£50 to feed two adults till Sept 27th

katholicos

If it were me i would cut out the packets of crisps and chocolate bar and any other shop brought snacks. They are empty calories that provide little energy and few nutrients and cost money you can ill afford to spend. Could your husband not have a nice chunk of homemade cake after his sandwiches, or even an extra sandwich to fill him up a bit more so he didn't need to eat quite so much at the evening meal?

Does your hubbie eat breakfast? Could you/he make him a flask of soup? Homemade soup is economical and easy to make and would be quite substantial when eaten with his lunchtime sandwiches.

knithryn

A few things to say.
Blackberries are towards the end of their season, so get out there now.
You could make blackberry and apple pasties as a filling desert for Hubby.
Look for cheap veg.
For example, do oven roast carrots, onions etc. At the same time, on another tray, roast peppers, onions, tomatoes, courgettes - whatever you can get that is cheap. For the first evening you can serve the roast root veg with dinner (save any leftovers to put into pasties/chilli etc). The oven roast tomatoes/courgettes etc will make a tasty pizza topping.
Hubby can get a three course meal at night - soup (homemade - another use for leftover roast veg), cheap bread roll, main meal (go light on the meat), followed by homemade cake and custard, your blackberry andd apple pasties with custard, semolina and stewed apples/blackberries/whatever is cheap.
Three course meals are more filling and will reduce the meat required.

As you drive home, start looking for apple trees at the sided of the road. If you drive more than about 5 miles, you are pretty sure to pass one. Alternatively if you see a house with a laden apple tree, go and ask if you could have the windfalls.

As a farmer's daughter, I fully understand that your hubby will want snacks to eat while working. Contracting is hard, long and tiring. (My mother always cooked the contractors a full lunch when they were doing our silage etc.) Look for a cheaper brand of crisps, and own brand chocolate biscuits (Asda are good for those). Add in an apple/pear/banana which he can eat while working. Add a bottle of water (from your own tap) as he will get dehydrated.

Make sure Hubby gets a substantial breakfast - eg cornflakes, followed by scrambled egg on toast, or porridge followed by bacon and toast. Any oaty/carby snacks will help to fill him up at 11am ish, so homemade flapjacks or a slab of cheap fruit cake.

Now let me think what my dad used to fill up on...
Rice pudding is a good filler
Bread and jam as a snack - esp if wholemeal/heavier bread (which is where homemade comes in)
Jacket potatoes are good and cheap
Bulk out curries with loads of veg so it's almost a veg curry but with some meat
Perhaps have two or three nights when you don't eat meat (instead have egg or cheese based meals, eg jacket pots with beans and cheese, omelette with roast toms etc, veg curry - Morrisons do curry sauce at about 10p a jar, quiche with potato salad).

Best of luck. At least you've got us all here to turn to and provided ideas.

Allegra

aureol212 wrote: »

The only down side is I don't own a freezer. We only have an icebox. So until we can afford a chest freezer, I am unable to bulk cook and freeze which is what I would love to do. It has to fit in the ice box.

That does make it a bit awkward, but there are ways around it - shop weekly (Weezl's site has the shopping broken down into weekly lists, if you are interested in giving it a go), and rely on storecupboard ingredients to cook meals rather than stuff that needs to be refrigerated.

So, for instance, pasta, tinned tomatoes, tinned or dried pulses, rice, and potatoes (a big sack will keep for ages if kept in cool and dark) - all frugal ingredients and will keep for ages, so you can just cook what you need that night. For lunches and breakfasts, check out Weezl's site again - I tested all the spreads and nut butters, and if stored in a sterlised jar, they'll keep for weeks in the fridge. Also porridge for breakfasts - the oats keep in the cupboard for ever and ever, you just make what you need for breakfasts.

It might mean some changes to the way you eat normally, but there are considerable savings to be made, even if you haven't got a freezer Good luck, and if you have any questions on Weezl's recipes, there is a thread here for people testing her stuff out, so pop on and it'll probably get answered quite soon !

Aesop

Allegra wrote: »

That does make it a bit awkward, but there are ways around it - shop weekly (Weezl's site has the shopping broken down into weekly lists, if you are interested in giving it a go), and rely on storecupboard ingredients to cook meals rather than stuff that needs to be refrigerated.

thank you! Already been looking at the recipes site this morning. Am going to go shopping at Tesco tomorrow, with all my MOCs and points vouchers, so am going to make a shopping list of what I need for store cupboard and have a go at making some of the recipes.

Have subscribed to the thread too and will have a look at that later. Have passed link to recipes to friend who is in dire situation with 6 kids, and needs to spend as little as possible on food, so this will help her out too.

valk_scot

If I had 160 chickens laying eggs I wouldn't be short of food ideas, put it that way. Frittata, fatless sponge cakes, omelettes, meringues, baked eggs, poached/boiled/fried/scrambled eggs, fish pie with boiled eggs, kedgeree, quiche, egg mayo, stuffed eggs, pasta carbonara, eggy rice, french toast, pancakes....

Also have you got any neighbours you can trade with? I swap some of my allotment veg with a neighbour...she keeps me in eggs and I supply her with veg and vast amounts of apples for chutney and such. She swaps eggs with another neighbour who makes jams and does a lot of home baking. She's only got five chickens but that's still 35 eggs a week atm...plenty for three urban families. Have a look around for someone with different skills. Even if you just swap eggs for lifts to the shops instead of paying for petrol or bus fares that's still money saved towards the food bill.

And as has been said, there's foraging. Living in a less urban environment means fruit trees and brambles, nuts if lucky etc etc.

Long term how about a vegetable patch? Lots of chicken manure as fertilizer (think lateral here....what can you do with all these chickens??) and you can put feathers in the compost bins, within reason of course.

