The Feed 2 for As Little As Poss Challenge!

nyquist_2

Tinned vegetables are very cheap and healthy.

When I was a student we used to make chickpea curry. You can buy a tin of chickpeas for about 40p, even cheaper at other places.

I think its a good idea to have a number of spices in your cupboard to make meals with. You can buy herbs and spices from the supermarket in little jars but they are often quite expensive, you buy the same spices in plastic bags loose by weight from your local indoor market for much cheaper.

The spices you should always have are:

Ground Cumin / Cumin Seeds
Ground Black Pepper Powder / Black Pepper
Chilli Powder
Garam Masala
Mixed Herbs (good for spag bol)

We used to put some oil in a saucepan and then add the Cumin powder and black pepper powder. Heat it in the oil for a short time.

You can add whatever spices and additional ingredients you like here, garlic, corriander, banana shallots, etc.

Throw in the drained chickpeas (hold your nose because sometimes the hot spices take your breath away!)

Cook the chickpeas in the oil and spices until they start to become soft.

Now you need to add something else for extra flavour and moisture, we used to use tinned tomatoes or tinned baked beans - but you can add dried apricots and orange juice if you like your curry a little sweeter!

Stir in some chilli powder depending upon your taste and then let it simmer until some of the liquid has reduced and it starts to look like a curry.

Being students we used to share it out and eat it with sliced bread - it's quite filling itself so you might not need anything else with it.

kitaj

Bubble & squeak (45p for a value cabbage, 20p for onions same for potatoes - buy a huge bag from farmer) serves 4 - add value cheese or value bacon if I'm flush. Casserole made from layers of potatoes, tomatoes, cheese, with herbs serves 4 for under £1. Mixed bean casserole using dried beans, soaked, plus 2 tins tomatoes, 2 onions - serves 4 for under a £1. Plus soup, soup and soup. The best way of getting cheap veg into the kids.....

We were very, very poor last year and spent less than £1 per person a day on food. No-one who's really poor buys parmesan or Greek yoghourt (I always make my own - sooo simple) or even mushrooms. All fish and meat comes from the reduced section and veg is limited to in season, non imported. A courgette costs 45p but a value cabbage or a cauli costs the same and makes far more food. Value tomatoes are the godsend of frugal eaters, along with dried beans and eggs. Pancakes make a great cheap special treat - you can make loads with flour, dried milk and water and an egg, with a lemon and sugar filling....

kitaj

BTW, I totally agree with nyquist. Herbs and spices can be v. expensive but make all the difference to a cheap dish - you can grow quite a few from seed and have them on the windowsill. Oh yes, and the greatest bargain of all, buy a packet of rocket seeds and plant them in a tub. Rocket is astronomical to buy but is sooo cheap and easy to grow and can make you feel like you're having expensive food when you're not (eg on pizzas). And I just remembered I grew a tumbling tomato plant in a hanging basket (what do you mean no space for a garden - use your imagination lol) which gave me loads of toms through the summer. Used home made compost too....

jacshill

Freya_Angel wrote: »

B****y Hell how do you only spend £50 per week? for 3 of us I spend over £300 sometimes £400. My kids love fruit I must spend £150 per week on fruit alone.I would like to know your secret

Freya

I've gone for the own brand cheaper stuff at the supermarkets. Also stuck to the basics eg. we alway have apples, oranges and bananas. cut back on the berries this year, just too expensive. the bf hates own brand stuff. i take it out of the packet and put it in the fruit bowl before he notices!

juliapenguin

EagerLearner wrote: »

Hi all,

Mr EL and I spend on average £35 a week on shopping, to include cleaning materials etc.

I wondered if any other couples out there wanted to join this challenge to save some money? Singles are also most welcome - you can use the recipes to make double the food you need and freeze the rest.

We could post meal plans, ideas and tips for cheapest but nutritious meals for two people.

I have a spreadsheet where I have placed various meals we make regularly, and worked out the cost, so I know roughly which meals are cheapest but would love your suggestions so we can all save even more.

Any money we save will go into our ISA where our flat deposit sits in waiting for the day when hell freezes over and we can afford a mortgage...

Any takers? :T

PS: If you do list a recipe, please clearly show:

Ingredients needed
Approx cost for all ingredients
How many portuions the batch makes
Cost for 1 portion (needing 2 for both to eat)

Dear EL

Good luck today. My Mum (aged 82) was absolutely screwed by a landlord who had been nice as pie to her throughout her tenancy - my blood boils just to think about it. I don't know how some people sleep at night.

Julia

juliapenguin

kitaj wrote: »

Bubble & squeak (45p for a value cabbage, 20p for onions same for potatoes - buy a huge bag from farmer) serves 4 - add value cheese or value bacon if I'm flush. Casserole made from layers of potatoes, tomatoes, cheese, with herbs serves 4 for under £1. Mixed bean casserole using dried beans, soaked, plus 2 tins tomatoes, 2 onions - serves 4 for under a £1. Plus soup, soup and soup. The best way of getting cheap veg into the kids.....

