Can you feed a family of 6 under £30 ??

Old_Meanie

Cheap fish dishes. Buy value or Lidls (these are very good) fish in sauce. Take fish and sauce out of bag into bowl. Chop fish into small chunks add value prawna or other fish (Sainsburys value Salmon is good or Tesco value smoked salmon trimmings) put in a dish and top with mashed potatoes. With a little cheese if available. Again value fish put in ovenproof dish topped with value tomatoes (chop cheaper whole ones with scissors) with herbs dried or fresh added. Peas sweetcorn or any veg can be added to bulk out either of these. Quiche can be made with value smoked salmon trimmings or tuna with any cheap green leaf, rocket, watercress etc.

Pitlanepiglet

Forgot to say earlier - soup! Now I'm home full time I think I'm turning into my grandmother with a soup pot on the go the whole time!

When I find cheap veggies, either supermarket specials or Lidl, I keep them in the shed and if things start to get a bit past their best they go in the soup pot along with any other leftover vegs or even veggie ends - the ends of leaks go nicely in soup - just whizz it all up once cooked!

Old_Meanie

Another suggestion to include fruit might be cheap fruit puds. As tinned fruit is as nutrious as fresh any tinned fruit in jelly is good. value pineapple pieces in pineapple jelly are a favourite of ours and if you let the children decorate with toppings they will eat it. Mousse can be made with evaporated milk and jelly (orange and lemon are a good choice or strawberry) again the kids can decorate. Just replace 1 pint of water with quarter pint to disolve and then make up quantity with evap. Two bags of value cooking apples = 10 apples 6 can be baked (make hole in middle fill with dried fruit and sugar, just sugar or value mincemeat score round the middle bake for approx. 30 mins at about 180 degrees or until soft when you pusha knife through. Use less and halve for children is one is too much. The rest use peeled andsliced in dish with sugar or dried fruit and crumble topping. 4 oz flour 2 oz sugar 2 oz butter or marg etc. (2 oz porridge oats or little bag of mixed nuts can be added if liked). Dont forget old favourite sliced bannas in custard these are often marked down. Custard 1 pint milk two tablespoons custard powder sugar to taste. Spiced plums (plums often marked down or on offer). Halve and stone plums, put in saucepan add a little water and sugar to taste add whatever spices you like (cinnamon, ginger, mixed spice, nutmeg) say a teaspoon of each) bring to boil and simmer about 20 mins until soft or extra time if needed.

Make your own milk puddings serve with fruit. Rice pudding 2 pints milk 45?p 3 tablespoons pudding rice 2 tablespoons sugar placed in pudding dish about 2 pint dish dot with butter marg slow oven 2 hours (make with stews etc. for no cooking costs) top with tinned value fruit. Ground rice 2 pints milk 4 tablespoons ground rice mix wtih some ofthe milk to a runny paste then blend in rest of milk pour in saucepan bring to boil simmer until thick. Again lovely with value fruit we like peaches.

Hope this is of use to you.

Sunflower1227

Hi,

I would put up a list of what you have in your cupboards, fridge & freezer as this will help you and OP to give advise/help on recipes with what you already have in.

I am new to the boards but I know everyone is very helpful and freindly.

I get extra fruit in to my family by using tinned fruit wizzed up in the food processor and then freeze in small tubs ie old yogurt ones, they think its great and have eaten fruit they would not have normally eaten.

Children will think its fruitie ice cream :T just remember to take it out of the freezer about half an hour before you want it, as it freezes very hard.
HTH.

Good luck with your journey.

babyshoes

A quick tip - I add oats to mince when making bolognese. It bulks it out and if done right is almost indistinguishable from mince. My OH is very fussy and probably wouldn't like lentils/beans, but didn't know about the oats for months until she walked in on me adding them one day. Here is how to do it so they aren't all white in the mince:

Brown mince. Add approx 2-3 handfuls of porridge oats per 400g block of mince. Brown in the fat from the mince. Add a stock cube disolved in a mug of boiling water. Gravy granules would probably also work here. The oats soak up the beefy flavour and brown colour, and start to look like mince. Add your tinned tomatoes and other ingredients as usual. The only difference I have noticed is that they help to thicken the sauce, so you can add lots of watery, value tinned tomatoes and it makes more sauce, which is a bonus in my opinion!

Also, can you grow any of your own veg? Not very practical at this time of year, though if you can provide some cover there are a few things you could manage. In summer however, things like courgettes and squash grow like weeds with a bit of initial manure and watering in dry weather, and provide cheap, filling veg. If the family don't like courgettes, they are easy to hide in slow cooked meals, as they just break down into almost nothing!
Even just a few lettuces (which are also so easy to grow) can help.

bluebag

Mrs Rodgers, that was a wow post.

[Deleted User]

You can add soya mince to real mince to to bulk it out as well and market fruit and veg and meat is MUCH cheaper than the supermarkets

Saying that - I know alot of people who are wise and turn up at the supermarket near closing time to get all the reduced stuff - Bread for 10p etc

Plus same rule applies at the markets - They sell it off alot cheaper just before closing!!

I hate the fact that we WASTE so much food in this country

( watched a programme on it recently where they got surplus stock from suppliers eg small eggs which were due to be thrown away - And they even got fresh stuff out of supermarket bins! Still perfectly good to eat!! )

Does your town have a community centre which help out in times like this??

If I had transport and time on my hands I would love to set up a community food project where all the perfectly good food due to be thrown away would be redistributed to families who need it for free! )

There are projects like this but I don't know the name/s ... Anyone know????!

Chin up and treat yourself to the special offers - Esp the Tesco 1p bargains!!!

( Plus stock up as much as you CAN when it is going dirt cheap ... My kitchen is like a storage shed now! lol .. I blame approved foods for that ;-)) xxxx

flourgirl

I came across this blog when blog hopping a while ago it has some lovely recipes and tips for eating cheaply

http://thirty-quid.blogspot.com/

adelight

How old are your kiddies? To 300g of mince you could add lentils and dehydrated soy mince for more meaty texture, some of my spag bols are 50:50 mince:lentils/soy!

Definitely go for smart price bread and veg like other posters are saying. Would your fam eat casserole? Saturdays sausages could go much further diced up in a casserole with a diced spud and some smart price frozen veg, served with wedgies/mash or even a hm yorkshire pud.

I would look at the offers available at asda etc before you plan the meal and work around them

Angelfeathers

Going a bit further with the sack of spuds idea, may I suggest baked potatoes? Really cheap, easy to make, and top with baked beans/cheese/leftover bits of ham/sweetcorn etc.

Plus you can bake loads more than you need for one meal and stick the spare ones in the fridge/freezer to be just microwaved back up to hot for a really speedy lunch/after work dinner. :-)