Feed a family of four for £20 a week challenge

[Deleted User]

A suggestion if BBs portion sizes seem small for your tastes would be perhaps to start the meal with a small bowl of homemade soup or something like a Yorkshire pudding and some gravy or a dumpling and some gravy. Wartime meals were usually started with a bowl of soup and the other two ideas are old fashioned ways of starting a meal from East Anglia. If you prefer a pudding them something like rice pudding or a Yorkshire pudding with jam are very cheap and easy to make and again were both used in wartime s fillers. BB's meals are often based on wartime recipes and meals were smaller portioned in those days as rationing gave small amounts to work with.

WelshKitty85

I have spent the last few days reading this entire thread and just wanted to say thank you to every one of you who has posted recipes, meal plans and shopping lists. Our budget isn't quite as strict as £20 a week, but money is tight so any savings we can make are most welcome. I have taken lots of your suggestions on board and am looking forward to trying lots of new recipes. Thank you!

Butterfly_Brain

DS has fixed my computer :j Thankfully it wasn't the hard drive it was the printer trying to establish a network. All fixed now

judi24

Was thinking about this thread today whilst shopping in Aldi - my DD3 has gone off beef and so our normal menu of Bolognese, mince based pasta bakes, chilli etc is a bit of a challenge - but she tried a Bolognese with pork and beef mince in a restaurant and liked it (courtesy of Tesco vouchers!) and it gave me an idea!


So today I bought a pack of beef and a pack of pork mince and my plan is:


Tomorrow, cook both in the slow cooker with 2 cans chopped toms tom puree, garlic, onions, peppers and any other veg I have lurking in the bottom of the fridge (carrots and maybe some celery) - I will add some herbs and a stock cube ) - this will be the base of 2 lasagnes as I have a friend for dinner tomorrow and DD1 home on Sunday and lasagne is a family favourite - I haven't fully costed it as I am not very good at this yet!!! From this meat mix I will also get another Bolognese to put in the freezer (to have with pasta later next week) and hopefully enough to make a chilli (bulking out with kidney beans, corn, baked beans and veg ) this chilli mix should do a meal with rice and maybe enough left to make enchiladas with a few wraps and some cheese


so from the 2 packs of mince I will have 12 portions of lasagne, 3-4 portions of Bolognese, 3-4 potions of chilli and 3-4 enchiladas


I will have used:
3 cans chopped toms, half a tube of tom puree, 2 onions, 2 peppers, 4 garlic cloves, 3 pints of milk for white sauce, corn flour, cheese for lasagne top, 2 packs lasagne sheets, half a pack of dried pasta (fusilli), 1 tin baked beans, 1 tin kidney beans, some frozen sweet corn, 1 home grown chilli (only thing I have managed to grow this year due to studying!), 1/4 pack of rice, 4 wraps.


Not able to cost it as I have lost my Aldi receipt but guessing around £20 for 24 portions - not quite feeding my family on £20 - but its a start!

Butterfly_Brain

That is brilliant judi24:T

jackel

Today we are having for our main meal(mid-day)a variation of A Girl Called Jack's Sardine and pasta recipe I use more pasta and whatever veg I've got and a tin of sardines - plenty for 2 people at 39p. jac.xx

moments_of_sanity

Today we will be having sweet and sour pork with rice and peas.

Total cost of ingredients below work out at £1.94, giving an individual price of approximately £0.64p.

400g of pork chops (bought in Lidl's during the half price weekend deals offer) £1.34

50g brown sugar = 7p
50g brown sauce = 7p
50g malt vinegar = 2p
50g tomato sauce = 6p
1 tbsp soy sauce = 6p
1 tsp cornflour = 1p
Rice, 75g each = 11p
Frozen peas, 200g = 20p

Adding tinned pineapple is an option and would cost an additional 18p overall if you used half a tin of smart price pineapples. I don't enjoy pineapple so I add peas to the rice instead.

ALIBOBSY

MrsLurcherwalker wrote: »

A suggestion if BBs portion sizes seem small for your tastes would be perhaps to start the meal with a small bowl of homemade soup or something like a Yorkshire pudding and some gravy or a dumpling and some gravy. Wartime meals were usually started with a bowl of soup and the other two ideas are old fashioned ways of starting a meal from East Anglia. If you prefer a pudding them something like rice pudding or a Yorkshire pudding with jam are very cheap and easy to make and again were both used in wartime s fillers. BB's meals are often based on wartime recipes and meals were smaller portioned in those days as rationing gave small amounts to work with.

My gran was from Yorkshire and she always insisted you have the yorkshire puddings first with gravy, then the meal and always made a few extra puddings to have with sugar or jam on as a pud. Given that most people during the early part of the 20th century seemed to keep chickens and so had plenty of eggs Ypuds were pretty cheap and filling and meant you could use smaller joints of meat.

I recently read that if in western countries we only ate the actual calories we need to live, say around 2000 cals a day on ave, and stopped all the food waste (around 30% during mass production/supply and a second 30% in homes) even on current production the planet could feed 9 billion. We need to value food more, waste less, produce locally and probably eat less meat-certainly less red meat.

Ali x

Butterfly_Brain

Made the boys a pizza baguette for lunch.

Half a baguette each from a 2 pack in Aldi 39p cut in half and spread with some passata sprinkled with a few dried mixed herbs and thin slices of mozzarella ( I used half a ball) topped with 4 slices of pepperoni on each one bung in oven for 10 minutes et voila

19½p for the baguette, A couple of tablespoons of passata so approx 10p, 22p mozarella, pepperoni is 79p a pack and I used half so 39½p
Total for two large french bread pizzas 91p

You can use pasta sauce instead of passata.

judi24

My kids love French bread pizzas! Adding them to this months menu plan!!! Thanks