£15 for food until end of the month HELP!

cheapshot_2

Hi,

I was wondering if anyone can recommend CHEAP meals/food for 3 meals a day for the next 8 days.

I am a self confessed poor cook! I am in distance of Morrissons, Farmfoods & Lidl.

I have the following items:

2 x Baked Beans
2 x Tin Tuna
2 x Jar Pasta Sauce
4 x Eggs
Half Jar Mayo
Salt
Garlic
1 x Jar Sandwich Filler
Bag Oats
1 stock cube
Salad Cream
Rosemary
Half sleeve spag
Tiny bit pasta

I take sandwiches or packed lunch to work so that has to be factored in

floss2

Is this just for you, or is there anyone else to be fed?

415SanFran

Not very good at this, but a bag of pasta would help you out.

Cerisa

Right. Buy own brand pasta and rice as well as bread. Buy some cheap pulses such as lentils and pearl barley. No meat, alchohol or soft drinks - stick to water. The mayo will make teh tuna go further. If you can get to the market buy some veg from there. Also buy honey, it fills you up well, and some olive oil. Vegetable stock cubes and vitamin tablets are also a good investment.

Breakfast: Beans (use half the can) on toast or Porridge with honey

Lunch: Sandwiches made from tuna mayo or sandwich filling, or leftivers from the night before

Dinner: Pasta with sauce (2 jars can be made to go further with olive oil)
Vegetable stew, easy peasy, just chuck everything in a saucepan
boiled rice with veg
stir frys
baked potato with baked beans

cheapshot_2

floss2 wrote: »

Is this just for you, or is there anyone else to be fed?

Just me to feed

JoJoB

Just a couple of ideas - visit the supermarket just before closing for cheap bread and freeze it. Take out a couple of slices on the morning you need them for sandwiches or toast. That way a cheap loaf can last all week.

Pasta sauce - don't use as much as you normally would. Just use a couple of tablespoons and mix well with the cooked pasta and add black pepper. Maybe add some tuna to the pasta.

Have porridge every day for breakfast.

4 eggs = 2 omelettes. Buy reduced bag of potatoes and you have 4 egg and chips.

With said potatoes you can have baked potato with beans or tuna mayo.

hth for now!

macma

home made soup,if you buy some pearl barley or lentils (very cheap) sweat a chopped onion with carrots,potatoes and any other veg you might find in the reduced bin or loose,cover with water 1 stock cube and bubble it away 'til cooked -if using pearl barley that takes a while but red lentils are quite quick.You can add anything you fancy to it and it should last a couple of days.Nourishing,filling and CHEAP:T

RAS

Do you have any oil, margerine, butter? Any sugar, flour, other baking goods, herbs or spices? Vinegar, honey, spreads?

Sainsburys do very very cheap basic noodles (think they are 9p). I think Lidl actually cost more. use a packet with some veg for a stirfry

Look for whoopsie or reduced vegetables, bread, cheese, meals, usually late in the day. Possibly even meat.

Do you have a thermos flask?

cheapshot_2

RAS wrote: »

Do you have any oil, margerine, butter? Any sugar, flour, other baking goods, herbs or spices? Vinegar, honey, spreads?

Sainsburys do very very cheap basic noodles (think they are 9p). I think Lidl actually cost more. use a packet with some veg for a stirfry

Look for whoopsie or reduced vegetables, bread, cheese, meals, usually late in the day. Possibly even meat.

Do you have a thermos flask?

I have olive oil and sunflower oil - no butter left. I have rosemary, salt & pepper.

RAS

cheapshot wrote: »

I have the following items:


Bag Oats - porridge for brekkie
Maybe one day treat yourself to a boiled or fried egg and toast.


1 x Tin Tuna
1 x Jar Sandwich Filler
Salad Cream

Buy some bread and butter/margarine for sandwiches

Mains
Half sleeve spag
Tiny bit pasta
1 x Jar Pasta Sauce
That is three meals?

4 x Eggs
2x Beans
Half Jar Mayo
Salt
Garlic
1 stock cube
Rosemary

Thoughts

if you can get some cheap veggies:

1. Boil a load up, chopped, with the stock cube to make soup, with or without a teeny bit of rosemary and some garlic.

2. Par-boil some chopped veggies, drain, fry in oil, then add and egg to make a basic tortilla/spanish ommlette. Potatoes and onions (which can be fried without boiling) are the basics but other veggies work.

3. Make a veggie stew with a can of beans for bulk.

bubblegumcola

I would agree with other posters, pasta, tatties and rice would be good to get. More stock cubes maybe?

If you were able to get some cheap chicken pieces then you could have some for one meal, like a curry (cook more rice than you need, enough for one portion) then the next night if you add some onion, maybe some fresh/frozen veg if you have any and if you want to spare or use an egg, add that and make chicken fried rice or egg fried rice. Soup is always good. And going round near the end of the night at the supermarkets you can usually get some good buys, if you have a freezer to stash stuff in til you need it. Cheap mince, you could make a wee bit as mince, some as burgers or meatballs? Freeze what you don't need for the moment.

If you get stuck through the month alot try and build up a wee supply of emergency stuff, even things like dried herbs/spices to help add flavour, honey, tinned tomatoes are always a good thing for pasta, I don't buy ready made pasta sauces anymore as they are so expensive, add some garlic and onion maybe a dash of chilli for a change. I know cheese can be expensive but even something like cheese on toast. The bread in the freezer is a good idea as my kids just don't stop eating bread, that might them think twice so should start doing that. You could maybe do that with garlic bread too? buy it unfrozen, slice it right through and then freeze it, making it easier just to take a couple of slices to go with pasta, etc.

I actually think it far trickier if you are on your own to plan meals etc, supermarkets are so geared up floggin their buy one get one frees for big families.

If you really want some juice for something different to drink, how about the really cheap cartons of orange juice and cheap lemonade to make it go further? Have you got a home bargains near you? I think they are good for cheap diluting juice (robinsons 2 litre bottle for a £1) and you often get cheap condiments in there, food offers can be good like noodles, cheap tinned stuff.

I find Morrisons quite good for their reduced items and they have good offers on too.

Hope you manage to eek your money out til the end of the month. I remember years ago when my mum was single parent to five of us, she never quite managed to manage her food/money very well and by Sunday there was literally just a couple of slices of bread left, it was awful. Once I was older and at Uni I used to do the shopping for her on my visits home and she was amazed how much I could get for her money with change. usually I just bought cheaper brands, I'm surprised it didn't dawn on my mum to do that. Easier said than done though, some weeks I am better than others shopping for my own family but usually I have enough in to make a decent meal or two.