Feed a family of four for £20 a week challenge

MissOrganised1972

I'm really pleased with the Super 6 this time.
600g parsnips
500g leeks
150g mangetout
1.2kg carrots
2.5kg potatoes
Snack packs of grapes
That along with the pork shoulder in Tesco being reduced to £2.99 kg will make for a cheap Easter Sunday dinner for my guests on Sunday. I'm also going to make rhubarb crumble with YS rhubarb from the freezer. Good job everything else has come out at a reasonable price as DD1 is Lactose intolerant and only ever gets offered jelly or fruit salad for dessert when we're out. A bit boring after a bit when you're 11. So, I've promised her a treat. I'm making White chocolate & raspberry cheesecake. Just costed up the 'free from' ingredients! £9.20!!!
Good job I have some 'A Girl Called Jack' recipes planned down the week

MissOrganised1972

I made a lovely dinner this evening and it cost about £1.24 for 4 big adult portions! It is a Rachel Allen meal and can easily be tweaked to suit cost, ingredients you have in etc.


450g pasta (30p)
2tbsp olive oil (8p)
1 medium-large courgette (recipe asks for 2 medium but I thought my 1 large was plenty) (40p)
100g soft cream cheese (it says you can use marscapone but obviously cream cheese is cheaper) (25p)
3tbs milk (1p)
1-2tbs of lemon juice (recipe asks for zest of 1 lemon but I didn't have one) (6p)
3tbsp torn fresh basil (I would normally substitute fresh herbs for dried for convenience and cost but I would say that the distinct taste of the fresh basil really made this dish) (14p)


Cook the pasta
Cut the courgette's lengthways and scoop out the seeds. Then slice each half into thin pieces.
Fry the courgettes over a high heat until they have caught slightly (4-5 mins)
Mix together the cheese, milk, lemon & basil and add to the courgettes & season.
When melted add the creamy courgettes to the drained pasta.


I always add a lot of black pepper and some chilli flakes to my creamy pastas and this really set it off.


DDs are not overly keen on courgettes. One left the courgettes out (no pudding for her) and the other confirmed that it was really nice, despite the courgettes.


I would say that you could add other veg to the pan too, if you wanted to (cherry tomatoes, onions, peppers) or even some chicken or bacon.


This made 2 adult portions, 2 decent sized kid's portions and a lunch time sized portion for the freezer! Not bad for £1.24!

Butterfly_Brain

I have been poorly for a few months so I haven't kept up with the thread and have had to put up with DH and the kids cooking, because I have had no appetite.

But, now that I am starting to feel a bit better I need to cut back because the whole household budget has been thrown to the wind :eek:

Even my store cupboard and freezer have been depleted, I really panic when that happens because we have been there when there is nothing in the house and no money, and I never want to be in that situation again

So I am using the super six again and over the last month it has been really good.

Lots of mushrooms for 59p a punnet plus rhubarb, sweet peppers and red onions. I have frozen and dehydrated 30 punnets of chestnut mushrooms, 4 x 3 peppers,10 pks rhubarb and a bag of red onions that all came to £26.26 from my "special offer" money that I keep in the back of my purse.

In addition to that I have been using the super six for meals.

Sunday 31st May

Breakfast English Pancakes with lemon

Lunch Roast chicken with broccoli, carrots and cauli (Aldi 89p a bag) new potatoes, yorkie puds, and gravy followed by rhubarb and custard tart.

Tea Time HM pikelets and jam with coffee

Monday 1st June

Breakfast Pikelets using left over batter from Sunday with jam and coffee

Lunch Mushroom omelette and granary bread followed by left over tart plus coffee.

(DD and DS had boiled egg sarnies with mayo and HG cress 10p for seeds in wilko sale last year ) plus a slice of tart and a bottle of tap water

Dinner Left overs....... Chicken and broccoli pie, new potatoes and sweetcorn.

