How do people feed families on £40 a week?

MavisTheMaven

SandA wrote: »

I tried to make my own sauce but to be honest it tasted disgusting.
I added a good quality tinned tomatoes, beef stock cube, garlic clove, peppers, onion and slow cooked in my slow cooker for around 6 hours, and although it did taste bolognaisey, it was just missing something. I found that buying jars just end up being cheaper but I then have the issue of buying other food for the LO since he can't eat jar food because of the salt.

You need to fry off the garlic and onion in olive oil first, to bring out the flavours. I keep dead cheap red and white wine boxes just to add a spash of wine to sauces or risottos, that's what makes them taste good. Jarred sauces often contain tons of sugar, too, perhaps that's what you're missing? As regards salt, lemon juice is a good way of adding flavour instead.
As regards to saving money, I find that learning to cook ethnic well Indian, Chinese, Thai Etc) is much cheaper and less bland than English food which relies so much on big meat servings and potatoes, both of which are expensive now. Make some Indian friends and pester them for recipes. I shared a house with an Indian girl, she made the most amazing curries for little money. I then worked in China where meat is only a condiment and tofu is used more often. And remember a sack of rice goes much further than a sack of spuds.
So we eat lots of curries, rice dishes etc - really tasty and inexpensive.

quintwins

SandA wrote: »

I tried to make my own sauce but to be honest it tasted disgusting.

I added a good quality tinned tomatoes, beef stock cube, garlic clove, peppers, onion and slow cooked in my slow cooker for around 6 hours, and although it did taste bolognaisey, it was just missing something. I found that buying jars just end up being cheaper but I then have the issue of buying other food for the LO since he can't eat jar food because of the salt.

My issue is taking my OH with me I think, I go to pick up value range stuff and he throws a strop in the middle of the store. I just entered next weeks shopping on Asda groceries and I have managed to get it too £53 including £7.99 formula and kitchen towels, is that fairly good? I opted for more of Asda's range instead of brands. I am going to get myself to Aldi or Lidl and see what I can do there. I suppose those shops just have a taboo and I'm not sure why since my mother used to buy there crisps and chocolate bars and I always thought they were nice.

I have heard there fruit and veg is very nice too, and the best around claims my mother so I will go there. Can anyone vouch for there meat and staple foods? I guess I am worried that since the meat is so cheap the welfare must be poor, can anyone inform me correctly about this? am I just led to believe meat should be that expensive because of Tesco's prices? I have noticed there meat has gone up significantly. I used to get 500g of chicken breast for £4 but I can never seem to find it at that price now.

Thanks

I always taste my sauce as it's cooking, jars have loads of salt and sugar added which is why you couldn't match the taste but a spoon ful of honey will soon sort that out i use the cheap tomatoes in mine to keep the cost down and sometimes they can be abit bitter.

We don't have aldi over here but lidl do organic and free range meat, ofcourse they do lower welfare meat, i would suggest your butcher if i'm honest, ours does a £10 meat pack which has 3 chicken breasts, 4 pork chops, 1lb of mince, 1lb of sausages and 1lb of burgers (which is 6) you can swap 2 items out so i swap my chicken breasts and sausages as another butcher does sausages at £1 for a lb the burgers are made with lean mince and really really yummy, I buy my chicken breasts wholesale from a local butcher than sells to resurants, it costs £18 for 5kg which is 22-24 breasts but they are massive, hubby has joked they must be turkey they have no water added so don't shrink, 2 of them does the 5 of us, me and hubby share one and the kids share one,i freeze them in 3's and then i can do roast dinner with 2 and one for sandwichs or casarole, we only need 1 in a casarole so much better value than supermarkets, i picked up 4 chicken breasts reduced to 44p in tesco awhile back and we couldn't even eat them compared to ours they were dry and bland, yet full price they were twice the price of ours and smaller. Makro and costco do similar chicken in similar containers but i like knowing where mine came from and it's acually slightly cheaper at the local place (last time i checked it was £22 in makro for the same weight)

