Feeding 1 adult and 2 children off barely nothing?

BitterAndTwisted

SunshineButterfly wrote: »

Also due to 40 minutes travelling home from school it's gone 4 by the time we get home so I don't always get time to cook big meals.

I know it's "judge not, lest ye be judged" but as your kids are out at school or nursery all day, I would have thought that any food-prep could be done before you go to pick them up in the afternoon.

Plus, I appreciate that you feel your choices are limited but most of the things on your shopping-list are ready-prepared/processed when it would be cheaper for you to cook simple but nutritious meals from scratch. Stop thinking "meat and fish" are needed for evening meals and start thinking "eggs, veg, pulses and beans".

I'd really recommend having a look at the cheap-family-recipes.org website for some inspiration for very inexpensive and easy recipes.

Oh, and ditch the wipes, UHT milk and fabric conditioner. These can be done without until the situation changes for the better.

lovefullshelves

Hello SunshineButterfly, just wanted to add my support, I remember whats its like to have a 'lovely' ex. I believe his words were 'I'll see you dead in the gutter before I pay you any maintainance'. All the clothes he bought for DD stayed at his. Thankfully that was 20 years ago!!
My personal favourite is a big bag of potatoes.
Potato wedges(I must stop calling them wedgies)
Cheese and potato pie(thats mainly mash with a hint of seasoning and cheese and its great with beans:D)
Baked potatoes and whatevers laying about topping
Mash with everything
Homemade chips,
Homemade crisps(use a potato peeler to get thin strips and soak in water then dry on a cloth so they don't stick together)
Potato gratin, nice with a sprinkling of streaky bacon or a chopped up leek.
I think we have potatoes in some form every other day!
I do like stodge though:D
Good luck sweetie x

(PS. My ex also cut all the water pipes into 3 inch segments, put a frozen chicken in my hot water tank, smeared car grease under electric cooker rings, put a frozen fish under back seat of my car, rewired the electric so there was no earth - zap-put a hole in water tank with a screwdriver. Yes he was annoyed with me before anyone says it! I'd taken away his free ride in life and he was not happy!!)

Thistle-down

If your town has a market, it's well worth going just as they start to pack things away. The £1 a bowl fruit/veg is almost always reduced to £1 for three bowls at our market.

The fruit/veg people at our market bin anything that doesn't look nice enough to sell. I saw a bin filled with carrots, cabbage, spinach and tomatoes behind a stall a few weeks ago. I asked if I could have some for my "goat", and they said sure, so I took two big bags. I'm now doing this weekly.

I had to cut a few bits off of some carrots but otherwise all was fine and I was able to make a tasty, nourishing soup for my family. I added porridge oats and lentils (and a few big handfuls of nettles I had picked) to the soup when cooking. There was enough to feed my family of four for two suppers (with stale bread made into garlic bread) and the leftovers for two lunches for my DH and I.

I told another very skint friend what I had done (thinking there was plenty in the bin and she might appreciate it) but she was horrified. I've been hungry many times and would rather be full than hungry and too proud to do something about it. If I wasn't willing to do things like this, we would have far less fresh fruit/veg in our diet.

asparagus1968

quintwins wrote: »

Don't buy flannels just cut up an old towel.

It's great you have a slowcooker heres my suggestions.

Porridge for breakfast. 75p

sandwichs for lunch (if you kids will eat it i'd go for houmous) bread 50p, houmous £1.

Soup for lunches aswell, carrots 70p, onions 69p, spuds 69p, stock cubes 20p, cook it all up and blend or mash it, if you cook all of this you shoudl have enough basic filling soup for the whole week and might not even need sandwichs.

Dinners

Get a packet of basic mince (asdas is £1.55 but it's beef and pork, tesco's is much nicer) split into 2.

Make one half into spag bol using onions above and a carron of passata 29p, serve with spagetti 19p.

Turn the other half into meatloaf using above onions and grated carrot 69p and a packet of stuffing mix 15p, serve with mash 69p and mixed veg 75p.

Make spagetti with mixed veg and mayo 42p (if you have olive oil and lemon juice you can do away with the mayo)

Get a packet of beef shin £1, make stew using the potatoes, carrots and onions from above, add gravy at the end 20p.

Make bean chilli, bakes beans 25p, kidney beans 27p and passta 29p, you can get a chilli spice mix for 32p if you have no spices in already, serve half of this with value rice 40p.

Put the rest of the bean chilli on baked potatoes the next day.

Snacks get a big bag of rasins for less than £1 and dish up in bowls, i'd also get £1 of bananas (this will get you around 8)

Box of smart price cornflakes are 46p and a bar of smart price chocolate is 30p so you can make a version of rice crispy buns as a treat, we make these all the time in our house with cornflakes.

