Feed a family of four for £20 a week challenge

ash28

Here is my plan.....it does cost a bit more than £20 - though there will be 330gms mince, 1 egg, plain flour, self raising flour, rice, jam & mayonnaise left for the next week. I've assumed there is salt/pepper/dried chilli available.

I make most of my own bread by hand.....and I've assumed home made bread - you don't need as much as it's much more filling than bought sliced bread - there is enough to make 3 large bloomers or 2 large bloomers and 20 rolls......

There is an offer on flour and baking stuff at the moment in Tesco of 3 for 2....which is why the flour didn't cost as much as normal.

Drinks are tea and orange squash - the lard is to use with the baking margarine for pastry.

Shopping from Aldi, Sainsburys and Tesco
Aldi 20 sausages frozen £1.00
Aldi 2 x 4 pints milk £2.00
Aldi Strawberry Jam £0.29
Aldi 907gm frozen peas £0.89
Aldi 1kg everday mince £2.69
Aldi 15 eggs £1.35
Aldi 1kg porridge £0.75
Aldi 250gm lard £0.39
Aldi 500gm baking marg £0.98
Aldi 500gm sunflower spread £0.59
Aldi 1kg long grain rice £0.40
Aldi tin tuna flakes £0.49
Aldi 1kg granulated sugar £0.96
Aldi 2 x tin tomatoes £0.62
Aldi tin kidney beans £0.21
Sainsburys 610gm cooking bacon £1.10
Sainsburys 500gm dried yellow split peas £0.55
Sainsburys Basics Fair Trade tea bags 80 £0.27
Sainsburys Basics double strength orange 1.5 ltr £0.80
Tesco 1.5kg carrots £0.89
Tesco 1kg onions £0.63
Tesco 2.5kg value potatoes £1.18
Tesco 1kg bananas £0.68
Tesco 1.5kg bread flour £0.00
Tesco 1.5kg plain flour £0.00
Tesco 1.5kg self raising flour £1.25
Tesco Yeast - tin handmade bread £0.65

Tesco 2 x instant custard mix £0.30
Tesco value mayonnaise £0.40
Tesco every day value sage & onion stuffing £0.15
Tesco 100gm loose cheddar £0.45


£22.91
Forgot 6 everyday value pittas @ 22p
And garlic bulb @30p

Most of the meals either come with a soup starter (used for lunch the next day) or a bit of pudding....

Porridge made with water - served with milk & sugar
Tuna & onion sandwich - h/m bread
Carrot soup served with warm h/m cheese scones
Chilli & rice (330 gms mince) + grated carrot to bulk it out a bit

Porridge made with water - served with milk & sugar
left over carrot soup served with left over h/m cheese scones
Sausage & mash + carrots, peas and onion gravy
[FONT=&quot]Easy biscuits[/FONT]

Porridge made with water - served with milk & sugar
left over chilli filled pitta
bacon and egg pie, potato wedges, peas.
Easy biscuits

Porridge made with water - served with milk and sugar
egg mayo sandwiches - 3 eggs
yellow split pea soup
sausage casserole/carrots/onion/sausages/potatoes

Porridge made with water - served with milk and sugar
left over yellow split pea soup with h/m bread
Risotto with bacon and peas - made with long grain rice.
Home made microwave Jam sponge & custard

Porridge made with water - served with milk and sugar
banana sandwiches
cottage pie served with peas (330gms mince)
Jam tarts - mad[FONT=&quot]e
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bacon, egg, tinned tomatoes (or could buy a tin of baked beans instead) and toast (brunch)
sausage and sage & onion pie serve with peas & carrots
bananas and custard

Recipes
Carrot Soup
onion, chopped
bit of marg
clove of garlic - crushed
500gms carrot - chopped
good litre of chicken stock if you have it or water
pepper
Fry chopped onion and crushed garlic in the marg until soft
add stock/water and carrots
cook until carrots are soft and then blitz in the blender....
to make it stretch a bit further add a chopped potato and extra liquid.

Easy biscuts - make about 24 smallish biscuits
50gms sugar
100gms marg
150gms flour
Cream marg and sugar, mix in flour - add a little milk if needed
Either roll and cut out or put little dollops on the baking tray....
Cook for 10 mins at 180c or gas mark 4
You can add dried fruit or chocolate chips (if you have them) or sprinkle with a little sugar...

Yellow split pea soup
1 onion - chopped
1 carrot chopped
1 clove garlic chopped
little bit marg or lard
500gms yellow split peas
1.5 litres of chicken stock or water
melt fat in pan add chopped carrot, garlic and onion and fry until soft
add split peas and stir
add stock or water and bring to the boil and simmer for an hour....add more stock or water if the soup becomes too thick. Season.
You can add a bit of the bacon if wanted....fry some with the onions, garlic and carrot.

