To think it’s actually hard to live off this for the rest of the month?!

I use supermarket own brand cream cheese for a lot of sauces for a really quick and easy option. Sometimes I can't be bothered to make a roux for a cheese sauce so I put a tub of cream cheese, grated cheddar, a small amount of veg stock and some seasonings into a pot over a low heat and you get a cheesy sauce in just a couple of minutes.

Another version I do is wilted spinach (a whole bag) which I then blend into a smooth paste (I tried it without blending but my autistic DC didn't like the texture) and put that into the cream cheese in the pot. Again a stock cube and some seasonings (I use stuff like garlic powder, onion powder, paprika and dried herbs but it depends what you like or have in the house) and it's an easy sauce. The last time I made it I had a bag of reduced kale that I added to the spinach, it's a great way to get veggies into kids, especially if you have fussy ones like me.

Mashed butternut squash, cream cheese and a bit of cheddar makes a good sauce too.

I used to make my own tomato sauce for pasta just with passata, some herbs, a stock cube and tomato puree and let it cook until it thickens up a little. DC won't eat tomatoes at all now though so I haven't made it for a while but it's really just bung it in a pan and stir it now and again.

I use all these as sauces for pasta or gnocchi but you can also use them as a sauce on chicken with potatoes or rice and none of them cost too much overall.

You’ll save yourself a fortune OP if you can learn a few basics which save you from buying pre-prepared meals and sauces. £3 per meal for your little one doesn’t sound like a lot but even if that’s just for dinners it’s £21 a week which could easily pay for 4 or more meals for both of you to eat.

There are a lot of free recipes online which will teach you how to make pasta sauces, roast chicken with veg, potato dishes, curries, etc. If you can start building up a repertoire of dishes you can cook more or less from scratch you’ll save a huge amount of money and it will give you breathing room in your budget each month.

Haven’t read all the thread but you had me at only £3 a meal for a toddler. It’s your attitude to money that’s the issue here.
probably great ideas for what to prep and cook are already on the thread. Oh and duck breasts. They’re a treat for me and I’m not on a budget generally just in my head.
Also ready meals are ultra processed food- not a good idea long term. Find some of the old programmes on tv about saving money on your food budget. I used to think they were made up but realise some people just don’t cook and rely on pre made meals.
Good luck - you can do this.

Food is essential.

Washing tablets/ dishwasher pods are expensive; try to buy liquid instead. We were spending a FORTUNE on the pods until my DH exposed us to the washing liquid. It lasts ages and costs less.

I think it's enough to last but I would worry too in case something unexpected comes up that you need to pay for. My best tip is to meal plan and don't browse in shops because you'll be tempted to buy food not on your list.

do you have an Aldi or Lidil near by?

Oh FFS. She could batch cook a load of mash and freeze it. Use it for shepherd's pie, fish pie, bubble & squeak. Then, maybe, they could have chips or baked spuds ANOTHER DAY in the month! Or roast potatoes with herbs and roast vegetables.

I manage to feed me & 2 hungry teenagers for around £120 per week. That includes all toiletries, household goods and incidentals. I shop in Sainsbury's & mainly their own brand and a few names ones like Heinz baked beans & Walkers crisps.

BBC Good Food usually has decent recipes.
I can empathise as I am a self-taught cook too.
My mum cooked by throwing everything in a stew pot and boiling it.
My dad cooked chips + one of the following- eggs, spam, liver, chicken nuggets.

School dinners were our primary meal.

You need to learn to cook. Stop buying ready made. Prepped potatoes? Total waste of money . Saying you never learned to cook is a cop out.

https://www.tamingtwins.com/15-minute-meals-1/

Breakfasts -

Boxed cereals

Porridge - measure it in a mug. I have half a mug of porridge for me. Tip that in a saucepan. Whatever measurement of porridge you use, tip in the same amount of water then the same amount of milk. Put the pan on low and stir occasionally.

Toast! You can get cheap jam for 30p and honey for less than a pound.