SandA

I have visited a few local butchers and have found there meat is double the price. I have also tried to find a farm shop for eggs, potatoes etc and google doesn't really tell me much. I found a website from a farmshop with some prices on and they were more expensive then the supermarkets. Don't suppose anyone is from Derby / Nottingham area that can recommend a butchers that isn't double the price and a decent farm shop?

quintwins

I do find butchers generally dearer, but most do meat packs at a discounted rate (i've yet to find one who doesn't do meat packs) so you buy your weeks meat at once, even if it is dearer it has less added to it and is less likely to shrink so may still work out at better value.

Oh also my youngest never had jars (the 2 before him were twins and to be fair i was abit overwelmed) which is why i started cooking from scratch so he could eat our foods, there is nothing we eat that a baby can't (with the exception of chinese) we made a point of buying reduced salt gravy and i rarely add salt to cooking anyway.

Do you have a food processor? if so i recommend making your own pies soooo much cheaper than shop bought and again you know whats in it so theres no reason your child can't eat it
http://frugalincornwall.blogspot.co.uk/2012/08/put-lid-on-it-frugal-pies.html

And for the record i can't make rubber chicken last more than 2 meals and i hate homemade stock, but i can make a pork shoulder roast last, i buy these when supermarkets have them on offer and usually split a £10 one into 3 and then it does us 2 meals (usually one as roast and one as pulled pork, or one as pulled pork and 2 pies.

All_the_reasons

sassyblue wrote: »

Couple of bits of leftover bread, an onion and herbs from the garden (freeze them to use over winter although sage is fine to use even now from outside) wouldn't cost too much more, and be healthier than freeze dried stuffing. I use olive oil to bind and save on the egg - but let the mix marinade together first maybe with a drop of water to get it wet.

Just an idea OP

I do exactly the same thing......... I make two sorts as I can't have much gluten.

I do various fillings, apple, lemon & parsley, cranberry, chestnut or varying combinations.
My kids prefer it to packet rubbish (well they use another word lol)
Like you I also use olive oil.

SandA

I couldn't grow my own herbs sadly as I dont have the grass space also my landlord requires permission for everything, including putting nails in the walls!

I think I did got robbed for the stuffing as I have found a smaller packet for much cheaper. The one I bought this week I dropped half of it on the floor!

xx

quintwins

SandA wrote: »

I couldn't grow my own herbs sadly as I dont have the grass space also my landlord requires permission for everything, including putting nails in the walls!

I think I did got robbed for the stuffing as I have found a smaller packet for much cheaper. The one I bought this week I dropped half of it on the floor!

xx

You grow herbs in post on the windowsill no need for a garden or premission pain about the stuffing, i use value 15p stuffing to make stuffing balls or add to meatloaves (i think it's too wet for proper stuffing) and it tastes just as nice as if i added homemade, you can use value/smart price/basic herbs in stuff which are only 19p

MavisTheMaven

All_the_reasons wrote: »

I do exactly the same thing......... I make two sorts as I can't have much gluten.

I do various fillings, apple, lemon & parsley, cranberry, chestnut or varying combinations.
My kids prefer it to packet rubbish (well they use another word lol)
Like you I also use olive oil.

I buy puff pastry when I see it on yellow sticker, can then make lovely pasties out of leftover bits of cheese and some onion. Can freeze it till you need it.

Veggie sausages make great sausage rolls as well - buy them when they go on offer for £1 a packet.

SandA

Oh silly me!

How much are the herbs? Feeling silly now...

quintwins

SandA wrote: »

Oh silly me!

How much are the herbs? Feeling silly now...

Poundland do a pack of 6 (i think) mixed herbs or lidls are 29p a packet, if your interested chillies grown well on a windowsill aswell, strawberries are good in hanging baskets, and you can grown pretty much anything in a big pot you don't need loads of space, peas are super easy to grown and you see results quickly (my kids love shelling peas it i abit of 1 in the bowl 2 in my mouth tho :rotfl:)