eat for 30 quid a week

ceridwen

I've started one of my intermittent keeping a record of what I spend on everything - and I fall within £30 per week still. I think the week would have been cheaper - but bought 2 bottles of fruit juice concentrate for £4 each and 2 packets of coffee for £2.50 each (as I only like real coffee - not instant coffee or tea:().

So - thankfully I dont have to watch every single penny - so I'm vegetarian (which saves money) on the one hand but a high proportion of what I buy is organic - milk, butter, cheese, dried pulses, flour, pasta, canned tomatoes, a high proportion of my fruit and veg.

What I dont do is buy ready meals. I also try not to waste anything and am certainly making better use of my freezer these days. Right now - there are some skinned/halved bananas in there that would otherwise go off (and I eat them straight out of the freezer - as a sorta "icecream") and I realised a cheap (39p) pineapple I had bought was "only last a couple of days standard" - so prepped it fast and froze what I wasnt going to eat immediately. I've got a bag of ends of bread in there too - and will blitz them into breadcrumbs and use as a sorta "crumble" type topping on a baked casserole for instance.

judeee

Oo, brilliant ideas Gothicfairy! It's just the taste he likes, I've even tried an own brand cherry coke (though I could only get sugar free!) and he didn't like it at all.
If I could get a load in one go at cost price that would drastically reduce my weekly shopping bill! Thanks, I'll give it a go :j

judeee

Ceridwen, I don't even have a microwave anymore! I don't trust them... ha ha. Never buy ready meals. I bake bread from fresh, I try to make as much as possible myself actually, but with a freezer with a dodgy seal and a cooker with a couple of knobs missing and a temperamental oven, things aren't easy! My kitchen is falling to bits. I've got a chicken in now to make Coronation Chicken sandwiches for the train journey tomorrow (we're going to London! And son wants to go to Hamleys!! Help me...) so I can get sandwiches made and still have plenty left over to make chicken soup on Sunday!

Gothicfairy

I was wondering if you can get cherry coke concentrate (sp) for something like a soda stream but add it to normal water or cheap fizzy pop

Gothicfairy

Judeee, I feel for you, I really do..I am living with no freezer and a tiny fridge, 2 gas rings and a small cooker..I have no kids though so am doing well compared to how hard you must be finding it.

You could try chicken pot pie with the left overs as you would probably have enough still to do a soup with.

I hope you enjoy your day out tomorrow..I am sure your lad will love Hamleys ( went there as a child and got a glow in the dark, light up yoyo)

judeee

Aw thanks Gothic, he's excited!
My freezer door, the seal doesn't quite meet the frame so it's all icing up down the front, I've kind of got it pressed together with sellotape! The seal has already been replaced nearly two years ago but is well past it's best now.

Chicken pot pie sounds lovely, I run out of inspiration!
We mainly live on: chicken soup, tuna tagliatelle, home made pizza (which kids love putting their own toppings on!), pasta with a tomato (passata/herbs) sauce, jacket potato and big mushrooms with lots of cheese or fish! And homemade bread, cakes and biscuits (they love the chocolate ones with a square of Milky Bar oozing inside it!). I try to avoid pre-cooked, pre-made, pre-tinned, pre-baked stuff and eat as naturally as possible as my son has an adverse reaction to certain chemicals, plus I like to know exactly what we are eating. Ahh...life will be so much easier when I get my range cooker! And new fridge. (hopefully!!)

Gothicfairy

shame your not nearer as I have a old chest freezer in storage going begging..lol

I love home made bread and there is nothing better then chicken soup and warm buttered wholemeal bread.

I really can't make cakes etc , I think it might be because I am type 1 diabetic I never really got the whole cake, chocolate thing as a child and didn't cook them like I did Yank food, cos that I can do in my sleep and even impress proper White Trash folks..lol

I do love victoria sponge but mine never rise and end up looking like hub caps.

I would love the recipe for the chocolate biscuits with milky bars if that is OK cos hubby would kill for those.

judeee

Ingredients for chocolate biscuits with soft chocolate centre.

140g/5oz butter
140g/5oz caster sugar
2 egg yolks
255g/9oz self-raising flour
30g/1oz cocoa powder
30 squares of chocolate (milk, white or plain)

Grease a large baking sheet. Cream the butter and sugar together until pale. Beat in the egg yolks, then add the flour and cocoa powder to make a dough. Turn out and knead, then pop it into the fridge for a while. Preheat the oven to 190ºC/375ºF/gas 5.

On a lightly floured surface, roll about a third of the dough out thinly, then cut out about 30 circles with a 4 cm/1 1/2 inch cutter (you can do fewer if you want the biscuits bigger). Spread them out on the baking sheet and put a square of chocolate in the middle of each one. Then roll the rest of the dough out. Cut out the same number of circles with a 5cm/2 inch cutter and pop them on top of the chocolate, pressing gently all the way round to seal the edge and keep all the chocolate in.

Cook in the preheated oven for 10 minutes.

The kids love them!

I'm not really a cakey person, but still do them! They don't last long round here, even if I only have one... ha ha

Gothicfairy

Thanks a bunch , I will try them for hubby next week as we have no chocolate in and it will take him a couple of days to save up his credits ( £1 per day pocket money as he calls it..lol)
They sound like just his sort of thing.

mymerrywidow

Gothicfairy wrote: »

I was wondering if you can get cherry coke concentrate (sp) for something like a soda stream but add it to normal water or cheap fizzy pop

approved food had the concentrates earlier this week