Help...Food budget

threemuttleys

Hello..I dont post very often down here, but I am an avid reader, and have learnt a lot...However I really need some help from you amazing people.

Due to some seriously stretched finances, my food budget is non existent for this month (August) Whereas I usually have around £150 ish, this month I will have around £50. This is to feed 2 adults, and a 10 month old boy (who is impossible to fill!) The dogs/cats are sorted for the month..but lord only knows how I am going to stretch our budget. Usually I have a good store of bits in the freezer/cupboard...but due to trying to use stuff up, Im a bit erm, stuffed!

I need to do breakfasts, lunches, dinners for us all and snacks for DS.

I have in store atm

Fridge

Chicken fillets (about 3)
a small piece of broccoli
couple of lemons
Milk
Miniscule amount of butter
3 cans of cider
various sauce (mayo, tommy, brown)
Punnet of cherries
Few baby pots
Garlic
Onions
3 large cooking apples

Freezer

Pasta bake thing
Spag bol base
Whole Chicken
2 pork steaks
few fish fillets
frozen broc/cauli
6 sausages
Bag of frozen tropical fruit

Cupboard

Various pulses beans (green/red lentils) Butter beans, Pearl Barley
Rice
Lasagne
Oats
Various soy sauces/balsamic/chinesey oil
baked beans
angel delight
Loads of flours (bread plain and sr)

(I also have a couple of nananas, and 2 satsumas)

Can anyone help please

FatVonD

threemuttleys wrote: »

3 cans of cider

Things will look a lot rosier after the cider

threemuttleys

FatVonD wrote: »

Things will look a lot rosier after the cider

LOL yup!:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

Bella56

Wow that is loads of food! We don't have nearly that much, not having a freezer. The whole chicken will do for loads of meals - chicken sandwiches, chicken curry, chicken risotto, roast chicken. Using chicken stock made from the bones. That's 1 week sorted.

little_miss_muppet_face

I was about to say the same.. you have alot of food in just now.. try and work through what you have in just now without spending any of the money, once you are running bare then you could use your £50 to buy what you need.. Usually at the end of the month we have a couple of days where our meals do not really go together but we want to clear the freezer.. i guess you could do that until your cupboards / freezer are clear too...

Allegra

Few of the less obvious (perhaps) suggestions: use the flour to make bread/rolls/pastry (cheapest fat to use for pastry is vegetable oil) - making pastry can stretch meat/veggies further by making pies or pasties (good for lunches). Pizza base - then you need very little of your meat etc. for topping.

Your various lentils are good for stretching the meat/veg out in sauces and casseroles, but will also make good meals in themselves - red lentils for a tarka dahl (serve with rice or HM naan), green to make a spicey, herby casserole type of thing to serve either on rice or on mashed potato.

They can also be used for sandwich fillers - both make a lovely pate.

As for snacks, scones and muffins - again, use oil instead of pricier marge or butter, and bung those bananas and cherries in your muffins - stretch them further, and as they freeze, makes sure nothing goes off. Pancakes ? Cinnamon buns ? Breadsticks ? Oats can become flapjacks as well as plain ole porridge, cooking apples can go in a pie, cake, or become apple curd for toast/sandwiches.

Further lunchtime suggestions - rice salad (my go-to non-sandwich option is a pasta salad, but I see no pasta on your list - if you eat pasta, when it comes to buying more stuff, buy pasta, as it needs very little added to it to make a frugal meal), bean salad, soup (spicey lentil, broccoli).

Bigjenny

Hi threemuttleys

Try this site for some ideas to stretch your budget http://www.cheap-family-recipes.org.uk/

HTH

PipneyJane

You received some really good advice from Allegra. I'd like to add a few things.

Firstly, £50 is more than you think it is and you can make it go much farther than you think but you'll have to think in terms of shopping for the whole month in one go and not just for the week. That way, you'll plan your meals for the month. You already have a lot of food in the house, you just have to realise its potential.

