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

DaisyClaire

Cheap Lunch Ideas:

Crumpets with spread
Pancakes (Could also be breakfast)
Cheese on Toast
Tuna Salad
Boiled/Scrambled eggs

Ok I know perhaps not all practical for work as CTC said, but a few more cheqp options.

DaisyClaire

patentgirl wrote: »

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

Thanks. I agree, and besides we are all looking to save money so as long as we can all input one idea for a cheap meal option then we would soon have a cookbooks worth anyway!

Spendless

CTC- If you knock the dessert items off, and maybe only have puddings at the weekend, does the amount saved give you any scope for the meals you are missing?

COOLTRIKERCHICK

Spendless wrote: »

CTC- If you knock the dessert items off, and maybe only have puddings at the weekend, does the amount saved give you any scope for the meals you are missing?

i dont use supermarkets for my shopping..... so being realistic i dont think i could get my weekly shopping bill under £29.99

i done a menu to help out as bukup has not got back to the thread.... with menus and shopping list...

in reality... yes you could knock off the puddings and use that money for the 2 missing lunches... and yes you could use value mince... and sausages to save money etc.... but

as you have got to be VERY stricked on the portion control... i think afters may be needed.....

when it comes to the mince.... i feel the value or frozen mince.... ( what i can remember when i have used them in the passed) it could be a false economy... as there is soooooo much fat in it that when its cooked it goes to nothing..... so then you are losing out on the valume.... if that makes sense....

same as with the chicken i have picked one that will cost about the £4. mark, you can get cheaper ones.... but dont feel there would be enough meat to satisfy a family of four ... and get 3 meals out of it....

even though i did not intend doing it using supermarkets.... i was really interested in this thread to get me back on track with my meal planning etc... as my budget has started to go out the window so to speak... so i will be doing my own version but shopping in local independants ..so my spending would be more than the £29.99....( i spend more than that in the butchers every 2 - 3 weeks )

Pink.

DaisyClaire wrote: »

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!

These older threads might give everyone some inspiration:

Meal for two for 50p. Suggestions?

Feed 6 for £1.62

Cheapest meal

Your Cheapest Evening Meal.

cheap budget meals !

My favorite Cheap Meals

Cheap meals

Pink

daysieblue

my meal contribution:

Macaroni cheese (serves 5-6)

(all prices are from the Asda website, and are SmartPrice where I could find it!)

500g bag of macaroni (37p)
200g bacon lardons (£1.14)
1 large onion (30p)
1/2 cauliflower (34p)
500g mature cheddar cheese (90p) (hold a bit back for the top)
2 pints milk (66p)

Total = £3.72 or 62p - 74p per portion

basically fry up the bacon and onion together, whilst steaming/boiling the cauliflower.

make a basic white sauce with flour and butter (from store cupboard) and milk, but don't make too runny just yet. when the cauli is done, blend to smooth with some of the milk, and add this to the sauce, adding more milk to get to the desired consistency. Then add the bacon, onion and cooked macaroni. top with breadcrumbs mixed in with the cheese. (I throw a slice of HM bread and the left over cheese on the food processor and blitz them.

is this cheap enough, or is it meals like this that are the source of all my woes?????

db xx

Boomdocker

Mmmm, that lamb casserole sounds. Thanks for the recipe, will definatley give that a go.

I like the idea of sharing a few recipes or ideas as a whole week pan doesnt really work for me but thats the beauty of threads like this. You can pick out the bits you like and adapt them to suit your needs.

I bought a £1.49 fresh mushroom tortellin from the Sainsburys Basic's range last night. It was 600g and I cooked a third of it for myself. I found it too much and would suggest that it could easily serve 3 and maybe 4 adults, particulary if adding a sauce and serving with a salad or similar. I just served mine with a drizzle of olive oil and a crack of black pepper.

So that's my tip (but theres only one of me) 3 meals from a £1.49 bag of pasta, equivalant of 50p a portion. Total bargain!

the_cat

Right here is the shopping list etc for my plan. Be warned though, it's a bit of a marathon!

I have assumed a cupboard with a few different herbs/spices, oil,gravy powder, salt, pepper, lemon juice, golden syrup, cornflour and probably a few other bits and have allowed £1 from the weekly budget to replace these as and when.

In some of the costings I have split up the cost of the whole item to include just the amount I will be using for the week. Hopefully we all have at least some items already in the store cupboard to even things out as most are staples. Sorry if this seems like cheating, but it saves having to eat very similar items for the whole week.

In all cases not stated I have picked the cheapest option I can from the Tesco website. I use many of the items but as all of you have some compromises I do not wish to make (eg value sausages). However it was necessary to show the cheapest alternative to prove it could be done. If I know an item is cheaper somewhere else I have used that instead and said so.

Orange juice x 2 1.16
teabags 29
porridge oats 48
peanut butter 1/2 jar 22
Whole chicken 2.80
400g mature cheddar -use 2/3 1.00 (bought on BOGOF)
lettuce 49
1/2 cucumber 31
carrots 1.5kg 89
onions 2kg 80
potatoes (from farm shop sack) 75
froz peas(2/3 pack) 62
6 parsnips (local market) 50
cabbage 39
tin sweetcorn x 2 34
eggs 12 from value pack 95
b beans x 3 51
red lentils 1/3 pack 23
pasta 1 kg 38
tuna x 2 58
minced lamb 1/2 pack 87
kidney beans 14
icing sugar 1/10 pack 10
milk 8 pints iceland 2.00
sr flour 31
bread x 6 1.68
sugar 77
value sausages 49
stuffing x 2 24
couscous 1/4 pack 20
mint sauce 1/2 jar 4
tin tomatoes x 3 45
passatta 29
margarine 48
lard 1/3 pack 11
rice 1/4 pack 20
apples 8lb (market) 2.00
bananas (morrisons) 99
pears (12) market 1.00
satsumas 84
mayonnaise 1/3 pack 11
jam 1/4 jar 8
choc digestives 27

TOTAL £28.35

I would add in puddings as follows

Poor mans mousse - 2 days 32p
jelly/tin fruit - 1 day 33p
yogurts - 1 day 29p
crackers/cheese 3 days 54p

Making a grand total of £29.83!

As we have all said, a lot is down to personal preference and I probably spend a bit more than this on average, but it shows us all what can be done, especially in a skint month!!

Kelsi-Blu

Hi, I'm new here and have been looking at different threads for a few weeks now. I have 4 children so I would have to up the amount a bit, but very interesting all the same!:T
Please could you tell me what poor mans mousse is?

the_cat

hi kelsi

Basically poor mans mousse is made by making up as per packet instructions 1 jelly of any flavour, allowing to cool and adding a large tin of whisked evaporated milk.
Set it in fridge overnight. Makes 8 individual mousses.

Hope that helps
Cathy