No idea how to get through the next month

HOWMUCH

M'sons currently have paper sacks of potatoes 12.5kg on special offer @£2
1.5kg basic carrots 90p
broccoli 49p
Pork joints half price £4.?? per kilo

Aldi 2.25kg Chicken £4.99

Cooking bacon S'burys 920g £1.19

Toad in the hole in filling, beans on toast.

Second making homemade soup and I try and get YS bread to go it. This week I've managed to get green olive bread reduced down to 15p from £1 at Asd'a

EstherH

I mentioned Mbaz's thread the other day and somebody bumped it for Crispycreme. It's definitely worth reading through. I couldn't resist going through it again and it is so inspiring. Loads of tips and it's amazing how she managed. It was actually just over three weeks, 24 days she had to manage and with what she had in and less than thirty pounds, she did it. She originally had twenty pounds to spend but sold something on ebay and did end up spending a bit more. I've not got to the end yet, but I'm sure I remember it being about twenty eight pounds. It was 2008 and we have had massive inflation since then but it does show that it can be done.

Esther x

hoglet121

Hi there crispycreme,

i've been in your position in the past and it really it really is possible to get through, keep positive - you can do it!

there are lots of tricks I've picked up from the boards over the years, so for what its worth here are my tips, although they may well have been covered by others:

mince goes a long long way when stretched with lentils etc - i know this has been mentioned before, but as you've said youre not a confident cook my tip is to really really brown the mince before you start adding anything else. this is how you get maximum flavour into your dish witout adding extra ingredients (and therefore expense). so leave the mince in the pan once it',s gone brown - waiting for the yummy crispy bits to appear, mix it up and wait again. then add the lentils, an whatever else. make sure you use the same pan to keep all the flavour in your dish. cheap meals are the order of the day but they dont need to taste like cheap meals

soups are fantastically filling, made from scratch from bones. add a potato or 2, especially any that need using up, and they will become so much more filling. a small handful or rice or pasta in the soup will mean you can eeeek that rice and pasta out through many more meals.

sausage pasta has got me though many short months. my trick is to use 1 sausage, grill it and slice it incredible thinly, like salami. i have fed 2 adults very comfortably doing this - DH thought I'd used the whole packet of sausages as there were so many pieces in the dish. this can easily be done with bacon too.

best of luck - keep up with the cooking. :-)

K9sandFelines

Few spends £4.32, £0.93 and £6.87 between C*-*p, Tesc* and M*rrisons. Will need milk today but shouldn't need anything else. Off to add to sig.

ampersand

Hello crispycreme -
just spotted your post and I assure you you'll sail through this and manage well.

Just a quick extra - fresh yeast is free at Tesco. Ask at the bakery counter. As much as sits in your hand easily makes 2 good big loaves.

You have your hands:-) you need nothing else. Your children will enjoy it too, given half a chance. Bread dough is very forgiving and knocking it back is always good for the soul. If your dough over rises, you just do this and let it rise again.

Add a bowl and flour, water and salt and a little walnut of fat/oil of some sort. Experiment with what you have. You'll become confident enough to add in extras - great way to use up bits of herb, tired veg., old olives, chopped onion, ancient cheese - anything you like. Mixing and kneading and pulling the dough is also very good for joints and fingers. You won't believe the lift it gives you:-)

Also, ask on Freecycle for any tins you think you need, or check out a carboot or charity shop for these.

Remember that you use twice as much fresh yeast as dried, if you are worried to see only one listed in a recipe.
Also, yeast can be frozen - just double the amount needed to use it.

