Feed a family of four for £20 a week challenge

quintwins

I'm one that also buys lots of good reduced food...but the reason no-one has included this is because not everyone can go shopping at the right time or often, if i really only had £20 for the week and not a single thing in like many i'd be at the supermarket in the evening grabbing anything i could for 10p even if it means we had carrot and swede mash and soup all week (i don't know what it is with my store but i always get pre-prepared carrot and parsnips)

amcg100

I understand that it is difficult to get to supermarkets at the time when the biggest reductions are made, it is often just your luck really, but it is not just reduced on sell by date food that I am talking about ( although it's a big help). Growing your own veg can save a lot. I can't produce lovely big round cabbages like you get in the supermarket - my cabbage is all weird and wonderful shapes, but if I dont want to pay the supermarket price, then I will just pick a few leaves. For those who don't have gardens you can grow beansprouts and mushrooms in a cupboard in pots, and if you have good size windows then tomatoes also grow well indoors. It take effort of course, but one year I had so many tomatoes I had to make them all into tomato soup and freeze. Herbs are a little bit of a luxury I suppose, but they can be grown indoors as well. Vegetables can be expensive this time of year ( because they are not in season locally ) so growing winter vegetables such as brussell sprouts and winter broccoli, some leeks survive well also can keep you from spending on expensive foreign imports. If you have space in the garden, a crop of late potatoes can be stored in a shed and keep you going throughout the winter. Once you have a garden reasonably well organised, I would say you can maintain it with about four or five days per year. I don't suppose my neighbours approve of my front garden being a potato field when they have all their pretty flowers, but they soon have their caps out come harvest time.

Funnily enough, I still buy vegetables from the supermarket, but mostly only when they are heavily reduced. The good thing about having your own vegetable garden is that you are never under any pressure to buy, and can therefore be selective, and if nothing suits you , just go home and pick something from the garden.

I have one last comment in response to someone who criticised my habit of purchasing reduced( out of date) food on the grounds that it could be bad for the health. - Part of enjoying a thrifty lifestyle is being able to judge the freshness of food, whether by visual inspection, smelling, feeling for firmness/ softness etc. Many foods require to be aged before they are sold, meat, cheese etc and it is a matter of taste at which point they are at their best. Take for example a parma ham - It gets hung in a shed for a year, and then some idiot puts a date on it by which it becomes unfit for human consumption. Same thing with stilton. I have cheese in my fridge which is well past it's sell by date, but it is absolutely delicious - all smelly and mouldy it is !! - There is a skill to buying food which relies mostly on common sense.

As for tonights dinner - 780g of chicken drumsticks for £1.76 - made a batter ( KFC style ) and deep fry in the fryer - finger lickin good

~Chameleon~

amcg100 wrote: »

Growing your own veg can save a lot. I can't produce lovely big round cabbages like you get in the supermarket - my cabbage is all weird and wonderful shapes, but if I dont want to pay the supermarket price, then I will just pick a few leaves.

This to me epitomises the ethos of your post! People have become accustomed to certain shapes/sizes/colours of veg & fruit so anything which deviates from that is deemed inedible! Nonsense!

You are all fooled by the food industry! Wake up and smell the coffee!!

dogmom_3

I am very grateful I don't have to budget this tightly any more , but when I did I would base my lunches and dinners around potatoes. They are more nutritious than most grains and are an almost complete food - as the Irish knew well. You can't survive long term on only potatoes - you need a little extra vitamin A ,B12, calcium, and protein (check the nutritional profiles of foods or meals on FitDay for free).

So potatoes with some low cost full fat dairy (the fat contains Vitamin A and D), beans, liver, the odd egg or cheap fish (herring, mackerel, tinned sardines), tinned tomatoes and a little fresh stuff (forage nettles in spring) form a tasty, cheap, healthy and filling base for a diet. Potatoes are very cheap if you buy a sack at a time.
Breakfast would be porridge with some on offer fruit.

