Feed A Family Of Four Only £29.99 Week All In !

dreams_R_free

cupid_s wrote: »

But the thread is 'feed' a family of four. Not wash their clothes, let them be clean and have something to wipe their a*se on!

Cathy
Lovely selection of meal ideas here. Thanks very much for your list:T

But I'm with Cupid in thinking bukup's original challenge was to feed a family of 4 for £29.99 a week. Presumably cleaning materials and toiletries were from another budget. If so, your plan is fantastically frugal because you are including some non-food stuff in your total. Well done!

How many are you catering for by the way?

rchddap1

I agree with the minty casserole...would love the recipe

the_cat

OOOHHH replies, how exciting!

recipie as requested for lamb and lentil minty casserole:

For ease of costing I have used Tesco value mince although I usually buy a larger pack from somewhere like Lidl or the butchers and split it.
Ditto other ingredients - I just wanted to have a definate price for things so I could add up for the challenge!

Ingredients
1/2 pack tesco value lamb mince (400g)
1 tsp garlic powder
tin tomatoes
1/3 pack red lentils
2 onions
3 carrots
2 parsnips
small chunk cabbage
gravy powder
1/2 jar tesco value mint sauce (or couple of spoons full from more expensive one)

Chop up all vegetable quite small. Put into slow cooker with mince lentils garlic and tomatoes. Mix thoroughly and add gravy powder to taste (I use 2-3 generous tablespoons as like it fairly rich). Top up with water to cover.
Its very forgiving regarding cooking time so I just put it on low in the morning and leave it all day. About 1/2 hour before you want to eat, add the mint sauce. Thicken with a little cornflour if needed.

This is just an example of ingredients. I use all sorts thats lurking about!! Other root veg, celery mushrooms chick peas beans etc.
Usually I put a handful or 2 of green lentils in too, but didn't cost them in for this and thought I should keep to the challenge recipie and not cheat!

Will be offline for most of the morning but will try to post shopping list etc later.

Cathy

PS I have 4 of us at home me OH DS1 (14) and DS2 (11). All of us are big eaters

Yategirl

mmhhh... that sounds nice Thanks Cathy!

Been thinking about this challenge... I think the key thing is to either have less meat meals OR to have smaller portions of meat - so for example a mince dish as above is bulked out with veg/lentils/rice etc etc... that way.. you could if you are careful.. buy better than value meat (though organic is inaffordable I think at this level - having said that I have read about someone on another forum who spends £35 a week for 4 (or maybe 5.. can't quite remember) and she does buy some organic meat) for most meals.... this is what we aim to do..

at the end of the day... you try it and adjust it to suit your family..

the_cat

Impomdasp:

I think you might be right. I've just looked at the title again and it does say
'FEED a family of four....'

Yippee I now have an extra £1.28 to use! Now what can I get with that. Off to have a look.........

Cathy

katsskint

Hi Cathy

:T Well done on a lovely weeks menu, sounds delicious and I can't wait to try out the lamb casserole.

As I'm such a bad cook, shopper and budgeter :rolleyes: would you mind posting your shopping list and prices and I can pop off to Mr T's and I promise not to buy anything thats not on the list!

Thank you!

katsskint

emmie1234

Hi all, This is really hard, but I think I've just about managed it. I've used a lot of smart price stuff as I shop at asda usually but here goes. I've tried to fit in some fruit and veg too! I've assumed that we already have salt/pepper, black bin bags. I've also left out tea bags as we don't drink tea very often. SP stands for smartprice lol We don't normally have puddings either except for on Sunday..... It's my first attempt at anything like this so please don't crucify me...... Have tried to add some cleaning products too. If this challenge is just to feed four, then take off cost of cleaning stuff and use for extras, biscuits etc Comes in 16p over £30.15, again would be much less without the cleaning products!!

Here goes.......

Sprice eggs 1 54p
Low fat spread 1 24p
Pack 2 sp bananas 1.32
Round lettuce 1 45p
Whole cucumber 1 62p
SP Tomatoes 1pk 63p
Brown onions 1kg 73p
Mushrooms 1pk button mushrooms 62p
Carrots 1kg 54p
Fruit n Fibre sp cereal 66p
Vegetable oil 60p
Asda gravy 38p
Basil 1 jar 34p
Oregano 1 jar 33p
Stuffing 1 pk 13p
SP tomato ketch 1 25p
Mild cheddar 1 £1.21
Rice 1pk easy cook 38p
SP Pasta twists 1 19p
Curry sauce 1 19p
Sweet&sour sce 1 29p
Tomato puree 1 24p
Sp thin sliced ham 3 £1.05
Fish fingers 1pk 16 £1.28
Chopped tomatos 1 15p
Baked Beans 1 17p
Whole Chicken 1 £2.78
Smartprice mnce 1 £0.75
SP mixed veg 1 £0.44
SP cauliflower florets frozen 48p
Yorkshire puds 1pk 12 £0.44
med roast coffee 1 £0.94
Sprice bread 4 0.52
SP custard 2 sachets £0.22
SP Madeira cake 1 £0.28
Washing liquid 1 £2.00
Bleach 1 £0.28
Sp cleaner 1 £0.31
Toilet tissue 1 £1.13
SP Oranges 2 £1.08
Frozen Chicken fillets SP 1 £1.20
Washing up liq 1 £0.13
SP Sausages 1 £0.49
Skimmed milk powder £1.34


