£7.00 per week - menu ideas

quintwins

this looks nice (i might try it over the weekend and let you all know)

http://realfood.tesco.com/recipes/banana-yogurt-and-toasted-oat-pots.html

only 21p a portion and looks more appealing than porridge in this warm weather

Soworried

Mushy pea curry and rice
2x cans of mushy peas 8p
1 can of baked beans 26p (MrT or MrA)
Onions x2 16p
100g Mushrooms 25p
Curry 35p (make it thick due to the liquid in the peas)
Rice 24p
Prawn crackers 5p
Total cost= £1.39 or Just under 35p a head.

Soworried

quintwins wrote: »

this looks nice (i might try it over the weekend and let you all know)

http://realfood.tesco.com/recipes/banana-yogurt-and-toasted-oat-pots.html

only 21p a portion and looks more appealing than porridge in this warm weather

That sounds nice, please let me know how it tastes x

Soworried

Home made pizza and chips
75g of warm water
125 g of bread flour 5p
Pinch of salt and sugar 1p
Yeast 1.75g 2p
Oil 1p

Mozarella 22p (44p at MrT and MrS)
Tomato puree 1/6th of a tube 6p (35p a tube at MrT)
1kg of potatoes 33p
Total meal cost=70 p or just under 18p a head

Add any left over meat and coleslaw

Soworried

Sausages with home made croquettes and celeriac mash and peas.
8 x sausages 48p
1/2 kilo of potatoes mashed 18p
Bread crumbs 3p (A whizzed up or grated bread bun)
1/2 a celeriac 21p
Mushy peas x2 8p
Total meal cost=98p or just under 25p a head

PhGage

quintwins wrote: »

bacon, onion, tatie soup - stolen but i love this soup it's so filling think the costs are abit out it says it's 9p per portion but cooking bacons went up i'd say more like 15-20p per portion

http://www.cheap-family-recipes.org.uk/recipe-onionpotatosoup.html?opt=rlunch

It depends - Cheap Family Recipes cost their recipes from Asda, not Tesco - and cooking bacon in Asda is currently £0.74 for 500g.

I had a look at updated prices for the Cheap Family Recipes Option 1 meal plan prices recently: there are some interesting changes.

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4092029

So, July 25 prices the soup would be:
onions - £1.67 for 4kg
potatoes - £1.35 for 2.5 kg (probably cheaper elsewhere tho' there is a 2 for £2 offer)
stock cube, seasonings etc.
bacon £0.74 for 500g

Overall, it might be nearer 15p if you're able to take seasoning etc. from your cupboards.

quintwins

PhGage wrote: »

It depends - Cheap Family Recipes cost their recipes from Asda, not Tesco - and cooking bacon in Asda is currently £0.74 for 500g.

I had a look at updated prices for the Cheap Family Recipes Option 1 meal plan prices recently: there are some interesting changes.

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4092029

So, July 25 prices the soup would be:
onions - £1.67 for 4kg
potatoes - £1.35 for 2.5 kg (probably cheaper elsewhere tho' there is a 2 for £2 offer)
stock cube, seasonings etc.
bacon £0.74 for 500g

Overall, it might be nearer 15p if you're able to take seasoning etc. from your cupboards.

ah i figured it would be around that (and i only buy cooking bacon when i'm near a sainburys as it's cheaper there, i don't have an asda yet, roll on sep) thats still a big increase from 9p a portion, maybe not on a small scale but if your shopping wnet for £9 to £15 you'd soon notice it .

Just read yoru thread thats acually pretty interesting as week one is the big shop a less than £3 increase is pretty good, even assuming theres a £3 increase for the following weeks (i doubt it tho) £112 a month for 4 is still really good.

Still it's a very nice soup and very filling i do still full recommend it as 15p a portion is still very cheap

debbym

Boodle wrote: »

I think rather than government spies, it is possibly article writers/wannabe authors or, more likely, very bored people with lots of time on the hands who "take advantage" on forums like these.
I wouldn't worry about it. Like you said, there are plenty of people who genuinely need help so don't let it discourage you x

This was my suspicion too Boodle when the thread first appeared - especially as the OP didn't answer questions like which supermarkets they lived near. Butterfly Brain please don't feel used - this thread is read by hundreds of other people not just the OP and I'm sure your efforts are really helping some people who find themselves up against it for real. How about we all hijack the thread and turn it into something that really helps.


This will teach me to read the entire thread. OP is genuine and all this has been sorted. Sorry Chunkysmum for being such a big mouth!

PhGage

quintwins wrote: »

Just read yoru thread thats acually pretty interesting as week one is the big shop a less than £3 increase is pretty good, even assuming theres a £3 increase for the following weeks (i doubt it tho) £112 a month for 4 is still really good.

Out of curiosity, I did the other weeks for Option 1 (although that doesn't really allow for fluctuations properly).

What is interesting is that if you keep to the spirit rather than the letter of the shopping list (eg, swapping the cheese for whichever is on offer that week; taking advantage of every My Supermarket Swap and Save that doesn't involve greater outlay), then the inflation varies from a low of 5% for the big week 1 shop, to 16% for one of the additional weekly shops.

However, if you stick as closely to the list as possible (to save having to do lots of checking on the internet) then the inflation is 16% for the week 1 shop and as high as 38% for an additional weekly shop. In 2 years.

Overall, the budget holds up quite well if you make all of the sensible substitutions and overlook the issue of some packaging variations. It's gone from £100 to £108.95 (July 25 2012 prices - probably nearer £110 taking into account some things like cooking oil that had to be recalculated). If you stick to the original list however, it is approx. £122.40. This is still remarkable value for a nutritionally balanced meal planner for 4 people but represents inflation of more than 20%.

Asda might be quite an anomaly because of the relative large fall in the price of their milk. Back in July 2012 1 x Whole Fresh Milk 6 Pints (3.41L) was £2.25 but is now £1.48 - and that makes a big difference to the overall pricing. If people are buying in other supermarkets, the cost of that basket would be a lot more.

The option 2 meal planner is interesting because there's been a big increase in the cost of some of the nuts on which it heavily relies for some of the specific nutritional needs. And this meal planner option didn't have any dairy so doesn't benefit from the huge price drop in milk.

rosieben

<deleted> as debbym said, its turned into a really useful thread with some great recipes - I'll put a link to in the front page recipe index of the Grocery Challenge

eta - link added under the Useful OS threads section in post #6