£10 to last a week - food plan appreciated

melysion

Hello

So, money has proved to be a little tight this month and I have worked out that I have £10 for which to buy food from now until payday (the 25th). I have in my cupboard:

Half a box of cheerios
Porridge oats
Plenty of tea/coffee/sugar
Dried spaghetti
Basmati rice
Few potatoes
1 chicken fillet wrapped in bacon and cheese (frozen)
one pork escalope (in breadcrumbs)
stewing steak (been in the freezer err ... a while so could be a tad dodgy)
herbs/spices/salt etc
3 eggs
2 rashers bacon
one large onion
Half a jar of jam
Quarter tub butter
cooking oil

I would much appreciate any thoughts/meal plans to utilise what I have as much as possible with very little extra spending. I do get free fruit at work and also free milk for cereals at work.

stellata

How many are you trying to feed? Just you?

melysion

Oh - yes just me. I have a cat but his needs are provided for separately

moneyonmymindsam

Hi
I am not very good at this but can suggest a few ideas? Well done for having a bit of a stock cupboard ...:)


Maybe try visit your supermarket / shops late and look for OOPs / yellow stickered items?


I would probably spend £3 approx.... on bread, 4 pints milk, eggs, Jacket potato and baked beans to add as a minimum ..


so ....Cereal and porridge for breakfasts then :P


Lunches - Jam Sandwiches? plus banana / Fruit from work


As for meals not a plan but what about things like ...


1 x Egg for French toast plus bacon?


Curried onion / potato with rice - if you have curry in your spices? add stewing steak if brave enough


Cold curried rice


egg fried rice


2 egg omelette with onion?


Pork with rice or chips or beans


chicken fillet with rice, chips or beans


jacket potato with beans or beans on toast


omelette with onion


Fried egg on toast


Boiled egg


egg sandwiches for work?


egg, chips and beans


crust less quiche say with onion and bacon?


Sorry if all samey ...just thought id try to help with a few idea's


Good Luck!!

[Deleted User]

work out for a week: 7 breakfasts,7 lunches,7 dinners.
breakfast can be cereal or porridge oats ,alternate between them so its not too boring add a dollop of jam in the porridge to liven it up and give a bit of taste so thats breakfast taken care of

chicken fillet with wrapped bacon is at least one dinner
Stewing steak if frozen will be fine cook it slow and add some sliced potatoes and gloopy gravy and a handful of herbs if you have lentils add a few of them.Should be able to streetch it to two meals One on one night portion and freeze one for another night Once cooked and cold its fine to refreeze so that's three dinners so far
The pork escalope you can cook slowly add some herby rice for another dinner so thats four dinners.2 eggs beaten together for an omellte with some sauted sliced potatos another dinner so five dinners
buy a couple of tins of baked beans and some cheese and have 2 rashers of bacon 1 egg and beans for another dinner so thats six dinners
Make a cheese,potato layered bake in the oven small pyrex flat round dish grease then layer thin sliced onion rings part cooked thin sliced potato and layers of grated cheese alternately to the top slash some milk in sprinkle some grated cheese on top and bung in the oven until cooked and bubbling another cheapo dinnerthats seven dinners and you have only had to buy 2 tins of beans and some cheese.Don't forget cheese goes further when grated than sliced.Fruit from work will be ideal if you can get bananas then buy a loaf of bread and have banana sandwiches for lunch.Milk you say is free so thats not a problem
So day one

B. cereal and free milk
L banana sarnies and fruit
D. 2 rashers bacon,one egg and half a tin of beans

day two
B porridge with a dollop of jam
L grated cheese sarnie with free fruit from work
D Chicken fillet in bacon with bismati rice

Day three
Stewed steak cooked slowly withsliced potatos and some diced onion and if you have them a few lentils to help streetch it out.Left overs once cooled can be portioned up and frozen for another day

