£7.00 per week - menu ideas

debbym

The problem with cooking with no store cupboard is that you have to buy all the bits and pieces you usually take just a spoonful of. E.g. if you make a chilli you might put down 5p for chilli powder in your costings but in reality it is much more than this when you are stood at the till in the supermarket as you have to buy the whole tub. If you have a budget of £1 per person for three meals a day, and this includes drinks too; don't see how £1 would stretch.
I will put my thinking cap on though...

quintwins

the original £1 per day thread was per person and was meant to show how hard other countries have it, you were allowed to cost it like that as alot of those people share found so say you spent 40p on a bag of rice and only used half you'd sell the other half to your neighbour for 20p.

soworried your doing fab, i'm all out of ideas for now but i'm sure i'll be back with some more once the kids are in bed and it's quiet enough to think.

PhGage

prepareathome wrote: »

[I'm] finding it hard to work out costs if I didn't have a store cupboard to start with or everything is reduced price and at full price would beyond the OP and a lot of others including me- must try this.

debbym wrote: »

The problem with cooking with no store cupboard is that you have to buy all the bits and pieces you usually take just a spoonful of.

Agreed. So much depends on what sort of timescale you're looking at. Weezl and MSE friends' Cheap Family Recipes does a 'big shop' in Week 1 of its options for its meal planners, and the next 3 shops are much smaller as they're just fresh fruit and vegetables, milk or ingredients for that week's meals. But it does mean that you need almost half of your month's budget up front in order to prepare budget meals for the remainder of the month.

Having to cook when you can only buy small quantities (like 1L of cooking oil for £1.39) rather than take advantage of better value offers for which you need money upfront (like KTC's £5 for 5L of oil which is £1 per 1L) just makes it all so much more expensive. Special offers on branded Baked Beans or Tinned Tomato can work out cheaper than Value or Own Brands but you have to be able to afford to buy the 4 or 6 pack.

When I was building up my spices/herbs store cupboard, I had to decide on two I would buy per month, after the initial salt and pepper. My first two were garlic powder (much cheaper than buying fresh and I didn't have to worry about keeping it fresh) and cinnamon (I was very fond of stewed apple). I think my next two were italian mixed herbs (for pizza, tomato sauce and soups) and panch poran (for making dhals, curries and soups). These days, I might swap garam masala for the panch poran as it's flexible enough to be a good mixed spice substitute in baking.

Whitworth's dried onions are currently 43p for a 40g pack in Asda (49p in other supermarkets). For single people, who might have difficulty using up vegetables before they go off, I think there's an argument that dried vegetables like this can sometimes offer better value for people using small amounts who can't store vegetables well (like the infamous bendy carrots). Making frugal meals for 2 or 4 is much easier than producing them for one (because of the upfront investment and being able to split the cost of items).

PennyGrabber

Cheats' sausage casserole.

Enough sausages for all of you (I sometimes use eight and have a lo meal the next day, or I use 4 and chop them up so it looks like more!) around 50p
A packet of sausage casserole mix 39p
a tin of baked beans 25p
pasta around 15p (value brand)

Brown the sausages, chop, shove in a casserole dish with the beans, mix, water, (and optional onions). Cook for an hour.
Serve with pasta.

Total cost £1.29.
Per portion, assuming 4 people, just over 32p each.

Soworried

Smoked salmon jacket potato
120g of smoked salmon trimmings 90p (Most sm)
4x jacket potatoes 39p
Cream cheese 31p (62p a pack at MrA)
salad bag 44p (MrA)
Total meal cost=£2.04 or 51p a head

Soworried

Mussel spaghetti
200g of mussel meat £1 (£2 for 400g at MrA)
300g of spaghetti 15p (MrA)
Passatta 29p
1 pepper 36p
Total meal cost=£1.80 or 45p a head.

Soworried

Bacon hash
400g of cooking bacon 60p (MrA 74p for 500g)
2 onion 16p
1 kilo potatoes cut in to thin discs 33p
gravy 13p
layer in a casserole dish and pour the gravy over.
4x buns to soak up the juices 12p
Total meal cost=£1.34 or 34p a head.