Risotto style rice with bacon and peas
1 onion chopped
150gms bacon (from the pack) chopped
300gms of rice
1ltr hot water or veg stock if you have it
100gms frozen peas
Put some marg in the pan add the onion and cook until starting to colour, add the chopped bacon and cook until it starts to crisp
Add the rice and stock and bring to the boil
give it a good stir and simmer for 15/20 mins or until rice is tender
add the peas and season and cook for another 2 or 3 mins.

Sausage and sage and onion pie
8 sausages skinned
sage and onion stuffing mix
Short crust pastry - use half marg & half lard (very cold)
Use 400gms of flour & 100gms marg + 100gms lard + bit of water
make up packet of stuffing
remove sausage meat from skins
mix stuffing and sausage meat together
line a dish with half the pastry
and put the meat mix into the dish
cut out top for dish, seal the edges and brush with milk
oven 180c or gas mark 4 for 40/45 minutes

Jam sponge
125gms marg/spread
125gms sugar
2 eggs + a little milk if needed
125gms s/r flour
jam - 2/3 tablespoons
cream marg and sugar together
add the eggs and beat
add all of the flour and mix together (soft dropping consistency)
grease a bowl and put the jam in the bottom
add the cake mixture and cover the bowl with cling film or a plate
microwave for 6 to 8 mins
put a clean plate on top of the bowl and turn upside down

Bacon and egg pie
250gms short crust pastry
250gms bacon (from the pack) chopped
4 eggs
small onion
Fry the bacon and onion in little lard or marg - then let go cold
grease a plate and roll out the pastry and cover the plate
spread the cold bacon and onion over the base of the pie
break the eggs on the bacon and onion mix - try and space the eggs evenly
cover with the pastry top - seal and brush with milk - put a small hole in the centre of the pie
cook at 190c or gas mark 5 for 35 to 40 mins

Cheese scones -
350gms S/R flour
salt and pepper
half teaspoon mustard powder if you have it
50gms marg
100gms cheese grated
3 tbsp milk + 1 egg beaten together
mix flour and seasoning, rub in marg, mix in cheese
mix together with the egg and milk (keep a bit back for glazing) until you have a soft dough
roll out until about half an inch thick and cut out using either a scone cutter (16 scones) or roll it into a rectangle and cut it into triangles...brush with leftover egg mixture - put on a greased baking tray and bake in oven 220c or gas mark 7 for 10 to 12 mins.

gayleygoo

I've only been to Asda a handful of times, and I found it quite expensive for a lot of things. Far fewer special offers on things I actually want, and just because they think £1 is a nice round number does not mean than the £1 product is good value for money.

I stock up on tinned tomatoes when I see them cheap as I could almost live on them. The "world foods" aisle in Tesco offers 4 tins of whole/chopped tomatoes for £1 - half the price of the "value" ones! The coconut milk was 69p, and much better quality than the branded tins at £1.99.

Great thread, I'm off for a proper read!

tessie_bear

ash thankyou for posting all that...some interesting recipes that i plan to try

tessie_bear

thankyou monty thats great too

betterlife

If anyone likes pumpkins Asda are selling there's for 50p each and there massive! So would make really cheap meals, soup, casserole, pie x

[Deleted User]

Just thought I'd check out the price of the Asda Smartprice chocolate mousse 4 pack online. I have not been able to get these in the shops for the past month at least. Shocked to see they have gone up from 18p to 34p:eek:. Checked Tesco and the Tesco value choc mousse 4 pack now up to 35p from 18p. Massive increase in what I bought as a treat item.

Love the recipe ideas. Going to have a look through as struggling with food budget this month big time.

lovefullshelves

I came on here for a read as I wanted to find some ideas. I want to try the 'live below the line' challenge next year:) I sat with my notebook through my teabreak and lunchbreak, trying to work it all out. £1 a day for 5 days. If all 3 of us do it we'd have £15 for 5 days. Made me think about how lucky I am to have a food budget of over £50 a week if I need it (I don't use it if I can help it and I tend to add to my 'stores' with any spare money in case of emergencies! Life always sends emergencies)

perdu56580

Hi Im a new to this forum and have enjoyed reading all your helpful hints. I live in France so for me some of the topics dont apply, however I do send my son a 'red cross' parcel every now(thanks ASDA) so have some idea of food prices in UK. I'm quite jealous of some of the offers and the basic range you have as we have nothing like that here:mad:

However we do eat very well we have hens, our own veggie patch, fruit and nut trees and a endless supply of kindling wood for our 2 woodburners. When I have a bit more time I will post some of the local cheap meals that the locals make around here.

Got a feeling there wont be much work going on today as I've loads to catch up with:D

patchwork_cat

The concern I have with these diets long term is that they do seem to be short on 5 fruit and veg, dairy and protein. A lot of work has gone into them, but IMO they are coming up short on nutritionally balanced.


I feel that in order to do this near budget either one has to think more vegetarian, use short coded, special offers and markets or allotments or grow your own.

agreenmess

I would love to join this, currently doing my menu plan for next week and would love to have it come out around £20, will be avidly watching to see what everyone is doing.