Day four
B Cereal and milk
Lunch bananas sandwiches and fresh fruit
(bit boring I know but it will fill you up)
D Pork escalope cooked slowly with herby rice
Day Five
B porridge again, but its not long until payday;)

Day five
B.Porridge
L cut out the sandwich and just eat as much fruit as you can get away with :):)
D cheesy baked layerpie , this is a good filler up when your hungry and cost buttons to make ,you may even have some left over if so cool cover and freeze,This was what we called odds and sods Thursday night pie when my kids were small and money was short Not best beef steak but a good filler upper when your broke
Day six
B. Cereal and no doubt getting a bit fed up but your almost there
L. jam sarnie with some sliced banana on top if you can its a very good filler upper
D.retrieve the stewed steak from the freezer and reheat it will fill you up .
day seven
B Porridge with any chopped fruit you may have scavanged from work
Lunch again a sarnie with fruit from work if possible
D Last egg and rashers of bacon with beans and sauted potao if you have any left .

You have got through the week and had to buy only some cheese, a loaf of bread and a couple of tins of beans . Maybe not as healthy as you would have wanted but you haven't starved.
This is when you get paid and start to think about getting a small emergency stock of tinned stuff etc.

Back in 1960 when i first left home I once had to live for a week on custard as I only had a large tin of birds custard powder in the food cupboard.The milkman came every day so I had it for seven days for breakfast, lunch and dinner

I have never been without an emergency store since then :):) I still like custard but every time I eat it I am reminded of how dreadfully broke I was 55 years ago.
If you have potato's cheese and an onion its suprising what you can make
Good luck ,you'll even have money left over :):)

melysion

Ha! I didnt even think about banana sandwiches! Love those

Thank you both for your suggestions -they are both great. I really appreciate your help. I know that I'm lucky to have at least some items to carry me though. Also found a tin of tomatoes now hiding at the back of the cupboard so that should help. And I have a few lentils.

Thanks also for the emergency store cupboard tip. What sort of things should I buy for that? Tins of veg and tomatoes etc?

MandM90

I wonder if this might help:

http://www.thriftylesley.com/meal-plans/

MandM90

melysion wrote: »

Hello

So, money has proved to be a little tight this month and I have worked out that I have £10 for which to buy food from now until payday (the 25th). I have in my cupboard:

Half a box of cheerios
Porridge oats
Plenty of tea/coffee/sugar
Dried spaghetti
Basmati rice
Few potatoes
1 chicken fillet wrapped in bacon and cheese (frozen)
one pork escalope (in breadcrumbs)
stewing steak (been in the freezer err ... a while so could be a tad dodgy)
herbs/spices/salt etc
3 eggs
2 rashers bacon
one large onion
Half a jar of jam
Quarter tub butter
cooking oil

I would much appreciate any thoughts/meal plans to utilise what I have as much as possible with very little extra spending. I do get free fruit at work and also free milk for cereals at work.

Day 1

Breakfast - 2 slices toast with 2 eggs any way

Lunch - Porridge with fruit and milk from work.

Dinner - Pork escalope, some mixed veg (do in microwave), baked potato

Day 2

Breakfast: Frittata

http://grow-cook-eat.blogspot.co.uk/2015/03/frittata.html

Dinner - Lentil Spaghetti

This is how I do mine but obviously you'd want to half it :

http://grow-cook-eat.blogspot.co.uk/2015/04/lentil-bolognese-with-spaghetti.html

Day 3

Breakfast: Reheated Frittata

Lunch - Leftover lentil spaghetti, fruit

Dinner - curry made from stewing steak and basmati rice

Onion, garlic, tbsp curry powder, stock cube, tin of tomatoes, cubed potato is you have any

Day 4

Breakfast - Egg on toast

Lunch - porridge with milk and fruit from work

Dinner - Leftover beef curry and rice

Day 5

Breakfast - porridge and jam/cheerios

Lunch - Cheese sandwiches and fruit

Dinner - peel and cube some potatoes, drizzle with oil and basil and bake with
the chicken fillet - serve with mixed veg from freezer (perhaps with a knob of butter on top)

Day 6

Breakfast - Porridge and jam

Lunch - Lentil and Bacon Soup, toast, boiled egg

Fry an onion, garlic, 2 rashers chopped bacon, add 1 stock cube, 1/2 mug red split lentils, enough water to cover, salt and pepper and simmer for 20 mins. Serve with buttered bread if needed.