Tuesday 2nd June

Breakfast Sliced Apple and youghurt sprinkled with cinnamon

Lunch HM cream of chicken soup using left over chicken and stock from the carcass from the Sunday roast and granary bread

Dinner Mushroom risotto

Wednesday 3rd June

Breakfast Yoghurt with banana and some toasted oats on top. drizlle some honey on top if you have it it is a lovely treat.

Lunch Beans on toast

Dinner HM crustless quiche containing sliced mushrooms, sliced peppers and sliced red onion with a little grated cheese on top
HG lettuce, HG new potatoes, cucumber, more peppers and onion and tomatoes

Thursday 4th June

Breakfast Banana pancakes

Lunch Left over quiche plus a slice of banana bread

Dinner Mushroom tart with left over salad and potatoes from Wednesday

Today 5th June

Breakfast

Lunch Rhubarb and yoghurt with toasted oats

Dinner HM Cheese and onion pie (Serves 8) with salad and HM wedges

Tomorrow 6th June

Breakfast Banana bread

Lunch ...left over cheese pie with salad

Dinner Egg, Bacon, Mushrooms and tomatoes

Coffee was £3.99 a jar (Nescafe decaff on offer in Morries) I still have ½ jar left, so no need to buy any for this week, but I will still get some at that price to get my stocks up. I only ever buy coffee when it is on offer at a saving of £2 a jar :eek: who can blame me

honeythewitch

Butterfly_Brain wrote: »

I have been poorly for a few months so I haven't kept up with the thread and have had to put up with DH and the kids cooking, because I have had no appetite.

But, now that I am starting to feel a bit better I need to cut back because the whole household budget has been thrown to the wind :eek:

Even my store cupboard and freezer have been depleted, I really panic when that happens because we have been there when there is nothing in the house and no money, and I never want to be in that situation again

So I am using the super six again and over the last month it has been really good.

Lots of mushrooms for 59p a punnet plus rhubarb, sweet peppers and red onions. I have frozen and dehydrated 30 punnets of chestnut mushrooms, 4 x 3 peppers,10 pks rhubarb and a bag of red onions that all came to £26.26 from my "special offer" money that I keep in the back of my purse.

In addition to that I have been using the super six for meals.

Sunday 31st May

Breakfast English Pancakes with lemon

Lunch Roast chicken with broccoli, carrots and cauli (Aldi 89p a bag) new potatoes, yorkie puds, and gravy followed by rhubarb and custard tart.

Tea Time HM pikelets and jam with coffee

Monday 1st June

Breakfast Pikelets using left over batter from Sunday with jam and coffee

Lunch Mushroom omelette and granary bread followed by left over tart plus coffee.

(DD and DS had boiled egg sarnies with mayo and HG cress 10p for seeds in wilko sale last year ) plus a slice of tart and a bottle of tap water

Dinner Left overs....... Chicken and broccoli pie, new potatoes and sweetcorn.

Tuesday 2nd June

Breakfast Sliced Apple and youghurt sprinkled with cinnamon

Lunch HM cream of chicken soup using left over chicken and stock from the carcass from the Sunday roast and granary bread

Dinner Mushroom risotto

Wednesday 3rd June

Breakfast Yoghurt with banana and some toasted oats on top. drizlle some honey on top if you have it it is a lovely treat.

Lunch Beans on toast

Dinner HM crustless quiche containing sliced mushrooms, sliced peppers and sliced red onion with a little grated cheese on top
HG lettuce, HG new potatoes, cucumber, more peppers and onion and tomatoes

Thursday 4th June

Breakfast Banana pancakes

Lunch Left over quiche plus a slice of banana bread

Dinner Mushroom tart with left over salad and potatoes from Wednesday

Today 5th June

Breakfast

Lunch Rhubarb and yoghurt with toasted oats

Dinner HM Cheese and onion pie (Serves 8) with salad and HM wedges

Tomorrow 6th June

Breakfast Banana bread using up some black bananas

Lunch ...left over cheese pie with salad

Dinner Egg, Bacon, Mushrooms and tomatoes

Coffee was £3.99 a jar (Nescafe decaff on offer in Morries) I still have ½ jar left, so no need to buy any for this week, but I will still get some at that price to get my stocks up. I only ever buy coffee when it is on offer at a saving of £2 a jar :eek: who can blame me

I am glad you are feeling better now, Butterfly Brain.