Thats a week food for £13.08 with a decent amount of veg a small amount of fruit, not as much processed food and even some snacks.

Other than the rice and pasta this can all be cooked in the slowcooker saving on gas aswell and you won't need to cook when you get in.

Good luck whatever you decide to buy, i would say if you do decide on tinned items my children love value tinned pineapple and oranges which are much cheaper the fruit cocktail you listed.


Edit- everything i posted was asda value smart price. And you can make porridge with water which is why i didn't add milk, personally i would use milk if you can afford it but if you can't your children will most likely get some in school (mine drink milk 3 times a day in school) and encourage them to take yogurts as pudding in school.

wow that's good

Fruball

Fruball wrote: »

I've come up with a meal plan for an adult and 2 children of what I think are nice meals and there are plenty of nice treats too. Not sure how old the kids are?

I have done the 'shop' on MrT online

There isn't milk on the list as MrT is expensive but I can get 4 pints for £1 easily so would get it elsewhere.

This comes to £36.14 but you could easily leave out a couple of the treats and bring it down to under £36 which would allow for 16 pints of milk or if you are getting £42 you could get the milk and have almost £2 to spare


Breakfasts:

Bacon sandwich
Egg sandwich
Egg on toast
Toast and jam
Banana on toast

Lunches

Chicken fried rice and mixed veg
Chicken sandwich with mayonnaise
Egg mayonnaise sandwich
Crackers with cheese spread
Crackers or toast with pate

Dinners

Sausages (2 each) with new potatoes, peas and baked beans
Sausage Spag bol with tinned tomatoes and bit of onion
Turkey escalopes made with 1 egg, hm breadcrumbs and fried in butterserved with mixed veg and rice
Turkey and mixed veg thai red curry withrice
Chicken casserole with new potatoes and peas
Spaghetti with chopped bacon, onion, peas and cream for sauce
Kidney bean chilli with rice and peas


Desserts and snacks

Jelly
Chocolate swiss roll
Strawberry whip or chocolate mousse
Tinned fruit and custard
Ice Lolly
Crisps
Biscuits
Roasted drumstick or chicken wing
Chocolate
Bananas
Raisins
Squash or apple juice to drink

Shopping list

Meat deal is 3 for £10 so I chose the following items:
Quick cook turkey steaks 418g
10 Finest pork sausages 756g
16 rashers bacon 600g
I also added a Value roasting chicken £2.60
Country store peas 1kg 99p
Casserole veg £1.00
Value mixed frozen veg 75p
Value milk chocolate 30p
Thai red curry sauce £1.19
Value chilli sauce 57p
Value kidney beans 21p
Value spaghetti 19p
Oaktree baked beans 33p
East End tinned tomatoes 39p
Value jam 29p
Value tomato ketchup 28p
Value gravy granules 20p
Value rice 40p
Hartleys jelly 40p
Tesco Everyday value 8 fruit flavoured lollies 73p
Value strawberry whip 15p
Value tinned custard x 2 34p
Value tinned peaches x 2 64p
Value tinned mandarins x 2 38p
1kg seedless raisins £2.87 (Expensive and I would buy lots of tins of cheap tinned fruit instead but saw them on your list)
Value crackers 69p
Value custard creams 35p
Value multipack of 12 crisps 68p
Value mayonnaise 40p
Chicken stock cubes 15p
Value chocolate swiss roll
Value wholemeal bread x 2 94p
Value chocolate mousse 4 pack 19p
Fresh double cream 60p
1 onion 19p
6 bananas 73p
Brussels pate 65p
value eggs 6 pack 95p (I am sure you can source these cheaper)
Value cheese spread 49p
Kerrygold irish butter £1.25 (I will never compromise on butter but would spend 15p more on Lurpak!)
Value small potatoes 1kilo 69p
Sunsip summer fruits high juice £1.09
1 litre value apple juice 65p

Total = £36.14

BitterAndTwisted wrote: »

I know it's "judge not, lest ye be judged" but as your kids are out at school or nursery all day, I would have thought that any food-prep could be done before you go to pick them up in the afternoon.

Plus, I appreciate that you feel your choices are limited but most of the things on your shopping-list are ready-prepared/processed when it would be cheaper for you to cook simple but nutritious meals from scratch. Stop thinking "meat and fish" are needed for evening meals and start thinking "eggs, veg, pulses and beans".

I'd really recommend having a look at the cheap-family-recipes.org website for some inspiration for very inexpensive and easy recipes.

Oh, and ditch the wipes, UHT milk and fabric conditioner. These can be done without until the situation changes for the better.

Did you see my post above? Plenty of meat there for an adult and 2 kids for a week! Bacon, chicken, turkey (you could have had pork for the same price) pate and quality sausages. You could have more meat if you didn't want the treats!

scaredy_cat

do you have a foodbank near you? they should be able to help.

