£10 to last the rest of the month...

myteeduck

... what basics must I ensure I keep in my cupboards to enable me to last the rest of the month?

What basics must you keep in your cupboards/fridge/freezer at all times?

Im throwing this out to all people because as the title suggests - I have £10 to pay for food until payday (due to an error by the taxman) and I don't want to "waste" my £10.

I don't want to assume by something that I think is a basic when someone else thinks I can do without. I may have most things already so I may not need to buy everything people suggest (e.g Mum helps by providing me with milk so I won't need to buy that).

I hope people can help - can you help me make £10 stretch another 19 days???

x

Whoops - I think may be in the wrong place - If so can someone help move it to where it should be???

Lynsey

Have a look at the coupon thread HERE
Some freebies if you haven't already used the coupons and plenty to look at.
Freebies of late have been the Heinz 5 Beanz, Quaker Oats so Simple (£1 and £1 coupon), Spam Fritters (Sainsbury's BOGOf and use free Spam coupon). Most coupons you can get 2 per pc and some like the Heinz one were unlimited.

Good luck and disgusting that you may have to suffer because of the Taxman's error.
Hope others give you the info you want.

Lynsey

youngie

pasta is a good start add a cheap sauce for a filling meal I also use it cold for salad lunchbox meals

cherrypies

Hi there, it can be done and you'll get lots of help here, you will need to provide us with a little more info though. What have you got in your stocks? Have you got plenty of food in cupboards and a freezer and will just need to top up or do you not have much available?

Is there something that you absolutely cannot do without such as milk for a morning cuppa? £10 for over 2 weeks is a very small amount of money but with a combination of creativity, couponing and careful shopping, it can be done. Your menu may be fairly limited, repetitive and not the most balanced and healthy, but it will get you through Here's a rough menu, very, very basic!

Breakfasts: Tesco Everyday Value porridge Oats 1kg = 75p
Made up as per instructions, 50g per serving with water - 20 servings.

Lunch: Get hold of the Heinz 5 Beanz coupon. This runs until the end of the month and will provide you with a reasonably nutricious and free meal. Buy ( not at the same time as you don't want them to go off until you have used them) 2 X loaves of everyday value wholemeal bread 47p per loaf so 94p out of budget (each loaf has 21 slices so 2 loaves allows 2 slices per day plus a few extra slices for snacks). PM me if you want the Beanz coupon. I also have a 30p off coupon for the new heinz soup range, these are currently on offer @ 50p each in Tesco so 20p a tin.

Which leaves £8ish for dinners, snacks and essentials. Hard for me to give advice on the rest of the spend as I don't know what you have at your disposal, but if it was me, to get the most of my small amount of money and maintain a reasonable diet, I'd got shopping in the evenings at yellow sticker time, sandwiches, salads, fruit, vegetables, meat, bread allsorts can be found for pennies if you know where to go at the right time, for example, last Sunday my Tesco had bags of potatoes for 9p each, bags of carrots for 6p, leeks for 9p & celery for 19p. If you bought some value stock cubes for 10p, that little lot could make you a veggie stew that would keep you going for days for less than £1. It would probably mean traipsing around lots of supermarkets before you found bargains at the right price, but it can be done. My M&S for example, reduces items down to 10p before closing time. Theres a bit of a scrum, but amazing bargains are out there to be had, you just have to find them!

Good luck!

quintwins

Can you make a list of what you have in your freezers/cupboards you might be surprised at just what you have and be able to use that £10 for some milk and fruit.

if you have nothing it will be tight but doable (i'm assuming theres only you)

Value pasta and rice are good, a jar of value curry sauce or sweet and sour with the nice will be nice. maybe a bag of spuds and a tin of beans for baked taties, value noodles are ok if you add abit of sweetcorn and some soy sauce, but soy sauce is dear on a budget of £10 so thats out unless you already have some.

lunches i'd try a big veg stew, bag of spuds 71p half a bag of carrots 90p (or 3 tins of baby carrots at 18p each) a few onions from a value bag 70p and some beef stock subes 10p= thats £2.41 but will feed you for well over a week and you will have carrots and onions left.

Pitta breads are good, all supermarkets do 6 for 20p and you can fill them with all sorts of things or toast them and dip them in curry, tesco have fresh naan breads in the readymeal section for 25p aswell.


Theres a feed 2 of £7 for a week thread over in oldstyle i'll get you a link,

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4084527

Riversong

I cant offer much practicle advice. But I suggest cashing in any penny jars, check down the sofa/in clothes etc. Good luck.xx

DCFC79

Wow £10 to last the rest of october, i wish you well in your quest. Id suggest the reduced food section in the shops. What have you got in the cupboards/ freezer/fridge that you could use ?

Also dont forget to have a look at the reduced section for dry goods eg cans of soup reduced as they are form a multipack that split or got a dent in the side.

browneyedbazzi

If I'm ever a bit short my first move is to do a proper inventory of what I have in...I almost always have some basics like pasta, rice, some tins of soup or sauces and often even a few meals' worth of meat in the freezer. Once I know what I have in I can start to plan meals and then do a shopping list to fill in the gaps.

If you put a list of what you already have on here then I'm sure you'll get a wealth of suggestions of what meals you can make from what you have and also what cheap things you can buy to supplement your inventory.

Willowpop

My dinner tonight might help for a meal suggestion..
sainsburys basics beef stock cube (packet of several costs 10p)
sains basics rice 40p ish for big bag.
carrots (sliced)
chopped mushrooms (left over in fridge)
yellow sticker packet of sausages
tin chopped tomatoes from cupboard

chop the sausages into chunks and fry lightly, add mushrooms and carrots, stock and chopped toms. Boil whilst the rice cooks.
Serve. It's quick, pretty healthy, tasty and filling....and warming on a rainy eve!...plus realllllly cheap to make. you could even make a big batch and have it over several days.

Hope that helps for an idea.

tessie_bear

id suggest porridge for breakfast...beans/cheese on toast for lunch and jacket pots for tea....not very varied what have u got in ?

good luck

Lynsey

Where do you live??
If near me, we'll drop you off some stuff to keep you going and make your money last.

Lynsey