Very Frugal Meals

SchmooSquidge

Hello, I'm new & not sure about the different sections, so please forgive me if I'm in the wrong section.

I need to find ideas that will turn £7-£10 into a weeks worth of healthy dinners for two adults & 2 children. That's not per head, that's total. Any ideas please? Tia x

Ladyluck1

I would buy basics for say £4.
Then I would try and did yellow sticker bread meat and veg to go in the freezer or be cooked that day.
Do you have a store cupboard?
My cheapest meals are;

Jacket potato with beans (lidl beans) and some bagged salad picked up reduced. If you put kitchen towel either side of a bag of salad and take out the very soft leaves it'll last 2-3 days longer

Egg and chips/wedges and peas (homemade if I can find some ys potatoes!)

Soup for lunches is fairly cheap to make, I make lentil usin up my older veg like bendy carrots and it does us for lunches twice a week

Pasta with a tomato sauce (lidl passata is around 30p plus an onion and dried herbs)


I would buy;
A bag of pasta/spaghetti 50p value or lidl
Tin of beans 40-50p value or lidl
Passata 30p
Bag of potatoes around £1
Eggs £1 for 10 value
Bread 50p
Banana £1

You could also do scramble eggs egg sandwiches with the eggs.
It can just about be done. But I would look out for YS bread, meat and veggies or stick to frozen veg.
Good luck!

E.t.a I've never had any problems with reduced price food, I bought 2kg potatoes in coop reduced to 50p from £2 and they lasted a month in the bottom of fridge out of the bag.
I buy most meat reduced especially chicken, I can pick up diced chicken or pork for 75p- £1 and tha does 2 meals.

[Deleted User]

There is an existing £7 a week menu plans thread that's been running for quite a while. Might be worth a look to see if it can give you some ideas?

Runnerduck

i see you are from carmarthenshire, i'm not too far away and there are lots of free foods about at the moment, i take a walk with a carrier bag each evening, this week so far i have picked over 5lbs of blackberries and lots of mushrooms and collected some windfall apples, there are also bumper crops of plums this year, and all this fruit freezes well to add interest to your meals. i also notice a lot of hazelnuts are coming too, if you see someone has lots of apples wasting on the floor ask if they would mind you collecting a few for a pie as a lot of people don't mind.

RAS

Hi We could help better if we knew what you already have in the cupboards, fridge and freezer?

Also which supermarkets you have access to and whether there is a food bank near you?

And what cooking facilities you have?

As runner duck suggests there are also a number of things you might be able to forage at the mo.

DawnW

Runnerduck wrote: »

i see you are from carmarthenshire, i'm not too far away and there are lots of free foods about at the moment, i take a walk with a carrier bag each evening, this week so far i have picked over 5lbs of blackberries and lots of mushrooms and collected some windfall apples, there are also bumper crops of plums this year, and all this fruit freezes well to add interest to your meals. i also notice a lot of hazelnuts are coming too, if you see someone has lots of apples wasting on the floor ask if they would mind you collecting a few for a pie as a lot of people don't mind.

Do be careful with mushrooms though if you are not an experienced forager :eek:

tessie_bear

im not being unkind but im not sure that is possible unless you have a magic wand...im sure the i feed 15 people on tuppence hapenny brigade will be along and shoot me down but i think the best that could be managed on that budget is a one week quick fix that isnt particularly healthy but would do for a week.....could i suggest porridge for b/fast ....something on toast for lunch beans/spag/ravoli and mince for tea sheps pie/ spag bol/chilli

could you get help from a food bank ? sell something ? good luck and sorry if i come across as harsh i dont mean to be but thats my experience of budgets
tessa

Feral_Moon

I'm afraid I have to agree with the lady above. I can't see how it would be possible to feed a family of four on a little over £1 a day even if you're lucky enough to get reduced items. I probably spend around £7 per day feeding a family of four. To reduce it much further wouldn't give us (m)any healthy options

lessonlearned

I agree Tessie.

£10 a week for 4 people must be virtually impossible over the long term. Maybe ok for a week or so during an emergency and assuming you have some food in the house already.

Once, many moons ago, when we found ourselves in this position we just sold some stuff to put food on the table.

This was over 20 years ago when £10 was worth more.

If things are this bad could you manage to do a couple of car boots to boost your food budget. If you just did one a month and made say £50 then you have more than doubled your budget at a stroke.

In the meantime do you have access to a food bank. Sorry but I just don't think £10 for 4 is feasible.

Ladyluck1

As others said I would not be happy with this budget for more than a couple of weeks AT ALL!

I spend around £25 a week for 2 adults a child and a baby (she generally eats what we eat!)
That is doable for me, though a struggle but I do take advantage of reduced foods a LOT!
I also cook from scratch and we have a lot of veggie options too.

You could easily manage if there was somewhere close that reduces well at the end of the day....
I pick up 10p items all the time (yogurts to be eaten that night, veg that's good for a day or 2 or things like bread/rolls to go in the freezer)
If not though it'll be very hard indeed.....

katiegizmo

Don't know what you have in your cupboards etc but a cheap meal I do is pasta - once cooked mix with some oil, chilli flakes and some toasted breadcrumbs/garlic mixed through. Top with some cheese if you have it and add any veg/cooked beans/leftover meat/herbs etc
Tastes scrummy, very cheap
Also, whatever veg you have, keep the peelings to add to soup, get some dried lentils to bulk it up.

But I do agree with others, that is not enough money for more than a week or two of meals, not if you want them to be healthy