Feed a family of four for £20 a week challenge

quintwins

Wow soworried thats brilliant, i might do a monthly plan, i had wee look earlier but struggled for a week, yet i can feed my family of 5 on £100 a month so it should be doable.

I'm another one who doesn't eat 5 portions of fruit and veg and neither does hubby, threw choice theres always stuff here, my kids on the otherhand eat ALOT, however it is easy enough, a glass of orange juice with breakfast, some rasins and banana as a midmorning snack, salad or fruit with lunch, carrot/cucmber stocks in the afternoon, and some kind of veg with dinner.I really should try harder myself.

threemuttleys

HariboJunkie wrote: »

The board guides are just doing their voluntary job as asked by the forum team and MSE Martin. I think the angry smilie is a bit unfair particularly in light of the fact that Pink-winged went to the trouble of searching for all those other threads.:(

As to the Op. This will be a really hard challenge. The others struggled to feed a family of four for £100 per month and that was before price hikes. Is this intended as an emergency only plan?

sorry, didnt mean it like that...used wrong smiley...just meant how frustrating it is trying to find the information

apologies admin x

maman

Thank you so much those of you contributing ideas. I think these threads are a brilliant idea whether you have to stick exactly to the budget by the penny or not.

For anyone with a little bit of slack or storecupoard/freezer food to fall back on: someone said that these sort of meals can get repetitive. if you can, try to freeze at least a meal a week to ring the changes. So for the poster who had bolognee/chilli/savoury mince 3 days running. If you could freeze that and bring it out another week it would help stop the repetitiveness.

I saw sausage and mash on another menu: I find if you cut up the sausages into meatball size chunks they go further. So make a toad in the hole and you'll use less sausages and enjoy the yorkshire. Sausage casserole is good, padded out with onions, baked beans and eaten with pasta.

I know I'm introducing some extra ingredients (like flour) but just demonstrating that for very little extra expense you can ring the changes.

missmucksmum

maybe I should of spaced them out we eat mince about twice a week and would never eat a mince dish 2 days running I do batch cook now and have lots of stuff in the freezer i was just trying to show how to make mince stretch x

lollyfin

Wow you guys are amazing I am going to print off the shopping lists and meal plans you have worked out as I am really trying to cut back on my spending. I have joined Septembers challenge with a budget of £300 and was quite worried about how I was going to make it but now I am feeling quite extravagant ... DS just walked into the kitchen, half an hour after dinner, complaining hes hungry...this is what I am up against:rotfl:
Oh and I would love to thank you all but everytime I try it takes me to a page saying i am not authorised to do whatever!

Soworried

missmucksmum wrote: »

maybe I should of spaced them out we eat mince about twice a week and would never eat a mince dish 2 days running I do batch cook now and have lots of stuff in the freezer i was just trying to show how to make mince stretch x

There is no need to. If you only have £20 then that is going to happen.
Just like my chicken repeats. :rotfl:
Your menu was great and will be a big help. :j

missmucksmum

Thankyou so worried I did it to suit my family and hopefully alot of other familes you could do a lot more adventurous recipes but knowing my family they would expect meat in nearly every meal. i love these threads and I am really new to MSE but I am totally hooked, I do tend to cook the same meals each week and have found loads of recipes on here I am going to try out, going into town saturday so going the 99p shop to get a few bits, some storage tubs and they also do huge bottles of heinz worcestershire sauce and soysauce which I add to everything

FrugalFranny

Excellent thread! And don't be afraid of a little 'puppy fat' on the kids, healthy fats/oils have been linked with higher IQ's in adults that ate them (in moderation of course) as children/teens. Something about the way the fat layer covering the brain develops during early and ongoing puberty helps boost brain development. Just being active with it is the key
As for five a day, it's not to hard if you don't mind frozen, fresh is always nice but frozen does the job (gravy covered a lot of sins in my early cooking 'experiments' with frozen foods). Foraged is lovely when it can be found in a 'clean' area (graveyards are fantastic for that, low pollution usually away from busy roads). Never managed to get mine to be keen on fruit as it is, but they would tuck into apple, pear and/or blackcurrent pie/crumble which warded off scurvy.

Butterfly_Brain

missmucksmum wrote: »

Thankyou so worried I did it to suit my family and hopefully alot of other familes you could do a lot more adventurous recipes but knowing my family they would expect meat in nearly every meal. i love these threads and I am really new to MSE but I am totally hooked, I do tend to cook the same meals each week and have found loads of recipes on here I am going to try out, going into town saturday so going the 99p shop to get a few bits, some storage tubs and they also do huge bottles of heinz worcestershire sauce and soysauce which I add to everything

Make sure that you pick up some Bisto in the 99p shop it is £2 a pack in Asda and Tesco £2.34 in Sainsbury :eek:

Butterfly_Brain

HOISIN EGG NOODLES

Egg Noodles (as much as you want) 58p Aldi
hoi-sin and garlic sauce 55p Tesco
1 green pepper cut into chunks (super six 3 for 69p = 23p
1/2 onion saut!ed 10p
2 chicken leg quarters that have been cooked and diced or shredded 99p

Total for 4 people £2.45 = 61p per portion

In a small pan add the hoi sin sauce, pepper and chicken, making sure that the chicken is well covered in the sauce. Cook your onions in butter to the colour of your liking, then add them to the sauce with the peppers and mix it until they are covered.
Cook and drain the noodles (this only takes a few minutes) and put on a plate or in a bowl then pour the sauce on top !