Sainsbury's - Feed your family for £50!!

katylou6180

All credit to sainsburys for trying to help people on a budget...that includes me! I have noticed people on here going "wheres the snacks, drinks etc" theres nothing wrong with that at all and we are all different. I can safely say that even though it is just breakfast, sandwich, and dinner, if my already challenged with the lbs self and my "keeping a check on his weight so he doesnt get fat" son attempted to live on this then the pounds would surely pile on!! About the only one that "could" feasibly live on it would be my husband that does a manual job and works bloomin hard all day, me and son are both in sedentary pastimes called office work and school and can only excercise "out of hours"! Just had to stick my two penneth in! But keep things comin, I am taking it there will be a few weeks worth of plans, maybe when the weather gets better they will have some lighter suggestions!

Blingbailey

thatguy1 wrote: »

I work for a huge store... just under 80,000 sq ft
We had an extension back in 2009

Hi

I work for the SSC in Holborn. I always wondered if you worked for Sainsbury's from some of your posts!

Snakeeyes21

katylou6180 wrote: »

All credit to sainsburys for trying to help people on a budget...that includes me! I have noticed people on here going "wheres the snacks, drinks etc" theres nothing wrong with that at all and we are all different. I can safely say that even though it is just breakfast, sandwich, and dinner, if my already challenged with the lbs self and my "keeping a check on his weight so he doesnt get fat" son attempted to live on this then the pounds would surely pile on!! About the only one that "could" feasibly live on it would be my husband that does a manual job and works bloomin hard all day, me and son are both in sedentary pastimes called office work and school and can only excercise "out of hours"! Just had to stick my two penneth in! But keep things comin, I am taking it there will be a few weeks worth of plans, maybe when the weather gets better they will have some lighter suggestions!

couldnt agree more, do people really 'snack' between meals in sufficient amounts that it would add more tha a couple of quid to the budget? I would say these meal plans are quite well rounded, not really unhealthy but not exacally really healthy but its perfectly fine, atleast its not turkey twizzlers and smash, or pizza and chips like i had as a child

who can guess why ive fashioned a career i catering

I would like to see fresh fruit instead of rasins and the like on the breakfast menu, instead of just toast maybe some porridge or something and maybe a salad to go with a few of the mains that are there, but thats really the only faults I could find, with a bit of tweeking I could happly live on it.

People saying it sounds bland, this is where the + store cupboard bit comes in, anybody who has even a slightly keen interest in cooking will have quite a healthy store cupboard to dip in to, to jazz things up a bit, everybody has salt, pepper, some herbs and what not kicking around, and I know of no meal plan that costs these in to the budget, really a pinch of stuff to add a bit of flavour is only going to cost a few pennies.

Even something as bland sounding as their roast chicken can be brought to life with a 20p lemon and a few sprigs of thyme.

I doesnt take a genius or a whole lot of extra cash to tweak this a bit to turn it in to something nicer, but then again I dont think the people this is aimed at would be the adveturous types in the kitchen..

Look at this as a good solid base to build on and you wont go far wrong

saying all that theres quite a few savings to be made in there, shredded wheat? really for those on a budget? why not porridge or basics corflakes..

'proper' rashers of bacon? why? the cooking bacon is only a quid for a pack and imo alot better, you get smoked and normal in it and tastes much better in a butty

Using legs instead of a whole chicken. even their choice of rice is bad for those on a budget, you can get 1kg of the basics for a few pence cheaper.

grapes for £2.49? that can be spent on other fruit that would give better value, you can get a kg of apples, a kg of bananas and a net of oranges for the same price

But thats just me nitpicking.


