Could you feed a family of five for 23 days on £120?

[MediumBags]

It's a long way to payday!
I see lots of pasta in my future! :-(

You say your freezer space is poor, does that mean that there's lots of things in there, or just that you have a small freezer?

If you have lots of things lurking in your fridge or cupboards, try and use them up, either as is, or supplemented by cheap additions, to both stretch your budget, and have a good clear out of old stock. Then you will be able to restock when you have more spare money.

Also, do you have any clubcard or nectar points that you haven't spent - use these up. Also sign up to any supermarket that you haven't had delivery from before to qualify for new customer money off deals if you can do a big order to get £10 off £60 spend for example.

@WillBendTheKnee4Jon never heard of her before, just looked her up! Looks fab, thanks!

Very small freezer :-(

Soup using the left over bits of veg.

Bulk out any chilli/spag bol with extra veg, lentils.

Philidelphia garlic and herb spreadable cheese is nice mixed through some pasta.

Bacon lardons can be cheap, my favourite meal as a teen was fried lardons in pasta. With mayo and grated cheese!

Same as cut up sausage in pasta mayo, with chunks of cucumber.

It can be done, just! But i do find it very carb heavy to fill people up!

One day for 5 on a fiver:

Breakfast - toast and cheap jam 30p

Lunch - tortilla wraps with ham salad or egg mayo, crisps and banana £2.00

Dinner - sausage casserole and mash £2.30

Pack biscuits for bedtime/snacks - 40p

Bulk out any chilli/spag bol with extra veg, lentils

YY to this. If you make chilli, use a small pack of mince, couple of wonky peppers, couple of onions, cheap canned tomatoes, and a can each of cheapest kidney beans, baked beans and chick peas, they're absolutely fine. Makes loads and much cheaper than a high meat recipe with branded kidney beans and tomatoes.

You should have leftovers, make into enchiladas with a pack of wraps - supermarket own brand or branded on offer, any tomato sauce and grated cheese.

Morrisons sometimes do trays of meat for £10, that has quite a bit more of £10 worth of meat on it, and their meat is really good for supermarkets. Will do several meals if you are careful.

When feeding five people, you might be able to make your money stretch by cooking recipes for 4 and bulking it out in a cheap way, by adding extra inexpensive sides like baked beans, bread, eggs, baked potatoes etc, depending on what the meal is.

Weekend

Brunch - bacon, eggs, beans, tomatoes, sausage, toast £3.30

Snacks - crisps or banana each 50p

Dinner - veg soup (potatoes, carrots, onion, stock) and crusty bread £1.20

Also shop in the reduced section later in the day at supermarkets

This is all looking really good, cheap and healthy apart from the sausages.

It's worth noting that reduced items in supermarkets are usually displayed on the very end of the aisles.

Join the fb group 'feed yourself for £1 a day'.

@MediumBags Don't rely on the offers, they're not always cheaper. Look at the unit price for the item and compare it to equivalent packs.

What do you have in the cupboards?

Breakfasts:
Porridge (best made with milk for kids, but older teens and adults can have it made with just water and it still goes nice and creamy). A bit of salt and/or sugar on top.

Toast and jam - not the healthiest, but fine to have a couple of times.

Lunches:
Beans on toast.
Scrambled egg on toast, carrot sticks (chop your own).
Peanut butter sandwich, apple.
Homemade veg soup and value garlic bread.

Dinners:
Dhal and rice (chop an onion, sweat in a bit of oil or butter with value curry powder, add red lentils, cover with boiling water, and cook till soft, stirring frequently).
Jacket potato with baked beans and value cheese.
Pasta/chickpea/tomato bake.
Vegetable stew.
Veg pie with gravy.

Forget about fancy fruit and veg during this time and stick to the basics: value apples, value pears, bananas. The reason people recommend freezing is because frozen veg tends to be cheap. Again, stick to the less fancy stuff during this time: frozen peas (not petits pois); the mix of chopped green beans/carrot/peas/sweetcorn; etc.

You can buy bags of frozen red berries (which you don’t have to keep in the freezer - you can keep in the fridge as long as you’ll use them over a couple of days) which are good in porridge, or you can stew down with a bit of sugar to make a compote.

