£7.00 per week - menu ideas

Soworried

~Chameleon~ wrote: »

I agree £7 isn't very generous but porridge (very cheap) would be a far healthier alternative to cornflakes and eggs are not expensive but a great source of protein. Bananas are also cheap and packed full of nutrients. You can still eat healthy food for very little money

Great, I will look forward to your £7 shopping list. :j

quintwins

~Chameleon~ wrote: »

I agree £7 isn't very generous but porridge (very cheap) would be a far healthier alternative to cornflakes and eggs are not expensive but a great source of protein. Bananas are also cheap and packed full of nutrients. You can still eat healthy food for very little money

your completely right however porridge is 75p a bag rather than 33p for cornflakes, and the smallest box of value eggs is 85p for 6 (making them 14p each rather than the 8p each you can get for the bigger box) which eats into a budget or £7 very quickly, if you really had only £7 to live off the main aim would be to get to the next week with a little bit off food left and a little bit of money, i did say in my first post about bananas (i think it was awhile ago).

Really you'd be better with £28 for the month as then porridge and cheaper eggs are easier obtained.

Fruball

quintwins wrote: »

i make mine in the slowcooker mines never stringy but i use a starter yogurt rather than a packet and i found when i used a cheaper one it was abit watery, also adding a few table spoons of milk powder helps thicken it up (i just use the value stuff). i use the 50p pots of yeo valley if your gonna try again.

I can't wait to try this! Thanks for posting :beer:

~Chameleon~ wrote: »

I agree £7 isn't very generous but porridge (very cheap) would be a far healthier alternative to cornflakes and eggs are not expensive but a great source of protein. Bananas are also cheap and packed full of nutrients. You can still eat healthy food for very little money

Soworried wrote: »

Great, I will look forward to your £7 shopping list. :j

^^^^^^^^^^^ What Soworried said

Soworried

~Chameleon~ wrote: »

I wish I had the time you guys have to construct one but I could certainly suggest some cheap alternatives, e.g. the list above advocates using a whole bag of sugar within 2 weeks :eek: ... I don't use that much in a year!!!

How about tinned mackerel/sardines? What's the cheapest you can buy those for? Also lentils, dried pulses etc make great soups/stews with some cheap value veggies & spices. Couscous/quinoa are a cheaper/healthier alternative to pasta.

I've already mentioned porridge, bananas & eggs. Use romaine lettuce (packed full of nutrients) instead of iceberg or bagged leaves, lasts up to a week in the fridge. Buy a whole chicken and make it stretch 3-4 meals using the stock from carcase to make soup/stew. Buy strong flavoured cheese, a little goes a long way then. Cheese omelette/frittata very cheap & healthy.

Cheap meals don't have to consist of unhealthy stodge

It took me 10 minutes, by your posting history you can spare that.
Or did you just wish to critise the help someone else had taken their free time to post?
Which items or meals from the shopping list would you swap for these items? More detail is needed or you just sound like someone who wants to pull apart a helpful post for attention.

debbym

Soworried wrote: »

Great, I will look forward to your £7 shopping list. :j

Me too! I'm perfectly willing to accept any fully costed amendments - always happy to be proved wrong:D

BTW for those who are interested I carried on to a second week here's the menu plan - costings etc are on a post this
Day 1
3 cups of tea throughout the day – otherwise tap water
breakfast -Cornflakes with milk and sugar
lunch -garlic sausage sarnies
dinner -pasta with tomato and garlic
Day 2
3 cups of tea throughout the day – otherwise tap water
breakfast- Cornflakes with milk and sugar
lunch-garlic sausage sarnies
dinner -pea and garlic sausage soup with roll
Day 3
3 cups of tea throughout the day – otherwise tap water
breakfast-Cornflakes with milk and sugar
lunch-beans on toast
dinner -pasta with tomato and garlic sausage
Day 4
3 cups of tea throughout the day – otherwise tap water
breakfast-Cornflakes with milk and sugar
lunch -garlic sausage sarnies
dinner -bacon hash with mushy peas
Day 5
3 cups of tea throughout the day – otherwise tap water
breakfast-Cornflakes with milk and sugar
lunch-garlic sausage sarnies
dinner-pasta with tomato and garlic
Day 6
3 cups of tea throughout the day – otherwise tap water
breakfast- Cornflakes with milk and sugar
lunch -beans on toast
dinner -sausage and mash with carrots and gravy
Day 7
3 cups of tea throughout the day – otherwise tap water
breakfast-Cornflakes with milk and sugar
lunch-garlic sausage sarnies
dinner-sausage and mash with mushy peas and gravy

Hopefully if you ever found yourself in this position you couldn't need more that a couple of weeks before crisis loans and food banks kicked in.

