Cheapest recipies.

Pink.

Hi tracey,

These older threads should help to give you some ideas too. If you search through the board you'll find lots more threads on cheap meals but there are too many for me to list here.

Feed 6 for £1.62

Cheapest meal

Your Cheapest Evening Meal.

cheap budget meals !

My favorite Cheap Meals

Cheap meals

Pink

MrsTinks

Firstly do as has already been suggested and post a list of what you have in already
Then make a list of things you HAVE to buy this month - things like the £10 to your mum etc - anything that is NOT food! And let's see exactly what you have left. Do you need to buy toiletries like deodorants, shampoo and so on then add them to the list of things you need to buy.
Onec you know what you have left moneywise then my suggestion is to take 5 glass jars - one for each week and a "treat" jar. So if say you have £90 left then £20 goes into each jar (mark them Week 1, week 2 etc and the last "treats") and £10 in the treat jar. If you need to buy something it comes out of the relevant jar and the change goes back in. At the end of the week the change left over gets tipped into the "treat" jar. Any non-essentials get bought from this jar - so that's icecreams, bottle of wine and so on and even bogofs that were NOT on your shopping list! Non essentials.
When you can SEE the money then it's easier to stay focussed - it's easier to stick to the menu plan and to help yourself make a shopping list. Anything you need must go on the list so you keep track!
If you think you can be diciplined enough then you can do "big shos" - and do them online if you can... there are usually valid codes for Tesco on the vouchers board that will give you free delivery or £X off your shopping that equates to free delivery and a few quid of your total

oldMcDonald

Brilliant advice posted above, as usual

Follow the advice given and DON'T PANIC!! It's a little like a diet, the moment you panic and think ' bum, I've gone over so I may as well give up', you will start over spending just because you feel like you failed.

Tracey04

would love to manage on £25 a week or really less than that?. Can this be done.There is 2 young boys and me
I need 5Breakfasts, 6 lunches and 5 teas and puddings ( they are at Grandmas the other days so its just me for teas etc on my own)
Treats have always been just that treats and they dont have cordial etc only tap water
love someone to help me cos Im getting in such a mess and keep burying my head in the sand.

What about cleaning stuff and toiletries? can this be included somewhere in the amount.

I have almost used everything up in the cupboards and freezers, never thought that would happen as I had a shelf just full of tinned tomatoes!

please please can someone give me some guidance, Im sinking in this mess more and more, thats what I get from living beyond my means and listening to hype that £10 shampoo is really that good. Are cheap versions (of anything) really rubbish - sorry dont mean to offend anyone, just thought they put rubbish ingredients and subsatances into them.

In the new year started with all homemade cleaning stuff but got well muddled up what was for what, so could someone re-cap me on that.

Much appreicated. Tracey

Cazzdevil

What's a typical meal for you? I mean if you had fully stocked cupboards then what kinds of things do you normally cook and what "versions" of ingredients do you usually buy (value/mid-range/expensive).

This will probably give everyone a good indication of what areas you could make cuts in or what skills/gadgets might help you save the most.

Plum_Pie

Thread of meals for 2 adults for 50p max:

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=326929&highlight=50p+meals

katglasgow

Hi Tracey, I am maybe not as expert as sime of the old hands on here, but I saw you hadnt had a reply yet so I though I'd start off!I spent a little more than this (£30) but could def. reduce my budget if I had too. I try to keep breaksfast and lunch cheap and filling: Supermarket own brands of breakfast cereals: shreddies, fruit and fibre, swiss museli, they all fill you up but cost c.£1 a box. Lunches are sandwiches, with ham or cheese or boiled eggs or homemade soup (always veggie so doesnt cost much). Sometimes we have a frenchstick with cheese and tomatoes for a treat! I dont bother much with sweet things or biscuits but always have boxes of raisins and some fruit (I buy big smart price bags of apples, pears, bananas and oranges). My husband thinks his packet of smart price choccie digestives is a treat!I have been really lucky and expermented with different supermarkets and times over the last year. I have found an Asda on my way home from work that reduces a lot of food down to nothing (25%) at about 5.30 on weekdays, so I try to pop in once or twice a month and stock up my freezer with meat and other "main meal" items. When I first started trying to money save I bought virtually anything with a yellow sticker, now I have a proper look and assess whether or not it really is a bargain and if it is something we would use.I buy a lot of smart price store cupboard items (flour etc..) and cleaning products - incl washing liquid for clothes and fabric conditioner and supermarket own brand shampoo and shower gel.Some cheap meals for us are: sausage casserole (from slow cooker menu on here), Homemade fish cakes, Pasta with HM tomato sauce, Baked poatoes with fillings, Reduced quiche with potatoes and veg, Puddings are yoghurts during the week and ice cream at the weekend.Karyn x

