Feed a family of four for £20 a week challenge

Butterfly_Brain

I used to do a similar thing but with mashed potato and stuffing then fried up and served with an egg and baked beans when we were really poor

Skint_yet_Again

ok I've been trying for days to do this and this is my final attempt !
£20 for 4 people for 7 days to include fruit/veg/protein. 7 lunches x 4 people x 2 slices bread = 56 slices bread. 1 piece fruit a day x 4 people x 7 days = 28 pieces of fruit .... phew I found it hard going. I suppose it also depends on the age of the "kids" in this "family of 4" as my DS age 17 eats like a horse !! Shopping from @ldi and asda the best I could do was £21.82 !!!
Yep I failed .... but here it is anyway

1 kg bananas 6 bananas = 68p
bag snack 8 apples = 99p
2 punnets plums 2x7 = 1.38
peanut butter 62p
2 x cornflakes (2 x 750g) 92p
2 x loaf brown bread 94p
butter/spread 98p
15 eggs 1.25
mince beef 454g 1.25
chicken breasts 3.79
12 sausages 84p
2 x 2l milk 1.96
pasta asda .30
frozen mixed veg asda 1kg .75p
rice asda .40p
curry sauce asda .23p
gravy granuals asda .20p
potatoes 2.5kg asda .99p
baked beans x 4 asda 1.04
chilli sauce asda .52p
bolognaise sauce .39p
salmon paste .32p
ham & beef paste .32p
Rice pud 12p x 2 .24p
tea bags .27p
swiss roll ,25p
21.82

Breakfasts -
Cornflakes & milk

Lunches - sandwiches (2x slice of bread each with butter) and either peanut butter, salmon paste or ham & beef paste or egg

1 piece of fruit

Dinners
1. Chilli & Rice = made with 1/2 pack beef mince, jar of chilli sauce,
mixed veg & tin beans with boiled rice
2. Sausage Pasta Bake = with 6 sausages chopped, cooked pasta, some mixed veg & tin beans and bolognaise sauce
4. Roast chicken breasts, mash, veg and gravy
3. Shepherds pie with 1/2 mince, mixed veg and gravy, topped with mash
5. chicken curry and rice
6. sausage & potato wedges, with remaining 6 sausages chopped up with 2 x tin beans
7. chicken satay, made with chicken breasts with 1/2 jar curry sauce add peanut butter , with potato wedges and egg fried rice with any remaining veg

Pudding
Rice pudding or slice of swiss roll (will not be enough for pudding every night for all of you )
　
Snacks - Toast with peanut butter if any bread spare from 2 loaves (as need 56 slices for lunches)

Soworried

That is a great menu SYA, I could eat that. :T

Skint_yet_Again

Thanks Soworried. To be honest if it was 2 adults and 2 teens I would like £25 ....greedy I know ... but then I would have £3.18 left to buy

more mixed veg 0.75p to bulk out meals,
loaf brown bread 47p
2 x tin tuna = £1.08
mayo 48p (use in pasta salad & mix with egg for sandwiches)
tinned sweetcorn 34p

I would use the half a bag of pasta remaining and 1 tin tuna to make tuna sweetcorn & mayo pasta salad which can be eaten as snack or added to lunch or swapped instead of sandwich for lunch, and the loaf bread would make more toast and more sandwiches with the other tin of tuna for lunch with some of the mayo .... my teen has hollow legs

But I understand the challenge was to feed 4 for £20, I just think it depends on the 4 that you are feeding

Butterfly_Brain

It doesn't truly matter if you go over by a few pounds, that is perfectly acceptable, especially at the rate that prices are climbing. All contributions are most welcome and it will help lots of people who are at their wits end on how to stretch their money as far as possible x

PhGage

The menus on Cheap Family Recipes were developed by Weezl and other MSErs to feed 4 people for £100 per month (July 2010).

I ran Cheap Family Recipes Option 1 Week 1 Shopping List through Asda (My Supermarket) July 25 2012 and was surprised how relatively close the prices are after 2 years given some of the substantial fluctuations in food costs since Weezl and friends costed the menus back in July 2010.

There are some changes as pack sizes no longer exist: eg, the Smartprice lemons are now 5 rather than 7 per pack. I accepted some of the My Supermarket Swap & Save substitutions where they didn't involve a greater outlay because that felt more within the spirit of the shopping list than rigid adherence. Eg, the KTC Cooking Oil is £5 for 5L whereas the original shopping list item is now £1.40 per litre of oil rather than £1 per litre of KTC. If you were willing to swap some of the spices, a Rajah offer of 3 for £1.50 would have saved £0.55 on the prices below but you'd need to review the recipes to decide on acceptable substitutions so I costed the original list.

July 2010 prices in black; 25 July 2012 prices in blue. Notes about pack size changes or cheaper substitutions in italic.

Overall price increase since July 2010 is £2.26 or from £44.25 to £46.51 (I used My Supermarket for the price comparisons: Tesco £55.50; Sainsbury's £61.94; Ocado £67.13; Waitrose £73.33. I imagine some of the equivalents are very different to account for these price differences.) This is an increase of just over 5% although there are also some differences in packages sizes.