Soworried

~Chameleon~ wrote: »

You can buy cornflakes for 33p???? :eek: I dread to think what they consist of

You're completely right in saying it would be far easier to shop for a month than trying to spend £7 each week though, don't think I'd be able to achieve that myself but I could probably eat well for £30 a month

Tesco own brand
Ingredients:

Maize, Sugar, Salt, Malted Barley Extract, Niacin, Iron, Thiamin (B1), Riboflavin (B2), Folic Acid, Vitamin D, Vitamin B12.

Kelloggs
ngredients

Maize, Sugar, Barley Malt Flavouring, Salt. Niacin, Iron, Vitamin B6, Vitamin B2 (Riboflavin), Vitamin B1 (Thiamin), Folic Acid, Vitamin D, Vitamin B12.

The stats are comparable except on the sugar, kelloggs contain almost twice the level.

Soworried

~Chameleon~ wrote: »

What on earth has my posting history got to do with anything? I already said I don't have time to put together a menu & price it up in detail like you guys have done, which is commendable, btw. I'm currently multi-tasking with other important tasks and dip in & out of MSE during my break times

So you did just wish to pick fault with someone elses post but did not want to help in the same vain. Thankyou for confirming that.

quintwins

~Chameleon~ wrote: »

I wish I had the time you guys have to construct one but I could certainly suggest some cheap alternatives, e.g. the list above advocates using a whole bag of sugar within 2 weeks :eek: ... I don't use that much in a year!!!

How about tinned mackerel/sardines? What's the cheapest you can buy those for? Also lentils, dried pulses etc make great soups/stews with some cheap value veggies & spices. Couscous/quinoa are a cheaper/healthier alternative to pasta.

I've already mentioned porridge, bananas & eggs. Use romaine lettuce (packed full of nutrients) instead of iceberg or bagged leaves, lasts up to a week in the fridge. Buy a whole chicken and make it stretch 3-4 meals using the stock from carcase to make soup/stew. Buy strong flavoured cheese, a little goes a long way then. Cheese omelette/frittata very cheap & healthy.

Cheap meals don't have to consist of unhealthy stodge

do you mean the person (sorry can't remeber who) who had to have tea? some people will feel deprived without a cuppa, personally altho i don't drink much so would i if the option wasn't there, but a bag lasts me a good 2-4montsh depending on if i've been baking.

the cheapest chicken is £2 thats 2/7 of the budget gone in one go that will barely be bog enough for 3 meals for 2

like i said cheapest eggs are 85p for 6 thats leaves you with £4.15 before you've added anything to that omlette

cheese is £2 a block/bag so now you down to £2.15

porridge is 75p assuming you make it plain with water your down to £1.40

romaine letuce on tesco is £1.50 for a twin pack so thats completely out as are lentils and pulses unless you get rid of that chicken and even then it's prob a case of only being able to get one or the other not both and would get very repetitive.

cheapest couscous is 69p leaves you with 74p

cheapest sardines are 42p (markeral is double the price)

so your left with 42p thats before you acually make any of this into a meal or buy any veg or milk.

It doesn't take long to do a meal plan really i do them all the time to help people on here, you have any idea in your head of whats cheap (mainly as it features on your table) and you add it all to a supermarket basket. it only took me a minute or 2 to check the prices of teh items you listed.

Soworried

Thankyou DebbyM, yourself, BB and quintwins have helped me more than you can realise.x

quintwins

debbym wrote: »

BTW for those who are interested I carried on to a second week here's the menu plan - costings etc are on a post this blog post

ohh who's blogs that i havent seen it before but it's gotta be an mse'r