Feeding a family of 6 on a 1400/month salary

havfrue

We have been able to do it well, with even room for sweets and other non-essentials because my husband's employer pays for most of our rent.

HOWEVER... from July on, we will pay more on rent + the car loan payments will start, so I am looking into cutting on as many non-essential expenses as possible - beginning with the grocery bill. We could also all do with healthier meals (less sugar and more veggies).

So, does anybody know of any websites that have healthy and cheap meal ideas? I am not very creative, but cook well following instructions. My children are 8,7,3 and 1 and lucky for me, they are not picky eaters. They are home educated, so I need to ideas for ALL meals.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

P.S. I am relatively new to the UK so suggestions for cheap + healthy places to shop are also welcome!

TheBannister

If you go on to http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/ it lists basically every recipe on any BBC food show, and you can search for certain types of meals.

Three_Dancing_Dragons

Find a copy of THE MORE WITH LESS COOKBOOK by Doris Janzen Longacre. It's a mennonite cookbook geared to thrifty cooking for large families. Not online, but well worth a look.

Seakay

I would suggest "Cheap and Easy" by Rose Elliot
Review here: http://www.naturalife-wholefoods.co.uk/natural_lifestyle/l0063.html
Even if you are not a vegetarian, meat can be the most expensive food item, and she has lots of good ideas for unprepossessing ingredients. The amounts are for 4, but she gives amounts for 2 or 1, so you could use these measures to add to the main recipe.
A quick search shows it to be cheaper on USA than UK Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/0722539487/ref=dp_olp_2/103-1503089-5711855


You will find lots of threads on this site about ways to save money at places such as Tesco, Lidl, Aldi etc - Oldstyle and Grabbit forums will be of help. It can depend on priorities - do you have the time/energy to trawl local shops or are you tied to a weekly supermarket shop? Organic meat and veg are cheaper at a farmers market then at most supermarkets, but more expensive than non-organic almost anywhere. Do you have the time/space to grow some things to supplement your shopping? Loads of ideas on the Oldstyle forum.
How far are you prepared to go?
http://frugalliving.about.com/od/howtosaveonfood/a/060104.htm
http://news.independent.co.uk/environment/article346471.ece