Feed a family of four for £20 a week challenge

Butterfly_Brain

Feral Moon, instead of critiscising everyone who has taken the time and effort to post menus, I suggest you do your own and show us how to do it your way and you can show us how you would cope if that is all you have in your purse.
I started this thread four years ago and prices have risen quite considerably since then and we agreed last year that £25 would be more realistic. Many people can't even afford that so nutrition goes out of the window in favour of filling tummies.

ariarnia

I want to try and have a go - if I may?

To confirm the 'rules':

- Max spend of £25 for food (and drink?) for a family of four (assuming 2 adults and two children) for a week

- Must purchase everything at full price (excluding seasonings and spices where only a pinch is used?)

- No one time only discounts (yellow stickers) but regularly occurring things like taking advantage of the super 6 seem okay?

If that's about right, I'll have a go when I'm doing my food plan tomorrow.

:beer:

Feral_Moon

Butterfly_Brain wrote: »

Feral Moon, instead of critiscising everyone who has taken the time and effort to post menus, I suggest you do your own and show us how to do it your way and you can show us how you would cope if that is all you have in your purse.
I started this thread four years ago and prices have risen quite considerably since then and we agreed last year that £25 would be more realistic. Many people can't even afford that so nutrition goes out of the window in favour of filling tummies.

I'm not criticising anyone, I'm just showing that there is a different way that is more nutritious and filling whilst still being extremely cheap. I'm sure my example of feeding four very active adults for less than £6 a day can't be dismissed.

People are often mistaken into thinking cheap rice, pasta, bread etc is filling but these food types are rapidly metabolised and usually leave people feeling hungry again before their next meal, hence why people snack between meals.

If you're on a restricted budget you can't afford to snack therefore you need to eat nutritious, filling meals. I often only eat twice a day because of the foods I choose to eat. I restrict carbs and sugar and eat mainly protein and healthy fats. As a result I need less food.


ETA: as it was I ended up with three extra guests for dinner so I raided the store cupboard and ended up adding another tin of tomatoes, a tin of black eyed beans, extra mushrooms, some chargrilled peppers and sundried tomatoes and extra seasoning. I also ended up using the whole pack of linguine. So you can probably add another £1.50 to the meal but it still comes in at less than £1 a person.

ariarnia

Hmm.... How's this BB?

Tesco Everyday Value Skimmed Longlife Milk 1L - £0.49
Tesco Everyday Value Oats 1Kg - £0.75
Tesco Everyday Value Orange Marmalade 454G - £0.27
Granulated Sugar 1Kg - £0.59
Tesco Value Double Concentrate Apple And Blackcurrant Squash 750Ml - £0.42
Tesco Everyday Value Teabags 40S 100G - £0.25
Tesco Everyday Value Ginger Nuts 300G - £0.25

Allinson Dried Active Baking Yeast 125G - £0.65
Tesco Everyday Value Plain Flour 1.5Kg - £0.45
Tesco Table Salt 750G - £0.29

4 x Tesco Everyday Value Baked Beans In Tomato Sauce 420G - £0.96
Tesco Everyday Value Eggs Minimum Weight Box Of 15 - £1.25

2 x Redmere Farms Brown Onion 1Kg- £1.18
2 x Redmere Farms Carrots 1Kg - £0.45
Tesco Broccoli 335G - £0.39
4 x Gourmet Kitchen Chopped Tomatoes 400G - £1.00

Redmere Farms Welsh White Potato 2.5Kg - £1.29
Tesco Everyday Value Long Grain Rice 1Kg - £0.45
Tesco Wholefoods Green Split Peas 500G - £0.70
Tesco Wholefoods Red Split Lentils 1Kg - £1.80
Tesco Wholefoods Kidney Beans 500G - £1.15

Woodside Farms Smoked Gammon Joint 750G - £2.79
Tesco Wholefood Soya Mince 375G - £1.90

Tesco Welsh Butter Salted 250G - £0.85
Tesco Garlic Each - £0.30
East End Turmeric Powder 100G - £0.99
Tesco Everyday Value Vegetable Stock Cubes 100G 10 Pack - £0.30
Tesco 10 Value Beef Stock Cubes 100G - £0.30
Tesco Dried Coriander Leaf 16G - £0.70
Tesco Whole Cumin Seeds 37G - £0.85

£24.46 - And obviously a few items to ditch and a few that would hang over to next week.

Appreciate a heads up if I've over used anything?

Catering for my family - but assuming the babies are a little older (maybe 4/6)

Breakfast - egg on toast or porridge and milk or pancakes and jam

Lunches - Leftover from dinner the day before

Dinners -

Tarka Dal - Lentils, Onion, Cumin, Turmeric, Garlic - serve with rice

Chilli - Onion, Kidney beans, Coriander, Cumin, Soya mince, Lentils, 2 tins tomatoes, beef stock, - serve with rice

Shepherd-less Pie - Onion, Soya mince, Lentils, Grated Carrot, beef stock, 2 tins Tomatoes, 2 x Baked beans, potatoes

Roast Gammon - 100g gammon each, Carrots, Broccoli, potatoes, egg

Pea and ham soup - onion, green split peas, 350g gammon trim, grated carrot, veg stock - serve with bread

Carrot and coriander soup (or carrot, kidney bean and cumin) - Onion, carrot, potato, coriander, veg stock - serve with bread

Carrot cumin and kidney bean burgers - grated carrot, mashed kidney beans, lentils, onion, cumin, egg - serve with rice.

ariarnia

Feral_Moon wrote: »

I'm not criticising anyone, I'm just showing that there is a different way that is more nutritious and filling whilst still being extremely cheap. I'm sure my example of feeding four very active adults for less than £6 a day can't be dismissed.