Keep some cheap white sliced bread in the freezer. Take 2 slices and thaw in the microwave if necessary. Beat 2 eggs in a large dish. Dip the toast in the egg until it has absorbed it all. Heat a frying pan (not full heat) with a blob of butter. Put the eggy bread in the frying pan and cook it on both sides. You can put fruit that you like in the pan next to the bread. I usually put in blueberries (straight from the freezer) or sliced banana or apple.

Soft boiled eggs - boil for 5 minutes.
Hard boiled eggs - boil for 9 minutes.

That sounds like plenty to me too.
how come you’ve run out of detergents and shampoo etc all at the same time?
They are the things to stock up on when on offer. If I was stuck I’d hand wash the necessary clothes and handwash dishes. Hair and body wash no more than one pound in boots or Lidl and that would last a month easily.
food batch cook a few cheap meals. Have baked potatoes. Spaghetti.
buy reduced food at the end of the day.
im not sure exactly what I spend on groceries each week but I could definitely manage with 350 for a month if not needing to pay bills with it.

Cook some sausages (fry or in the oven). You can use these in 3 meals.

1. Hot dogs.

2. Chop up and use with pasta and sauce.

3. Toad in the hole. Recipe below but just get an oven proof dish and put some oil in the bottom. You have already cooked the sausages so leave that part of the recipe out. Put the dish including sausages in the oven for a few minutes then add the batter mixture. Have with frozen peas (microwave with a tablespoon of water for 3 minutes) and gravy.

www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/sams-toad-hole

How?

We are vegetarian. I can spend that on fruit and vegetables alone.

I spent £8 on vegan cheese and soya milk alone add in bread, pasta, rice, beans, coffee etc + basic toiletries, cleaning and washing up liquid and all the other stuff to get us through the week.

Potato wedges - wash some potatoes. Don't bother to peel them. Cut them into vaguely wedges or chip shapes.
Get a freezer bag. Put some oil in (like 2 tablespoons) with a bit of salt and any herbs you think smell nice. Put the potatoes in the bag and shake them.
Then put some greaseproof paper on a baking tray (if your trays are as knackered as mine!) Tip the wedges out across the tray. Put in the oven for about 45 minutes.

Good by themselves or with pizza. Or with baked beans and a fried egg.

Make a lot of mashed potato. You can use this with sausages, meat etc and as a topping for a shepherds pie.
Or you can mix the mashed potato with a tin of tuna or salmon then make little mounds of your mixture on a baking tray. Oven for about 20 minutes then you have little fish cakes. You can put cheese on before cooking if you like or even push a cube of cheese into the middle where it will melt, if you are feeling fancy.

https://www.sainsburysmagazine.co.uk/recipes/bread/quick-pizza-dough

basically, mix all the ingredients then knead it for one minute.

You can use any topping.

I don't want to patronise you but just in case you can't cook at all:

Rice - I do 100g per adult so maybe you will need 150g for you 2. Weigh it and put it in a big microwaveable bowl. Add twice as much boiling water as rice (so 300ml). Cover with cling film. Cook in the microwave for 12 minutes.

Cous cous - I don't weigh it! Put what you think looks sensible in a bowl. Add boiling water so it covers it, just. (You can add a bit more later if it looks a bit dry). Cover the bowl with a tea towel for 5 minutes then stir. If you are feeling fancy, you can use stock (boiling water and stock cube) instead of water. You can throw in herbs or raisins or whatever you like.

Crumble - half fat to flour. You can also use some and freeze some so you might want to make a bit more. Maybe 250g of flour and 125g butter or marg. Put the flour in a bowl. Cut the butter into little cubes. Put it in the flour then use your finger tips to rub the cubes of butter into the flour until you get "breadcrumbs". You can then pour the crumble mixture over any tinned fruit (in an oven proof bowl) and bake for about 25 minutes.

Pastry - make the crumble mix as above. Put a little bit of water in (less than you would think). Now you can make jam tarts etc.

OP I sympathise. I agree with a pp who said some posters are making it seem easy when in reality being able to manage a tight budget requires knowledge & experience.

I.am a very competent cook & I struggle to keep to a low budget as the meals I'm used to making & my family are used to eating are on the complex side & usually involve several sides or accompaniments.

