Feed a family of four for £20 a week challenge

tina_malteser

culpepper wrote: »

Or you could use foil and put his separate portions in little foil packages but all in the one pan.

Do you think it would work the same using cleaned out food tins??

Soworried

Soworried wrote: »

Shopping list- All from Mrt unless stated.
500g of Cornflakes 31p
Creamfields milk 2l x 2 £2.00
500g dried mixed fruit 64p
Wholemeal loaf 47p
Lemon curd 22p
Chicken stock cubes 10p
5x fresh chicken portions £1.50
Mixed veg frozen 1kg 75p
Chicken noodles 11p
1kg spread £1.35
Salt 29p
Potatoes 5kg £1.78
Coleslaw 500g 39p
12pk bread rolls 35p
15pk eggs £1.25
Mayonaisse 48p
Sweetcorn tinned 33p
Custard 6p
Tinned peaches 29p
Tin tuna 49p
Tinned pineapple x2 64p
1kg of frozen sausages 20pk £1
Pasta 30p 500g
Tin of kidney beansx2 36p
6x tins of mushy peas 24p
Cooking bacon 74p
Tinned grapefruit 34p
Rice 1kg 40p
Rice pudding 12p
Plain flour 52p
Gravy granuales 20p
Tin of carrots 18p
Cheese sauce 3 for £1
Frozen broccoli 80p

That is £20 to the penny. Some items will be left for the following week as well. It is not quite 5 a day but it is not far off.

Breakfasts
4 days of the week, cornflakes 30g each with 120ml of milk and 30g of mixed fruit
2 days 2 slices of Toast with lemon curd

Lunches
1 day, Chicken noodle and vegetable soup served with a slice of bread and spread.L
Make it with 1 chicken portion boiled in chicken stock made with 2 stock cubes and 1 1/2 pints of boiling water. Add in 240g of mixed veg. Once the chicken is cooked remove it and shred in to tiny bits. Part blend the soup to make the veg smaller and to help thicken it. Add the packet of noodles and the chicken back in. Simmer for another 5 minutes.

2nd day, Jacket potato with coleslaw. 1 large potato, around 175g. Microwave for 7-8 minutes and top with 140g of coleslaw.

3rd day, Egg mayonaisse rolls. Using 1 roll each and 1 egg each with a tsp mayo and a pinch of salt and 1/8th can of sweetcorn. A tin of peaches with custard.

4th day, Tuna mayonaisse rolls using 1 tin of tuna, 4 rolls and the rest of the sweetcorn. Pinch of salt and mayo to mix. A tin of pineapple for afterwards.

5th day, Kidney bean pasta. Using 75g each of pasta mixed with mayonnaise a tin of kidney beans. Follow with a tin of pineapple.

6th day, Bacon and pea soup. Use 4 tins of mushy peas, add 1pt of stock and salt to taste. Blend then add 250g of bacon chopped in to pieces. Simmer until cooked. Serve with a roll each.

7th day, The other half of the pea and bacon soup. Then share the grapefruit tin.

Dinners
Day 1, Chicken with vegetable rice. Roast the remaining 4 chicken portions, boil 300g of rice in stock and add 240g of mixed veg.

Day 2, Sausage hash. Using 8 Sausages fried then cut in to chunks. 700g of potatoes cut in to disks. 240g of mixed veg. 1 pint of stock. Layer up in a dish and pop in the oven to slow roast. Serve with 300g of broccoli and a tin of peas.

Day 3 , Sausage, chips and peas. Using 8 sausages and the last tin of mushy peas. To cook the chips put them in a freezer bag once chopped with a spoonful of melted spread, then cook as oven chips. If the potato skin is nice, leave it on.

Day 4, Vegetable burgers with rice. Using the remaining mixed veg, blend it with salt and the two slices of wholemeal bread that is left. Gently fry in a little spread, serve with a fried egg and 300g of rice.

Day 5, Bacon omlette using the rest of the bacon pack and 6 eggs, add a splash of milk and a pinch of salt. Serve with the remaining coleslaw on a jacket potato.

