£15 for food until end of the month HELP!

cheapshot_2

Thanks for all the replies guys.

So later on this evening I am going to go and purchase

4 Potatoes (for baking)
4 Carrots
2 Onions
2 Peppers
Small bag of potatoes (for mashed/boiled)
Milk
3 Loaves cheap bread (freeze some)
Butter
Pasta
Banana x 4
Honey

I have never made soup before so might give that a miss, but can make a stir fry.

ifonlyitwaseasier

just get normal potatos, not special jacket ones, they'll go further this way

RAS

And wait until the peppers are reduced,; at this time of year they are very expensive.

Jevvers

Honey is nicey but pricey. If there was one thing to leave off your list I would suggest the honey, much as I love it!

bubblegumcola

You can make a nice stir fry with veggies and a squirt of honey, some dried ginger/garlic, a squirt of lemon or even a wee drop of cheap fruit juice. If you buy peppers and manage to get alot cheap, chop them all up and put them into your freezer, then you have no risk of it going to waste. We always do that and then just grab a handful to add to spag bol, stirfries when we need it.

Normal tatties do fine baked. Have you got a microwave? We cut a cross into our tatties, then microwave them for ten minutes and finish them off in the oven.

I hope you manage to make everything last ok. Let us know how you get on.

anne99

Gosh, this is quite a challenge for you, but it could be quite exciting, and the making of you as a reformed budget-style cook! I hope you can see it as a positive 10 days, there are lots of people on here who will help you through it.

I would spend a little of your precious money on some cheap onions. They make a cheap and tasty base for lots of meals.

Get a cheap bag of potatoes - use the largest of them for baking, and boil and mash the others.

Base your meals round the cheap staples: potatoes, bread, porrage, rice and pasta. These will keep you filled and warm. For 10 days, you can do without too much protein, but it and fat help you feel full for longer, so peas/beans, a little cheese and marg will be worth adding. Whatever fruit and veg you can get cheapest will add vitamins and variety. Remember, tinned and frozen are good and can be cheap. But good value frozen packs are usually larger than you would need for the rest of the month.

I'm sorry to hear you're reluctant to make soup. It couldn't be easier, in cooking terms, and it is cheap and nourishing.

Split peas (about 58p/500g bag) are one of the cheapest protein sources available and make a really tasty soup with some smoked pork ribs (or riblets they may be called) from the butcher counter in Morrisons. I found them by asking the assistant for something cheap and tasty for soup and she didn't turn a hair! I bought three pieces for about 72p, but I suggest you just get two - that's about 6 rib bones-worth, if you understand me.

Soak half the packet of split peas in cold water overnight. Next day, chop two onions, two carrots, any other tired or cheap vegetable and a clove or two of garlic since you have it. Rinse the split peas, and put them, the veg, the pork ribs and 1 litre of water in a large pot, bring to the boil, and simmer for an hour or so. Fish out the ribs, let them cool a bit, then pick the meat off them and put it back in the soup. If you have a liquidiser or hand blender, and you like smooth soup, give it all a whizz. But it's fine left chunky. (We prefer it half-whizzed, so it thickens a bit but still has some texture - you could do that by pushing some of it through a sieve, and spooning the un-sievable lumpy bits back into the soup).

A bowl of that, with some bread and spread, is a wholesome, nutritious and tasty meal. The peas, with their higher protein content, make it a particularly nutritious and filling soup.

And it gives the kitchen such a lovely aroma as it cooks. Best of all, perhaps, it actually tastes quite different the second day, so it's not like eating the same thing twice.

The quantities above will cost about £1.50 and make about 5 big bowls of soup, and if you cool it and store it in the fridge it will keep for several days - or if you can freeze it in single portions (margarine tubs), you can enjoy it all month.

It would also be good in a flask for a packed lunch, with some bread and spread.

Good luck with your adventure. Let us know how it goes.

