Help! no money till payday and a family to feed

BitterAndTwisted

Honestly, I'd omit the beans from the fish-fingers meal and substitute it with peas and carrots, maybe in a white sauce, and use them for either beans-on-toast or on baked spuds. It wouldn't kill small kids to not have any veg other than spuds for one dinner

needstochange_2

wow my hubby would love the pasties, and ive got plenty of flour and butter so thats great.
thnaks to all you guys for the support and ideas, i was feeling quite down about this, nobody likes to feel that theyve failed to budget and provide for their children
i will log in again later when the boys are in bed to read any more posts, going to spend the afternoon playing in the garden...hunting for pennies down the side of the sofa (i feel a treasure hunt game coming on!)and breadmaking!

spendingmad

Also maybe make a clobber/scone topping for the slow cooked beef - might make a change from bread

Just use the cobbler topping bit of this recipe http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/5533/herby-lamb-cobbler. No need to worry about the egg glaze maybe glaze with a bit of milk!

tigerfeet2006

I would have a search around the house for pennies. If anyone has read about my morning sorting the bathroom on the chat thread then I can tell you I found £3.97 in all the mess this morning

claire1234

hiya,

i like the idea of the scone topping on top of the beef,

not sure of the quantities but off the top of my head from your first list op:

: sausage, frozen chips and beans, (use 2 same 4 for jackets)

: fish fingers with carrots and some home made chips out of the potatoes,

: the tin of baked beans on top of toasted bread,

: jacket potatoe (4 potatoes, 1 each) with tuna and the lettuce,

: pasta with the tin tomatoes, onion, herbs, garlic,

: if there was any potatoes left wondered if could make a potatoe bake with the soup

: soup and some home made bread,

: make some pastry for the beef - some sort of pie, use stock and herbs,

: rice is lovely, we often have it on its own or with bread, put a stock cube in and a bit of butter for flavour could have it with some of the scones spendingmad suggested,

: if you have enough milk you could make some rice pudding for over the weekend or for supper to fill the little ones up, have you got any oats for porridge?

breakfast could be home made bread toasted or some home made scones,
corn on the cob could be a weekend snack and the rice could be a filling lunch over the weekend,

your not the only one,
we have all been there op and some how we all manage,

hope that helps,


ETA: My quantities are proberly a bit out as im use to cooking for 2 but hope that helps anyways

adelight

Make up a big batch of bread rolls today to keep everyone full, some plain, some flavoured. You can make a very flavoursome tomato & herb bread by adding tblsp tom puree, herbs, 1/2 diced onion & 2 minced garlic cloves to a dough batch. It works without the tomato if you can't spare that. You could thin out a tin of soup with water, stock cube and flour to make it go further, it won't seem so stingy or tasteless with some nice bread.
Some of the veg and spuds with the beef and tin of soup would make a stew, to eat with more bread!

Have you ever used milk&more? http://www.milkandmore.co.uk/OA_HTML/ibeCCtpSctDspRte.jsp?section=10580&jfn=ZGFBADB9131DBF5C5FBE9A892583B526C32856DD7C9A3170DA0B6D4273AE0D7D2A61F966A3B20093B60A28140CF346D2C9EE&oas=bDDXIIT60WCMuaFHQw_7Hg.. could get you £10 shopping for milk, eggs and cheese.

Butterfly_Brain

If you have plenty of bread flour and yeast you could make some iced fingers, belgian buns, apple braid etc for a treat for the littlies.
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/367959
or make a bread base to use for a pizza.
If you have some syrup and oats twinks hob nobs are luverly too

squeakysue

Could you get yourselves invited round to someones for dinner one night? Parents/family/friends? Good luck xx

Pitlanepiglet

No real advice from me but just to say "well done" on having such a positive attitude to this. I know you feel bad that you're in this situation but you've managed to get yourself out of it without incurring further debt by using what you have around you. Well done!

Have you thought about contact the CAB and asking them to do you a quick benefits check to make sure that you are getting all that you're entitled to. If you get really stuck again, see if your local community has a hamper scheme or a food bank, these are often run by churches but you don't need to be a member.

Verbatim

Risotto using (nettle tops), carrots, peas; pasta and tomato sauce; (yeast raised) savoury Danish;

The other suggestions look great. Good luck.