Day 6, The last 200g of pasta mix with cheese sauce and 300g of broccoli. Add 1 hard boiled egg on the top to serve.

Day 7, Toad in the hole. Using the remaining 4 sausages. Make your own batter with the last 1 egg, splash of milk and some salt and flour. Melt a little spread to add the batter to. Make mashed potato using 700g of potatoes, pinch of salt and splash of milk and a knob of spread. Tin of carrots, 300g of broccoli and gravy.
Follow with rice pudding and stir in some lemon curd.

I'll try again to see if I can get it any healthier but it is not to bad I don't think.

How quick prices change

This shop would now be 24.80. A huge increase of 24%.
No wonder people are struggling: (

HappyMJ

Soworried wrote: »

How quick prices change

This shop would now be 24.80. A huge increase of 24%.
No wonder people are struggling: (

Struggling? A family of four living on benefits would get at least £258.83 a week to pay for it plus housing and council tax benefit on top or mortgage interest benefit if living in a mortgaged property. I would assume they would be struggling but if those same parents went out and worked as the government will soon expect them to then they will have to earn at least 2 times 37.5 hours at minimum wage of £6.19. They'd be bringing home at the very least £414.00 a week plus any residual benefits they would still be entitled to. They wouldn't get much more by working as they have to pay for rent/mortgage and council tax out of that but is that still struggling...I don't think so. It's just enough to get by whether they are on benefits or both working @ minimum wage.

I think it's more down to poor budgeting skills and prioritizing payments wrong. Why pay debts off when there is a lack of nutritous food on the table. A balanced diet is much more important than keeping a creditor happy. Even the courts allow fine defaulters an allowance to buy food out of their benefits and only request a token £5 a week payment from benefits and only if they feel they can pay it. Payments can be reduced to £3 a week to a court the same with any payment to any creditor which can all can be reduced to £1 a month in times of difficulty. Still leaves plenty left over for food and standard bills.

Soworried

What if their benefits were stopped?

What if they manage on more yet can not cope with a huge increase in food prices?

I don't know or care about benefits but I do care about people worrying how they will manage.

Butterfly_Brain

HappyMJ You are being very judgemental and downright spiteful. Not everyone gets the sort of sums that you think that they do on benefits.
You believe the propaganda that are as bad as the Nazi propaganda in WW2 from lies and rhetoric IDS and Fraud tell you.
A lot of people who get these benefits work and can't make a decent living because companies will not pay a decent living wage, couple with high rents, increases in council tax, fuel and food prices etc coupled with a cap on benefits, more and more people that have paid NI are being pushed into poverty by this contemptuous government. You only have to read a few threads to see how people are struggling, you may be lucky to have a job let alone one with a decent wage, so stop having a pop at the ones who are paying the price of the thieving Bankers, tax avoiding companies and off shorers.

HappyMJ

Butterfly_Brain wrote: »

HappyMJ You are being very judgemental and downright spiteful. Not everyone gets the sort of sums that you think that they do on benefits.
You believe the propaganda that are as bad as the Nazi propaganda in WW2 from lies and rhetoric IDS and Fraud tell you.
A lot of people who get these benefits work and can't make a decent living because companies will not pay a decent living wage, couple with high rents, increases in council tax, fuel and food prices etc coupled with a cap on benefits, more and more people that have paid NI are being pushed into poverty by this contemptuous government. You only have to read a few threads to see how people are struggling, you may be lucky to have a job let alone one with a decent wage, so stop having a pop at the ones who are paying the price of the thieving Bankers, tax avoiding companies and off shorers.

