Meal plan for a large family

garynkirsty

Hi everyone we are new to the board i was wondering if anyone had meals plans for a large family that are easy to do and cheap.
we are a family of 11 soon to be 12 we have 9 children ages from 17 down to 1 any ideas would be fab.
ideas for breakfasts,lunch,dinner and snacks
thanks ever so much it would be a great help as our shopping bills are mad and i'd like us all to eat a bt more healthy x

Edwardia

Hi welcome to MSE, that's quite a posse !

My first suggestion would be, that if you have a garden, that you grow your own veg, particularly the stuff that's more expensive in the supermarkets.

If you don't have your own garden, you can still grow your own salad leaves and herbs in grow bags on a balcony or in pots on windowsills. 99p Stores and Poundland do cheap seeds, as does Lidl.

Iceland is cheap for frozen veg, which is just as nutritious as fresh, if not more so, because who knows how long the 'fresh' has been in cold store - apples will last a year.

Eggs are really versatile and latest studies show that eggs aren't as bad re: cholesterol as was thought. Aldi does a tray of 15 for 1.25, Iceland for 1.75. Never seen them in my local Lidl though.

Lidl is great for cheap cheese and UHT skimmed milk is 49p per litre with a proper plastic pourer so the tetrapak doesn't spill easily.

The veg in Lidl is fresh because it is delivered daily and isn't refrigerated. I've bought celeriac which still had the leaves on.

99p Stores does 6 rolls of kitchen towels for 99p and is good for cheap branded goods such as ketchup and baked beans. Same goes for Poundland.

Processed food is generally less healthy than cooking from scratch yourself. You may find that you can buy from a butcher or farm shop more cheaply than in a supermarket, especially if you explain that you'll be doing a large regular order. It's worth asking.

Approved Foods sells date up food and short dated food and most of it is processed stuff, but you should be able to find flour and other baking stuff cheaply. Home Bargains is another place to look at.

I guess it really depends what your definition of healthy is, because a lot of posters buy yellow-stickered processed stuff from supermarkets and stash them in the freezer. Recent documentaries on BBC and Channel 4 have highlighted how bad processed food is and how many of the 5 a day claims are just ridiculous. As your budget must be pretty tight I'd suggest not buying them with loads of additives in but otherwise having a look for the healthier YS stuff.

Making it yourself is often very much cheaper but some things aren't eg I can't make a fish pie for 99p

Anyway I'm sure more people will be along in minute

best wishes !

rinabean

Define "easy to do"! The easier it is, generally, the more expensive it gets.

I like http://www.cheap-family-recipes.org.uk - it's not necessary to follow the plans if you don't want to (it would be a bit dull) but just using some of the recipes would save you a lot. And they are generally things that are easy to make in bigger batches, so they'll be easy to scale up to what you need

Sometimes the best thing to do is eat this week like normal, and write down what you're buying, how much you are paying, and what you are actually cooking/eating and what's being thrown or shoved further and further back in the freezer. You might see some fairly easy changes: you eat pasta several times a week, you could swap with potatoes at least once or twice; you eat a lot of tropical fruit, you could swap some with cheaper options; you buy too much yoghurt, always one or two go off - buy less/eat more; you end up doing a big shop whenever you only really wanted bread/milk - buy more of those in the first place, get some shelf milk, freeze some bread, whatever.

Welcome to the forums! I recommend the Old Style board here as well as this one for saving money on food

MrsBartolozzi

Another vote for posting this over on the Oldstyle board. They've lots of threads over there on feeding your family for less, and they are really friendly too.

TravellingAbuela

While you are over on Old Style, check out the long running soup recipe thread. Some excellent recipes which can be made very cheaply, especially if you can pick up some veg that the supermarkets are selling off. Also keep an eye on the fruit and veg stalls in the markets. Often, at the end of the day, they sell stuff really cheaply just to get rid of it. The other day I got some large tubs of strawberries they were clearing at 2 for £1. I stewed them with some apples and made large trays of crumble, cut into individual squares and froze - to be brought out when a quick dessert is needed.

Soworried

Hi
I would also say to make use of vouchers. At the minute there are vouchers for 40p off greens baking products. Some of there products cost less than this so are free desserts.