Feed a family of four for £20 a week challenge

quintwins

joanne79 wrote: »

I generally shop at Tesco...as I get discount. We did try other shops see if we could do it cheaper elsewhere,trouble is you get used to what you know.and it did help a little,because we went elsewhere for a couple of weeks,when we went back to Tesco it started giving us vouchers £6 off a £40 shop :-) with 10% off too

I get those vouchers all the time aswell but i rarely use them as acually i don't spend £20/£30/£40 in one shop, even with 10% it could still be worth having a look to see if other shops are cheaper even if it's just lidl/aldi for fruit and veg.I'm really pushing it to make my money last this month as i have far too much food in so i set myself a budget of £40, so far i'm at £32 and £8 of that went to the school (and hubby spent £4 on vitamins cause he took a wee dieting notion:o) there are 5 of us so if i can get it under £50 i'll still be happy, it's really only for fruit/veg, milk and general top up items, i need another £4 for school so i think £40 might be pushing it abit.

joanne79

Ok my chicken is marinating in egg,milk,black pepper,lemon juice,salt and little sprinkling of chilli flakes ready to batter later :-)

joanne79

Omg yum yum yum...they tasted amazing :-) had a bit of trouble with runny batter, but bit of extra flour and it was sorted.....my daughter ate hers and her brothers and a couple of mine :-/ son wouldn't eat them, but he did like the onion rings....so all in all a massive thumbs up

gailey_2

Reading this thread with interest a we family 5 youngest is nearly 2 and 3year old hardly eats, 7year old never stops eating and hubby likes his meat.

We keep a reasonably well stocked storecupboard
grow our own and forage
go on great reduced hunt.
I cook a lot from scratch.

for us is the 11packed lunches a week.
snacks kids like
fruit-hard getting 5 a day
meat-we enevr buy value and now accept we need to eat less meat.
Im quite a good cook and cook from scratch.

Im trying to reduce our food bill by 80-100 a month currently 300
would love it to be 50quid a week

that includes household/toilitries.

Anyone tried 3 for £10 selection at marks.
wondering for example

got 1 chicken-rubber chicken
pack mince-bulk out veg/lentils
gammon joint maybe-roast and sandwiches how good value it would be.could be 7-8meals so 7day week no shortage protein then veg and extras on top.

craigywv

gailey,i would try your local butcher you will get more value for your money, i was in marks on saturday and the size of the meat portions is rubish compared to the butchers.

tessie_bear

i agree about some of the 3 for a tenner being small.....i recently got a gammon joint as part of the deal and it was barely enough for 4 for tea.....that said i have been thinking of getting the 3 chickens from waitrose for £10 and keeping one whole to roast and portioning the other 2 so from 3 chickens;
one roast chicken dinner for 4
chicken pie from same chicken
slice of chicken for a pack up
chicken breast and chips for 4
piri piri chicken legs and jackets for 4
might even take the wings off so 6 towards a meal
then stock for soup

not bad for a tenner but the family starts moaning they dont like chicken if i do it too often

bbq_lady

What good idea's from tessie bear for making so many meals with the 3 for 1Opounds chickens I'm going to give that a go and see how many I can make Got loads of lovely veg to add
to it from local market

gailey_2

Thanks guys m&s dont show much olnline so need to get to store.

I dont want to buy cheap meat.I want to know where it comes from.

For me poultry is either freedom or free range.

Im checking out new butchers and farmshop on payday.

I dont mind eating less meat just wondering apart from chicken whats good value? what makes the most meals.

My family are so fed up of sausages.

stuck in a rut.

£50 I know compared to £20 yet we cant seem to get it.
Will keep trying and tweaking.

Yes I think its repetition that,s hard thing.

I need ideally do what schools do a 4week rolling menu.
Including some veggie dishes but hubby so fussy over veg.
I would quite happily eat stir fry rest of family wont.

The waitrose chickens are they rspca welfare?

We mostly but free range ones from lidls.

Kind of off beef might order some vennison instead.

quintwins

Gailey last year my budget was £200 a month for the 5 of us and at teh end of the year i ended up with tons of extra food, i do however buy value mince, we acually prefer it to even butchers mince each to there own i guess we just like abit of fat in our mince and i bulk it out with loads of veg anyway.

I agree with the comment about butchers, tesco do 2 tiny gammon joints for £6 in my local meat wholesaler (basicially a huge butcher who sells to resurants but has a small shop for the public one site) i can get just sky of a 3kg gammon for £6, it's nice and in theory lasts longer but we all love gammon so it's gone in sandwichs, they do chicken in breadcrumbs that is the exact same as the local chippy so i box of them (granted its £12) and a bag of chips steers us away from chippy. The best buy from them is 5kg packs of chicken (which makro also sell) the butchers ones tell you where there from on the packet, i never really checked the makro ones as the butcher is cheaper, it's £18 for the box and it has 22-24 chicken breasts in it so less than £1 each but they are massive, i usually cook 2 for the 5 of us, 1 does a pie/curry/casarole my hubby jokes they much be turkey instead of chicken there so big and no added water and no shrinkage.

The best way to stick to a lower budget is to mealplan it doesn't have to be set in stone as everything can be frozen.

Some say you don't need 5 portions of fruit and veg, however i like to make sure the kids atleast get it, i usually have 2-3 types of fruit in usually bananas, apples and oranges or whatevers on the lidl deals, then i make the rest up with frozen veg, yesterday my kids had oranges in the morning, bananas while waiting for tea, peas, carrot and sweetcorn in there mince and then green beans and carrot and parsnip on the side and in general yesterday was one of our unhealthy days as we were out.

gailey_2

The reason i said m&s and waitrose same would be higher quality welfare meat than the others maybe for those who cant get to the butcher my old butcher dident do free range hence why shopped at supermarkets.

Im contemplating trying a meat box as found one that looks quite cheap

http://www.fieldandflower.co.uk/buy/field-flower-thrifty-beef-box_65.htm