Need OS advice to get my food shop down!

kerrypn

Done my meal plans for whole month and think I can bring the lot in for £250. Spent £55 today but the next 3 weeks shops are £21, £22 and £14, Ive got SMA and nappies to get yet. I will let you know how I get on

LannyLee

An easy recipe that doesn't use potatoes is my:

Cheap & cheerful Jambalaya A nice cheap, filling & tasty last minutes dinner, or to use up left over chicken from your Sunday roast is Jambalaya.

I'm sure it's not even close to being authentic, but it's tasty & there is never any left i our house when it's made, plus it's good for using up any veg you might have languishing in your fridge at the end of the week.

You need:

1. 1 packet per 2 people of savoury rice, or white rice & add a chicken stock cube to the water
2. Left over chicken or any meat, but if it's raw will need to be fried off.
3. Onion
4. Peppers
5. Frozen peas

Soften the onion in a little oil with some garlic & a touch of paprika & cayenne pepper (how much is to your own preference)

If using raw chicken add this & cook it now in chunks - fry until onion is soft & fragrant.

Add all other veg, rice & amount of water as per packet instructions, bring to the boil & then put lid on & simmer until rice is done.

Taste & add anything else you think it needs, Tabasco, more spices etc

Done, only take 20 minutes & it's yummy every time!


If you like you can also add chorizo or anyother spicy sausage when you add the chicken, or even prawns, these should be added just before you're ready to simmer.

purpleheather2810

kerrypn wrote: »

Toiletries, baby specific(have to due to eczema) probably around £5 a month but often less as buy on offer where I can. I don't know how often you bath your baby and obviously that's quite a personal thing (!) but my girls both had skin problems as babies and the HV said not to bath too often and to use tiny amounts of bath stuff - as even the most expensive hypoallergenic stuff will irritate if you use a lot and/or use it often

A typical week would be

Sunday Roast dinner-always buy on offer joint/cheapest option so usually chicken. I normally buy a small one. Anything thats left DH has for sandwiches the next day. Usually have a homemade trifle for pudding Do you pick the carcass and boil the bones?

Monday
Breakfast Porridge/Cereal (Same every day)

Lunch Sandwiches, fruit or yoghurt for children

Cottage pie-I use the 97p mince from sainsburys for 5 people-mix in frozen carrots and peas, never any left to freeze in our house. Did try to bulk out with rice once and no one would eat it fruit or yoghurt for pudding for children Try adding very finely chopped onion to the cottage pie mixture, nobody will notice. Gradually add more and more veg to all meals like this, finely chopped if you think ppl will complain! Red lentils will mush to nothing (start with a tablespoon only)

Tuesday

Lunch Sandwiches/salad/crackers depending on whats in(same idea every day really)

Tuna Pasta Bake Made with a tinned tuna, pasta and...? Tomatoey pasta sauce? Make a sauce full of tiny chopped up veg, you could even blend it down....

Weds

Bacon and egg pie and beans

Thurs

Spag Bol/Meatballs/some other mince based dish

Friday

Omlettes(sp) and salad/egg and chips Yum!

Saturday

Meat based dish depending on what bargain I found shopping. Usually with rice or potatoes

Good luck with it, my budget for me, DH and 2 DD's, 5 and 2, is still a work in progress and if I could get to 250 I'd be very happy! I find it's not the meals that add up, it's the snacks and drinks!

tesuhoha

This works with a small chicken even if most of the meat is taken off it.

In a large pan fry a chopped onion until brown. Place the chicken carcass over it and cover with water. Bring to the boil. Add a chicken stock cube, a small handful of broth mix, ground pepper. Add two chopped carrots, two chopped celery stalks, about 4 chopped potatoes or 8 new potatoes peeled and halved. Cover and simmer. You can add other veg if you have it. Simmer for one and a half hours. Just before serving take off the lid and remove all bones, skin, gristle etc from the broth, returning any meat to the pan. The broth mix should be sufficient to thicken the soup.

serve with hot wholemeal pitta, Naan or french stick for a delicious nutritious supper.

narabanekeater

what size and brand nappies do you use? you can usually find Pampers for 6p a nappy if your clever
SMA follow on milk with the red lid is usually always on offer somewhere. When I was switching DD over although she could have cows milk I worked out at the time it was cheaper to keep her on the follow on milk. Its £6 a tin in Tescos at the minute. Again theres toddler milk when baby gets to 12 months. Im not saying they need this but again this worked out way cheaper than cows milk
Sorry if im teaching you to suck eggs. I really had to cut back when I had both my children and I really did do nappy economics and milk economics LOL

jayII

For meat-free meals, I use soya mince, (the dark coloured one,) from Holland and Barrett. You get a big bag for about £1.50, follow the instructions to rehydrate before using, and it goes a long way. I regularly use it instead of mince, or to replace half the mince, when making shepherds pies, lasagne, etc.