Dinner - Pasta mixed with salmon paste, soft cheese and mixed herbs

Day 7

Breakfast - Egg on toast

Lunch - Lentil and Bacon Soup

Dinner - Salmon pasta

SHOPPING
6 eggs 70p
2.5kg value Potatoes £1.18
1 loaf 800g value wholemeal bread, sliced 40p
1kg pack lentils - £1.80
East End tinned plum tomatoes X4 - £1
Onions 1kg 63p
Garlic - 49p
10 stock cubes - 30p
1 carrot 7p
Gourmet Garden basil paste - 50p (on offer)
frozen mixed vegetables 1.3kg £1
East End madras Curry powder 75p
Salmon paste (everyday value0 25p
Everyday value soft cheese 49p
Pasta 500g 30p

I've costed it using Tesco and it comes to £9.96

melysion

These suggestions are all great! Thank you. An eye opener too

FairyPrincessk

You've had some good ideas about what to eat--so I thought I'd chime in with tips about a store cupboard.

Once the budget eases up again I'd suggest having a think about the things you buy regularly that go in your cupboard. Each week try to add 1-2 items to your trolley from this list. Our storecupboard list includes things like this:

Tinned tomatoes
Tinned Tuna
Pasta
Rice
Cous Cous
Pearl Barley
All of the kinds of flour we use
Sugar--brown and white
Porridge oats/cereals
Leavening--bicarb, baking powder and yeast
Salt, pepper and herbs and spices
Stock Cubes
Cooking fat (I keep veg oil for a very few things, olive oil and freeze blocks of butter)
Condiments--I try to keep at least one spare bottle of mayo/ketchup and then i keep several spares of mustards as I use them in cooking, pesto etc. also come into this category if you prefer fresh you can freeze it)
Jam, lemon curd etc.
Passata
Special things--i.e. artichoke hearts, olives etc.
YS meat in the freezer
Any frozen fruit or veg you use regularly
Some people freeze cheese although we don't find this a good use of our limited freezer space. Same with Bread/wraps etc. in the freezer.

I try to just pick up one or two items each week. If I have extra grocery money I get an expensive item like olive oil. If I don't have much it may be a 31p tin of tomatoes or an 18p pack of spaghetti. I look through our stocks every few months and ensure things are being rotated properly and that packaging is still intact. In lean months I may rely on them more to cut the shopping but I try to never be without a couple of weeks worth of food. Start with the basics and work your way up to the special things--these can help break the monotony if you need to rely on your storecupboard for extended periods of time or if you have to cut your shopping down to bare bones but they aren't essential. Another exercise is to sit down and think through your storecupboard items--what meals could you make with it--how many varieties of things etc.

I'm also aware of what gaps exist in our storecupboard. We'd need to pick up milk, fresh f&v and possibly coffee. We could do without coffee as we have a good stock of tea and the milk and fresh f&v could be kept pretty minimal. I could mitigate against that by stocking things like UHT/milk powder and tinned/frozen but we don't tend to eat those things so it isn't right for us--and that is fine--don't stock what you won't eat but be aware of what gaps you choose to have in your sc.

allybee101

When I was little we sometimes had scotch pancakes for tea. Very cheap, but filling and we kids thought they were wonderful with butter, jam, honey etc - a different topping each time.

Pretty simple recipe of an egg, flour, milk and a bit of sugar, plus you have butter and jam to top them. Recipe here