Weekly shopping list for £50?

[alessi10]

Hi,
I have just had my second baby and feeling pretty shattered at the moment and I am stuggling for inspiration to make us healthy and nutritious but quick and easy meals. Our budget is also very tight. I would be really grateful if anyone could share their weekly shopping list/recipe ideas for feeding two parents and a 3 year old on a budget of around £50 per week? Many thanks in advance

[gybegirl]

A great book from the library would be Hugh Fernley Whittingstall's River Cottage Every Day Veg. It has a great list of receipts which use cheap ingredients.

[alessi10]

Thank you, will try and track it down

[AnythingNotEverything]

My husband manages to feed usin about this much. His trick is to buy three types of meat on asda's 3 for £10 deal ie a chicken, a pack of mince and some pork, and then get two meals out of one item where possible. We might have:

Roast chicken on Sunday
Homemade chicken and mushroom pie on Monday
Homemade lasagne Tuesday
Schnitzel on Wednesday (pork in breadcrumbs)
Spagbol on Thursday (with the leftover ragu from Tuesday's lasagne
Sausage and mash on Friday
Takeaway Saturday.

Meat comes to about £12. Then we spend another £10 on fruit and veg - basically whatever veg is on offer or just carrots, broccoli, green beans, potatoes. Another £10 on crisps, biscuits and yoghurts (basically snacks!).

Does that help? We find meal planning has brought our costs down significantly.

[TotemPole]

What sort of things do you like eating?

Do you have freezer space to cook and freeze?

[JiltedJohnsJulie]

We had roasted butternut squash soup with a baguette last night. Think it all must have come to about £2.50 and there was leftovers

[gybegirl]

Whenever making bolognase brown meat and then set aside then finely chop onions, carrots and celery and slow cook for 15 mins before re-adding meat and toms - it goes so much further (and tastes nicer/better for you).

[whosiwhatsit]

This site will help, and it's very easy to use:

www.cheap-family-recipes.org.uk/index.html

[alessi10]

Thanks for all your suggestions, much appreciated. We do have a freezer and like all the things mentioned so has given me some great pointers. The website looks great too :)

[Ruffello]

Look out for cheap pasta and those large bags of rice deals. They last for ages and you can make loads of filling meals from them.