can some one help me make £20 last 11 days?

Jox

Write out a chart with every day for the next 11 days and what you will eat for breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks and stick to it.

It will be a good exercise in discipline and next month you may have £30 left for the final 10 days of the month, or you can get by with just £20 and save any extra you have or use it to pay towards debts

serendipity-mummy

Jox wrote: »

Write out a chart with every day for the next 11 days and what you will eat for breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks and stick to it.

It will be a good exercise in discipline and next month you may have £30 left for the final 10 days of the month, or you can get by with just £20 and save any extra you have or use it to pay towards debts

thanks Jox, i will be making a spreadsheet tomorrow and will be using this thread to keep track. hope that's OK with everyone here.i suppose it will be a bit diary ish though, would it be better in a diary section?

have worked out my next months budget and for food and entertainment we will have £180. its quite low as i have to pay £45 for a hen night, so after that it will be £225 which seems quite generous.

im trying to think of it as exciting and not depressing at the minute

BitterAndTwisted

If you see it as exciting and as a personal challenge you will succeed. If you can carry on in the same vein, think about what better uses you could put all that money to. It's nice to "eat out" but maybe that out could be the park or somewhere similar once the weather improves rather than in cafes?

VJsmum

serendipity-mummy wrote: »

aw thanks downsizing-you're so nice.

i don't think we are massively fussy- neither of us are keen on casserole. i don't know if i just make them wrong but Ive slow cooked them in the past and they were naff.
little girl pretends she doesn't like bread but she eats it at nursery.....

we have in stock.....

5 bananas
1 orange
whole punnet of strawberries
whole punnet of blueberries
1 plum
1/2 pineapple
big bunch of grapes

3 cartons of kids orange juice

283g mince x 2
1/2 tin ravioli

1/2 broccoli
1/2 cauli
1 onion
3 carrots
whole lettuce
spring onions
4 eggs
handful of mushrooms
new potatoes- about 10 i think but quite big
3 x kids yogurts

6 fishfingers
12 sausages
lasagne ready meal- quite big i think its for 2 adults
cooking bacon
3 mini chicken fillets
frozen peas
frozen herbs
frozen mixed veg

tin of carrots
tin of sweetcorn
family size dolmio
tin of tuna
sweet and sour sauce

rice
pasta
bisto
gravy pots (yuk!)
cream crackers
beef stock cubes
sugar
plain flour
sr flour
tom puree
mayonaise

1/2 box cheerios

phew thats actually quite a lot, found some things i forgot i had as well.

ive got the cooking bacon out of the freezer and with that the 2 packs of mince, onion, carrots, mushrooms and dolmio im going to make a huge bolognese tomorrow.
that should last us a few days.

thought some cheapy cream cheese would be good for a snack after nursery- cream crackers with cream cheese and fruit.

only other thing is my lunch at work needs to be cold as the queue for the microwave is disturbing.

thanks to anyone who can help x

There are people here who are better at this than me but here goes

Bolognaise / chilli / shepherds pie - using mince, bacon (tho I don't put this in mine but I see you have got it out the freezer), this would do 6(?) dinners - you would need to buy Potatoes for mashing, kidney beans / baked beans, pasta
Fish fingers = 1 dinner, mash? Chips? - you'd need to buy more spuds for this, with peas and sweetcorn
Chicken - roasted with carrots, broc, cauli - more spuds for roasties or the new pots you have - 1 to 2 dinners, depending on size of small girl. Or sweet and sour chicken, bulk out with the mushrooms (or bulk out the bolognaise with them - I food process mine to hide them from DS, they just look like meat when you do that.)
sausages - 2 maybe more dinners - with mash, chips or my DS likes them with pasta and sweetcorn so if you bought pasta rather than spag for bolognaise there would be some left for this. Or in casserole (I know you said you're not keen but sausage casserole is a "Palatable" one - tinned toms and the mixed veg?) the remainder of the new pots with this
The lasagne would do another meal - with some salad bits you have



It looks to me like apart from spuds and pasta (Maybe £1.50?) you wouldn't need to buy much for dinners

If small girl doesn't like bread, would she eat wraps? my 2 much prefer them, you could use the tuna, maybe get some ham or chicken - or buy a smallish, cheapish gammon joint for a dinner and there would be some left for sandwiches, wraps, rolls. the yogurts or the fruit as afters for lunch or dinner
I would buy some eggs for omelettes for lunch or dippy for breakfast - oh I see you have some eggs, these would do then for 2 weeks
The ravioli would do a lunch
YOu probably need to buy some breakfast items - but look at 6 - 7 pm when things are drastically reduced. I have fruited tea cakes 19p for 6 (DD has just had one for her brekkie), english muffins similar price.

