not the same for other 'families', you could have two types of tree fruit (apple plus pear) or two types of cruciferous vegetables (brocolli plus cauliflower) and they would count twice. :j

cha97michelle

Great thread, and making me think about my family and what they eat. My kids are only 3 and nearly 2, and eat huge portions already, but i have been trying to have a varied cheap diet.

I am also guilty of using far too much cheese. Mainly me, but the kids also like to munch on it. One suggestion i have is to try grated cheese and carrot together. I notice someone suggested this earlier for sandwiches. We used this on pizza and it was a big hit.

I also made a veggie sausage roll that was fairly cheap. It was puff pastry rolled really thinly, spread with tomato puree and a little grated cheese, and then rolled and chopped into appropriate sizes. They were very tasty, and i am sure you could put other things in there if you wanted to.

I have also been using a few of the recipes on the cbeebies website for sweet treats. Banana bread and a lovely tea and honey loaf. Might be nice for your packed lunches and help with the snacking. http://www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies/makes/theme/cooking/1

Good thread. I have bookmarked loads of recipes to have a look at some other time and will pop back.

mark55man

Wednesday 3rd

Breakfast 6/6
Lunch 6/6 (Various lunch boxes)
Supper 2/6 (OP/OH) Kids Pizza 75p each

(more numbers tomorrow)

metalgal

my favourite cheap meal is vegetable soup. Pack of soup veg is about 2 pounds and soup mix is about a 1.50 a bag, but you get loads out of it. Have it one night with fresh bread and the second night with boiled potatoes.

Actually can you get soup veg and soup mix the way im talking about in mainland uk? The veg is a mix of carrot leek celery and parsley and soup mix is barley peas lentils. Is it just an Irish thing?