£10 to £15 for food a week?

Purple_kitten

Great Recipes JulieGeorgiana, I can also vouch for them all as we also use them all.

We buy campbells when it’s on offer at 5 for £2 in Asda, as they make great bases and if you add a little rice or cous cous it fills it out a little as a meal on it’s own.

Lidls also have offers on their frozen pizzas which can make them 70p each, we add some frozen sweetcorn or left over anything to the top to give it a bit extra.

I was also given a couple of great books I keep to hand one is Real Fast Food by Nigel Slater, the other is the Takeaway secret, for when I’m looking for inspiration, or sometimes a miracle.

AdmiralX

Material_Girl wrote: »

I think I can go vegetarian for when I eat at home and at work and have meat or fish when I go out, that sounds like a good plan. I'll look into slowcookers, they sound great! I may be able to get one in the sale in January:)

Yeap, the cooking method is important.

Slow is v tasty. You might also try this method for veges: blanch them a few minutes but not until very soft, then plunge them in cold water till cool. That retains flavour and colour, and you can dress them.

Sunflower oil tastes good, is healthy, cheap and lasts (the organic is better). Regarding meat, you might do stews, with st lamb (v cheap) and chopped veges.

Regarding stock, you might ask a fish monger or a butcher at supermkt what they can give you cheap, tell them you don't want to spend much. You can ask them which meat would cost you less. I did so. At the end of cooking your soup/stew you might wish to try to thicken it with couple of cornflour spoons or arrowroot. Lemons are great addition to dishes and are vitamin rich.

freeoffers

sarah1972 wrote: »

Water is even cheaper

Seriously though, good luck as there is absolutely no way I could manage on £10 - £15 a week.

I drink a lot of water. The high juice is for when my son comes over. I'll buy coke from the pound shop as a treat very occasionally.

Trust me, if you buy reduced food you can do it. Today I Had trout (44p for 2 fillets) mushrooms (15p for a punnet) and penne (25p value range). If you don't have much money there isn't much choice.

Good luck to OP though, it isn't easy and I love to cook and I'm quite creative too.

elantan

hi all , can anyone give me an example of a shopping list that would be approx £15 a week and nutritious? i am trying to cut donw for both hubby and myself and whilst i dont think £15 would do us ( were rather over weight) i would like to get an idea of how you do it so that i can learn

thanks el

quintwins

elantan wrote: »

hi all , can anyone give me an example of a shopping list that would be approx £15 a week and nutritious? i am trying to cut donw for both hubby and myself and whilst i dont think £15 would do us ( were rather over weight) i would like to get an idea of how you do it so that i can learn

thanks el

i did post a few costed meals already but for a family of 5 we usually buy/spend

£15 per fortnight (and £10 every other fortnight) in the local farm shop on milk (90p for 2 litres), 20kg of spuds(lasts over 2 weeks), huge bag of 25 apples, huge bag of 24 oranges and any other offers they have

i buy huge packs of chicken breasts from makro at £18 for 5kg theres a good 24+ in there and there massive and don't shrink we only need 3 for all of us so enough for 8 dinners dinner

then i go to tesco and buy

carrots 80p
onions £1
mince £8.80 (does 8 meals)
gravy £1
frozen mixed veg 80p
frozen green beans £1
frozen brocolli 80p
frozen cauliflower £1
bananas £10 (we need about 25 a week i limit the kids to one aday)
15 value eggs £1.25
block of cheese x2 £4 (always on offer might spend £4 on 2 blocks but it works out the same)
value pizza x2 £2
value garlic bread x 4 £1.48
6 loves of bread £3.30
pork shoulder roast £3
value marge £1.20
value flour 60p
pasta 40p
tom puree 60p
frozen peas £1
frozen sweetcorn £1
beef shin £1
own brand ready break £1
value wheatbix 60p
sugar 80p
beans x 4 £1
sausages £1
value chips £1.25
gammon £3 (only buy on offer/reduced my lidl always has these reduced)
ham/corned beef x2 £3

which will make

sherperds pie x2
beef stew
mince and taties x2
spag bol x2
chilli x2
chicken casarole/ chicken dinner x8
pork roast (with enought left for pork casarole twice)
quiche
pizza and garlic bread x 2
sausage and chips
gammon with mash and veg
leftover gammon with chips and egg


breakfasts are toast or cereal, lunch is sandwichs, pasta or leftovers, snacks are buns we make with the sugar. flour and butter or fruit

it all comes to about £125 we have sunday dinner at my mother in laws or if were at home i don't make a roast unless it's pork and we have the odd take away thats why my dinners don't cover the whole month, bear in mind there is 5 of us and i tend to shop for the month and rely heavily on my freezer

elantan

thanks very much for this ... i will print it off and have a good look at it ... i think it will deff help me ... i am trying to get on top of our food budget just now, we are currently £50 a week just for two people and would love to cut it down to £40 a week for two ... i know that is still more than is aimed here but i accept also that we will have tweaks and changes that suit us ( we like butter for eg )

not sure if your interestedf ( or if it helps) or not but asna do puree for 48p ... not sureif it is close to you or not though

quintwins

elantan wrote: »

thanks very much for this ... i will print it off and have a good look at it ... i think it will deff help me ... i am trying to get on top of our food budget just now, we are currently £50 a week just for two people and would love to cut it down to £40 a week for two ... i know that is still more than is aimed here but i accept also that we will have tweaks and changes that suit us ( we like butter for eg )

we love butter at £2.60 a block, alot fo things i've listed abover carry onto the next month so i spend less the next month and i do acually buy 2 blocks of butter most months but once it's gone it's gona sorta thing, we also buy coke several times a month (i refuse to pay more than £1 a bottle) then we have toilet roll (i recommend lidls own it's very good) and those takeaways plus £16 to the school a month for snacks so my budget is acually £200 for the month

if i were i'd try and aim for a monthly budget even if you don't shop weekly £160 sounds alot better than £40 a week, and maybe do a mock shop online to see what that can acually get you


we all set our own budgets no-one can say whats more important to people, we never had alot of money for food, now we do i don't see the point on overspending just because i can but this alos means i can be lax with my budget and overspend if i want to

quintwins

i don't have an asda yet we will by this time next year i think i pay about 50p for my tom puree anyway i was just going off the top of my head, it's always better to over estimate than under estimate, i only buy this for the kids lunch they love pasta so a handful of value pasta value frozen peas and sweetcorn and a squirt of this makes a nice cheap quick easy lunch for normal pasta/pizza i make my own sauce (not that i've made pizza since discovering value ones just add some cheese ham and sweetcorn and it's yummy and massive we always have some leftover)

Cherryjack

great list quintins..:-) i will print off also:-) and your eating better than me , who has previously had no held in budget lol... so it just goes to show

quintwins

Cherryjack wrote: »

great list quintins..:-) i will print off also:-) and your eating better than me , who has previously had no held in budget lol... so it just goes to show

tbh it's only cause i had kids, before i had them i had £20 a week for food and elec and lived in iceland, once i had them to feed twins on very little more i had to get inventive :rotfl:

on that note if you have an iceland they do chicken breast nuggets 40 for £2 these acually really nice i'd personally never buy value ones only problem is we don't eat them very often (our quickie cheapo fri/sat night dinner is pizza and garlic bread) so they take up precious freezer room :rotfl:there big bag of fishfingers are cheaper than value aswell, and they always have cheap cheese, i go about twice a year for bits and bobs