I noticed this in the paper and found it interesting. Its a family that claim to feed six people for twenty pounds a week with lots of meat. Its obviously a thinly disguised advert but also looks to me like a load of codswallop. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-3110953/Mother-four-cooks-scratch-freezes-leftovers-bulk-buys-meat-reveals-spends-just-20-WEEK-food.html

cat4772

I read the article and clicked the link to the food website. If I bought meat at M&S, then I think I'd save money BUT i buy from A1di/a2da and only buy chicken/turkey and find the prices at my local shops are far better. I aslo have a butcher farm shop nearby that I plan to use to stock up on chicken etc (when my freezer has some room in it).

Articles like this are quite misleading - far better to give examples / recipes of meals used (rather like with 'a girl called jack' so folks could see how cheaply the food can be made

Cat.x

honeythewitch

cat4772 wrote: »

I read the article and clicked the link to the food website. If I bought meat at M&S, then I think I'd save money BUT i buy from A1di/a2da and only buy chicken/turkey and find the prices at my local shops are far better. I aslo have a butcher farm shop nearby that I plan to use to stock up on chicken etc (when my freezer has some room in it).

Articles like this are quite misleading - far better to give examples / recipes of meals used (rather like with 'a girl called jack' so folks could see how cheaply the food can be made

Cat.x

I really think it is impossible to feed six people for a week at 15p a meal.
The fruit and vegetables to get five a day would come to more than twenty pounds, and a third of a chicken breast each is very measly.
I expect Ian Duncan Smith is rubbing his hands with glee.

Butterfly_Brain

I don't think that the muscle food prices were cheap.
It would have been nice to see one of her meal plans and a shopping list to see if what she was saying was true, but I very much doubt it. It read more like an advert for muscle foods to be quite honest.

OOPs saying that I didn't put my shopping list and costs up, I will remedy that in a little while

gayleygoo

I thought that article looked very like an advert for the muscle foods website. Their meat isn't that cheap (unless it's any cheaper if you buy in bulk.) There's a lot of meat on the table and I bet it's not a "week's worth" or £10 worth, I would rather have seen their actual weekly shop and a meal plan to go with it. I spend nearly £10 just on bread, milk and butter in a week! Never mind breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks, teabags and everything else.

Butterfly_Brain

Bag of plain flour aldi 45p
block marge...... aldi 39p
block lard...........aldi 39p
2 boxes 15 eggs farm foods £1 each =£2
A lemon Morrisons 25p
Small chicken aldi £2.75
Frozen veg mix (cauli, broccoli and carrots aldi) 89p
5lbs New potatoes from market £1.50
cucumber from market 40p
Rhubarb from super six 59p
Instant custard 15p
The fresh yeast was free from bakery at Asda
Jar mixed fruit jam 29p
4 packs mushrooms super six £2.36
2 small loaves granary bread HM approx 40p a loaf
Apple 15p from market
1kg greek yoghurt £1 in Morrisons
LG rice 40p
2x1kg bananas £1.36
Baked beans 24p
Red onions Super six 59p a bag of 8,
3 large peppers super six 69p
Extra mature cheese from Aldi £1.51
Tomatoes market 40p
Bacon Aldi £1. 69
80 Tea bags £1
Coffee £3.99
3 x 4l milk £2.67

Total £28.90

debbym

Love a lot of the ideas on this thread but I must admit to getting a little frustrated that every other post uses Aldi. What about those of us that don't live near an Aldi or Lidl?