Finally I'm sure your chickens will go past laying age at some point so really, what do you do with 160 geriatric chickens if you're not a chicken charity? Someone has to be able to kill them humanely of course and they're not going to be prime roasters but they'll make great stews, curries, soup or broiled whole in the slow cooker. If you want cold cooked chicken you can poach them in a slow cooker or in a pot in the oven and it gives nice tender meat. Chicken liver pate is also nice. And if you have cats or dogs they can eat scraps too as long as the bones are removed of course.

valk_scot

PS. If you want a freezer look on your local freecycle. If you have space to keep one and the transport to move it there are often bigger chest freezers advertised.

Aesop

valk_scot wrote: »

PS. If you want a freezer look on your local freecycle. If you have space to keep one and the transport to move it there are often bigger chest freezers advertised.

Thanks valk_scot. I have kept an eye on our local freecycle and even checked the free newspapers. But we only have a cupboard for the chest freezer, so has to be certain dimensions, don't have a garage.

Hoping to be able to save upto buy the freezer that fits our cupboard or a proper fridge freezer.

We even looked at hiring a van for a day to get the freezer as we don't have transport or know anyone with a van.

bramble1

knithryn wrote: »

A few things to say.
Blackberries are towards the end of their season, so get out there now.
You could make blackberry and apple pasties as a filling desert for Hubby.
Look for cheap veg.
For example, do oven roast carrots, onions etc. At the same time, on another tray, roast peppers, onions, tomatoes, courgettes - whatever you can get that is cheap. For the first evening you can serve the roast root veg with dinner (save any leftovers to put into pasties/chilli etc). The oven roast tomatoes/courgettes etc will make a tasty pizza topping.
Hubby can get a three course meal at night - soup (homemade - another use for leftover roast veg), cheap bread roll, main meal (go light on the meat), followed by homemade cake and custard, your blackberry andd apple pasties with custard, semolina and stewed apples/blackberries/whatever is cheap.
Three course meals are more filling and will reduce the meat required.

As you drive home, start looking for apple trees at the sided of the road. If you drive more than about 5 miles, you are pretty sure to pass one. Alternatively if you see a house with a laden apple tree, go and ask if you could have the windfalls.

As a farmer's daughter, I fully understand that your hubby will want snacks to eat while working. Contracting is hard, long and tiring. (My mother always cooked the contractors a full lunch when they were doing our silage etc.) Look for a cheaper brand of crisps, and own brand chocolate biscuits (Asda are good for those). Add in an apple/pear/banana which he can eat while working. Add a bottle of water (from your own tap) as he will get dehydrated.

Make sure Hubby gets a substantial breakfast - eg cornflakes, followed by scrambled egg on toast, or porridge followed by bacon and toast. Any oaty/carby snacks will help to fill him up at 11am ish, so homemade flapjacks or a slab of cheap fruit cake.

Now let me think what my dad used to fill up on...
Rice pudding is a good filler
Bread and jam as a snack - esp if wholemeal/heavier bread (which is where homemade comes in)
Jacket potatoes are good and cheap
Bulk out curries with loads of veg so it's almost a veg curry but with some meat
Perhaps have two or three nights when you don't eat meat (instead have egg or cheese based meals, eg jacket pots with beans and cheese, omelette with roast toms etc, veg curry - Morrisons do curry sauce at about 10p a jar, quiche with potato salad).

Best of luck. At least you've got us all here to turn to and provided ideas.

OH doesn't eat breakfast because he's out the door at 5:30! but i'm looking into better things for him to eat for lunch. unfortunately i can't stretch to a thermos this month but he can start taking soup with him after pay day!

Everyone has had such great ideas. I intend on spending the weekend baking cakes, fruit loaves, sausage rolls and pasties!

i've got that £10 of £50 first online shop in tescos....worth using? Could get delivery tomorrow for £5.. but thats still an extra £5 for the budget. just need to work out what to buy sensibly..

I will struggle with foraging, as i get the train to work and have had a look around my local area and there's not much.

Veg patch - we only moved into our house a few months ago, so didn't get to plant any fruit or veg except chillis, (last year we grew EVERYTHING) so we need to wait till next year to start that.

I need to look into more egg recipes too, i take the chickens forgranted i think!

EstherH

If you have a £10 off £50 spend and pay £5 for delivery then you have still saved £5 on the same shop instore, so that may be a good idea especially as you don't get tempted by extras. On the other hand, there may be a chance of whoopsies if you go instore. They never seem to have much at my local supermarkets. Feel quite jealous of others on OS site who seem to get loads.

Another pudding idea is microwave sponge:

4oz marg
4oz sugar - I always use normal not castor which is more expensive
4oz s.r. flour - just use basic/value
1 egg
a little milk and few drops of vanilla essence if you have it, doesn't matter if not.

Beat marg and sugar and add egg and then flour. If you have a food processor just bung it all in together.
Add a little milk to make to a 'soft dropping consistency' as my old cookery teacher used to say.
Add vanilla essence

Put a little jam in the bottom of a pudding bowl or pyrex dish
Pour cake mixture on top

Cover loosely with cling film.

Cook in micro wave for approx 4 mins. You may have to experiment a little with timing. Try 31/2 mins and then check with skewer to see if cooked, try another 30 secs if mixture sticks to skewer etc.

Sorry instructions not very clear but it is so very easy and quick to make and really cheap.

EstherH

Sorry just re-read your post and mis-understood what you were saying about the £5.00. Thought you meant it was an extra £5.00 to fork out on delivery, but actually you meant you were still £5.00 up, which is what I was suggesting. Very tired now after a long day. Well that's my excuse anyway. Lol.