£13 for a month

[Deleted User]

I know this probably sounds a bit daft but try not to shop at all, and eke out what you have until the last minute.As some one said make as big a vat of soup if you can, and obviously use the stuff that will go 'off' first .If you have spuds,cheese and an onion or two its suprising how you can make that streeetch out.Definitely porridge made with water though I have made it like this for most of my life anyway and with a dash of milk on top its fairly filling.so breakfast is sorted for awhile.
Cheese and potato and onion layed in a dish and cooked in the oven will give you cheese and tattie pie for at least two to three meals
Pasta and spaghetti also is filling and with a tin of tomatoes with cooked pasta can be hot or cold pasta salad.Jacket spuds are easy and filling half a tin of beans on top and a dab of cheese triangle will soften it.But definitely only use your cash as a last resort and try not to go anywhere near a shop for as long as possible.then if you can shop late in the evening when the stuff is maked down.Aldi and Lidl's will be come your best friend :) Its doable if a bit tight.Divide your cash into how ever many days you have until you actually get paid and work on the amount for each day.So if you have e.g. 50p per day if you stay away from the shops every day you are 50p better off.Sounds potty but back in the 1970s when the mortgage rates went through the ceiling and there was a three-day week in the UK lots of folk had to scrape by on buttons(myself included) we also had power cuts, so often there was no electricity to cook by.I used to make the main meal when the electric was on and if it went off I would leg it down the road to my friends house (she had a gas cooker ) to warm it up in the evening.I made 'odds and sods pie' on really hard up weeks, basically a pastry base baked blind and filled with what ever was left in the fridge that I could .Think quiche with a mashed potato lid :) inside there could be a couple of cooked chopped up sausages,a beaten egg some cooked veg topped with mash and a skinny grating of cheese.This would feed my OH and two small girls at least one main meal and lunch for myself and the two little girls next day My OH used to take a slice in his packed lunch box and reheat in the microwave at work :) Times were tough in those days as with a 2 & 4 year old I wasn't working so we only had OHs wages.His take home pay in those days was £112 .00 per month and our mortgage was £60.00 so not a lot left over to eat with and keep warm but we managed somehow to stop the wolf from beating down our doors.I have always kept a store of tinned stuff since then and have never forgotten how hard it was to streeeetch cash out from month to month.

MummyBobble

If you can, suss out when the best reductions are in your local supermarket/market stalls. No point of you have to travel far though as travel costs/time can outweigh the benefit. In our Asd* I often pick up veg for next to nothing to make a huge pan of soup which lasts for days (or can be frozen in portions).

Also check out sm@rtprice/basics ranges in the supermarket (usually hidden on the bottom shelf where you don't notice it). Almost all my food shopping now is done from those (and this is the woman who used to have weekly Oc@do delivery of Waitrose food, but times change and as a single mum now that's just not happening anymore ). We don't notice any difference in most of it (I have a huge stockpile of sm@rtprice curry sauce at 16p per jar, DD and DS either have it with left over chicken or sometimes just rice and/or chips/wedges - makes them think they've had a treat from the chippy :rotfl:)

Good luck!

splishsplash

Here is my effort: it calls for you spending on cheap sliced white bread, some more baked beans (2 tins), a 5 or 7.5kg bag spuds, as much veg as you can get, couple curry sauce packs or jars and ideally a large chicken - 1.7 - 1.9kg. This can be roasted and stripped, and should yield 800g to 1kg of meat. It can be omitted if your mince packs are large though, I'm assuming they're 300g each for the purposes of this menu plan.

Breakfasts:
25g porridge oats, made up with water, ?sugar to sweeten? = 20 days
Cereal = ?8 days

Lunches:
Potato soup: 4 x potatoes, an onion, some garlic, (if you can get a leek, lovely) 2l water, veg stock cube plus slice malt loaf = 4 days
Soup sachets? How many? 1 for each day plus slice of malt loaf = 4 days? Or hm chicken soup with stock from the carcass even better = 4 days.
Pasta salad (50gdry weight) w/garlic, chicken stock cube per four portions = 20 days (Mon – Fri each week). Liven it up with cucumber chopped through plus whatever veg you can spare, 50g chicken added two days per week, wafer thin ham and/or cheese triangles 2 or 3 days/week.

Dinners:
Spag bol (300g mince, onion, garlic, tom puree, tin tomatoes,a little hot water, chicken stock cube) w/veg = 4 days
Pork chop, mash, veg = 8 days
Fried/poached egg, beans, fried potatoes, toast = 6 days
Burger, mash, veg (300g mince, 60g breadcrumbs, 1 chicken stock cube, finely chopped onion and garlic, mushed together with tomato puree – or preferably ketchup if you have some - to bind and divided into 4 burgers) = 4 days
Roast chicken with mash and veg = 2 days.
Chicken curry with rice and veg = 4 days.

