£7.00 per week - menu ideas

chirpychick

I have just spent the afternoon reading this thread from beginning to end and I have to thank everyone so much. I have been getting into such a pickle, thinking we can't survive on our food budget (£30 a week for 2 - me pregnant and hubby who is very active). We used to survive on much less but have found food has really gone up hugely in price this year, I have been scared about how we will feed ourselves and a baby in the long run but this thread has given me some great ideas/recipes but more over it has given me hope and encouraged me to keep on trying!
I can't thank you all enough.

quintwins

chirpychick thats fab that this thread has given you motivations, if you pregnant i recommend lots of bananas and green veg, but value caggabe and brocolli is completely fine and can be made into love dinners as is frozen

Boodle

PhGage wrote: »

10p here and there really does have a disproportionate impact when it's such a tiny budget.

It is easier to do the challenge if you are prepared to accept the lack of fruit and vegetables.

Shopping List £6.70 9 August

Asda
Smartprice medium white sliced loaf £0.47 x2 £0.94
Smartprice full fat cream cheese 250g £0.62
Smartprice mixed weight eggs 6 £0.85
Smartprice frozen sausages (20) £1.00
Smartprice baked beans in tomato sauce £0.26 x7 £1.82
Smartprice cornflakes 750g £0.46

Sub-total £5.69

Sainsbury's
Basics skimmed milk powder 400g £1.01

Total £6.70

Breakfasts are the cornflakes and reconstituted milk
Lunches are cream cheese sandwiches (make the cream cheese go further by stretching with a little of the milk)
Dinners are sausage, beans and eggs on alternate days with bread.

Or trade the 2nd loaf and buy the larger, better value pack of eggs (Smartprice mixed weight 15 for £1.25) and have hard/boiled eggs for lunch on 2 days with Sainsbury's Basics white pitta bread (6 for 20p) for a total of £6.83

It will be interesting to track how the price of everyone's £7 shopping lists change over the next few months.

If you go with the first option at 6.70, you could get around 6 carrots for the final 30p according to this?? Eaten in sticks as snacks across the week, it isn't your 5-a-day but at least it's a healthy use of the final 30p. Or if you could collect 4p off the floor, a 540g tin of smartprice grapefruit could give a small portion a morning at breakie for 34p (apparently 8 segments is a 5-a-day "portion", so again not nearly meeting quota but at least more useful than none iykwim?) another option is a tin of tomato puree at 25p. A "heaped tbsp" is a portion, but not sure how much that would mean. A tbsp is 15ml so 20?? In which case you would get about 7 portions out of the tin - maybe stir it into the cream cheese for your sarnies? (you would have enough pennies left for one carrot after the tomato puree too, getting you about 7 f+V portions for two people for one week :O - better than none though, like I say.) Perhaps you could switch the cream cheese for a tin each of kidney beans (27p) and mushy peas (18p) to blitz/mash to a sarnie spread with the tomato puree to get both protein and the vitamin boost as there will be calcium in the milk? Just thoughts. Great work PhGage

ETA: haven't got time right now to see how could fit it in, but worth noting a pack of smartprice citrus is only 42p.

chirpychick

Quintwins Bananas are something I have been eating a lot of and when lucky enough can get bags of YS ones for 10p! It's just a shame my hubby is allergic to them (as well as eggs, nuts, grapes, kiwi and a few other things) as I do worry that he doesn't get enough f&v.
I really appreciate all the time and effort people have gone to to post their recipes.

quintwins

My hubbys also allergic to bananas, grapes, strawberries, and oranges, he loves them but they make his mouth and throat itchy, he doesn't eat alot of fruit or veg either, other than teh veg i put on his dinner plate, but he always has the option as we always have plenty in.

Bananas are suppose to stop leg and foot cramps aswell, something i was plagued with in both my pregnancys, nothing worse than being woke up with a cramp lol.

Boodle

As far as I know, its the potassium boost from bananas that helps ease cramps. Potatoes cooked in skins (baked/microed in jacket or steamed preferably) are also good potassium source and cheaper. Asda Smart Price Potatoes at 99p per 2.5 kilos according to MySupermarket (can't find them on Asda site, even though I bought some last weekend but can't find my recepit to check ) The Asda Smart Price small potatoes in a 1kg bag are 69p pk, whereas bananas are 68p per kilo so you are better off getting the bananas if you can't find the better value 2.5kg bag.