Good luck and take a look here:#
http://www.channel4.com/4food/recipes/baking/bread/basic-white-rustic-loaf-recipe

Loads more if you google -
https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=basic+bread&rlz=1C1GGIT_enGB308GB353&oq=basic+bread&aqs=chrome..69i57j0l5.2323j0j9&sourceid=chrome&espvd=210&es_sm=122&ie=UTF-8

########

hoglet, that's a cracking post and then I see - another kiwi:-)
We are brought up to know these things...

hoglet121

Thanks ampersand! Must confess to being an expat Brit tho :-)

But a bit of kiwi ingenuity has sure rubbed off on me.... I once fed 4 adults (2 of which I'd invited over for dinner) from a bag of beef bones I got for a door or so and turned into hearty stew. They were entirely none the wiser, a few shreds of meat came along for the ride with the bones, and roasting them and then furkling them ooophed up the flavour enough to convince them all :-) the rest was onion, potato & frozen veg ;-)

Happyscrimper

I know what it's like to have to live on a tight budget.

Things I always keep in my cupboard at home are chopped tomatoes, passata, tomato puree, and kidney beans, as well as things like lentils or barley.

With the passata and paste you can make a very cheap and nice bolognaise sauce that you can also use for pizza sauce, topping for chicken parm, and a base for chili.

The basic tomato sauce is:
1 carton of passata, 1 container of puree, some italian herbs, salt and pepper to taste, 1-2 cloves of garlic and 1 onion(if you wish)
Put it all into a bowl, blitz it up with a hand mixer and add a pinch of sugar to take a bit of the acidity away.

After you have your basic sauce, you can add it to meat for spaghetti, you can add kidney beans, some cumin and chili powder for chili; or for chicken parm you get some cheap and cheerful breaded chicken patties, cook them up and once mostly cooked put the sauce and a bit of mozzerella on the top and cook til the cheese is melted. You can also use the base for making pizza if you wish.

Also, if you get a big bag of frozen sausages, you can make toad in the hole or a sausage casserole.

We find a mix of some meat from the big shop and a meat parcel from the butcher is the cheapest way to go, but i suppose it depends on the butcher. I have found chicken legs at my butcher are I think 90p each? But what i have found is don't stray too far from their meat parcels as then it can be quite dear.

I hope this helps and hope things get easier for you.

craigywv

Happyscrimper wrote: »

I know what it's like to have to live on a tight budget.

Things I always keep in my cupboard at home are chopped tomatoes, passata, tomato puree, and kidney beans, as well as things like lentils or barley.

With the passata and paste you can make a very cheap and nice bolognaise sauce that you can also use for pizza sauce, topping for chicken parm, and a base for chili.

The basic tomato sauce is:
1 carton of passata, 1 container of puree, some italian herbs, salt and pepper to taste, 1-2 cloves of garlic and 1 onion(if you wish)
Put it all into a bowl, blitz it up with a hand mixer and add a pinch of sugar to take a bit of the acidity away.

After you have your basic sauce, you can add it to meat for spaghetti, you can add kidney beans, some cumin and chili powder for chili; or for chicken parm you get some cheap and cheerful breaded chicken patties, cook them up and once mostly cooked put the sauce and a bit of mozzerella on the top and cook til the cheese is melted. You can also use the base for making pizza if you wish.

Also, if you get a big bag of frozen sausages, you can make toad in the hole or a sausage casserole.

We find a mix of some meat from the big shop and a meat parcel from the butcher is the cheapest way to go, but i suppose it depends on the butcher. I have found chicken legs at my butcher are I think 90p each? But what i have found is don't stray too far from their meat parcels as then it can be quite dear.

I hope this helps and hope things get easier for you.

hahaha we stick out a mile , I knew where you were from before I looked at your avatar...................meat parcel...big giveaway! and I agree too once you stray from buying the parcel the price goes up tremendously!

Mrs_Rachel_Trelfa

Not sure if this has been mentioned but if I were you I woul get one of those big brown sacks of potatos:

Boiled, mash, roast, chipped, wedged, jacket, potato cake, dophinoise, crushed and used as a topping for pies, sliced and fried, layered in a lasagne, boiled then cooled and used in salads...the list is endless

crispycreme_2

Hello,
I havent been able to get on for a few days, sorry for that. I managed quickly the other day and saw that the £40 thread has been bumped for me.
Haven't managed to read much of it, its my mission tonight!
Am going to catch up on thie thread too, then post my menu up and update my list of food I have.
Thanks to everyone thats posted, off to read now.