Don't forget you need bread and milk, some kind of butter / spread, squash or more juice, tea or coffee - I've heard basics teabags are just as good.

YOu can always have a night a week that's very cheap and quick - soup and pud, beans on toast, egg on toast.

Hope that helps a bit

gibson123

Day 1 -

Cereal and Toast with jam or spread
Tuna Mayo wraps
Snack Banana on toast
sausage and mash and peas x 1

Day 2
Same for breakfast and lunch
Toad in the hole with onion gravy
Snack Pancake and Jam and yoghurt

Day 3
Same breakfast
Egg and spring onion mayo wrap ( 2 eggs)
Fruit
Snack - fruit salad
Spaghetti bolognaise

Day 4
Toast with banana
Egg mayo wrap
Cottage pie
Snack - Fruit and Yoghurt

Day 5
Boiled egg and soldiers
Bacon and lettuce and tomato wrap
Fish fingers with peas and mash
Snack - cheese triangles with crackers

Day 6
Cereal
Toast and Jam
Bacon and Lettuce wrap
Lasagne
Snack - cheese triangle with crackers

Day 7
Bacon sandwiches
Pasta with roasted vegetables
Roast chicken with vegetables
Snack - Fruit and Yoghurt

You will have to buy

A chicken
Tomatoes
Wraps and Bread
More little Juices
Cheese Triangles
Pancake Mix or pancakes
More potatoes
Milk

This will give you some money left over for an outing or two.

Shame the weather isn't better, rather than spend money can you just invite her friends over for play dates.

ScrimpingandSaving

Make some banana bread with the bananas as this is a lovely snack that should keep you filled up. Dead easy to make too.

Pasta is always a good, cheap meal.
Pies - make your own shortcrust pastry as it's really easy to make. Just mix enough butter in with flour until it resembles breadcrumbs, then add a little ice-cold water to make a dough. That's it! Make pies from leftovers. I usually make a huge batch of curry every other Sunday now and I aways save a bit to put into pies. Curry pies are lovely and can be eaten cold for lunch or for tea. Pretty much anything can be put into a pie!

My little boy hates bread too so the pies are good lunch alternatives for him. I also make scones which is another quick and easy recipe. Cold pasta for lunch too.

Also, line a cupcake tray with little pastry cases, mix an egg with a quarter of a mug of milk and pour it into the cases. Add some grated cheese, a slice of tomato, a bit of ham, etc and bake until golden for some mini quiches.

Or put some soft fruit in baked pastry cases, spoon in a little jam and refridgerate for some fruit tarts.

Best of luck - you can do it!

joedenise

I would use some of the money to buy some porridge. This is a quick and easy breakfast and also very filling. It'll cost you no more than £1 for a kilo which will last quite a long time for you and LO.

I would also buy a chicken as it is so versatile and easily stretched. I buy a chicken for me and DH and easily get 4 meals plus soup from it. Roast, sandwiches for lunch, sweet & sour or stir fry, pie and boil up the carcass to make soup.

Denise

K9sandFelines

Just a thought, but if there is a massive queue for you dinner, next month if you have enough money, could you buy a food flask from HomeBargains or somewhere local that sells one? That way you could make soup (do you have a SC, i get the impression you do from mentioning casseroles?), and take to work in said flask, any leftovers of your chilli or bolognese. If you batch cook these then you could also buy lasagne sheets, make your own white sauce and use for lasagne. Could you take things to work that also don't involve a microwave, until you can get a food flask? Couscous salad, pasta salad, pasta in sauce packets ( basic/value/or Tescos are about 30 odd p).

Hope this helps a little

serendipity-mummy

oh wow cant believe the response i have gotten on here.
I've tried to thank everyone as i am genuinely really thankful, let me know i i have missed anyone.

the banana bread idea is brilliant scrimpingandsaving, and i will be having a go at that either tonight or tomorrow.
thankyou for everyone who has tried a meal plan for us as well. once the tiny tot goes to bed im going to make a meal plan using all of your ideas and my own ideas as well.

today we had cheerios for breakfast but we still have over half a box left. little girl also had some strawberries.
we went to a birthday party just after lunch time so we filled up on party food.
they were a bit extravagant actually- lasagne, potato pie etc and the usual kid food so we are full up from that.

and ive made the biggest ever bolognaise in my slow cooker ever. it has the 2 packs of mice, 1/2 a pack of cooking bacon, a whole onion, handful of mushrooms, family size jar of dolmio + full jar of water.

i think we could actually get 6- 7 meals out of it.

lol.

dogmom_3

Potatoes are an almost complete food so base meals around them (they're much more nutritious than pasta or rice). Potato with a tiny amount of cheap protein (tuna, cheese, egg), a little oil or other fat and some veg is a nutritionally balanced meal. Get potatoes from LIDL or ALDI if possible - they're much cheaper.