It's getting tough out there. Feeling the pinch?

QueenJess

Living_proof said:

I’d like everyone’s suggestions for a meal for 30p a day please. I feel a failure for being unable to budget and obviously don’t know how to cook from scratch!

Has the Member from Ashfield lost the plot?

They really should check their facts before they say things like that. If I was stating anything like that, I would do my research first… the obvious response is - please give me your meal plan and financial budget on how to do it.

The thing is, they must know it will be seen by everyone so either they sincerely believe it and/or they simply don’t care.

It did remind me though that there was a thread a long time ago re: cooking on a budget. They had prices and what to buy for meals for a week. Maybe it should be reinstated here for ideas. I get all my idea from reading threads and online stuff.

euronorris

Yes, to be quite honest, if they really have some magic meal plan where you can do breakfast lunch and dinner, at 30p a head, for a month without it bieng the same meal day in, day out, then tell us about it. We genuinely would like to know it.

(PS, some repetition is obviously fine, but if it's the same meal, every meal for a month, then that's going to be tough to follow for long periods of time).

Siebrie

It's like that movie/documentary where someone ate McD for a month, and got really sick. He would have been sick, too, if it had been asparagus and caviar for a month.

LadyHarriet

Living_proof said:

I’d like everyone’s suggestions for a meal for 30p a day please. I feel a failure for being unable to budget and obviously don’t know how to cook from scratch!

Has the Member from Ashfield lost the plot?

He mentioned his local food bank, which was showing folk how to cook - I believe that the food bank was producing 150 meals for £50 - which would indeed mean you could produce a 30p meal. BUT...you have to have £50 in the first place and the facilities to cook said meals and then the facilities to safely store those meals. Many of the recipients at the food bank where I volunteer are in B&B accommodation, or in a bedsit, or in temporary accommodation in a mobile home/caravan (in a field) and so have limited cooking and refrigeration/freezer facilities.

euronorris

It's also possible that the food bank is benefitting from food donations to cook with, which stretch that £50 even further. The average person doesn't get that without going to a food bank in the first place.

EssexHebridean

I was sorry to see that the Cheap Family Recipes website has now gone ** altogether - that's a shame as there was some wonderfully useful resources there. We do still have access to the blog though : https://weezl.wordpress.com/ which is good. Weezl really was "doing" Jack Monroe's work before Jack came along even, wasn't she - it's a shame that she didn't get more known for it, really. 

** see two posts below this for a link to the resurrected site! 

maryb

But Thrifty Lesley is still going - she was one of the main contributors/testers to Weezl's project

https://thriftylesley.com/

EssexHebridean

Oh goodness yes - I'd forgotten all about her - delighted to see she's still about! 

Oh - and it's better than that - she's resurrected CFR... https://cheapfamilyrecipes.co.uk/

euronorris

Oohh thank you. I will take a look at that later. I remember trying some of those recipes many moons ago.

Pleased to report that some dried yeast that I have had in the fridge since sometime in 2020, is still very effective! Just made a batch of pizza dough bases. Already had some pizza sauce pre made in the freezer, along with some yellow sticker sliced mushrooms. Will also be adding some cooked chicken (sliced up once cooked), some diced pepper (from a too good to go box), chopped onion and a pepperami sliced up for the husbands one. They have cheese on theirs, I do not. And DD has lots of fun making her dinner.

Don't think it works out particularly thrifty, but definitely a d@mn site cheaper than buying one!

Jellytotts

There’s a fab account I follow on Insta - tamingtwins (website of the same name) and she’s been doing some really lovely cheap healthy meal plans for under £40 a week from Aldi for a family of 4.   Worth a look if you need some inspiration.