£100 for 5 weeks food - family of 4

DebtFree2012

ubamother wrote: »

Cleaning stuff - try not to buy any - whatever you've got now, add water to make it go further, use cheap washing up liquid, add a bit of vinegar, and plenty water - your house will not be unclean if you live without whatever products you normally buy. Everytime you have a meal, I just bet there is a scrape of something left. Don't let the washer-upper eat them (which is what happens in my house if I'm not fast) Freeze your scrapes and you'll soon have enough for a soup, or something you can add pasta too for a children's meal etc. etc. Check out if you have a good greengrocer or farm shop and see how much a large bag of potatoes is - not only can they be the main part of a meal, jackets etc. they can bulk out lots of other dinners too. Packed lunches can get quite expensive - have a think about what goes in them and if the cost of this can come down. Good luck

Great idea re saving the scrapes - I will start doing this tonight!

Farm shop is fairly expensive near us and also a car journey away so petrol again I was thinking though - if towards the end of the month my petrol is looking like there will be some left I could have a meander over there and look around

I've been working on packed lunches for a while and now buy a joint of ham and try to make it last as long as possible (ie cook it when no one is in so it doesn't get eaten before I can bag it up). I plan on writing what the packed lunches are for the coming week when I post on Monday so it'd be great if anyone can offer help there - Thanks!

Thanks!

DebtFree2012

quintwins wrote: »

are you having a roast on sunday? if so assuming you've already bought it i'd switch the rest of the months out for casarole, a chicken or a pork roast (if you have a slowcooker prk shoulder is lovely cooked in it with honey and mustard) we hardly ever have a beef roast it's far too expensive

you could make pasta/potatoe salad for in your lunch boxes or make your own sandwichs fillings (i love homemade egg mayo, or egg and bacon made with coking bacon is very cheap) which can be much cheaper than packaged ham ect, we also love homemade gammon sandwichs and it is cheaper per weight than packets however it doesn't strech as far even when i slice it in my slicer

You have just reminded me, I have a pork joint in the freezer hiding for a special occasion - that will do well for a sunday roast, stir fry then sanwiches too - Great.:T

Also I have mince meat in the freezer and would do a casserole with this but I think shepherd's pie/cottage pie is the option there. I used the last of my diced beef the other day and no more in until next month now unless DH gets a freeby.

Egg and bacon for sarnies is FAB idea - i bet this will be very tasty! Will be having this next week as the bacon is coming tonight.

I don't buy meat in packs any more - I now do joints and slice myself as you suggested here - thank you.:A

DebtFree2012

Butterfly_Brain wrote: »

• Go to your local market at the end of trading on a Saturday you can sometimes pick up some good bargains.
• I tried this a few times in Mr T and lately found even the reduced stuff is still out of my price range. I do keep looking though
• Have you a garden? If so try and grow some fruit and veg for when times are tough ( I know it won't help at this moment in time but worth thinking about for the future)
• We are lucky to have a garden yes - I have a few of my own things in at the moment but I don't think I am green fingered as they aren't doing too well. The timatoe plant has 5 toms on and all very green. I thought we'd have loads
• Go foraging this is the right time of year - we have loads of blackberries, wild damsons, and apples around us and even some cherry trees and sweet chesnut trees that the council have planted dotted around town - you just have to look.
• great idea - will do this at the w/e - we did it last yr too and my DD loved it
• Check what you already have, you may be surprised, and maybe we could help out with a few meal plans.
• My plan for the w/e too - thanks
• Even though it is summer - try soup and pudding night on cooler days HM soup, HM bread and a crumble made from, fresh or a tin of fruit with a basics custard (6p) is cheap and very filling, or what about a good old fashioned rice pud.
• Any ideas for HM soup recipes would be greatly appreciated
• I buy a joint of beef or pork and roast it and slice it that way it stretches to at least 2 meals. I do the same with a joint of gammon but that is used as ham for sandwiches for 2 or 3 weeks.
• You have your own chickens so frittata or quiche with salad or egg and chips, scrambled eggs, or egg and mayo open tartlets with some cress.
• yes this is a must - i need to find more recipes outside of my current ones which are very limited where eggs are concerned
• old fashioned cheap meals including macaroni cheese, liver and mash with bacon ( buy the offcuts because they are cheaper) and fried onions,
• Buy a whole chicken and stretch it to 3 meals at least, i.e roast, curry, stew crumble etc and a soup from the carcass.
• Sausages for toad in the hole, sausage and mash, sliced and add to pasta sauce with some veggies for a tasty sausage pasta, sausage stew, get some sausage meat and make a sausage plait and seve with mash and baked beans or peasFAB - kids will love it
• Baked bean lasagne basically a layer of beans, cheese, tomatoes fresh or tinned please:o? and onions with a cheese sauce poured over the top.
• pancakes sweet or filled and rolled with baked beans and cheese topped with cheese sauce or mince and veg with a white sauce, left over bolognaise etc basically anything you can think of.
• Loving it :T
• savoury bread and butter pud with sausages, bacon bits, left over roast etc