Possibly JUST about there with that lot? You won't starve, but you won't be getting your full nutritional needs met either. Good luck for the next month.

Butterfly_Brain

The £7 a week thread might help with lots of cheap ideas
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4084527

ash28

IntelInside wrote: »

I'm also a student, the joys of studying full-time, working part-time, and volunteering as a Scout Leader means I don't have time to do say freelance work to cover this month!

Comprehensive list of things I have in:

• 6 eggs
• Pack of cheese triangles
• Wafer thin ham
• 1Kg bag of spuds
• Margerine
• Tomato puree
• Cucumber
• Onions
• Garlic
• Apples
• 2 boil in the bag rice
• ~1Kg pasta
• 500g spaghetti
• 2 tins of chopped tomatoes
• 2 tins of baked beans
• 1 tin of sweetcorn
• 1 tin of peas
• Pack of chicken stock cubes
• Pack of vegetable stock cubes
• 2 packs of beef mince
• 8 pork chops
• Salt/pepper
• Malt loaf
• Some sachets of soup from ration packs
• 500g porridge
• Cereal

Not too badly-equipped for a student I suppose, and I can be fairly creative with that; it's just what to buy when that runs out.

Thanks for the help guys

I would spend a bit of money....

Jar pesto 79p - Aldi
670gm Cooking bacon - £1.10 - Sainsburys
907gm frozen peas 89p - Aldi
1kg rice 40p - Aldi
Value bread 45p Aldi
value jam 29p -Aldi
1x tin chopped tomatoes 34p -Aldi
chilli powder 49p - Aldi
2x baked beans 48p- Aldi
2x kidney beans 50p -Aldi
Total £5.73

Breakfasts
40gm porridge - 12 days
cereal - 7 days
toast & jam - 10 days

Lunches
Use the soup from the ration packs while they last
Beans (half a tin) on toast x 8 days
ham sandwiches (while it lasts)
toast spread with cheese triangle and topped with sliced cucumber (while it lasts)
Bacon sandwiches
left overs from dinner - bolognese or chilli.
egg sandwiches (you'd have 2 left)

I would make up the mince into a savoury mince using 3 tins tomatoes (makes the mince go a bit further, tomato puree, onions, stock etc- personally I would then take half the mince and add kidney beans and chilli powder (I like chilli) and the to the other half I'd add a few mixed herbs and make bolognese sauce.
That should make at least 8 meals - probably more, you should at least get a couple of lunches out of it too.

8 pork chops would make 8 meals - I would vary them by making savoury rice using a thinly sliced chop, onions, few frozen peas, stock etc. Maybe buy a packet of stuffing mix (Sainsburys basic stuffing mix is 20p) and have Sunday type lunch once a week....Aldi do a sweeheart cabbage for 49p, plus a few frozen peas or use up your tinned peas and sweetcorn.

Bacon and pea risotto using the bacon from Sainsburys, rice, frozen peas & onion. I'd have that once a week.

Bacon, egg and potato hash - chop potatoes and boil, chop and fry bacon and half an onion, hard boil & shell egg - combine all with bacon and onion - I'd have that once a week.

Pesto pasta once a week....just spaghetti with green pesto mixed through plus a bit of black pepper

Snacks - malt loaf (while it lasts, which wouldn't be long in our house), apples.....

You'd have money left, just over £7 to buy the bread and milk for the rest of the month.

asparagus1968

i'd meal plan with what you have, using up most perishable first, adding extra oats to mince, or breadcrumbs, extra veg, tinned tomatoes etc etc to make as many portions from each meal as possible.
i'd avoid the shop for as long as possible, swapping and substituting things I think I need to shop for (have a look at fiscal fast thread)

when you do need to hit the shop- value and basic ranges are fine,
frozen veg are cheaper than fresh, also good to blitz with some tinned toms to make a nutritious pasta sauce)
lentils good for bulking mince meals.
eggs cheap and good protein
longlife milk is cheaper than fresh, buy whole fat and water it down to semi skimmed
sausages go much much further if chopped up in a casserole or stew or with a sauce
tinned and fresh fish may be cheaper than meat based meals?

could you sell/ pawn/cash converters anything?

good luck, hopefully work will give a you an advance:)

got-it-spend-it

Do you have any friends you could visit for tea this month, then return the favour next? That would give you a bit of variety at least.

Also do you have any nectar points built up that you could add to your £13, or clubcard vouchers?

tiredwithtwins

ash28 wrote: »

You'd have money left, just over £7 to buy the bread and milk for the rest of the month.

Farmf##ds has 2l milk on 2 for £1.60 - I've read on here that you can freeze milk, might be worth doing if you dont use a lot but need to not be spending a lot just on a pint a week ... their hovis loaves are 2 for £1.60 too

Butterfly_Brain

Do you have a freezer?

Beckyy

Do you have any Tesco or nectar points you could use to buy food with?