£12.50 per week - healthy menu ideas for 2 + 1 please :-)

tessie_bear

you have had some great advice on here but tbh i wish u the best of british luck with that budget...im happy to be proved wrong but i dubious that 2 adults and a baby can have their food needs manned long term with £12.50 in the pot

i would be looking to free up a bit of cash from other sources...down grade sky/less outings/less treats/less alcohol/less diesal or what ever u spend cash on and put it towards your food budget then try some of the tips that have been posted

i plan to have another read through and borrow a couple of tips myself...thank u posters

mel48rose

Having 2 or 3 meat free days can stretch the weekly budget also. You might find that you don't miss the meat!

patchwork_cat

DO you have a playpen or will little one sit and play while you cook? They do have to accept that you can't play all the time. FOr economy largely vegetarian is probably the way to go. Don't underestimate Lidl or Aldi all Aldi meat is red tractor and I am much happier about red tractor than Halal - look into Halal slaughter.

I went back to work job share when my DS was 6 months and he would sit in his cot or playpen on monday am, when I was cleaning and was perfectly happy as long as he could see me, had his toys and I talked to him a lot and would play with him for 5 mins every 15 or so.

[Deleted User]

I know its hard to do a lot of things with a baby around, but trust me it is doable with a bit of practice.If you have one, a baby sling is invaluble, as you can free up you hands if baby is tucked safely on your back. Also, if as I did ,when my eldest was small (I had two children under 2) I would set the smallest baby in the 'bouncer' on the side, at my level, so she could see what I was doing when cooking.The elder one would be playing with her dolls in the sitting room,in sight but not under my feet as I had a gate between me and her by the kitchen door.It really does take a bit of juggling, but is possible.They are babies, and have to realise that Mum's time does not get monopolised all the time by them. Small folk are quite adaptable, maybe you have a friend you could share childcare with for an hour or so.My oldest best friend, (now sadly no longer with us) had a baby six weeks older than mine, and one afternoon I would take the two babies for a play in my sitting room while she go on with batch baking or cleanig/ironing etc, and one afternoon she would have mine.The two babies played together, and it meant one of us at least could get on with things.

I think as much as you would like to eat stuff that is ethically produced, or as my DGS calls them 'happy chickens' until you have a bit more money you will have to make some compromises. £12.50 isn't a great deal of money to feed two adults on 'ethically' or for that matter 'unethically' IYSWIM.

Growing you own is a good idea, but that too takes time, so maybe its a case of lots of pasta and rice and pulses to get you through the 'tough' times, and when you get some more cash ,stash it in your store cupboards, and fill your freezer.Until then I'm afraid I think you will have to come down to earth with a bit of a bump, and close your eyes to somethings, or you are going to be rather hungry.
I mean this post in the nicest way I can.
I am a granny of 7 and certainly not in the first flush of youth so my words may sound a bit harsh,I don't mean them to be .Having grown up during WW2 and rationing I know all there is to know about austerity and streeetching money until it squeeks.I can myself live reasonably well on £20+ per week and eat well on it .Free range eggs are great, but if it came to feeding my OH so he could go to work full, to bring the money home I'm afraid eggs is eggs honey
Good luck all the same
JackieO xxx

lindsaygalaxy

Please phone tax credits! You should apply now even if the assessment is £0(which I cant think it can be). Remeber when you do your review in April the forst £100 of maternity pay is disregarded in you income. Do you have a mortgage or could you be entitled to some housing benefit? Have a look on www.entitledto.co.uk for some help.

Also, have a think about posting a SOA so people can look at where to help you save money.

Toonie

I understand how difficult it is eating on a budget but I'm not sure £12.50 a week for two adults and a little'un is doable in the long term.

I have £15 a week just for me and some weeks it's a struggle. My weekly meals generally include soup a few times a week (normally vegetable soup, if I'm lucky I might have a bit of bacon to go in, or if I've had a roast then the bones will be used for stock), eggs (scrambled, boiled and made into salads, frittata or egg mayonnaise), stews or casserole (pork shoulder or sausages from local sausage shop). Breakfast is toast, weetabix (own brand) or muesli (with yoghurt). Lunches are normally sandwiches or leftovers of some sort.

