January - the month tighter than Mr Tighty's hosiery

camelot1001

Hi JoJo, I don't really have very much to add apart from that rice can be flavoured with pretty much anything to make a tasty dish, just a handful of peas or sweetcorn can cheer it up too.

I wish you well, if you live near me please let me know, you're welcome to have a root around the cupboards! Let us know how you get on. XX

Soworried

If you have chick pea flour then you could make onion bhajis, very filling and high calorie to help you through.

We get through the tough times by seeing them as an adventure. Who can come up with what idea to use things up. You'll be fine I'm sure

NewShadow

Please excuse a long post

So for clarity:

• We've got 2 adults to feed breakfast and dinner (lunches for you but not OH?)
• No cash this week (buying pots and oats and oil), but £5 per week going forward
• Lactose free ideally
• Morrisons nearby (other supermarkets?)
• Storecuboard for the first week includes the following (rough amounts would be useful so we can track when it's 'gone'):

Veg
carrots
parsnips
three onions
tin of sweet corn

Protein
three tins of pulses (not baked beans I assume?)
150g red lentils (assuming 1/4 of a 5 or 600g bag)
2 x chickpeas
2 x kidney beans

Carbs
lasagne sheets (and/or Pasta shapes?)
rice
potatoes
oats

Sundry
flour
margarine
dried herbs and spices
condiments
vegetable oil
Lactose free milk

Breakfast

Assuming a 1kg bag of oats, 70g is a decent but not huge bowl.

A bowl each every morning (140g per day), made with water and cinnamon or nutmeg (tastes okay - It's what I have in work through choice) would make the pack last 1 week.

Boring, but filling and suitable for the weather.

You also said you'd just been bought a loaf of bread - toast is an alternative - and 'free' this week.

You may also have scrabbly scraps of cereal, obviously, but I wouldn't recommend 'wasting' milk on these - much better to eat dry in the evening in place of crisps, or with wheatbixs, making into cake

Lunch

I'd suggest you have soup and bread, and keep your eyes open to loot freebies at work (if you're comfortable with that).

This time of year there are loads of biscuits and the like about - I know it's empty calories, but it might make everything a little less hunger pangy...

If you've free tea and coffee, not sure how it works, but could you acquire your share of the milk subtlety to take it home for the OH? A flask kept in a fridge could do it - not a nice thing, but it might mean you can make him some puddings or white sauces.

Back on to you - If you can make the soda bread/flour last this week, then you can make the humous or lentil spread I described earlier (nicer than it sounds), and have that with bread and/or soup for lunch.

I don't know how many carrots or parsnips you've got, but if you can spare a potato to thicken, you just need it to flavour and dampen your bread, funny coloured water can fill you up when bread's dunked in.

Dinners
In addition to the curries and chillis I mentioned before, here are some recipes with your ingredients, and some extra things you could feasibly 'sell' as proper meals or accompaniments - I'm linking to recipes so you can 'find' them on the intranet and be excited about how you want to try the new recipes.

basic-tarka-dhal-recipe
lentil-shepherds-pie
megadarra (brown-lentils-rice-with-caramelised-onions)
easy-lentil-soup
fried-mashed-potatoes
lentils-and-rice-assyrian-style
russian-fried-potatoes
red-bean-porridge
Chapatis

And obviously pasta, poshly dressed with oil and black pepper - I love it, but I'm not sure how OH would feel...

I'm sure there are loads more, but I'm very aware of your limited volumes of ingredients...

Next week's shopping list

M Saver Oats are 75p per kilo, so that's 11p per day for the two of you.

Morrisons Saver SR flour and plain are both 45p per 1.5kg. Not sure if you'd need a top up on yeast or if you prefer 'wild yeast'? but I can't see you getting through 3kg of flour all that quickly.

It seems that 4 packs of KTC tomatoes are currently cheaper than the M Saver variety at £1.30 for 1.6kg, but I think going to a market for fresh and cooking down might work out even cheaper.

Saver baked beans are 24p per tin for with potato

This may be a little random, but a M butternut squash is 69p - chunked and roasted with a handful of chickpeas it should make at least 4 hearty servings of curry - think moroccan spices (any mix of nutmeg, cumin, coriander, ginger, cayenne pepper, cinnamon, cloves)

Ethics aside, 30 eggs can be bought for £3.30 - this could add much needed protein and last 2 weeks if you both have 1 a day.

When considering what to buy next week, you might want to look over these recipes: http://www.cheap-family-recipes.org/planners.html

Its about double your budget (80p per person per day) and that was a few years ago, but it was all calorie and nutrient measured, so you can at least see where you might be missing out.

Hope some of this helps

mrsmortenharket

Let me know if you're near SE Essex. I've got a stocked larder and also cat food cos my cat is a fussy so & so.

Take care xxx

Bobarella

I may be missing this but has anyone else suggested a visit to a food bank? You sound like you are both hard working people who just need some help to get through a rough patch surely that is what food banks are for.

Butterfly_Brain

His boss sounds dodgy, look into taking her to small claims court for back wages, she is pulling a fast one

FatVonD

Have you ever ordered from Milk and more? I believe they still give you ten pounds worth of free stuff on your first order and they do lots of stuff other than milk, eg potatoes, bread etc.

There's a great Turkish bean salad called 'piyaz', you might need to google it but if I recall correctly it's just beans with very finely sliced onions and slices of egg drizzled with oil. Another Nice, cheap Turkish dish is pasta with yoghurt and garlic. Also rice with chickpeas and yoghurt is yummy.

will PM you about something else if that's okay...

purpleshoes_2

75p for a kilo of oats in aldi as far as I know, havent seen cheaper anywhere else

FatVonD

I'm rubbish at this PM malarkey, you either have several or none.

AnnieO1234

purpleshoes wrote: »

75p for a kilo of oats in aldi as far as I know, havent seen cheaper anywhere else

Asda, tesco and morrisons also do it at 75p a kilo xxx