Menu

All Breakfasts
Either toast or fruit and fibre cereal

Lunches
Cheese and salad sandwiches
orange and banana

Dinners
Sunday
Roast Chicken
Potatoes
Stuffing
York pudding
Carrots
Cauliflower
Gravy

Cake and custard

Monday
Chicken Curry - using leftovers from Sunday add some onions, mushrooms?
Rice

Tuesday
Sausages, onions, gravy, mash, mixed veg

Wednesday
Fish Fingers, Home made chips and beans & ketchup

Thursday
Sweet and Sour Chicken with Rice (using chicken fillets) add carrots and mushrooms.

Friday
Ham, Egg & Chips & Ketchup

Saturday
Spag Bol made with tin toms, tom puree, onions, minced beef, basil, oregano and pasta

Not sure if this is any good or not. Prob could do with some more fruit/veg, but hey it's a start, could afford to buy some more if got rid of cleaning stuff and bought that separate...

Kind Regards

Em

DaisyClaire

Can I make a suggestion?

Why don't we all post a real cheap but healthy meal idea each or the recipe for one meal, then we will have a collection of meal options we can all pick and choose from.

It seems that whilst some of us like value products for example, others don't like them, some like more friut and veg, others don't etc.
Doing one each would save people spending hours trying to complie whole shopping lists and recipes which aren't suited to eveyone- thanks to those who have though!

For example: last night we had pizza.
I made this using a 500g Cheese and Onion Bread mix from Tescos which cost me 58p, you just add water and it makes the dough.
I then used a pack of German Salami (97p) and chucked on some red onion and value cheese (normally I like cheese I can taste but the cheese flavour in the bread means you can get away with mild cheese)

I was going to make potato wedges as well, but the mix made so much pizza three of us stuggled to finish!

COOLTRIKERCHICK

here goes......

here is the shopping list made up from tescos online prices...

tescos h.l. weetabix .48 .......... ..£1.77
pts milk.......................... ..... 1.72
1 pack beef mince 800g .... .... 2.40
not value or frozen as it goes to nothing....
1 pack tescos value onions 2kg........................... .80
2 tins value mushrooms 34 p each .68
2 tins value tons 15p each 30
1pack value spagetti 16p
1 pack long grain value rice 1kg .49p
1 x 5kg potoatoes 2.19
1 pack tesocs thick pork sausages 454g .97p
again not value
1 pack 1kg carrots .68p
1 pack parsnips 500g .78p
1 pack 6 eggs value .58p
1 mixed salad bag .99p
1 bag new pots 2.5 kg 1.48
tesco value cooking bacon 500g .73p
bag fresh value toms 500g .59p
value pack of jelly .16p
vanilla ice cream 1.00
tescos value peach slices 19p each .38p
2 tins fruit cocktail .40p
pasta quick fusilli 500g .37p
1 large tin tuna .95p
1 tin corned beef .79p
6 pints of milk 1.72
value mixed fruit jam .32
chicken £4.00
oranges 1.08
value bread 5 loaves 28p each. 1.40

......................................................total....£29.88


i am taking it as though mayo...gravy browning etc... are alleady in the store cupboard


BREAKFAST..
monday to sunday

2 x weetabix each ..( 40 used 8 left for weetabix cake )


LUNCH

SUNDAY....chicken dinner.. carrots, pots, roasties,parsnips
MONDAY ...pasta pots ...pasta..chicken...onion...mayo
TUESDAY...tuna & onion mayo sandwiches
WEDNESDAY.. corn beef & tomato sandwiches
THURSDAY..... egg mayo sandwiches
FRIDAY
SATURDAY



TEA/EVENING MEAL


SUNDAY... chicken sanswiches, h.m cake ( weetabix cake )
MONDAY.. chicken curry..rice.......jelly and ice cream
TUESDAY.. spag bol.hm potato wedges..f. cocktail icecream
WEDNESDAY sausage dinner.carrots mash pots parsnips with hm onion gravy.... peach crumble and ice cream
THURSDAY ... egg and chips......orange...
FRIDAY..... h.m. quiche ( using bacon onion and tomato) salad and new pots....
SATURDAY ....fry up.. using the left over bacon...eggs... tomatoes.....fried pots ..


as you can see i was srtuggling with the busget for things for lunch for friday and saturday.....as i am taking it as though people are eating their lunch at work or school.... so soup might be out of the question..

so i would suggest to solves saturday's lunch problem is go to a relatives ....:D

patentgirl

Thanks for ideas Cathy would you be able to post full shopping list your menus sound great and I can actually see rest of my family eating them will defiantely try lamb casserole
Thanks Emmie and COOLTRIKERCHICK will go through them all in my lunch break looking for inspiration
Daisy Claire that is a good idea I much prefer trying out recipes when I know they have been recommended instead of out a cookbook I will think of my best budget recipe and post it later