For today, shred the broccoli (including the stalk), slice an onion, boil some rice, thinly slice ONE of the chicken breasts and make a Chinese style stir-fry/special fried rice for dinner. Add a cup of frozen peas or sweetcorn to enhance the veg quotent and some shredded carrot if you have any. If you pad it well enough, you'll have enough for 6 meals, thus providing you with lunch tomorrow. Your aim is to get 4 adult plus 2 child servings out of each dish, thus feeding your family for dinner tonight and lunch tomorrow. It is possible with creative use of vegetables.

Use one of the other chicken breasts for a risotto tomorrow and the third one in a pasta dish or grilled and shredded over a home-made pizza. Alternatively, cube it and make a Chicken Dhansak, using the split red lentils instead of all the different types of dhal listed in most recipes (epicurious.com is a good source for recipes, as the BBC website). Or make it into a chicken stew with dumplings.

Nearly 20 years ago, I fed two adults for a month on less than £25 and the contents of the freezer/larder. I don't remember everything that I bought, but I do remember the shopping list included:

3lb minced beef
1lb strong cheddar cheese
10lb onions
5lb potatos
1 dozen eggs
Rolled oats
Some chicken
A jar of terrible tasting instant coffee
12 tins chopped tomatoes
Frozen mushrooms
Frozen peas

I know I made souffles, quiches, curries, chillies, pasta dishes, baked potatoes with cheap baked beans for toppings, stuff like that. If you have a really good library or a source of cheap second hand books, look out for copies of Cheap & Easy Vegetarian Cooking by Rose Elliott and How to Feed Your Family on £4 a Day (sorry, author's name escapes me). Both of those books helped me get through that time.

Good luck.

Pam

notatvstar

... Oh a ready made spag bol base and some lasagna sheets. Easy Lasagna You've got flour, milk and (a little) butter already - so get some cheap cheese and make you're own bechamel (sp?). That'll probably do you at least a main meal (have no idea of quantities so sorry). Alternatively you could shred your lasagna into tagelatelle (sp?) and make a carbonara (eggs, and get some cheapo bacon off cuts - I NEVER buy proper bacon nowadays).

I'm semi-oriental and my Mum taught me how to make egg fried rice. I make a big batch using the left overs from the Sunday lunch on the Monday night and it does a main meal and 'lunches' for me and the OH for 3 days. The amount of chicken you need is about 2 thighs and 2 legs worth (shredded! - remember Chinese food is in fact poverty food... that's why we shred the meat). The breasts usually get eaten on the Sunday. The carcass goes for stock for curries or soups (or reduced down to be frozen in an ice cube tray - great bovril substitute).

I'll pm anyone my fried rice recipe btw...

EGG IN FIRST - that's all I'm saying for now.

You could curry your fish fillets (padding them out with lentils) - but it's traditional to have loads of smaller dishes (meat curry, veg curry, veggie side dish (not necessarily another veg curry), rice, roti, dahl - basically have about 6-7 bowls of different stuff (I know it sounds a pain, but you freeze what you don't serve and repeat the process another week - we have a weekly special curry night!).

A really cheap, authentic stir fry recipe is from Ching-He Huang's book - Chinese Food in Minutes. This book is great... and no, I'm not related. I'll pm anyone the recipe, I've adapted it to cheapo ingredients. Mind you - you didn't mention if you had any soy sauce or rice wine (white wine vinegar is fine btw...)

Your sausages could go into toad in the hole...

TBH - I'm getting rather excited by the contents of your larder, fridge and freezer

Frugalista

notatvstar could you pm me your recipes please . Thanks in advance.

ixia

If you've got a Mr T's near you they are doing a 7.5kg bag of potatoes for £2.49- you could use them in loads of ways-

potato and cauliflower curry using up your cauli
baked spuds/beans
topping for a fish pie
soup
bangers and mash

I think as suggested you'd be better making a meal plan so you can use up what you've got first and pick up only what you need. Good luck