It's healthy, nutritious, and fat free. Add lots of dried herbs and seasoning, and it tastes virtually the same as beef mince.

kerrypn

I normally buy the nappies on offer-I have never tried boots/sainsburys own-has anyone tried? Could save me quite a bit.

Definitely not teaching me to suck eggs-all advice is appreciated, and sometimes things that seem obvious I wouldnt have thought of-like the SMA-would never have thought of red top if it wasnt for this thread.

DH saw the meal plans and moaned but also saw the sparkly new savings account I opened, and seems to be a little more, shall we say cooperative, when I showed him how much I could save :money:

Cant wait until I have enough to book hols

Im going to have another crack at the bread making-want to make a banana bread with some whoopsie bananas I got today-any great recipes? I have a morphy richards fast bake(1lb or 1.5 lb) so recipes for this would be much appreciated.

Husband did trot in with a lamb leg yesterday :eek: but after I had prised it out of his hands, I have made a nice roast dinner plus a very large pan of curry which will last a couple of days at least for him and me. What shall/can I do with the bone and last bits of meat? Thanks for advice on chicken bones-will defo be doing

purpleheather2810

kerrypn wrote: »

Husband did trot in with a lamb leg yesterday :eek: but after I had prised it out of his hands, I have made a nice roast dinner plus a very large pan of curry which will last a couple of days at least for him and me. What shall/can I do with the bone and last bits of meat? Thanks for advice on chicken bones-will defo be doing

Pick all the meat off the bone and keep it safe. Place bone in a large pan, cover with water, throw in an onion, cut in half, maybe a carrot, garlic, any veg peelings that you have, peppercorns. Bring to the boil and simmer for an hour or so and then strain it. Use this stock to cook some couscous. Add in the lamb, chopped dried apricots, tin of chick peas, chopped coriander, a bit of chili/cayenne, maybe some finely chopped onion and/or carrot, tinned sweetcorn, peas, peppers, any veg you have basically. Then you have a nice, quick, nutritious dinner which still contains meat (ok, you might need a microscope but it will TASTE meaty because of the lamb stock!). Would everyone eat this do you think? My kids would, although they would probably pick out the chickpeas (strange children, I love them myself!). I'm still working on that!

maman

LannyLee wrote: »

An easy recipe that doesn't use potatoes is my:

Cheap & cheerful Jambalaya A nice cheap, filling & tasty last minutes dinner, or to use up left over chicken from your Sunday roast is Jambalaya.

I'm sure it's not even close to being authentic, but it's tasty & there is never any left i our house when it's made, plus it's good for using up any veg you might have languishing in your fridge at the end of the week.

You need:

1. 1 packet per 2 people of savoury rice, or white rice & add a chicken stock cube to the water
2. Left over chicken or any meat, but if it's raw will need to be fried off.
3. Onion
4. Peppers
5. Frozen peas

Soften the onion in a little oil with some garlic & a touch of paprika & cayenne pepper (how much is to your own preference)

If using raw chicken add this & cook it now in chunks - fry until onion is soft & fragrant.

Add all other veg, rice & amount of water as per packet instructions, bring to the boil & then put lid on & simmer until rice is done.

Taste & add anything else you think it needs, Tabasco, more spices etc

Done, only take 20 minutes & it's yummy every time!


If you like you can also add chorizo or anyother spicy sausage when you add the chicken, or even prawns, these should be added just before you're ready to simmer.

I do a similar dish to this but I slice insome frankfurters with the chicken pieces. Not the healthiest but it adds to the 'meat' content. (Always keep frankfurters in freezer, children love them with pasta, 99p in Lidls for 10).

Leftover chicken is good in stir-fry too.

Sorry can't do links but as a change from chicken buy a shoulder of pork and try Jamie Oliver's slow-roasted recipe. Plenty of left-overs for sandwiches or stir-fry.

And while you're in Farmfoods getting bread and milk, buy their Nicky toilet rolls (9 for £2) and kitchen roll (2 huge rolls for £1) and sugar at 59p per kg.

HTH

kerrypn

Ooh that couscous sounds yummy, and I think I have all the ingredients in thats tomorrows tea now-I already defrosted mince but I will make a cottage pie and freeze it for next week

The kids love cous cous and hubby will get what hes given :rotfl:

Im warming to farmfoods, thanks for the tips-at this rate Ill get shop down to £200 if not less!

Thank you to everyone for taking the time to direct me