HTH x

It really does help SO much - THANK YOU :A

DebtFree2012

flippin36 wrote: »

If you can get cheap meat and have chickens I think its do-able. My advice would be to avoid meat and 3 veg meals and just go for stews, casseroles, spag bols, lasagne, homemade pizza . It makes the meat stretch a long way and you can bulk it out with whatever you have in the fridge. Consider some veggie meals, quiche, mushroom pizza We have a HM pizza and popcorn night so this will go down fabulously, cheese and tomatoe pizza, cheese and potatoe pie. If you have a light meal you can fill up on puddings - rice pudding, bread and butter pudding, blackberry crumble. For sandwhiches I would definitely recommend buying a joint of gammon, or chicken rather than small packs of sandwhich meat - much cheaper especially if you have a slowcooker and freezer.

I would recommend buying
Flours, sugar, jam (you can make jam tarts with the kids Great idea - will do that this w/e ), yeast, cheese (biggest cheapest block then freeze into portions), yoghurts (the value ones are 'ok' at 30p) , cabbage is cheap and goes a long way, frozen veg is cheaper, tins of beans, tins of tomatoes, value pasta, rice, big bags of potatoes, dried milk for cooking, my oh says the value weetabix from morrisons is ok, peanut butter is great for baking as well as sandwhiches we like the value jar (50pish), bacon is so handy and cheap, dried fruit (my kids used to like taking little pots of dried fruit to school). These are mostly items that appear in my shopping and that I already have in so this is great thank you. I buy everything value where I can and the only thing I don't like so far is the jam.

Hope I'm not pointing out the obvious

Good luck with your challenge, I am on a mini challange of my own so will follow your thread with interest.

Thank you for taking the time to do this - that goes to everyone who has replied too :T

DebtFree2012

Wow - i am only half way through and SO many good ideas already. I don't have time to finish reading now so will pick up again ASAP.

Thanks peeps - you are wonderful

xxx

Gigervamp

If you go foraging, you can make jam. All you'll need to pay for is the sugar, so you'll get a few jars for the same cost as one that you've bought.

quintwins

given the weather i'd avoid stodgy soups like tatie and leek ect, if it was me i'd make chicken noodle soup, with the scraps of a cooked chicken, some sweetcorn, peas and veg stock and a packet of value noodles i've made this before and it goes down very well you can also include any otehr veg you ahve it's very nice with celery and brocolli aswell

JackieRHE

I am watching this thread with great interest as I have just posted a target spend for August of £100 - for just me and the cats.:o

I know I spend too much so will be borrowing some of the tips from here.

Do you like onions? if so you could make a cheese and onion sandwich filling - grated cheese, grated onion and a bit of mayo to bind it.

I make my own cheapo "muesli" in the summer with value oats. some dried fruit and some chopped nuts (whatever bits I have in the house). Just add milk.

Have you tried car boot sales for veg - they seem to attract local people selling excess from their gardens and are fairly cheap too.

mophead

Home Made Spicy Lentil and Spinach Soup.

1 x Large Onion
1 tsp x Curry Powder or a bit more depending on how spicy you like it
250g Red Lentils
2 or 3 lumps of frozen spinach
1 pint Chicken Stock

I don't really measure my ingredients but if you have too many lentils just add some more liquid or visa versa.

Fry the diced onion for a few minutes in oil then add the curry powder fry for a few minute more.
Add the Lentils and stir into the onion mixture so they are nicely coated.
Next add the Chicken Stock and bring to boil, simmer until lentils are softened/Cooked
Then add the Spinach and simmer until cooked and warmed through doesn't take to long.
Then blitz with the hand blender should turn a nice green colour akin to pea soup.

I love this soup and it's really filling my husband loves this and used to be a strictly meat and 2 veg kind of guy he's a big bloke but a bowl of this with a crusty roll fills him up!

We eat soup quite a lot for a cheap meal will post some more recipes when I get a moment

Goo Luck with the Budget by the way.x.

quintwins

spicy carrot and lentil soup is yummy aswell, i use gram masala in mine instead fo curry powder and pretty much do the same as above but with carrots