Feed a family of four for £20 a week challenge

SuperSecretSquirrel

I've read the last years worth of posts and am in awe of what some of you OSers can achieve! The mushroom and mozzarella wellington is definitely on my to do list, thanks

I'll echo what some others have said recently about some portion sizes being on the small side for me personally, but that's no bother as it's easy enough to scale up a little (if finances allow of course, I don't mean to come across as insensitive). The ideas and spirit of things is what matters most, your recipes for four might end up being recipes for two in our house, but feeding two for £20 a week is still a huge saving over what we currently spend, so thanks to all who have contributed

At the risk of teaching granny to suck eggs I thought I'd share my simple recipe for a cheap warming veggie noodle soup... This makes two very generous "me sized" lunch servings (one for today, the other in a tub ready for reheating tomorrow). Total price 90p, or 45p per serving. I have no doubt that those of you that manage on smaller portions than I ever could can stretch this into lunch for a family of four, especially if you home bake rolls as a side All ingredients are from aldi other than the dark soy sauce - you can get a huge 500ml bottle of that at tesco for £1.40. Prices are current, it's even cheaper when peppers are on the super6 deal!

1 medium onion sliced [7p]
1 red pepper sliced [32p]
1 large carrot cut into thin strips [5p]
3 cloves garlic finely chopped [5p]
30ml sunflower oil [3p]
30ml dark soy sauce [8p]
1/4tsp chilli powder [1p]
1/4tsp black pepper [1p]
1l boiling water [0p]
vegetable stock cube [3p]
125g dry egg noodles [25p]

• In a large saucepan, stir fry onion pepper carrots and garlic in oil on high heat for about 2 minutes
• Add the soy sauce chilli powder black pepper and a splash of water and turn down heat (halfway on my hob), stir until carrots have softened a little
• Stir stock cube into remaining hot water in a jug, pour into the saucepan and bring to the boil
• Turn down heat to a simmer, add noodles, cover, stir occasionally, once noodles are soft it's ready to serve

It's pretty carb heavy, low on protein and fat, so maybe not the most balanced meal, but it's a cheap tasty lunch that easily keeps me full til dinner and also helps boost my veggie intake a little Our evening meals are protein heavy so this kind of thing is a good fit for me. I love soy sauce, onions, chilli, black pepper, etc, I could quite happily drink the strained watery juice from this soup as a savoury hot drink as some might enjoy a mug of hot bovril or oxo haha, much nicer than a cup of tea if you ask me

millionaire_in_training

That soup sounds yum SSS

Butterflybrain I am in awe again. Brilliant achievement. I think we are just used to snacking and have got in to a bad habit. I might just stop buying snack foods and then it will stop. Need to think about it.

I made a large slow cooker pot of lentil soup

2 Leeks (0p as DD bought them)
500g lentils 75p (2kg bag for £3)
6 skinny carrots chopped 30p (half a bag)
3 knorr stock 47p (asda 16 for £2.50)
Salt about 3p
£1.55 for 10 portions. Would have been £2.30 if I'd paid for leeks so 23p per portion. With a slice of bread and bit of fruit that's a lunch for about 60p.

My DS takes lunch money and DD is usually at uni and buys her own.

room512

I made the mushroom and mozzarella wellington - have made it twice now! It's delicious - I did it slightly differently though and just topped the mushrooms with the chopped up stalks, chopped onion and bacon that I fried all together for a few mins and then topped with the mozzarella and then wrapped in puff pastry. It's really nice so thank you for the recipe Butterfly Brain.

Butterfly_Brain

Glad that you liked it room512, it is one of our favourites.

Butterfly_Brain

I am determined to try to do meals for £20 buying everything from scratch.
Sadly a lot of people who are in dire straights are having to do it and some have even less

So I am going to sit down tonight and see what I can come up with.

Butterfly_Brain

Here are piccies of the gifts that I have made.
Each lantern was £1 in the Jan sales and they are filled with a battery candle (4 for £1) and a handful of sweets from a tin of heros £4. Total cost for 10 = £16.50 or £1.65 each.





The film I had from last year and the decoration is from last year's Christmas crackers

nursemaggie

As some of you may know my son who is unemployed was sent on a course by the job centre. This was a full time 9 to 5 course and he was told he did not have to attend the job centre. On the second day he had to be late as it took 40 mins to get through to DWP ( you are not allowed to phone the job centre only the DWP) to tell them he would not be able to attend the next two appointments. Two weeks after the end of the course he was sanctioned for missing one of the appointments he had while on the course.

I am retired my total income is £150 a week plus £200 a month towards the rent. They stopped my sons housing benefit as well a his JSA. I have to pay his rent, the part of my rent not covered by housing benefit, both of us council tax ( the council say I have to pay it all I cannot stop them taking it all on my direct debit) gas, electric, water rates, etc. Before anyone says I could cut the broadband I am not allowed to do this as you have to have a contract. It has two more years to run.

I have been trying some of your recipes and we have had things like omelets, beans on toast etc. My son does not like any pulses apart from baked beans. We have been having meals as suggested but we are both losing weight.