Butterfly_Brain

Aldi super 6 this week celery, savoy cabbage and a 3 pack of garlic 39p
vine tomatoes, blueberries and honeydew melon 69p
1kg bananas are 68p a cucumber is 49p
Their cream cheese and the garlic and herb cream cheese is down to 49p for a tub and 1kg spaghetti is 48p vinegar is 17p (Asda is now 23p)

quintwins

i really wish i had an aldi!!!!

vickiem30

Hi

I'm going to give it a go, trying to make it as healthy as possible, but I'm not sure about portion sizes and number of slices in a loaf etc, so I'm sure they'll be tons of room for improvement! I've already have to sacrifice mushrooms on the alter of cost cutting.

I've got my costs from Tesco and haven't included offers.
One onion 21p
3 carrots 40 p
split peas 500gms 49p
everyday pasta sauce 34p
value spaghetti 24p x 2 so 48p
2 tins value tomatoes 62p
2 tins baked beans 52p
value wholemeal bread 45p
2 pints skimmed milk
2 tinned sardines 82p
stork (hope you can cook with stork, or it won't work!) 69p
everyday stock cubes 10p
kilo mixed veg 75p

Breakfasts
cornflakes with milk

Dinners/ soups with wholemeal bread

lentil soup made with half and onion, 2 carrots, stock cube, half of split peas packet, tin of tomatoes, some of the frozen veg. stock used to brown off onion and carrot (hopefully)

Veg soup, half onion onion, one carrot, stock cube, most of remaining of frozen veg, tin of baked beans (not an ideal addition, I agree, but extra protein!)

Teas
value spaghetti with pasta sauce and sardines
Value spaghetti with split pea bolognese, (split peas, stock cube, last bit of mixed veg, breadcrumbs from w/m bread, tin of tomatoes).
beans on toast

Looking at it I'm not sure if two could get by on it, or if there's only enough for one. I suspect it's just enough for one. I'd love to hear any suggestions. I did think about using the oil from the sardines instead of having stork, but it would give everything that delightful fishy taste, that you might not want in soup!

quintwins

vickiem30 wrote: »

Hi

I'm going to give it a go, trying to make it as healthy as possible, but I'm not sure about portion sizes and number of slices in a loaf etc, so I'm sure they'll be tons of room for improvement! I've already have to sacrifice mushrooms on the alter of cost cutting.

I've got my costs from Tesco and haven't included offers.
One onion 21p
3 carrots 40 p
split peas 500gms 49p
everyday pasta sauce 34p
value spaghetti 24p x 2 so 48p
2 tins value tomatoes 62p
2 tins baked beans 52p
value wholemeal bread 45p
2 pints skimmed milk
2 tinned sardines 82p
stork (hope you can cook with stork, or it won't work!) 69p
everyday stock cubes 10p
kilo mixed veg 75p

Breakfasts
cornflakes with milk

Dinners/ soups with wholemeal bread

lentil soup made with half and onion, 2 carrots, stock cube, half of split peas packet, tin of tomatoes, some of the frozen veg. stock used to brown off onion and carrot (hopefully)

Veg soup, half onion onion, one carrot, stock cube, most of remaining of frozen veg, tin of baked beans (not an ideal addition, I agree, but extra protein!)

Teas
value spaghetti with pasta sauce and sardines
Value spaghetti with split pea bolognese, (split peas, stock cube, last bit of mixed veg, breadcrumbs from w/m bread, tin of tomatoes).
beans on toast

Looking at it I'm not sure if two could get by on it, or if there's only enough for one. I suspect it's just enough for one. I'd love to hear any suggestions. I did think about using the oil from the sardines instead of having stork, but it would give everything that delightful fishy taste, that you might not want in soup!

Thats acually really good if you like fish which i do.Did u miss a few bits off your list tho? assuming your milk is £1 i added it all up and only got £5.88 and you havent included cornflakes .

Theres 20-22 slices of bread in a loaf.