No idea how to get through the next month

kdalwayskint

Hi, I don't have any words of wisdom for you, I am having a tight couple of weeks myself, just wanted to show my support for you and get some ideas too x

meg72

patchwork_cat wrote: »

Unless OP gets free school meals this will cost approx. £8 a week per child so not exactly practical on this budget.

Asked my DGS about this and apparently he will get a small bacon bap for this amount, small bap with half rasher of bacon and a glass of squash, hardly a meal. for a growing 14 yr old.

crispycreme_2

So did the steak stir fry tonight, was really good.

I dont think we are entitled to free meals as we get WTC. That would of been a huge help.

We have £50 left. I think most of it when on packed lunches so really need to get on top of that.

crispycreme_2

meg72 wrote: »

Asked my DGS about this and apparently he will get a small bacon bap for this amount, small bap with half rasher of bacon and a glass of squash, hardly a meal. for a growing 14 yr old.

Agree with you. The price of school meals is awful. DS1 school is on average £3 (canteen style) DS2 school charge £2.10. So would cost me £25.50 a week.:eek:

crispycreme_2

Ok, so still have some meals from my list. Am going tto walk down to Asda today, providing it doesnt pour down. Pick up lunch bits for next week.

Any cheap ideas for the next month lunches would be great. Am going to find lunchbox threads n here too for this.

craigywv

chirpycheap wrote: »

What is this mysterious meat parcel? Sounds interesting!:j

Hahaha that made me lol. It's an assortment of either a large chicken or beef joint, then you get a pound of beef sausages,half pound pork saus,3or 4 pork steaks,piece of frying steak,bag of vegetable roll which is mince with veg and scallions mixed up, and a half pound of minced meat,all for thirteen quid, depending on area or butcher some give more some give less but it's a bag of assorted meat but if you buy it separately its worth a lot more, idea being it gives you a meat meal for the whole week. I love it and only time I buy supermarket meat is if its yellow sticker. You can also swap about,say you don't want pork steaks the butcher would give you more of what you want to make up.

supernatural619

Not sure if anyones asked about nappies as there are a lot of posts. Where do you buy your nappies from? If you don't already use them Aldi, Asda and Lidl do really good nappies at a fraction of the cost. I buy a lot of meat from lidl and we spend about £120 a month for a family of 4. I'm vegetarian but my partner and 2 boys eat really well, things like steak casserole (diced steak from Lidl) A large chicken may be expensive but it would do 2 days, chicken dinner one day and chicken and chips the next. Hope you manage to budget for the month and I know how you feel as my partner might be loosing his job next month so I will be looking through all the posts on here to get some tips! I've also just had a baby last month.

EstherH

CRISPYCREME

As this has to be a severely limited budget, I would suggest basic cheaply bread, wafer thin ham, egg mayo, a little grate cheese, etc for sandwiches. Corned beef could be used to make some sandwiches if you slice really thin and then use rest in corned beef hash or pie.
If you buy a chicken and use it as has been suggested for a few meals, you could take a little and mix with cheap mayonnaise as a sandwich filling.

Has anyone mentioned making your own popcorn? I've never done it but seen on here that it is really cheap. Maybe you could do that and put a little in a lunch box with a homemade cake or twinks hobnobs.

Can they take biscuits/cakes to school? I know some schools ban them now. I wouldn't normally suggest them but basics biscuits are cheap.

You could make frittata and that would cut up for lunch boxes? I think I or someone else mentioned this previously, so probably a rough recipe a few pages back which can be adapted to what you have in.

Are they allowed to take a flask into school? Homemade soup is good. If it is blended it would go in a normal drinks flask and wouldn't need a special food flask.

Have you talked to your other half about the need not to buy unnecessary items like the lunch box stuff the other day?

I have just made tomato and lentil soup:

1 onion
1 carrot
2 cloves of garlic
Handful of frozen peppers
100grams of lentils
2 tins tomatoes
Squirt of tomato purrie
2 veg Stock cubes
Chilli powder or flakes
Some herbs, I used rosemary and bay leaf from garden, but any mixed would do.

Method

Chop veg and garlic up and boil with lentils until all soft.
Add tomatoes, purrie, stock cubes, herbs and chilli, s & p
Blitz with hand blender

Enjoy. This made a big pan full.

Esther x

RAS

crispycreme wrote: »

Now have to work out lunches cheaply. Finding this hard as Ds1 has hollow legs at the minute!

HM pizza

Pasta salad (pasta, mayo and any flavouring you have (a bit of tuna or meat or cheese or even tomato sauce).

Frittata if you have an egg or two (sliced potato, simmer lightly, drain, fry until they start to brown, add an egg (for one) or two (for 2/3) and cook until brown undeneath. Cook the top under the griller.

If school do not prevent it a packet of basics crisps or some tortillas and a bean "pate"/hummus.

Cross-posted GMTA

kdalwayskint

Agree with the popcorn idea, I don't know how much it costs as I got a packet for Christmas (random), a little goes along way. I've had three portions out of the packet and there's still loads left!