Soups are by far the healthiest thing I eat as they tend to be vegetable and lentil or barley based. Today I'm having carrot, sweet potato, red lentil and bacon soup. I chopped everything (except the bacon) in a food processor and then cooked it in a heavy saucepan. The preparation took maybe 10 minutes and then I left it to cook on low for around two hours and then I blended it together and it's lovely and there is loads. I'll have more later on with some ciabatta (picked up for 10p in Sainbury RTC) and then I'm making a pear crumble (tinned pears and crumbled with oats). So, dinner today is probably costing me 50p in total.

Definitely ring tax credits and inform them as you should ring whenever you have any changes to your income, you may be entitled to more than you realise. Also, check with council tax as you may be entitled to a reduction.

parsonswife8

Try doing a search on Tesco or Sainsburys on their Value and Basics ranges respectively. Sort it from lowest priced and see what comes up that you could use.

You can do the same with the Essentials range at Ocado, though nothing is THAT cheap.

lizzyshep

Thanks for taking the time to reply everyone, and apologies for not replying to each post individually.

As I said, I'm really not looking for parenting advice, so I hope no-one will be offended if I don't reply to these posts. I will find out about the tax credits. I would really like to get this thread back on track, to focus on what I originally asked :-)

I may have caused some confusion by the £12.50 budget - this was a figure I wondered was possible, and it was based on reading this thread:

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

Admittedly I haven't read it all, but there were some replies giving menu suggestions for this budget. I didn't mean we could never spend more than £12.50 a week on food, it's just that I wanted to get our food spend as low as possible. Also, I did mention that we have a well stocked larder, so already have many of the basics. However, it does look like this was a little unrealistic :-) So I would be really happy to hear what people think is do-able, and we will try to cut back elsewhere if we need to. I have mentioned a couple of times that we don't eat much meat, and are very happy with lots of veggie food. Non-free range eggs are not an option though :-)

Regarding Red Tractor versus Halal, these links are interesting reading:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/theguardian/2010/sep/20/halal-meat-the-truth
http://www.independent.co.uk/money/spend-save/consuming-issues-what-that-tiny-red-tractor-logo-on-meat-means-2034111.html

I'm not convinced that Red Tractor meat is any kinder, hence why we buy our poultry and pork from Ocado (as these are the animals that tend to be treated the worst).

So, back to my original question - ideas for getting ideas for cheap, healthy meals, on as little as possible :-) I've already got a lot of very good ideas, big thank you to those who have taken the time to answer my question.

BitterAndTwisted

cheap-family-recipes.org

This will probably be all you need.

honeythewitch

lizzyshep wrote: »

Thanks for taking the time to reply everyone, and apologies for not replying to each post individually.

As I said, I'm really not looking for parenting advice, so I hope no-one will be offended if I don't reply to these posts. I will find out about the tax credits. I would really like to get this thread back on track, to focus on what I originally asked :-)

I may have caused some confusion by the £12.50 budget - this was a figure I wondered was possible, and it was based on reading this thread:

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

Admittedly I haven't read it all, but there were some replies giving menu suggestions for this budget. I didn't mean we could never spend more than £12.50 a week on food, it's just that I wanted to get our food spend as low as possible. Also, I did mention that we have a well stocked larder, so already have many of the basics. However, it does look like this was a little unrealistic :-) So I would be really happy to hear what people think is do-able, and we will try to cut back elsewhere if we need to. I have mentioned a couple of times that we don't eat much meat, and are very happy with lots of veggie food. Non-free range eggs are not an option though :-)

Regarding Red Tractor versus Halal, these links are interesting reading:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/theguardian/2010/sep/20/halal-meat-the-truth
http://www.independent.co.uk/money/spend-save/consuming-issues-what-that-tiny-red-tractor-logo-on-meat-means-2034111.html

I'm not convinced that Red Tractor meat is any kinder, hence why we buy our poultry and pork from Ocado (as these are the animals that tend to be treated the worst).

So, back to my original question - ideas for getting ideas for cheap, healthy meals, on as little as possible :-) I've already got a lot of very good ideas, big thank you to those who have taken the time to answer my question.

I think people who replied with suggestions of how to manage cooking with your baby were trying to help you make food preparation possible, because it does seem as if lower priced food needs longer time to prepare and cook and the budget you first thought of was very tight.