£10 a week....

Happy_Sloth

Ok so i have been watching a fair amount of youtube videos that do budget/shopping/cooking etc. 

There is one lady i really like but she's US based so it's difficult to compare as the items she buys aren't priced the same or simply aren't available.  I've tried looking for UK based ones that do budget/cooking mostly for ideas for frugal recipes. 

However I'm really struggling... Most of these video's are rubbish... Some of them claim to feed people for £10 a week and then proceed to give terrible advice, either with really bizarre food choices that aren't cost efficient or by having such small portion sizes that it wouldn't fill a small child never mind a adult human.  Like the lady who wanted to feed adults 1 single crumpet for breakfast. Surely oats or pancakes would have been cheaper and more filling? 

I have to be honest it's really inspired me...  i'm a prepper i've always got a well stocked pantry, so even when times are tough we've never just had £10 a week for food. I have no idea what the cheapest you can reasonably feed a family of 4 with for a week, I suspect you really need closer to £15-£20 (Assuming nothing in the cupboards and available shops) but I've never really tried. 

So assuming you had nothing in, can't bulk buy because you didn't have cash available to buy in bulk.  What are your super most frugal recipes? 

Siebrie

Boil potatoes, boil carrots, boil or fry onions (1 part onions, 1 part carrots, 2 parts potatoes), mash them all together. Add some bran for a veggie dish, add gravy or treacle for taste. Meat optional. Lovely fried the next day, can be served on a slice of bread.

-taff

Go to a community larder and see what you can get there...they are not for people who need food banks, they are to keep waste out of landfill, so don't be shy about using them.

I suppose veg soup with a tin of borlotti would be my cheapest, or pasta fagioli, basically pasta, a stock cube, tin of borlotti. Any pasta will do, even lasagne sheets if that's the cheapest, or for the people who like cooking, make your own, it's only flour and water, rolled out thin and sliced or shaped.

bouicca21

My cheapest meal used to be chilli pork kidneys (2 pork kidneys in a chilli tomato sauce, costs about £1.40, feeds 3 greedy or 4 normal people, plus rice).  I'm a big fan of what Tesco and Sainsburys sell as cooking bacon - basically scraps - which I freeze in approx 80-100g quantities and use to add an extra bit of flavour to dishes like bolognese sauce, chicken liver pasta etc.  Following the tip on another thread about the youtube video using a cheap Lidl veg box, I have now added bacon and lettuce risotto to my repertoire. A bit of cooking bacon, lettuce, onion and garlic make a surprisingly tasty risotto.

Oh, and I forgot, lentil and coconut curry is pretty cheap too.

maryb

Curried egg rosti. Grate one medium peeled potato per person on the large holes on a grater and soak in cold water to get excess starch out.  Drain and squeeze excess water out then stir in some curry powder until the grated potato looks evenly light gold.  Fry gently in a single layer in a frying pan until nicely brown on the bottom then flip the whole thing like a pancake - I slide it out of the pan onto a baking sheet then invert the frying pan over it and flip the lot. Fry for a bit longer then make wells in the potato cake and break an egg into each well.  Put a lid on the frying pan or put it under a grill.  Either way, the eggs take about four minutes to cook until the whites are opaque but the yolk is still soft

Basically, fancy egg and chips and, quite literally, cheap as chips

otb666

liver and onions with potatoes.  I used to tell the kids it was steak and then they cleared their plates, but then i used to change the hands on the clock and say it was bedtime as well (you would not get away with that now with their mobile phones)
I would start with a sack of spuds for egg and chips/cheesy jacket spuds and cottage pies Basically chips and mash spuds with everything

CapricornLass

There's a lady called Thrifty Lesley, who is providing ideas for people to feed themselves on £1 a day.  Her website is thriftylesley.com  However, I have to be honest and say I haven't tried any of her recipes, and some of them quite frankly just don't appeal to me.  

Like obt666, I would be using a lot of potatoes and I would also be using a lot of oats.  My ancestors seemed to survive quite well on them!

goldfinches

I'd buy a value bag of onions, some cheap oil, a bag of the cheapest lentils I could find of whatever colour and then a bag of quinoa  and whatever salt and spice mix I could afford and I'd fry the onions until they were caramelised and then make a basic dhal and cook some quinoa and then serve the dhal over the quinoa topped with the onions.
That would give you every amino acid you needed from the quinoa plus iron, protein and carbs from the lentils and flavour from the onions and spices. You could eat that for every meal for a week or two and be well nourished for very little money and effort. If you could afford to add some frozen greens like spinach or peas to the lentils that would be even better and some fresh or dried fruit or nuts would make a good additional treat too. Some value yoghurt to eat with the lentils with would also be good.

My other cheap fallbacks are mixed y/s veg soup made in the slow cooker to which I then add dumplings or a mixture of canned beans and tinned, chopped tomatoes again all bunged in the slow cooker and pepped up with whatever flavourings you've got handy served over cous cous or rice. 

You might find this recipe collection helpful too. Cheap recipes - BBC Food

onlineanonymous

Surely it's better to spend a little more with the goal of healthy eating?

doingitanyway

bouicca21 said:

My cheapest meal used to be chilli pork kidneys (2 pork kidneys in a chilli tomato sauce, costs about £1.40, feeds 3 greedy or 4 normal people, plus rice).  I'm a big fan of what Tesco and Sainsburys sell as cooking bacon - basically scraps - which I freeze in approx 80-100g quantities and use to add an extra bit of flavour to dishes like bolognese sauce, chicken liver pasta etc.  Following the tip on another thread about the youtube video using a cheap Lidl veg box, I have now added bacon and lettuce risotto to my repertoire. A bit of cooking bacon, lettuce, onion and garlic make a surprisingly tasty risotto.

Oh, and I forgot, lentil and coconut curry is pretty cheap too.

I'm not a fan of kidneys but I like your ideas and approach to food. This food is cheap, tasty and nutritious.

doingitanyway

goldfinches said:

I'd buy a value bag of onions, some cheap oil, a bag of the cheapest lentils I could find of whatever colour and then a bag of quinoa  and whatever salt and spice mix I could afford and I'd fry the onions until they were caramelised and then make a basic dhal and cook some quinoa and then serve the dhal over the quinoa topped with the onions.
That would give you every amino acid you needed from the quinoa plus iron, protein and carbs from the lentils and flavour from the onions and spices. You could eat that for every meal for a week or two and be well nourished for very little money and effort. If you could afford to add some frozen greens like spinach or peas to the lentils that would be even better and some fresh or dried fruit or nuts would make a good additional treat too. Some value yoghurt to eat with the lentils with would also be good.

My other cheap fallbacks are mixed y/s veg soup made in the slow cooker to which I then add dumplings or a mixture of canned beans and tinned, chopped tomatoes again all bunged in the slow cooker and pepped up with whatever flavourings you've got handy served over cous cous or rice. 

You might find this recipe collection helpful too. Cheap recipes - BBC Food

Ooh this is also delish and healthy too