Fresh
800g x Butternut Squash by Weight £0.80 £0.70
2 x Brown Onions (2Kg) - £1.42 £1.67 (4kg bag as currently cheaper)
1 x White Potatoes (2.5Kg) £0.78 £1.35
2 x Carrots (1Kg) £1.96 £1.56
1 x Oranges (6) £0.67 £0.49 (for 5)
1 x Lemons (7) £0.87 £0.62 (for 5)
1.6Kg x Bramley Cooking Apples by Weight (100g) £2.40 £2.40
Meat, fish & poultry
1 x Smartprice Whole Medium Chicken (Approx 1Kg) £1.98 £2.07
1 x Smartprice Smoked Cooking Bacon Pieces (500g) £1.13 £0.74
Dairy
1 x Whole Fresh Milk 6 Pints (3.41L) £2.25 £1.48
1 x Cooks Value Medium Eggs (30) £2.98 £2.50 (swapped to SP mixed weight as cheaper than value medium at £3.10)
1 x Seriously Strong Cheddar (400g) £2.00 £2.00 (swapped to Lakeland 350g as Seriously was £3 for 350g)
1 x Grana Padano (200g) £2.26 £2.50
2 x Lard (250g) £0.56 £0.78
Tins, Jars & Cooking
2 x Vegetable Oil (3L) £5.00 £5.00 (for KTC 5L not Asda 6L but cheaper cost per litre)
1 x Colman’s Mustard Powder (57g) £0.90 £1.34
1 x Rajah Chilli Powder (100g) £0.49 £0.64
1 x Rajah Garam Masala (100g) £0.62 £0.72
1 x Rajah Garlic Powder (100g) £0.62 £0.69
2 x Smartprice Peeled Plum Tomatoes in Tomato Juice (400g) £0.62 £0.62
1 x Tomato Puree (142g) £0.25 £0.25
1 x Smartprice Baked Beans in Tomato Sauce (420g) £0.29 £0.26 (for 410g)
1 x smart price malt vinegar £0.13 £0.13
Packets & Cereals
1 x Smartprice Pasta Shapes (500g) £0.32 £0.30
2 x Smartprice Self Raising Flour (1.5Kg) £0.84 £1.04
3 x Leo Dried Peas with Steeping Tablet (250g) £0.87 £1.14
1 x Long Grain Rice (1Kg) £0.73 £0.40
1 x Thomas Allinson Dried Active Yeast (125g) £0.64 £0.64
3 x Strong White Bread Flour (1.5Kg) £1.80 £1.80
2 x Silver Spoon Granulated Sugar (1Kg) £1.50 £1.64 (2kg bag cheapest)
1 x OXO Stock Cubes Chicken (6x6g) £0.95 £0.78
1 x Pumpkin Seeds (150g) £0.99 £1.12 (for 2x100g bags as cheaper than current 150g)
1 x Chick Peas (500g) £0.93 £1.00
2 x Smartprice Salted Peanuts (200g) £0.46 £0.96
1 x Ready Oats (750g) £1.32 £1.48
1 x Smartprice Porridge Oats (1Kg) £0.57 £0.75
2 x Smartprice Raisins (500g) £1.28 £1.68 (substituted sultanas as no SP raisins available)
Frozen
1 x Smartprice Peas (907g) £0.76 £1.00
Drinks
1 x Smartprice Tea Bags (80 per pack - 250g) £0.28 £0.27
TOTAL COST £44.25 £46.51

Noticeable items were the increase in the cost of Colman's Mustard Powder, white potatoes, frozen peas and the Smart Price Peanuts as well as the drop in the cost of the Smart Price cooking bacon, rice and milk.

I'll add in the other weeks for option 1 menu shopping lists later.

NB: I asked permission to post the updated price lists and I'm grateful to Weezl, Allegra et al for allowing this

sophlowe45

Shan curry mixes are amazing, they are in all the supermarkets around here, around 69p, 2 for a pound at the moment I think.

I think you just add yoghurt and your lentils or meat, my flatmate never uses all the specified ingredients


http://www.spicesofindia.co.uk/acatalog/Indian-Food-Shan-Dal-Curry-Mix.html

http://tasnimnazeer.hubpages.com/hub/How-to-make-a-quick-and-tasty-chicken-curry-using-Shan-Curry-Mixes

you don't need a pressure cooker if Dahl is pre soaked and big bags of Dahl can be bought for 2 of 3 pounds approximately, I just got 3 small bags of 500g for 2 pounds from Sainsbury and this with rice 5 pounds for Tesco value broken basmati rice 5kg and this can keep for a couple of meals. If possible have some veg as a side dish.

Soworried

That must of been a lot of work Phgage. :j

zippybungle

missmucksmum wrote: »

Does anyone do much baking? I dont but would like to do some cakes for the kids what are good cheap ingredients to get me started? x

I go through phases of doing baking. The best baking book ever is the Be-ro Cook Book. http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Be-Ro-Home-Baked-Recipes-40th-Edition-Brand-New-Book-/310419870104?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_3&hash=item4846775198 (not my listing!) I have also seen it for sale in Morrisons, near the flour.

I always use value flour, stork marg and which ever caster sugar is the cheapest. I buy my eggs from Sainsburys (18 for around £1.75) Home Bargains usually have cheap baking paper cases. B&M sometimes have cheap baking things too such as sprinkles, icing, marzipan etc.

If you don't have an electric hand mixer, then that would be helpfull too, you can pick these up for about £5 in the Supermarkets.

Hope that helps

Zippy x

Soworried

If anyone is shopping before Sunday you might want to hold off on new potatoes or salad things. It looks like they will be 39p as part of the new super 6.
Many thanks to the original poster on HDUK.