Eating for one month on £60

trundles

Hi there

I did a big batch cook last week spent £36 on ingredients from morrisons and made 48 meals for the freezer, the meals are Jamie Olivers beef stew (used extra veg and not as much beef but it is fab!) and 2 different thick soups which are a meal in themselves with some bread, it took me about 8 hours to do the cooking but it is so worth it about 75p a meal and should last a while!

MRSMCAWBER

Hi there trundles :T

Well done on the batch cooking....just think a whole 4 weeks of meals ready to go...:j ... i tend to batch cook things like chilli, soups, etc but at the moment i have an obsesion with roast dinners... mainly chicken mmmm..

Winters here in Germany can get quite bad..or good, depending how you look at it -:rolleyes: i love winter....snow weeeeeeee i love it.. so im going to have to get my chest freezer switched on... ready for plenty of casseroles and the like... we have only been here a month, so i havent needed to use it yet.. but i have a half decent sized freezer on the fridge...but its at capacity now :rotfl:

Im lucky as i don't have a difficult hubby - bless him he eats what is put in front of him....he has given me a budget of 500 euros for food shopping..about £350 :eek: there are only the 2 of us:rotfl: ... but isnt aware yet that im doing this challenge :rotfl: ...pay day is tommorrow..but im planning on stashing it as i still have enough money left to last until next pay day..if i stick to this challenge ... im sure i will think of something we can do with it...once its built up..

Well i had better get off and make some more menu plans

Keep up the good work:T

dbelle

Trundles I would love to see how you've done that. Could you post your meal plan and shopping list maybe? DOn't worry if its too much trouble!

Mrsmcawber - I'm not sure I could have as much restraint as you if that was my budget! Although I suppose at least you will have it to spend on nicer things than food and house stuff.

Jewel_2

Try pick your own. Not only is it cheap, you can eat lots of healthy veg while you're picking the rest!!

dbelle

I just scored a free packet of biscuits from a meeting at work today.:p
They are lovely posh waitrose ones and the receptionist said I could have them cos they'd only go soft over the weekend!

I have been considering pick you own although we still have a tree full of apples and some pears that will be ripe soon in the garden, so I'm ok there! Wasps ate all the plums though, even the ones on the trees.

MRSMCAWBER

Hi there dbelle...

Im hoping that if we can curb our spending now - we wont end up "having" to later...i want to get some money put away and hopefully pay it towards any debts etc - try and get rid of them early..fingers crossed

We are both bad for spending whatever we have....the stupid thing is that we dont seem to be eating much different to before...so heaven knows what we were doing before:o ... well apart from eating in waste..trust me, left to my own devices i can eat a pea more than a pig:p ...so this way of eating has lead to a 9.5lb weight loss in 3 weeks - with no effort ...so that gives some idea of how much we were eating:eek:

Freebies....you can't beat em can you :T ... i keep thinking about making a batch of twinks "hobnobs"...but i know i will end up chomping my way through em:rotfl: ..so perhaps i had better wait until im feeling stronger willed

dbelle

Its very hard to not eat all those biscuits at my desk. I should save the Mr some!

I am hoping this economy drive will teach us a few lessons and we might spend less in the future, because that way we can put the money to something more useful!

I didn't get the job that needed the car by the way, quite disappointed but not getting it saves me travelling 30miles to work everyday in a clapped out old banger!

FrugalJo

MRSMCAWBER wrote: »

Hi there frugalJo


Homemade pizzas are a good filler if you have hungrier family...


if you get a bag of potatoes... layer up potatoes and onions - and some seasoning add a bit of stock or milk, cover with foil and bake until soft, then take of the foil so the top crisps up...lovely with homemade bread.. and if you want you can but bacon rashers on top for the last few mins, or even add slices of corned beef to the layers...

MrsMC

Your recipe for the layered poatoes caught my eye earlier in the thread and have it on the fridge to do with roast chicken (love roasts but particularly chicken) on Sunday.

Pizzas - I have a feeling skint minds think alike, Somerfield have 2 for £1 pizza dough mix ( wasted too much time/money/utensils trying to do my own) enough to make at least 6 pizzas and some dough balls I believe.

Freebies at work today I brought home a huge ice cream tub full of tomatoes (someones allotment) great for the pizzas, and four huge cooking apples (someones tree) . Would go and get the blackberries but they are not quite ready round here as yet.

Dbelle - tea to go with the biccies as I'm just putting kettle on.....

MRSMCAWBER

Hi there
Dbelle - sorry you didnt get the job you were after..im sure something else will come along soon....hopefully that doesn't require you driving any further:p ....
"you should" save hubby some biccies....but if you eat all the evidence:rotfl:
Everyone is getting freebies today :T ......

hi there frugaljo

My hubby loves pizza, im not a fan -i usually find the takeaway ones to heavy n greasy....i dont mind when they are home made...but id much rather have a roast dinner mmmm or homemade chicken n sweetcorn soup..i never get to freeze that though as its hubby favourite...still at less than 50p for a pan - he can eat as much as he likes

I made pizza the other day...300ml water, 500g flour 1.5tsp dry yeast and salt made 2 x 10" and 2 calzone...basically the same size but folded in half:rotfl:
Have you tried using the own version of philladelphia spread on the base instead of tomato???the garlic and herb one is lovely..you dont need much, and you can get away with less topping and cheese on top too:j

The potatoes and onions are lovely...you can do them with just water, but you never know what kind of potato you get..some dont have a lot of taste..so i started using milk or stock mmmm oh and the done with stock - the dish is easier to clean;) the milk can be a devil to get off - unless you have one of those new fangled DW thingies:rotfl:

dbelle

Just did my new money spreadsheet for next month/end of September (after reading the DFW part of the forum) and figured out I can pay back one credit card next month which is about £200 at the moment.

I think I'll be able to pay another half off end of October and hopefully a bit more later if Christmas isn't too expensive.

But this thread isn't about that but I'm feeling positive!