£20 a week for food for the next 3 weeks any ideas?

freda

just had a look whats in my cupboards- mainly left over pasta so just been to sainsburys and got loadsa pasta sauces, potatoes, some tinned curries and savoury rice and some washing powder, oh, and some cheese, came to £12, should get 2 or 3 meals from that oh and i met my sister in there and she gave me £3 for taking her and her kids and shopping home!

any more ideas?

Don't go to Sainsbury's! Its much more expensive. Shop at Lidl, Asda, Tesco and your local market for fruit and veg. Get to the market for the end of the day and you'll get literally bags of veg and fruit for pennies as they are trying to get rid of it.

Don't buy tins of stuff like chilli, its so much cheaper to make your own.

Buy 'value' cheese for cooking, use own brand for sandwiches etc.

Don't buy pasta sauces - what an overpriced rip off they are. Look on https://www.lbym.co.uk for ideas for white and red sauces. They are SO SO SO easy to make, and cost pennies.

Don't buy 'flavoured' rice (i.e. savoury rice). Just get the plain stuff and flavour it yourself using stock and herbs.

Next time, before you go shopping, work out what meals you want to make. Then, write down the *ingredients* for the meals, so you don't buy ready made. Honestly, it doesn't take long and its way, way cheaper than pre made stuff. You can freeze any leftovers for next time.

lukemed1

freda wrote:

Don't go to Sainsbury's! Its much more expensive. Shop at Lidl, Asda, Tesco and your local market for fruit and veg. Get to the market for the end of the day and you'll get literally bags of veg and fruit for pennies as they are trying to get rid of it.

Don't buy tins of stuff like chilli, its so much cheaper to make your own.

Buy 'value' cheese for cooking, use own brand for sandwiches etc.

Don't buy pasta sauces - what an overpriced rip off they are. Look on https://www.lbym.co.uk for ideas for white and red sauces. They are SO SO SO easy to make, and cost pennies.

Don't buy 'flavoured' rice (i.e. savoury rice). Just get the plain stuff and flavour it yourself using stock and herbs.

Next time, before you go shopping, work out what meals you want to make. Then, write down the *ingredients* for the meals, so you don't buy ready made. Honestly, it doesn't take long and its way, way cheaper than pre made stuff. You can freeze any leftovers for next time.

Thanks for that, if only you posted earlier!!! LOL, great website! thanks alot!

Best wishes

Luke:beer:

newleaf

No Luke, if only you had posted earlier, before you went on your spending spree in Sainsburys! :rolleyes:

Penny-Pincher!!

lukemed1-Well done hun on what you did. Although not perfect...its a starting point and we all learn from mistakes:D Do you have a list of food you have in and what you like-then maybe we can help further

Newleaf-I think your being a little harsh. This person is new to all this OS money saving lark, and what they did was an achievement for them!

Keep up the good work.

PP
xx

giggs11

lukemed1 wrote:

Thanks guys!

just had a look whats in my cupboards- mainly left over pasta so just been to sainsburys and got loadsa pasta sauces, potatoes, some tinned curries and savoury rice and some washing powder, oh, and some cheese, came to £12, should get 2 or 3 meals from that:j oh and i met my sister in there and she gave me £3 for taking her and her kids and shopping home!:j

any more ideas?

Best Wishes

Luke:beer:

how much did you pay for the pasta sauces? £1(ish) a jar? :eek: I just made a pasta sauce today for dinner and it cost pennies! 2 tins value tomatoes, onion, garlic, basil (homegrown) seasonings and i also added some shredded spinach but only cos it was given to me by a neighbour, you don't need to put it in, and had it with meatballs (HM) and spagetti and was delish!! even saved a few spoonfuls to make a HM pizza for tea tomoorow

Penny-Pincher!!

The sauce could be frozen too....excellent money saving!

fizzel81

ive started makeing my own pasta sauces and have to say it does work out cheaper you can also add veg like carrots to bulk it out(but i do it to get the veg in the kids).
beans on toast is good for breakfast/lunchtime!
porridge big bag lasts ages
im still quite new to all this but if you look around older threads as well there is some fab ideas
agree with shopping in lidl we have started saving a small fortune as some items are quite a bit cheaper althrough things like milk is same price in my local tesco's its trial and error as to what you do/dont buy there

and last if you do get stuck for a dinner idea the fab peeps here can always come up with something tasty from what you tell them you have left in fridge freezer store cupboard, a few times i though id had nothing i could cook from what i had left and ive been given tasty options each time(you then have that choice of which suggestion)

goodluck im sure you will manage

Chrismojam

Dobie wrote:

.........last night I soaked a kilo of mixed dried beans & this morning I cooked them. Today I've used some to make up 3 big bean burgers, I'll have one tonight & have frozen the others.

Have you got to do anything to them before you freeze them?

I cooked a load of dried beans a couple of weeks ago.......mainly because I've had them that long that some were supposed to be going out of date:o (I had done a bit of an audit of my cupboards and freezer and dicovered I had enough pasta/rice/fish/beans to last a good couple of months!)

Well, after I cooked them, and used some of them for what I was eating, I put the rest in a tub in the fridge with the intention of eating them the next day.......but they looked really unappetising so I threwthem out...I didn't realise you could freeze them........I thought they'd turn to mush?

lukemed1

Thanks guys and gals for your responses so far!

will definately be making my own sauces from now on if only i had known earlier!!

Best Wishes to you all and thanks a bundle!

Luke:j

newleaf

Penny-Pincher!! wrote:

Newleaf-I think your being a little harsh. This person is new to all this OS money saving lark, and what they did was an achievement for them!

Not harsh at all PP, the roll eyes smiley was an indication that this was intended as irony. Happily, Luke has thanked me for the post which tells me that he has taken it in the spirit it was meant.