If you are not a proficient cook but would like up get better I recommend looking up Jamie Olivers how to cook book. It's excellent at explaining the core basics to make tasty & economical meals & also gives great ideas how to stretch things & use up leftovers.

We shop a lot in Aldi with some luxury bits from m&s.

Good luck OP - you can do it!

Try shopping is Lidl or Aldi - you'll save a fortune.

You can also economise by buying vegetables cheaply from your local street markets and bulk cooking something like something, ratatouille, dividing it and freezing it in portions.

Homemade coleslaw is also incredibly cheap to make - you don't need a Michelin star, just a grater.

There are so many ways to live on a budget in lean times.

Search one pot pasta on Tik tok. Hundreds of videos showing you step by step exactly what to do, with a list of ingredients and method in caption. It will say how many it serves as well.

You don't need to buy the specific (and often expensive) pasta shapes they're using in the specific video, just bog standard fusilli/whatever you can get cheapest will be fine.

I add a good handful of frozen peas to almost everything I cook- bulks it out, more veg and I love peas!

I could share plenty of recipes with you but if you don't know how to cook and are a complete beginner, I think the one pot pasta videos would be a good place to start, as you can see it being done too. I am super busy with work so I always make 2 meals worth at a time.

so if it does work out at £115 a week ?

you can afford to shop at M&S for that !

My mum's leason on cooking was 'shove it in the oven at 180⁰ for 20 minutes' regardless of what it was. I was in a hostel at 16 and got a student cookbook from a charity shop which was great, it literally started with how to boil an egg.

I think you’ve had a lot of mean replies OP. The good news is you can definitely make this money last for the month. The bad news is you’re going to have to do somethings differently than usual and learn some new skills - but this is actually a positive because it will help you change your spending and eating habits long term.

If you don’t cook at all, I’d recommend starting by buying a good sharp knife, then:

Learn how to slice an onion:

https://youtube.com/shorts/QcxPvzCgG84?si=yFl9iWM7xOYtzzv1

How to cook a great baked potato:

https://amp.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/wordofmouth/2010/nov/04/how-cook-perfect-jacket-potato

How to cook rice perfectly:

How to cook scrambled eggs:

Slowly build up new skills and recipes, but start with the basics. After the first couple of times cooking something, it will become a lot more easy. Don’t stress about mistakes as no one if judging you, this is just you working on a life skill and you will be so proud of yourself when you are able to make a repertoire of different meals.

I would start by buying some silver foil trays with lids (much cheaper on line than from a supermarket). Then you can batch cook. You can also use old takeaway containers if you collect those.

I make large quantities of the following, them freeze them in containers (or freezer bags) with enough for the 2 of us:

Tomato sauce (tinned toms, onions, garlic, any herbs you have, salt, sugar, spot of vinegar). Cooked veg first then add the rest and cook for 30 mins. You can use this as pasta sauce, with meatballs or even liquidise it as soup if you need to.

Spanish chicken. Chicken breasts or thighs, chorizo, onions, garlic, herbs, tin of beans (any sort, not baked beans), tin of tomatoes, olives if you have them. Fry onions, garlic and sliced chorizo. Add chicken chopped into sensible sized pieces. Brown it all. Chuck the tins of tomatoes and beans in a casserole dish with 500ml of stock (hot water and stock cube). Add the fried stuff. Cook in the oven for an hour or so.

Make a bolognese with minced lamb. Use it actually as bolognese with spaghetti or freeze some in your little silver trays to top with mashed potato in the future to make a shepherds pie. Or add chilli and chilli beans to make chilli with rice or jacket potatoes.

Jacket potatoes with cheese and beans or tuna, mayo and sweetcorn.

Make a pizza base (Sainsburys do a good recipe which I will try and find - I've used it for years). Put on anything you can find then grated cheese.

Chorizo is great because you can fry the tiniest bit and it adds a lot of flavour to an omelette or soup.

Buy ready made pastry bases then make quiche. Throw in anything you like then add 2 beaten eggs with a spot of milk then bake.