Butterfly_Brain

I am back I have been taking advantage of the weather and had a hospital appointment yesterday so not been on the forum much
Here we go the long awaited menu plan 2

I am using the current Aldi super six prices for the jacket potatoes and, lemons at 39p

So if we carry over the 5 eggs some gravy granules and rice that should be left over from last week

Breakfasts all week pancakes =2 packs batter mix and 2 eggs. Make them all up and freeze them so all you have to do is pop them in the microwave to warm through. Open freeze separately and then put some greaseproof in between them, before bagging up if you do English style or open freeze and pop into bags for American style (The batter needs to be quite thick for American pancakes, so you wont get as many)

Lunches all week Garlic sausage rolls (Or ham but add 20p to your total) with lemon cake use one of the eggs add the juice and zest of a lemon when you make the cake mix instead of adding water.

Sunday: Roast a chicken leg quarter (2 for 99p in Aldi)
then strip off the meat and divide into two portions serve with roast potatoes Use 1 or 2 baking potatoes , a tin of peas Leave some peas for Tuesday (they will be fine in a covered bowl until then) and gravy.
Dessert... peach pudding with custard (Tin peaches 29p cake mix 22p plus one egg (1 egg left now) and a custard 6p basically put the peaches in a dish with the juice/syrup make up a cake mix and pour on top of the peaches bake in the oven and serve with custard. Total cost for the pudding, which should last 2 days at least, maybe 3 is 57p for 3 days if you are good

Monday : The other chicken leg quarter prepared as before, with a stroganoff sauce 29p and half a tin of mushrooms (Asda) dessert as Sunday

Tuesday: Cheesey Rice....... rice ½ tin mushrooms, ½ tin peas and an instant cheese sauce pre cook rice 10 mins add everything else mix all together and cook in the oven at 180C for 15- 20 minutes

Wednesday: Tuna patties. Boil and mash one baking potato and mix with a tin of tuna shape into patties and fry gently on both sides (makes 4) with HM wedges (Use 2 baking potatoes to make your own, boil for 5 mins then tip on to a baking tray and bake in the oven 200C, serve with and lemon. Dessert as Sunday

Thursday: Jacket potato with a tin of beans and sausages use the last egg to make an omelette and share between you

Friday: Pizza ½ each and HM wedges or Jacket potato using 2 baking potatoes

Saturday: Chilli and Rice... Can of Chilli with ¼ of the rice that you have left.

5 Eggs ....from week 1
Rice from week1 ...you will still half a bag left
Gravy Granules from week 1

2 packets batter mix @7p =14p Asda or Tesco
1 pack 3 lemons Aldi 39p
Pack of Garlic Sausage 39p Aldi
12 rolls 35p Tesco
2 packets cake mix @ 22p = 44p Asda or Tesco
A pack of 2 chicken leg quarters 99p Aldi
3 bags x 4 baking potatoes @ 39p = £1.17
Tin Mushrooms 41p
Tin of peas 14p
Tin Tuna Chunks 54p
Tin beans and sausages 33p
Tin of Chilli 54p
1 Aldi Medium pizza 44p
1 stroganoff mix 29p Asda
Tin peaches 29p Aldi, Asda or Tesco
3 Custard mix @ 6p = 18p
Instant cheese sauce 29p

Total £7.32 It would be £6.63 if you left out the dessert , but I think for a few extra pence it is good to have a treat and you will feel better for it x

quintwins

bb have you ever made the peach pudding? it sounds nice and i have a few tins of peaches so i'm very tempted, but i think it might be abit soggy on the bottom of you leave all the juice in.

Butterfly_Brain

rosieben wrote: »

it's noticeable that OP hasn't come back so my suspicions about them have resurfaced, however, 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

She has PM'd me Rosie, she is a medical student and as such does some awful hours, but she does appreciate what we are doing for her. Her Mum has come up trumps and given her some store cupboard stuff and herbs and spices. There is a Morrisons Aldi and Lidl close by and Asda a few minutes drive away
Her Mum gave her a tin of Mackerel and a tin of sweetcorn and she has mashed them up to go in sandwiches, which I might try