Cheapest recipies.

mrs_skint

Brilliant BB thanks very much for that! Quite looking forward to it now!!

betterlife

dont forget you can bulk thinks out with lentils, porridge oats and grated veg perfect for cottage pies, spag bol and lasagna, soups and stews. some butchers will sell you stock bones if you ask! bulk cook it seems to make things stretch that bit futher, so if you cook a curry for this week make a little extra and freeze for next week. i noticed today coop sells turkey mince for £1 (mine where reduced to 69p) perfect for spag bol, cot pie, meatballs, pies, meatloaf etc and healthier. try shopping at your local supermarkets between 4.30-6pm they tend to do there final reductions at this time. alot of people on here freeze whole sandwiches so if you spot reduced bread and meat make your sandwiches for the week and freeze. buy reduced joints of meat and poultry to cook and slice for lunch. alot of basic cleaning stuff is great, basic toilet roll is great if you have young kids as it doesnt block the toilet so easily if you dont have local markets where you can buy f & v try carboot sale ones near my sell eggs, meat aswell. or take a drive in the country you may find a farm with a sign saying they sell veg and eggs, i bought 50kg of farm potatoes a month ago paid £10 such a savings on supermarket prices and there estima! i also by local free range organic duck eggs £1 for 6 there yummy. its suprising what you can do with £50 when you nuckle down, i spend between £40-£60 per week for 2 adults and 4 kids (2,4,6,9) my husbands a fisherman so thats pretty cover and we also furrage i have a freezer full of apples and blackberries. good luck

msb5262

Hello OP,
I think Cravendale is great too but I only buy about one 4 pint bottle every fortnight - the ordinary supermarket milk is fine so I keep the Cravendale as my back-up milk for when the rest is gone, as Cravendale keeps noticeably longer in the fridge. You might try this too - also try using dried skimmed milk in place of fresh when milk is required in cooking.
HTH
MsB

LindseyandMatthew

Hiya

I have £150 per month for 2 adults and 2 kids including cleaning stuff and toiletries so will watch this thread with interest as we are on a low wage and can't stretch to any more

cobbingstones

I feel really ashamed that I spend why too much on the shopping. I will keep watch and take notes!

bluebag

Best wishes to all who are trying to feed a family on a very limited budget.

My life has been a mish mash of pure poverty,well off (and stupid at the time LOL) not too bad, fairly comfortable, back to poor and round that track a few times and some more for giggles.

It's interesting tho'
Keep the faith!

mrs-stressed

I find that when I go to Tesco I look at everything around a £1 and under!! I eat mashed potato, baked potato, chip potato any old potato. I eat Value bacon and cheap cabbages. That is actually quite a tasty meal - and then bubble and squeak the next day. I make cornish pasties out of left over savoury mince. I make scotch eggs - they are far nicer than bought ones anyway - its good using up sale bread as well. I dont tend to eat much meat as its too dear. Poultry is good and the turkey drumstick is huge and is cheap.

My neighbour who is in the same boat as all of us lot gave me a huge bag of horse carrots - nothing wrong with them at all. They just werent uniform EU size and shape. Also an enormous bag of spuds she had managed to get for under £2. Now that was thrifty shopping! Gratefully received I can tell you!

I do miss avocados though! They are so dear but I love them. When I deserve a treat I shall get one and savour it to the last bite.......LOL

Mrs s

valk_scot

sarah1972 wrote: »

£50 for a family of 4 including cleaning products, I do double that and there is only 2 of us :eek:

I can do it, for 2 adults, kids of 14 & 9 and two cats. I don't have to do it atm however but I haven't gone back to spending £100 per week either. On your sort of spending ratio I'd be looking at perhaps £150-£200 per week!!! :eek: What in heavens name are you buying???

valk_scot

Oh yes, forgot. I'm meant to make suggestions, no? Well, meal planning, cooking most things from scratch, lots of meals based round little or no meat, sticking to the shopping list you made for your meal plan and carrying the shopping budget in cash rather than using cards all helps. But as an exception to this I do either carry a spare £10 or my debit card just in case I find a bargain that's too good to miss in the Woopsies or whetever.

For toiletries your local discount food shops like B&M or Home Bargains are good for branded toiletries, cleaning products and stuff like loo roll. Stardrops and vinegar clean most things. For cheap dishwashing tablets, try Lidl, they're very good for a very low price, and cut tablets in half. I'm not good with Value type shampoo and conditioner but soap is soap, mostly, as is shower gel etc. If the family moan about the latter buy one bottle of posh stuff and refill it with Value brand. The kids and I all have long hair and get through a lot of shampoo and conditioner but I only ever buy it on BOGOF, I look out for it in the reduced to clear areas and if we make a mistake on type then my Hubby gets to use it up on his No2 crew cut, or I use it for handwashing woolies. Washing powder is whatever is on offer and I bulk buy cheap deals. I live in a soft water area so don't use conditioner.