~Chameleon~

dogmom wrote: »

I am very grateful I don't have to budget this tightly any more , but when I did I would base my lunches and dinners around potatoes. They are more nutritious than most grains and are an almost complete food - as the Irish knew well. You can't survive long term on only potatoes - you need a little extra vitamin A ,B12, calcium, and protein (check the nutritional profiles of foods or meals on FitDay for free).

So potatoes with some low cost full fat dairy (the fat contains Vitamin A and D), beans, liver, the odd egg or cheap fish (herring, mackerel, tinned sardines), tinned tomatoes and a little fresh stuff (forage nettles in spring) form a tasty, cheap, healthy and filling base for a diet. Potatoes are very cheap if you buy a sack at a time.
Breakfast would be porridge with some on offer fruit.

Potatoes are also unadulterated by chemical processes

chinagirl

Just thinking what dinners I cooked for my family of 5 last week:

Monday Quorn mince lasagne, with Alsi Bolognese sauce, Lasagne sauce and lasagne strips, garlic bread slices with Aldi Mint choc chip icecream after

Tuesday Bacon, eggs, chips beans again Mint choc chip icecream

Wednesday Mince casserole with mash and carrots/broccoli/cabbage Icecream wafer for after. Mince bought from local Farmer market, and frozen to defrost for meals as needed.

Thursday Sausage casserole made with Mattesons Smokey, peppers, onions, stock cube, served with mash, carrots, cabbage, broccoli Yogurts for after

Friday Slowcooker Beef stew , beef from local butcher. (DS3 has football training to don't get home until after 9pm) Chocolate after

Saturday Mozzerella pizza, chips, side salad. Mars Icecream bar for a treat Iceland 6 for £1.50.

Sunday Toad in the Hole with chipolata sausages, boiled spuds, carrots, broccoli, cabbage, gravy and cheesey white sauce. £1 Coop bakery Apple pie served with instant custard for afters.

Not particularly cheap, I must add, but tasty, filling and nutricious enough for my fussy lot to find something they like.

Breakfast is generally porridge for me and DH with honey or sugar, made with mixed milk and water. DS3 has buttered, sliced malt loaf. Other 2 x DS just grab anything out the cupboard, sometimes a banana or apple.
Lunch for me is leftover dinner from night before, or egg mayonnaise wraps or tuna/sweetcorn/mayo wraps, yogurt, cuppasoup etc, which I take in to work.
DH is s/employed and work is scarse so sorts himself out tinned soup, or cheese toasties. DS3 still at school so gets something from canteen. I would rather pay for him to eat than make his lunch which I know he won't bother eating.
DS2 and DS1 sort themselves out with their own cash if peckish.

Butterfly_Brain

Here is a nice cheap recipe :

Egg and Broccoli Mornay.
serves 2-4

1lb to 2lb of Mashed potatoes depending on size of dish
6 broccoli florets (you can use more or less according to taste and size)
2 eggs sliced (4 eggs if you are serving 4)
Cheese sauce home made or from a packet
1 large sliced tomato

Butter a baking dish and line the bottom and sides with the mashed potato, layer one sliced egg and 3 broccoli florets pour a little cheese sauce over
Top with mash then do another layer with the rest of the sliced egg, broccoli and a little cheese sauce then top with more mash and pour the remaining sauce over. bake in the oven 180c gas 4 for 15 minutes then take it out of the oven and top with sliced tomato put back in the oven for another 5 minutes.

Butterfly_Brain

I made this last night, but instead of using potato I used lasagne and added some sweetcorn with the eggs and broccoli and topped it with some grated cheese............Family verdict, even from veggie DD was Lush x

amcg100

Is it healthier to drink a bottle of vodka per day with tropicana ( because of the vitimins ) or with slimline tonic ( because of the low calories ) ?

HappyMJ

amcg100 wrote: »

Is it healthier to drink a bottle of vodka per day with tropicana ( because of the vitimins ) or with slimline tonic ( because of the low calories ) ?

LOL...definitely the juice....although with only £20 a week that's going to be one small bottle. Is it one of those 50ml bottles? http://www.justminiatures.co.uk/smirnoff-red-label-vodka-miniature-p-4542.html?cPath=2_12&zenid=lc6bqkvemt00f02j3au9s6puk3