£7.00 per week - menu ideas

jem132

Bb would you please tell me what Page your mandarin cake is on plea I can't find it thanks x

angelatgraceland

Hi-I am a new visitor to this thread and am amazed at the fantastic ideas! £7 per week is a huge challenge but I know it is possible-especially for the people who have a few herbs and spices-or who can maybe scrounge some to pay back later! Cheapest place I have found for herbs is Lidl and they do a good quality dried garlic(not the horrid garlic salt) and oregano-under 50p!
Some of the prices quoted are rather low up by reality I find but I do appreciate that they vary greatly at different times/different offers and different parts of the country. Remember that porridge also bulks out spaghetti bolognese and chili con carne. Dried soya mince is also good stuff as is quorn but it is indeed difficult to do this one week at a time. I think the first week is living on porridge and eggs to do that! If I had to do this I would try to borrow a fiver from someone and pay them back over the next 2 weeks so that I could buy more varied ingredients in larger more economical packs! At present smartprice/value curry sauce is 23p cheapest and rice pudding is 12p in Asda. Tomato puree is also very economical at approx 39p. I would not actualy menu plan if I had to live on £7. I would shop daily(if possible)and what I ate would depend on what was really cheap. A white cheese sauce can be made cheaply using flour, milk(maybe dried), salt, mustard and just a sprinkle of cheese for the topping. The salt and the mustard provide the cheesy flavour! I cannot find a decent sized potato for about 10p which would fill me up nor can I find a decent sized onion for 10p(forgive me if I quoted the wrong prices). I am not critisizing but it is just not available at that price in my location-ever! The only way I can do that is to buy a big bagof onions(3 kilos)-Lidl and a big bag of spuds(at least 2.5kilos)-Iceland. Bread can be got cheaply in either Lidl or Morrisons-about 49p and I split the loaf into 4 lots and freeze 3 lots of it so it lasts all week and is fresh. I think these ideas would be very helpful for one or two days per week to dramaticaly drop a budget-you have come up with some fabulous ideas! I couldn't manage on 3 cups of tea a day though! I buy "good" quality teabags(yorkshire)and I reuse the teabag for the second cup! I probably habe avout 10 cups of tea/coffee per day and whether that is bad or not it is the one thing I would not want to sacrifice! Oh-Jelly and custard is cheap! 9p jellies(if you can still get them)and homemade custard.We rarely eat puddings though. I do find that the recipes on Weezls thread ore indeed excellent! We especially like the breakfast pancakes.

Butterfly_Brain

jem132 wrote: »

Bb would you please tell me what Page your mandarin cake is on plea I can't find it thanks x

It is actually peach cake but you can substitute with any tinned or fresh fruit.
Put a tin of peaches into an oven dish with a little water if the fruit is in syrup.
Make up a packet of basic 22p cake mix and pour over the fruit, then put it in the oven for between 20 and 30 minutes (see packet for cooking times) then serve with a packet of basics 7p custard.

quintwins

Sadly prices have went up so much that some of these meal plans are outdated, i do agree if i only had £7 i'd be standing in asda every day looking for yellow stickers, but if thats not an option meal planning is best to make sure you make it to the end of the week.

Can anyone still get 9p jelly? i havnet been able to get it for about 2 years i miss it the kids loved it.

If making bb's cake i'd go for peaches or pineapple if your using value just because value oranges have alto of pulp and junk in them i'm not keen at all i made a pineapple version and it was very nice

Butterfly_Brain

I agree maybe we should aim at £10 instead of £7 taking into account the huge hikes in food prices, if we get lower than £10 then that will be a bonus. Don't forget this was a budget for two people not a family, so if it is for a family of four double it to £20 five £25 six £30 etc

jem132

Thanks I got loads of recipes off hear yesterday to use up my store cubard items. So thankyou so much x

quintwins

Butterfly_Brain wrote: »

I agree maybe we should aim at £10 instead of £7 taking into account the huge hikes in food prices, if we get lower than £10 then that will be a bonus. Don't forget this was a budget for two people not a family, so if it is for a family of four double it to £20 five £25 six £30 etc

My budget is £100 a month this year for 5 of so the same, it is however much easier to do with more people and over a month, than 2 people over a week on £10, as you can bulk buy and bulk out.

Personally i wouldn't want to live off £7 a week unless i really had to, and my small budget is made doable by the amount of stuff i already have in and my great acess to reduced items.

angelatgraceland

Oh dear-£7 per week for TWO people? I was thinking it was for one! Definitely not doable for more than the "occasional emergency".
My staples in really hard times have been porrige lentils, red kidney beans,dried soya mince, stock cubes,tomato puree and anything which freefalls from fruit trees!
I fear some of us are going back to those times. Myself included due to a change in circumstances of losing my hubby and being made redundant. Things are picking up slowly but financially I do not know exactly where I will be. I will be ok I know-not in desperate circumstances but I will need to cut back where possible.

Butterfly_Brain

Having a good stock cupboard is a must these days and I have gradually built up mine over a year. It doesn't take much just a few bits extra every week, then at least when there is an unexpected bill or real tough month you can weather the storm.

angelatgraceland

Bread and butter dunked in a cup of Oxo is a cheap snack. Homemade bread makes it tastier!
£7 per week for 2 people well basically its 50p per day. There used to be a thread for that I seem to remember. I recall a conversation at work 31 years ago with a girl who said she could live on 50p per day and way back then it was deemed as very difficult! Personally I thought it very doable at the time but not now. It is possible-many things are but certainly cannot be recommended as an ongoing thing.