For cat food dry is cheaper than tinned or pouches. My cats like One which is a premium type but by being careful about portion size I don't waste it, I buy it when the big bags are £11 rather than £15 and a bag lasts me most of a month for the two of them. They get suitable kitchen scraps for treats and variety. They're indoor cats so I do have to buy litter. Currently Sainsburys own Basic brand at £1.25 per bag is the best deal and gives two litter changes. If I'm feeling really skint I run newspaper through the shredder and mix it with the litter to make it stretch further.

For meals I make a lot of soups and filling puddings in the winter and we regularly have a soup and pudding only night. The rest of the time I use a lot of seasonal vegetables and cheaper ingredients like beans, pulses and pasta, with meat more as a flavouring ingredient rather than the main feature. I do buy a chicken most weeks but a good big one like the Sainsburys £5 monster chicken easily lasts us for three days of meals (roast dinner, curry or sweet n' sour, risotto or stir fry) plus soup and scraps for the cats. I buy the 1.2Kg packs of back bacon from Lidl, for £4.49....nice bacon, good flavour and not watery so it's a great ingredient food. Current winter favourite is a big potato and onion bake with chopped bacon, topped with a cheesy sauce and served with buttered savoy cabbage. Another favourite is corned beef stovies which only needs one tin of corned beef for a potful.

I buy cheese in bulk when it's on good offer or reduction, grate it and freeze it in half pound bags. I use dried milk for baking and sauces because you really can't tell the difference between it and fresh there. I use block Stork marg for baking rather than butter or soft marge...it's a lot cheaper, has a good taste and nice texture. If I buy eggs (my neighbour keeps chickens so I only buy eggs n winter) I usually get the bigger boxes of 15 or 18 ungraded size "family" eggs, but still free range. Sainsburys currently sell these boxes of 15 for £2.49 which is not as cheap as Value eggs of course, but it's a good price for free range.

I bake all my own bread and have recently bought a cheap Tesco breadmaker which turns out perfectly okay basic loaves. Bread flour in Lidl is currently around 60-70p for 1.5kg and this makes three loaves so with other ingredients and electricity it's about 30p per med loaf, for white bread. Own brand value flour is very cheap and I make scones, tea cakes ect with Value mixed fruit for snacks and packed lunches. Puddings include things like lemon or golden syrup sponge pudding, rice pudding, pineapple upside down cake, pear and chocolate sponge upside down cake. We all adore golden syrup, lol, so this gets into a lot of puddings and also over ice cream! Once again, Value type jars of this are a lot cheaper than branded.

Kids and Hubby take packed lunches, I eat any leftovers, or have soup. Hubby quite often takes "snack pots" of leftovers as he has a microwave at work. The kids get sandwiches...egg or tuna mayonnaise, chicken and sweetcorn mayo, mashed sardines in tomato sauce, grated cheese and tomato etc are all good cheap HM fillings. Piece of fruit, piece of cake or scone or teacake, fruit juice in a bottle (none of these one-shot cartons!), air popped popcorn if they want a crunchy nibble.

For snack foods we have cereal, bread, peanut butter, fruit, milk etc. I rarely buy shop biscuits ,crisps, cakes or fizzy drinks. I do buy sugar free diluting squash though and I do knock up the odd batch of biscuits or muffins. Still a lot cheaper than buying junk.

ETA: Portion control!! Either make exactly the amount you need, or make extra to freeze, or plan meals that will deal with leftovers. Don't have tons of half eaten food lying around...either the family will just graze it up because it's there or you'll end up throwing it out. Use scales or measures to check what you're cooking and you'll soon get the hang of it. It's astonishing how much you don't need to make, actually.

In short, I watch what I'm doing with the cash and keep to a few general principles and that helps keep the spending down. I currently spend about £300 per month on four of us plus cats, for all food, toiletries and cleaning materials and that's without really trying too hard to cut back. I'd have to try harder to get it to £50 per week, but that's not light years from where we are now.

zippychick

I've merged this with our cheapest recipes thread

These links (stolen from Pink) may also help

Cheapest recipes???

Meal for two for 50p. Suggestions?

The Cheapest Healthy Meal Ever!

Feed 6 for £1.62

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Your Cheapest Evening Meal.

cheap, easy family meals

Zip