VenusFlytrap_2

Some great advice for you here Cheapshot! I can empathise with you as I was living off what was left in my cupboards til I got paid yesterday and overspending at Christmas. :embarasse

Not got much to add really, except that I found during my fortnight of frugal eating that porridge, "on toast" meals and trying to eat some form of protein at least once a day (even if it was only scrambled egg/omlette or meat in a sandwich) stopped me from feeling hungry when eating less food. Brown rice and wholemeal bread and pasta are good too - definitely keeps you fuller for longer and is more satisfying as they have more fibre than the white, refined stuff.

I actually found it quite fun having to "make do" and be inventive, strange as it sounds, and not being able to buy any crap meant I actually lost a bit of weight too! But struggling a little bit also inspired me to be more organised this month, so I drew up a budget that I'm going to stick to and did a big food shop as soon as I got paid that should last me all month aside from milk, bread, fruit & veg etc. Can't you tell I've been hanging round here a lot recently? :rotfl:

wssla00

Some meals:
Boil spaghetti
heat in a pan some oil or butter
mince a clove of garlic and fry slowly in the oil
drain the pasta and coat with the oil and garlic

Cut in half another garlic clove and run over a slice of toasted bread- Garlic bread

Another meal, boil the pasta half a can of tuna with half a pot of pasta sauce and then mix into the pasta

or if you got some plain flour (about 50p for a bag)
melt two table spoons of butter and mix in two tbs of flour
add some milk until you get a white sauce (consistency of custard)
put to one side and dice and fry half an onion a clove of garlic, some small diced carrots then once they are cooked fold them through your white sauce and then place that through pasta. This is pretty bland unless you find some cheese lurking about then it takes on a whole new flavour with grated cheese.

Or tuna pasta salad, two tbs of mayo, quarter of chopped onion, perhaps a half of a pepper tin of tuna mixed into pasta or put onto jackets

Also if you can get some cheese and flour, you can make a great mac n cheese:
Boil pasta,

again two tbs of marg or butter, tbs of flour until it makes a paste
add milk to custard consistency stiring in little and often until it is all absorbed
add grated cheese to taste
mix into the pasta
pop under the grill to crisp up

All of those the next day can be used as lunch if you have any leftovers

If you have any sugar then you can make a wee treat of flapjacks
melt butter and sugar into a pan
add to oats until its a pretty thick consistency and bake for about 20mins
should come out with basic flapjacks which you can cut into squares and perhaps have some for your lunch too.

Other than that jacket potatoes, beans on toast

Hope that helps, i would also look online at: http://www.frugal.org.uk/recipes.html you might get some ideas too from there?

HTH

Butterfly_Brain

cheapshot wrote: »

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 = beans on toast (2 meals)
2 x Tin Tuna = Fishcakes, tuna pasta and leave a bit in the tins for a sarnie with mayo (2 meals + 2 lunches)
2 x Jar Pasta Sauce = serve with pasta
4 x Eggs = Frittata use onion,potato or any veg you have, boiled eggs and toast = (2 meals)
Half Jar Mayo
Salt
Garlic
1 x Jar Sandwich Filler
Bag Oats = breakfast, add jam, or sliced fruit for a change
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

Aldi super six this week is potatoes 59p, carrots 29p, red apples 59p, brussels 39p,grapes 69p and blueberries 69p. 8 sausages are 99p (4 meals) and they have cheese starting at 99p, 2 large gammon steaks are £1.99 (2 meals) Asda do sp pittas for 29p and sp rolls for 29p

Soup is really easy to make from scratch - go to the library and get student food recipe book it may help you , because all the meals are geared for hard up students

HTH and good luck

jexygirl

go for soup!
it will fill you and goes on for ages!
All my soups start with onions, fried in HM garlic butter, or just add garlic and butter to a pan, then add literally whatever you have, and a stock cube or 2, some salt and pepper, and see what happens! boil it for about 20 mins till whatever you have added can be blended. and go for it
As for the excitement / challenge, I totally agree. I had to feed 3 of us for 3 weeks on what i considered nothing! I planned meals, used what we had, and we ate better than usual, and 2 out of 3 put on a stone! And we didnt go near on toast meals or jacket pots ... yet! still 6 days left tho!
See it as "how can we do this" rather than "omg no money" and you will win
jex