We were very, very poor last year and spent less than £1 per person a day on food. No-one who's really poor buys parmesan or Greek yoghourt (I always make my own - sooo simple) or even mushrooms. All fish and meat comes from the reduced section and veg is limited to in season, non imported. A courgette costs 45p but a value cabbage or a cauli costs the same and makes far more food. Value tomatoes are the godsend of frugal eaters, along with dried beans and eggs. Pancakes make a great cheap special treat - you can make loads with flour, dried milk and water and an egg, with a lemon and sugar filling....

Hello

Funny, though, isn't it, that you were probably eating a lot better than people spending four times as much on food.

We've cut our food bills to 25% of their original amount over the last couple of months and are eating better than ever before, just by using a bit of imagination!

How right you are about Value tomatoes!!

Julia:o

Cazzdevil

OH made "tuna surprise" last night which consisted of:

Pasta - 10p (we buy the HUGE bags from Asda)
Pesto - 25p
Garlic - 2p
Red onion - 6p
Mushrooms - 15p
Green pepper - 20p
Tin value tuna - 29p
Dollop fromage frais - 8p
Scattering of cheese - 10p
Tomato puree - 5p

Total: £1.30 for 2 + enough left over for my lunch!

65p a portion ain't bad.

We had a cheapy garlic bread with it too, although we can make a really tasty garlic bread for about 35p

newlywed

Freya_Angel wrote: »

B****y Hell how do you only spend £50 per week? for 3 of us I spend over £300 sometimes £400. My kids love fruit I must spend £150 per week on fruit alone.I would like to know your secret

Freya

Let me guess, you shop in Marks and Spencers and buy strawberries, cherries, grapes etc??

I used to spend £40+ a week in M&S just on "posh" fruit for me only :eek:. Now I eat more veg with my meals (veg works out cheaper) and just eat cherries and strawberries when they are on half price offer.

The rest of the time we have bananas, apples and oranges, tinned fruit, dried fruit and jars of cherries for cooking with. Grapes are an occasional treat.

We have all been healthy and as we are eating healthy home-cooked meals with lots of veg we have been healthier than ever.

scaryfairy

This is a recipe my mum used to make and DH and I love it but unfortunately not the kids! Its Salmon Bake!

I small tin of salmon - about 40p?
I med onion - about 5p
Breadcrumbs from freezer - 10-15p
sml bunch fresh parsley - free from garden!
melted marge -about 10-15p's worth. I buy the large tubs for about £1.30 from supermarket and use it for baking and dishes like this -
S&P

Mix salmon, finly chopped onion, breadcrumbs and parsley in a bowl, pour some melted marge (or butter if you prefer/can afford) and season. Not too much fat (otherwise its greasy) put into an ovenproof dish and bake at gas 5 (190C) for about 20 minutes until crunchy on top. You can either serve with a salad (again mostly from garden) or if you are very hungry spuds. I sometimes make an onion or cheese sauce to have with this. It is really delicious and everyone i have made it for has licked their plates clean. Lots of people (me incl.) have lots of spices/herbs in their cupboards - I got a really yummy bag of Italian seasoning in Aldi and I sometimes put some of that in too - yum!!!

Last night i had Pasta with Quorn, which was basically 100gms of Quorn (bought when on special offer as usual!) cooked with a chopped onion, a chopped carrot, 1/4 of a yellow pepper and 1/4 tin of sweetcorn with about a 1/3 of a jar of leftover pastasauce and a dash of chilli sauce, served with 150gm of cooked pasta and i had about 2/3's for dinner and the rest for lunch today with 1/3 tin of baked beans mixed in and it was really yummy. I find it a lot easier to eat cheaply as a veggie than with meat although I love meat too!

We discovered the joys of Aldi and Lidl when we lived in Germany for 5 1/2 years and continued to go there when we moved back to the UK. I love the tinned tomatoes with herbs from Aldi - 23p. DH is away at the moment but when he is here he gos to Tesco about 8pm or near closing time and gets lots of bargains like reduced bread (5-10p per loaf) etc which is brillant!

I shall definitely be making nearly all the recipies featured on this thread. Not only do they sound good for body but good for purse too!!! Result!!:rotfl:

Ants

Linda32

Hello all,

Can I join in too

These only two of us here, I did the grocery challenge last month and came in at £267.00 for four weeks.

We both take packed lunches to work. I havn't got any receipes to post as yet as we go to OH's parents on alternate Thursdays and they do us supper so we don't really have "tea" on Thursday.

I'll go and read through this thread now to see how it works.

Edited to add, I somtimes cook from scratch and somtimes I don't so, it will be interesting to see how much the difference is when buying ready made. I know these more to it than cost, but if I do use a ready made meal I'll put the brand as well.