Edit..
seems there was more faults than i originally thought when I sat and thought about it a bit.

blackandwhitebunny

I think this depends on your starting point, for a lot of us on here this is old hat and we can all spot extra savings or better value options. however I teach Food and Nutrition in a secondary school (what used to be Home Economics). Lots of our pupils are from single parent, low income etc families. This menu would be a huge improvement on what they normally eat. In terms of health, value and even quantity. I say well done for trying although maybe they need to get a few of the old stylers on board when developing the next one

miacat

ive just this minute been looking at this on sainsbury's site ..
the "salmon pasta with mushroom and broccoli is on my list for tomorrow..

miacat

mumto2loves wrote: »

lol i did think to myself, wheres the yogurt / crisps / biscuit / fruit to go with the sandwich for lunch:rotfl:

you don't need crisps and biscuits,,,

*Jelly_Tots*

RANT:
I don't care what anyone says, it is a lot more expensive and time consuming to eat healthily in Sainsburys unless you have a lot of time every day to devote to sourcing cheap fruit/ veg/ fresh meat elsewhere/ finding recipes/ chopping/ peeling/ soaking your own lima beans/ making your own yoghurt blah blah etc. I have a lot of sympathy with those families with kids and on a low income who end up feeding them pizzas etc.

Don't get me wrong, I eat really healthily, but it annoys me so much when you want a quick snack in your lunch hour and in Sainsburys some chopped mango/fruit salad is £2 compared to 10 mars bars for the same price. I know I could go to the local market, buy a mango, and then chop the cheaper fruit up in the ladies toilet at work, but it's not the same is it? lol. And you can get 2 frozen gateaus for the same price as a few frozen cherries. And the extra lean mince is NEVER on offer compared to the fat-filled stuff. And the low-fat cottage cheese, yoghurt, quark, etc are NEVER on offer but the Mars Bar Milkshakes and Chocolate Mousses are. And 3 chicken breasts for the same price as 4 large pizzas, and.................*walks away muttering*

EDIT: Oops! Sorry, forgot the whole point of my post was to say that this menu plan at least looks like a start for those families who have never cooked from scratch. But don't like the reliance on bread. And it's obvious why they haven't put much fruit in - because it's so bl**dy expensive in Sainsburys. It's about time Sainsburys and all the big supermarkets stopped price fixing, and pushing up the prices of basic foods, and offering cr*p, lardy food at cheaper prices. I mean who needs 2 whole aisles of crisps ???

katylou6180

*Jelly tots* I agree, I have started a "diet" and refuse to pay their prices on fruit & veg, I too don't have the biggest income in the world and both hubby and I work full time, luckily we only have us and one mouth to feed (we couldn't have afforded any more) I don't profess to always get it right....but I know a lady with five children whos income is much lower, she works two jobs, and still finds the time to cook from scratch shopping at one supermarket but she plans everything to within an inch of her life bless her!! I too get cross when as you quite rightly say...you can buy a pile of Mars Bars for a "portion" of fruit! I am probably going to get shouted down for saying this, I think an awful lot to do with it is 1) how you were bought up 2) your intelligence level and 3) how much you have been educated about nutrition, "low income" doesn't necessarily mean eating c**p, it's all in the planning. Also...can you get frozen cherries? I've never ever seen em.....but would love to find me some

loobylou232

Like most of you on here, I can easily feed my family of 5 for £50 very healthily. In order to do so however, I buy cheap meat/fish on the day it's going out of date and freeze it, ditto fruit and veg when I see it and it looks and feels ok for eating. I buy staples when they're on offer and take advantage of glitches and things like dtd promotion (now ended). I check receipts like a hawk and always claim back overcharges, especially in tesco (dtd). I buy fruit and veg from the market, grow my own veg and salad and cook from scratch. It is MUCH cheaper than procesed.
I also get very cross about the fact that instant unhealthy food is so cheap in comparison to instant healthy food. no wonder we have an obesity epidemic.

silverjay

I find Sainsburys to be less "in your face" with the junk offers than say Tesco where you fall over the BOGOF chocolate/cake offers in the middle of the aisle.

I also find Sainsburys fruit & veg to be of a much better quality than Tesco and Morrisons.

I am only buying for one but today I got reasonably priced stuff.

net of satsumas (7) £1.24
mango £1
pineapple £1
4 baking potatoes 50p
Basics fine green beans £1
Chesnut mushrooms £1
Bramley apples (5) £1.47 (didn't have any loose ones!)

They would have cost me a lot more in my local Tescos.

Not sure about the feed for £50 meal as it does seem to be based around toast and sandwiches and a main meal. They could easily have fitted a bag of Basics porridge in there and a punnet of Basics blueberries.