Aint spiteful at all I've lived off benefits for years as well as having decent well paid jobs. Minimum levels of benefits do pay enough to get by as long as no luxury items are purchased and money is managed properly. The number I quoted is what a family of four would get on JSA, child tax credits and child benefit. The very minimum of benefits. Whatever companies pay in wages it will never be enough. If they increased wages to a more reasonable £8.00 an hour then the prices of goods and services relying on UK labour will increase...by a third.... As imports will then be cheaper then UK jobs will be lost as buyers switch to cheaper imports. Sorry if you feel that way but there is more money in the budget to look after one's own health and when on the breadline then stuff all the bankers....any loans and credit cards taken out they can all go unpaid. Let them chase..My health is much more important so I'll cut down other things before cutting out a healthy balanced diet.

Butterfly_Brain

I now see what you mean, but believe me benefits are really not as good as they once were, they have been cut to the bone by the Tories, who are the puppets of the banks and globalists.
On that note I will just get back to the proper thread and sort some more menus out.

RAS

The issue round benefits is fine as long as you do not have other expenses to pay.

If you work and have children from a previous relationship? 15% -25% of your income. If you have a spare bedroom - £14 per week to find. Felt you need to visit a dying relative and go to the funeral? Car died and you have to use it to work?

Ex-partner persuaded you to take a joint account or even a joint tenancy and screwed you?

Ex -partner has decided to claim child benefit, just to screw up your finances as a while as punsihment?

Loads of reasons why people really struggle to manage for periods of time.

quintwins

There are somethings that need paid first such as council tax. tv license, car costs if you need it for work and have no acess to public transport,rent and electric in winter these can all be very expensive and soon add up.

I was on benefits for 9 months, i got £80 a fortnight and that was it, dispite being pregnant i couldn't even get milk vouchers, whatever way our landlord had registered his house i couldn't get housing benefit and i couldn't move as i hadn't been there long enough and i didn't have a deposit. My flat mate moved out (he didn't know i was preg he went off to uni) and my now husband lived at home as earned £75 a week, my rent happened to be £75 a week, so he paid all his wages towards my rent, so it is hard going, i can remeber sitting crying in my grannys house because i couldn't even buy my own babys sock which is far from a luxury, i had no heating (i had none for 3 years infact) and a fizzy old ariel and no sky so it wasn't like i was wasting money.

The only thing that put us on our feet was when our inlaws suggested we got married earlier than we had hoped and they would pay, with the gifts of money people gave us we managed to move house and get a few bits and peices (before all this when i was working 40hrs a week my hubby bought me a microwave because even when i was working i couldn't afford these things) that christmas our inlaws bought us a fill of heating oil as an xmas present, now we are well on our feet and managing just fine but i do remeber how hard it was and only eating one meal a day (which was usually boiled potatoes, brocolli and sometimes corned beef)

Just because you managed fine on benefits doesn't mean everyone can, don't judge anyone until you have walked a mile in there shoes.

quintwins

meal plan this one involves abit of shopping about but it wouldn't be much dearer to buy it all in one place.

sainburys

berry mix £1.39

asda
cooking bacon 81p
passtata 29p
flour 45p
chilli mix 32p
beans x 2 25p
smart price sausages 84p
spagetti 24p

tesco
4 litres of milk £2 (i think this depends on your area tbh but thats what it costs here
porridge 80p (5p increase )
2kg potatoes 1.25
kidney beans 18p
value gravy 20p
large onion 19p
value beef £2.34
tin sweetcorn 32p
rice 40p
sift ceese 49p
15 eggs £1.79
2 brown bread £1
value fish £2
sunflower spread 75p

Comes to £15.58 so just shy of £5 left for fruit, yogurts and a bag of mixed veg to put on teh side of meals.

with it make

breakfast
porridge with abit of berry mix, a few berries really add flavour if you add when cooking you don't need loads
pancakes, or berry pancakes.

lunch
egg sandwichs
bacon on toast
pasta with salt and pepper and some bacon



dinners
fish topped with philly served with rice (get some 19p herbs from asda if you don't have any and sprinkle of top)

breaded fish and chips.

mince and taties with half the mince

make spag bol with the other half but mix the mince they the mince so you only use around 1/3 add rest tin of sweetcorn to bulk it out

make chilli with the other half of the mince mixture sure with rice

tode in the hole with flour and eggs

sausages mash and beans.