I don't think your menus and recipes contain enough calories. We don't actually have enough money left after paying bills to eat. I don't think my son has slept in the last week because he is so cold. I cannot get the house warm. I do have some small savings and we are using them to eat but I certainly cannot get my food bill anywhere near as low as £20. Until two weeks ago. I was buying a 2kg frozen chicken from Mr M every week and stretching it over 5 days then having eggs, sausage or fish for the other two days.

I think it is the removal of biscuits, fruit and chocolate from our diets which is making us lose weight. I honestly don't think it can be done to feed a family of 4 on only £20.

My son also used to eat a lot of crisps. I was managing on £40 a week until most of the savers goods were removed from Mr M. I just can't cope any more. We have had to use my savings for the last five years. It will not last much longer. This is about the 4th time my son has been sanctioned all for the same sort of reasons or none existent appointments.

My son has now stopped eating all together. We both cannot stand porridge it makes us both vomit. I also thing that sausages are very expensive these days and not a cheap alternative. We tend to have them as treats. It is much cheaper to buy chicken pieces from the market or the cheapest thing is the £3 frozen chicken. Sausages tend to be around £3 a lb.

moments_of_sanity

nursemaggie wrote: »

As some of you may know my son who is unemployed was sent on a course by the job centre. This was a full time 9 to 5 course and he was told he did not have to attend the job centre. On the second day he had to be late as it took 40 mins to get through to DWP ( you are not allowed to phone the job centre only the DWP) to tell them he would not be able to attend the next two appointments. Two weeks after the end of the course he was sanctioned for missing one of the appointments he had while on the course.

I am retired my total income is £150 a week plus £200 a month towards the rent. They stopped my sons housing benefit as well a his JSA. I have to pay his rent, the part of my rent not covered by housing benefit, both of us council tax ( the council say I have to pay it all I cannot stop them taking it all on my direct debit) gas, electric, water rates, etc. Before anyone says I could cut the broadband I am not allowed to do this as you have to have a contract. It has two more years to run.

I have been trying some of your recipes and we have had things like omelets, beans on toast etc. My son does not like any pulses apart from baked beans. We have been having meals as suggested but we are both losing weight.

I don't think your menus and recipes contain enough calories. We don't actually have enough money left after paying bills to eat. I don't think my son has slept in the last week because he is so cold. I cannot get the house warm. I do have some small savings and we are using them to eat but I certainly cannot get my food bill anywhere near as low as £20. Until two weeks ago. I was buying a 2kg frozen chicken from Mr M every week and stretching it over 5 days then having eggs, sausage or fish for the other two days.

I think it is the removal of biscuits, fruit and chocolate from our diets which is making us lose weight. I honestly don't think it can be done to feed a family of 4 on only £20.

My son also used to eat a lot of crisps. I was managing on £40 a week until most of the savers goods were removed from Mr M. I just can't cope any more. We have had to use my savings for the last five years. It will not last much longer. This is about the 4th time my son has been sanctioned all for the same sort of reasons or none existent appointments.

My son has now stopped eating all together. We both cannot stand porridge it makes us both vomit. I also thing that sausages are very expensive these days and not a cheap alternative. We tend to have them as treats. It is much cheaper to buy chicken pieces from the market or the cheapest thing is the £3 frozen chicken. Sausages tend to be around £3 a lb.

Nursemaggie, I am so sorry to hear you are having so many problems with the DWP, an organisation which is there to 'help' people seems to make the problem so much worse.

If anyone can come up with a 'do-able' meal plan it will be Butterfly Brain. This Lady is amazing and puts so much thought into recipes/prices etc, so please stick around and see what BB can do. Are you eligible for the food bank at all as that may help in the short term?

cuddlymarm

Hi Nursemaggie

I'm sorry you guys are finding it so hard to makes ends meet at the moment. I think the way to look at it is to perhaps make a list of the things you both like to eat rather than trying to use cheaper foods that neither of you like. Long term you need a decent diet but short term you can get away with just filling up ( if that makes sense) to keep you warm and stop hunger.
Basics bread and jam will fill gaps, big jacket potatoes with butter, beans etc
Make use of sauces etc that you might have in. My ( extremely large and hungry sons) will put anything on a sandwich ( salad cream is a strong favourite)
This government is pathetic in that it expects youngsters to be in education but also jumping through all the hoops expected to get benefit. Very short sighted, with the best will in the world you can't be in two places at once and sanctioning when they don't manage.
I know it's not nice ( we went bankrupt a few years back) having ask for help but do. Friends, family, the church, your GP might be able to help and support a little.
There's lots of people in your situation so try not to feel alone cos you're not

I hope this has helped a little
Cuddles

Nargleblast

nursemaggie - look at Frugal Queen' s website, a good source of frugal recipes. There is also A Girl Called Jack, who a couple of years ago was trying to make a tenner feed herself and her little boy and came up with some cheap and filling meals. Did your gas/electricity situation sort itself? You and your son should not be shivering with cold in your home at this time of year.