Good luck, and be shameless in taking advantage of any free food you can: free piece of fruit for kids at Tesco; after-church biscuits if you go to church;

Look to the old days and bulk everything out with cheap stodgey carbs. Maybe not superhealthy but if you are on a strict budget it will make things a bit more satisfying.

Absolutely! That's pretty much what I spend on my family of 5 (me, DH, Dses 10, 7 & 5) - no more than £150 per month & often a lot less. 2 Dses take packed lunch to school.

Meals we often have are:

Breakfast: Cornflakes, weetabix, toast, porridge.

Lunch: Bread/toast with ham/cheese, salad bits, sometimes crisps. Fruit for pudding.

Dinners: tomato pasta, cheesy bacon pasta, cheesy broccoli pasta, sausage pasta. Spag bol, cottage/shepherd's pie. Roasted chicken drumsticks with potatoes & salad. Risotto (ham/bacon, mushrooms, onions, peas, broccoli). Fish pie, hm fish cakes. Eggs, beans & toast. Occasionally fish Fingers, pizza. Beef casserole, chicken casserole. Other bits if I find them reduced.

Then various bits for snacks including cheap fruits (apples, bananas etc), crackers, biscuits etc.

I mostly shop at Aldi, but go to Tesco once a week/fortnight/whenever I can to buy reduced fresh produce- fruit, veg, bakery, meat etc.

Fry two or three leeks, sliced finely, aft fennel seeds if you have in the cupboard, add two crumbled sausages, fry a bit, add a bit of water and stir to emulsify and some mustard.

Great pasta sauce, Really cheap.

Can you sell on FB. Maybe take some ironing in. Ask any family or friends if they can PayPal you a small loan.

You need to do a cupboard and fridge/freezer audit and post what you already have.

I've just started buying chicken thighs rather than breasts, only £1.65 for 1kg in Aldi, put in the slow cooker or oven casserole dish, lovely

Check to see if a church nearby is doing ' make lunch' , it's aimed at filling the holiday hunger gap. For most of them you don't need a referral, you get a hot meal and some activities, everyone is welcome.

Go onto tlg.org.uk and you can find the nearest. Other organisations will do holiday lunch clubs if there is not one of those nearby.

In my area there's a "feeding the holiday hunger gap" programme with free breakfast and activities for a week for kids in the Easter holidays. Anything like that near you? Would help a bit.

You can. I'd second Jack Monroe. Follow her on Twitter too.
Pulses, spices, value stuff. Dried food, tinned food. Have you a local market? Go at 4pm on Saturday. The meat is ridiculously cheap and they'll do you a deal. Been there. It's a pain and dull but do- able xxxxx

We do - veggie curry, veggie chilli, spaghetti bolognese and meatball (Quorn) pasta all in bulk and make at least 3 dinners each, mac and cheese, pizza, courgette frittata, omelette and chips, soups, frozen pastry with cheese and onions and peppers, fajitas, sausage casserole (again bulk cook), hotdogs (veggie), veggie burgers. I buy the big bags of frozen veg from Morrison’s so all the bulk cooking gets a big bag added plus some tinned lentils. For breakfast we have porridge or overnight oats, lunches are leftovers or soups or toasties. I buy a load of loafs and freeze some. For snacks - High protein bars, no sugar jelly, red peppers, fruit, cucumbers, Oat cakes, digestives, cheese, oat bars, yoghurt, bread sticks, rice cakes. I buy a lot from Lidl and Morrison’s.

Why are you ignoring people's questions? You need to list what you already have so people can help make a plan with what you already have. Vague one word answers aren't useful.

Just spotted on MSE email. Lidls are doing £1.50 boxes of 5 kg of imperfect fruit/ veg each morning. Might help a bit, even though it will be random, dragon fruit anyone?

Just spotted on MSE email. Lidls are doing £1.50 boxes of 5 kg of imperfect fruit/ veg each morning. Might help a bit, even though it will be random, dragon fruit anyone?

Saw this in my local Lidl.

Boxes are pretty big and some I saw her watermelons, avocados, blueberries, cucumbers, tomatoes...quite a big variety.