wise people help me please

cateerob

due a problem with tax credit office, my expected payment did not go in today, so until next Wednesday I have £16.50 to feed myself and the two teenagers, im sure this can be done, any ideas on what to buy and cheap recipes would be gratefully received, I get my tax credits monthly and was planning a big shop so cupboards are a bit bare but this is what we have in the house now.

Rice (enough for one meal for three of us)
Half a packet of pasta
one tin of beans
passata jar
pesto (only my daughter likes this but needs must)
one tin of tuna
jar of hunters chicken sauce
one block of cheese
new potatoes
8 eggs
peanut butter
about 1/2 pint of milk
a bag of salad


in the freezer
8 sausages
ice cream
peas
one garlic bread
enough oven chips for a meal for teenagers
one loaf of bread

I am not worried about breakfast we have some cereal and porridge oats, my son wont eat cereal so he can have peanut butter on toast or just toast but I need to do lunch and dinner for at least the teenagers I am happy to skip a meal it if I have to. I also need to get cat food and cat litter but Tesco value cat litter is £1.89 and I can get then value 79p food for a few days, im sure the hamster has food, she could do with cleaning out but will survive until next week if I cant get sawdust.

So point me in the right direction people, I know I will need more bread and milk but what else should I buy and where? The reduced food at end of day is not very good here, I will go and get some cheap bread if I can but its a bit hit and miss and crowds waiting for it.

should add I am within walking distance of Tesco, Iceland, co-op and nisa at a push Morrison, no car and no money for bus this week


thank you

kacie

Do you have any flour, sugar, herbs spices that kind of thing?

I'm not too good at this kind of thing but I'm sure someone will come along and great you some ideas.

nad33m

I do not think there is any need for you to skip any meals, you can buy enough food with the £16.50 added to the food you already have to last you the week.

My advice would be to identify what your children will definitely eat so no food will go to waste. If they are really fussy and do not finish something you can make a meal out of left overs for yourself.

Once you have made a list of foods, say for instance will they eat noodles? I know those packet noodles (10p a pack ones) are abit unhealthy (deep fried) but they pack calories and are cheap, use for emergency food.

You can get store brand bread for 50p a loaf, brown or white, and Danish too. You can get Tesco white mini baps for 3.3p a bap, 12 for 40p. You can also get pitta breads for 30p for 6, to make mini pizzas with the cheese you already have.

If you are lucky enough to have teenagers that eat veg then you can buy a bag of broccoli for £1 (1kg) that go along way on the side of the plate added to each meal. And very healthy for you too. You can get 1kg of frozen mix veg for £1 too, as well as brussell spouts, sweet corn, and cauliflower.

You can get store brand pasta really cheap like 40p a packet that would last 2 or 3 meals. And Tesco Everyday Value Long Grain Rice 1Kg for 40p!

You can buy a bag of 2.5kg potatoes for around £1.80 to make homemade chips and jacket potatoes. And/Or you can try canned potatoes for around 20p, I find them perfectly acceptable, as are canned carrots at 25p a can, and marrowfat peas 20p a can.

Buy tomato puree to add to your recipes (35p a tube of 200g) instead of actual tomatoes as they are expensive.

Buy canned kidney beans for 20p a can, to make chilli or curry. or to add to soup or as a side dish. Buy store brand baked beans for 28p a can, I cannot taste any difference really compared to the top branded name.

It will be a mainly vegetarian diet, with the meat added rather than meat diet with veg added.

This blog really inspired me last week http://agirlcalledjack.com/category/below-the-line-budget-recipes/ about a woman and her child living on little money.

ditsykitchen

Tesco do kilo bags of rice for 40p. And pasta for about 40p. Visit the website A Girl Called Jack and have a look at her recipes, all under £1. You could make a big spanish omelette with the eggs, potatoes and some cheese. Serve with the salad. Sausage & bean casserole is cheap too. I advise you go down to Tesco and get yourself:
Value rice - 40p
Value onions - 63p
A couple of tins of value kidney beans - 21p per tin
Some cartons of value passata (pureed tomatoes) - 29p each
Value penne pasta - 29p
Value spaghetti - 19p
Some mince (I'm veggie so no idea how much it is)

Cook a BIG batch of tomato sauce and a BIG batch of mince. From this, you can adapt it to the following:
Bolognese from both
Chilli from both
Tomato pasta (add a scoop of pesto to the tom sauce, serve with penne)
Mince and dumplings
Add spices to the sauce and make a mince curry.
Cook the sausages in the sauce and make a sausage casserole

Scratch cooking is key to making a small budget like this stretch whilst still eating decent grub

jpscloud

Mr T's Value rice is 40p (if memory serves) for a kilo, so that might be a good bulk food to get.

I'm not the most OS person around (I like to dabble though), so I'll leave those suggestions to others, but very MSE if you like them are the supermarket instant noodles - ranging from about 11p upwards per pack. They're lovely comfort food and you could add a handful of the peas with them.

I'd have a browse of the value products in each of the big supermarkets and go get the stuff that appeals. There is a thread on here (I'm rubbish at searching, sorry) which is something like "which value products are worth buying" and that might be worth a look so you can avoid the nasty stuff. I recommend Mr T's value shortbread fingers!

Mr T's frozen value fish fingers are 60p for 10, I like them with the instant noodles for a very non-OS but very MSE feast.

I wish you the very best of luck for the week.

cateerob

thanks you all ,

I will get some mince and make a big sauce, the bloody teenagers eat loads, so will do a spag, bol, maybe a chilli and a pasta bake, from the mince and sauce. (thurs/fri/sat) we can have omelette and salad tonight, sausage and chips on Monday so only Tuesday to worry about and then it will be pesto and pasta the teenage boy will eat it if he hungry. If it was school holidays I wouldn't worry as they get free school dinners and breakfast club. So I just need to sort out some lunch and snacks for them, I could make flapjacks with the oats if I get some syrup. normally I have a stock of tins and stuff in freezer but been a bit skint recently and we have run them down I must start stocking up again.

oh I forgot Sunday but maybe that can be leftovers, or with luck their dad will take them for the day

ditsykitchen

cateerob wrote: »

thanks you all ,

I will get some mince and make a big sauce, the bloody teenagers eat loads, so will do a spag, bol, maybe a chilli and a pasta bake, from the mince and sauce. we can have omelette and salad tonight, sausage and chips on Monday so only Tuesday to worry about and then it will be pesto and pasta the teenage boy will eat it if he hungry. If it was school holidays I wouldn't worry as they get free school dinners and breakfast club. So I just need to sort out some lunch and snacks for them, I could make flapjacks with the oats if I get some syrup. normally I have a stock of tins and stuff in freezer but been a bit skint recently and we have run them down I must start stocking up again.

Tesco do value golden syrup too for less than £1

cateerob

just been looking at some of these prices, the cheapest I get potatoes for is £2.50 and the value noodles in my Tesco are 40p, I think in need to move out of London.

ditsykitchen

cateerob wrote: »

just been looking at some of these prices, the cheapest I get potatoes for is £2.50 and the value noodles in my Tesco are 40p, I think in need to move out of London.

I got my prices off Tesco's website. A kg of value potatoes is 60-odd p. Shocking you have to pay so much!

cateerob

but I do only have a Tesco metro near me, maybe that's why, will shop around, I used to buy the value chicken noodles for my daughter she loves them, but last week they went up from 28p to 40p, so I didn't, wish i had now.

jpscloud

That's dreadful cateerob - haven't they got a nerve with those prices. Can you get to a big Asda or something? They do cheapie noodles too (smart price).