I'm getting a little concerned at how angry you seem to be at the people on here. Do you not get the idea of a challenge?

There are a lot of (very experienced at feeding families on tight budget) people on here who really understand how to feed a family nutritionally on a tight budget. Honest.

But (assuming you've skipped the early posts on this thread) they've set themselves the challenge of coming up with an emergency budget (intentionally short term) for a family in dire straits.

This mean's you can't go over budget (Shirley doesn't have the extra money in her purse) use reduced items (because you can't guarantee they're their and so can't add them to a planner) and you have to plan for the week - because part of the challenge is using stuff up across the week to prevent wastage and giving a decent amount of variety.

Does that help?

If you can do that and keep to your preference for protein over carb - please go ahead and cost one out. We'd all really love to see it (honestly) because this is supposed to be about sharing suggestions and hints and tips in a positive and constructive way.

Butterfly_Brain

Very good Ariarnia and healthy as well :T

ariarnia

Butterfly_Brain wrote: »

Very good Ariarnia and healthy as well :T

I think £25 is just too easy - I was just chucking things in there towards the end...

I couldn't get it below £22 - but for that extra £3 I could have added some chicken or another Gammon joint - then I might have been able to make my own stock.

Or, obviously some fruit.

Going without tea is probably a hard limit for me

It'd do for a week.

Butterfly_Brain

Got a real bargain on the market this afternoon, just as our favourite Fruit and veg stall was closing, we got a box of Satsumas for £1. 1lb grapes for £1, a big cabbage for 40p, 1lb Brussel sprouts for 50p and 10 large Mushrooms for 50p total spend £3.40 all of it is better quality than Aldi .He does this every Saturday because it would go to waste by Monday when he goes to get the fresh stuff, and it helps if you are friendly towards the stall holders, it pays dividends

Feral_Moon

ariarnia wrote: »

I'm getting a little concerned at how angry you seem to be at the people on here. Do you not get the idea of a challenge?

There are a lot of (very experienced at feeding families on tight budget) people on here who really understand how to feed a family nutritionally on a tight budget. Honest.

But (assuming you've skipped the early posts on this thread) they've set themselves the challenge of coming up with an emergency budget (intentionally short term) for a family in dire straits.

This mean's you can't go over budget (Shirley doesn't have the extra money in her purse) use reduced items (because you can't guarantee they're their and so can't add them to a planner) and you have to plan for the week - because part of the challenge is using stuff up across the week to prevent wastage and giving a decent amount of variety.

Does that help?

If you can do that and keep to your preference for protein over carb - please go ahead and cost one out. We'd all really love to see it (honestly) because this is supposed to be about sharing suggestions and hints and tips in a positive and constructive way.

I'm not angry at all. Not sure where you get that idea. I just want to show people it's possible to eat a healthy, nutritious diet on a budget.

This thread is titled "feed four on £20 a week" but it's four years old. That equates to £5 per person per week. Impossible long term, assuming you don't want to become malnourished.

But I've just shown you how to feed a family of four on £40 a week, which is just £10 per person. Even those on JSA can afford that. A single fast food meal costs just as much.

I'm not sure why I'm getting slated here. There are people who spend more than that just on a single person household.

Butterfly_Brain

ariarnia, if it was too easy, instead of "chucking stuff in the basket" that £3 could have bought a big bag of lentils, Rice pasta, other staple. Alternatively you could have put it in your purse and saved for some meat or something else like fruit and veggies from the market.
I have eaten 4 satusmas already, they are lovely and sweet but I do love them I counted how many we got in the box and there were 30 which comes to 3.3p each :j We already got some apples and pears in the super six this week, so plenty of fruit and veggies to go around, plus I still have potatoes runner beans, salad leaves, tomatoes, cucumber, butternut squash, blueberries,strawberries, pears and four different apple trees including a Bramley plus two different sorts of quinces and blueberries
not to mention some winter crops like kale, parsnips, and swede plus lots of different herbs in the garden.
Going to plant some winter veg tomorrow so that we have staple veggies for the winter.
My freezer is full of Home grown and foraged stuff lots of blackberries this year I have made a couple of bottlesof Blackberry syrup which is great for colds and the rest are frozen to make crumbles etc.
You can even make tea from blackberry leaves, they did it in the war.

When picking blackberry leaves for drying select the youngest green leaves then split the leaves themselves from the spiny mid-rib and chop roughly. Arrange on a paper towel or some kitchen towel and place in direct sunlight for an afternoon to dry. Alternatively arrange on baking trays and place in an airing cupboard for up to five days. Once dry, place the leaves in a jar, seal and store.
To make the tea, place a teaspoonful of dried leaves per person in a warmed teapot, pour over the boiling water then set aside to infuse for five minutes. Pour through a strainer into a teacup and sweeten to taste.

Be careful because it is full of tannins so it may give you a gippy tum.

I still buy coffee even on a tight budget usually Lyons when money is tight. 200g is £1.72 in Poundstretchers and lasts two weeks, if it is tea you crave get some Typhoo from poundland or poundstretchers 80 bags £1.