Pooky

Bulk cooking is the key to keeping your costs low - don't buy a smaller pack of anything just for one meal, buy the larger - normally better value one and make up several batches to freeze. Also try and menu plan so that you're getting the best of your left overs....one of our fav cheap dinners is Stomboli and potato wedges (reciepe for stomboli in the index), basically a portion of leftover bolognaise sauce or chilli, spread onto some pizza dough and folded to create a loaf - top with some cheese and bake - lovely sliced for lunch boxes too.

Tracey04

Thanks for answering so far I have a mix of products like we have value, tomatoes , whips,flour, but then heinz beans, cornflakes, margarine, bread,yorkshire tea, andrex toilet rolls(thinking about it most stuff is this expensive range)
mid range, can consist of other cereals, rice, pasta, crisps/biscuits, most canned things,
bold WP is mixed with very cheap one
Buy most of expensive range when on BOGOF.

meals are the usual, mostly made from scratch, tomato based sauces, mince dishes, casseroles, white and yellow fish.
ready made, may be a pizza, fish fingers, etc

sammy_kaye18

Hi Tracy - I feed my little family on £90 a month. My small family includes me, my 3 year old son, my bf, and my step son on weekends. We also have a jack russell and 3 terrapins which have £10 a month spent on them if that. (dog has big 10kg bag of gusto and any leftover scraps, terrapins are on special food which is £4.45 for a big tub and that lasts them fine). The £90 we budget has to feed me for 7 days (breakfast,lunch,dinner everyday) my 3 year old (breakfast,lunch,dinner everyday) my bf (breakfast,packed lunch,dinner everyday) step son (1 breakfast, 1 lunch,2 dinners depending on his stay).I agree that batch cooking helps us alot. I work in a local co-op 2 nights a week so at the end of my shift if veg is discounted i buy it and batch cook a big pot of soup up for myself to eat - basics are an onion, swede, a few carrots and chicken stock then add anything else you fancy. Also you could batch cook a basic tomato sauce and freeze portions of it and use it to either top a homemade pizza base, use with pasta, use in spaghetti bolognese, use on pasta, in chillis, casseroles maybe etc etcAlso i tend to look in the discounted section in my local tesco for any discounted meat cuts. If you catch them on the date you can still freeze them pretty well. Tesco at the minute have a deal on a big pack of 6 chicken breasts for £5 so i brought 2 packs and froze them in bags of 2, (my 3 year odl seems to be against meat for some perculiar reason) so there i have 6 meals for me and bf and chciken has a variety of uses. We even grill a few and store them in a box in the fridge and bf has that in sandwiches for work. Eggs are cheap and filling - you can use them for a variety fo things, you could try making homemade kids favourites like burgers etc - buy a cheap pack of mince (£1.49 for 800g tesco) add a little bit of chopped onion and an egg to bind it and if you make access you could freeze them for another day. the same counld apply to fish fingers - look out for reduced fish bits, make your own breadcrumbs and make fish fingers.There are plenty of ideas on here - id be happy to send you my typical monthly shopping list if you'd liek to see how ive managed it. Forgot to mention i find soem of the home brands (tescos own) nicer than soem of the big name brands - the cheaper brands ar emore budget friendly and theres not much difference in my opinion. The washing powder still washes as well, the beans still taste nice etc etc.