System

Get a packet of basic mince (asdas is £1.55 but it's beef and pork, tesco's is much nicer) split into 2.

Make one half into spag bol using onions above and a carron of passata 29p, serve with spagetti 19p.

or you could drain a couple of tins of baked beans and use the beans instead.

Fish pie made with fish fingers. Yep, ive been known to create that when my kids were little. Feeding 5 children and 2 adults wasnt easy..... not only that, that was the only way i could get my kids to eat fish.

Corned beef hash. Corned beef chopped and mashed into mashed potato. Serve with peas or whatever.

Cheese and potato pie. If you use mature cheese you wont need to add as much to taste. I wouldnt suggest you add butter to the mash as it will be a fat overload.

Egg, chips and peas. Mom cooked that regularly for me and my bro. You have the protein, carbs and vit c.

Dont forget sausages. Kids love sausages. I'd grill them or dry fry them to save the fat content.

If i can think of anything else i'll let you know.

honeythewitch

I think you had better not rely on the money coming through when it should, and just aim for being full on the least amount of money.
It wont be nutritionally balanced and is very boring but nothing dreadful will happen if it is only for a short time.

From Iceland..
40 fish fingers. £2
40 sausages. £2

Farm foods..
Three peas for £2 (or other vegetables but peas go with everything)

Lidl ..
7.5 kg bag of potatoes. ( Cook with the skin on for extra nutrition and to make them last longer)

Tesco...
Four wholemeal loaves. 47p each.
tesco sunflower spread 0.75.
15 eggs. £1.50

asda...
Lemon curd. 22p
jam. 29p
(these might be the same price in tesco)

The total is £14.70 and you should have quite a bit left over for the next week.
You might want to add oil for making chips, which would be between £1.50 and £3 (depending on chip pan/fryer size)

You would have the choice of egg on toast, scrambled, omelette boiled etc or the spreads on toast , maybe for breakfasts, and for lunch the spreads or egg or sausage sandwiches (even fish finger?)
and for the evening sausage mash or chips, egg and chips fish fingers chips/ mash etc all with peas.

Try to get a referral to the food bank before you run out completely in case it takes a while to go through.
Mention the electricity and gas situation to the social worker , and see if there is help.

All the suggestions so far have been very good and it is just a question of finding something to suit you and your circumstances and also what your children will eat.
I hope everything works out well for you and you manage to make it a happy time for you all despite the difficulties.
Best of luck, and please ask if you need more ideas or help.

K9sandFelines

Fruball wrote: »

Shopping list

Meat deal is 3 for £10 so I chose the following items:
Quick cook turkey steaks 418g
10 Finest pork sausages 756g
16 rashers bacon 600g
I also added a Value roasting chicken £2.60
Country store peas 1kg 99p
Casserole veg £1.00
Value mixed frozen veg 75p
Value milk chocolate 30p
Thai red curry sauce £1.19
Value chilli sauce 57p
Value kidney beans 21p
Value spaghetti 19p
Oaktree baked beans 33p
East End tinned tomatoes 39p
Value jam 29p
Value tomato ketchup 28p
Value gravy granules 20p
Value rice 40p
Hartleys jelly 40p
Tesco Everyday value 8 fruit flavoured lollies 73p
Value strawberry whip 15p
Value tinned custard x 2 34p
Value tinned peaches x 2 64p
Value tinned mandarins x 2 38p
1kg seedless raisins £2.87 (Expensive and I would buy lots of tins of cheap tinned fruit instead but saw them on your list)
Value crackers 69p
Value custard creams 35p
Value multipack of 12 crisps 68p
Value mayonnaise 40p
Chicken stock cubes 15p
Value chocolate swiss roll
Value wholemeal bread x 2 94p
Value chocolate mousse 4 pack 19p
Fresh double cream 60p
1 onion 19p
6 bananas 73p
Brussels pate 65p
value eggs 6 pack 95p (I am sure you can source these cheaper)
Value cheese spread 49p
Kerrygold irish butter £1.25 (I will never compromise on butter but would spend 15p more on Lurpak!)
Value small potatoes 1kilo 69p
Sunsip summer fruits high juice £1.09
1 litre value apple juice 65p

Total = £36.14

Some good suggestions, though smart price tinned potatoes are 19p and can be cut up to make chips, used as they are, or roasted.

quintwins

honeythewitch wrote: »

From Iceland..
40 fish fingers. £1
40 sausages. £1

I'm not trying to nitpick i'd just hate for someone to see this and go and then not be able to afford what they went to buy

Iceland fishfingers are £2 i acually got up and checked as i have some in my freezer, i still recommend them and the chicken nuggets tho, altho i do think fishfingers go further.

Also i'm pretty sure the sausages are in bags of 20, it has been along time since i bought them tho (perfectly fine for sausage casarole).