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

mark55man

kitchen is going well from surrounding building of the extension - but as a kitchen it still needs
* new floor
* new walls
* new units
* new fridge and new oven

should have it all done by mid april

mark55man

Weds : 6/6 - 4/6 - 0/6 (Ready Meals) = 10/18
Thurs : 6/6 - 5/6 - 6/6 (Toasted Sarnies) = 17/18
Fri : 6/6 - 5/6 - 0/0 (Domino's Take out - Annual Bonus Day :rotfl: ) = 11/12
Sat : 6/6 - 6/6 (French Bread & Spreads & Salad) - 0/6 (Curry & Read Meals) = 12/18
Sun : 6/6 - 6/6 (Toasted Sarnes) - Ready Meals 0/6 = 12/18

good progress on the kitchen this week - walls all plastered, floor going down next week - units being installed the following week. will keep going on the challenge - it does help keep me honest even though its often over 50p

mark55man

Current score = 1176/1397 = 84.1%

(Total Meais this year 6570 -
Total glitches allowed = 570

Total Meals over 50p = 221
Total meals out/not counted = 43

%age glitches used = 40%
% year gone 22% =

... there may be trouble ahead ...

mark55man

mon 22nd - 6/6, 6/6 (Salad & Bread & Butter & Fruit), 6/6 (Jacket Potatoes beans and cheese)

18/18 - :rotfl:

415SanFran

Hi,
Whilst you have no kitchen I wondered if you had considered Approved Foods.

They have lots of cous cous type foods that just need boiling water, also ready cooked rice for about 99p a CASE at the moment.........
Worth a look?

mark55man

why thanks San Fran

tbh I had looked at approved foods at Weezl's suggestion, but could never see enough that was both in stock and what we wanted to eat.

i will look again - as we have another month of this - at the very least I might buy some similar from the supermarkets

is SanFran anything to do with Frisco?. Love that place - even though I only went for a day trip (from Heathrow!!) as a stand in for meeting

misscousinitt

Hi Mark

Glad you are still keeping up the challenge and that the kitchen is starting to take shape.

Just a thought - have you ever tried the dried soya mince from health food shops - I know it used to be very cheap and is great in dishes with lots of sauce like cottage pie, spag bol etc... don't know if it works out any cheaper than quorn (or maybe you could try a mixture of the two!)

Might not be applicable for now...but just writing down thoughts...

Dolly_Mixture

Hi Mark

I have just spent a few evenings reading though this thread and wanted to congratulate you on what you have done so far! It sounds like you have managed to bring your family food budget down and eat healthily as well. I think you have managed to bring a lot of meals to under 50p so you should not be too hard on yourself for some being over budget. Also, with using up food that was bought pre-challenge, if you did not use it, you have still already spent the money and it would just be sitting in your freezer/cupboard so you might as well use it and again not be too hard on yourself.
I hope all goes well with the kitchen extension and just do your best with the cooking etc while it is going on and then try to get back on track. It looks like there are lots of lovely recipes to try on this site!

BigMummaF

Please bear with me; there are a few computer problems at the moment and it seems my posts will only be accepted if I just use text and proper English!

I admire your ability to still attack your personal challenge while living in the middle of a building site - literally! And I hope I can be as successful, as I suddenly realised that I too, was aiming for fifty pence per person, per meal budget. It does explain why my grocery challenge has been rather more difficult to achieve of late...

mark55man

tue 23rd - weds 31st

9 days = 162 meals
54/54 breakfasts
weekday lunches - 30/42
weekday suppers - 12/42 (spuds and toasties) rest microwave meals
weekend lunches - 6/12 (toasties)
weekend suppers - 0/12 (takeout and microwave meals)

102/162

So at 1/4 through the year I am just on target for 5000 meals under 50p. 6000 looks impossible

=1278/1559