£30 to feed 4 ppl for a week

[AndromedaM31]

Dear lovely mumsnetters,

I have £30 to cover dinners for 4 people for a week. That’s 2 kiddies & 2 adults. Send me your cheapest meal ideas please! (I’ve got jackets already lol)

Thank-ye!

Xx

Have a look at Jack Monroe recipes - lots of good budget meal ideas.

What have you already got in op?
Milk, bread, pasta?

I have got in the cupboards; a pack of spaghetti, some cheese, 6 eggs, 4 jackets, 1 jar of red sauce, a tin of sweet corn & 4 rashers of bacon

Have you got things like milk and flour? Toad in the Hole is always a good budget staple in our house. Served up with some carrots/peas and roasties.

Pasta, rice, tinned beans and pulses. Carrots and cucumbers are cheap.
Add some tuna, sauce or cheese. Do you have breakfast and lunch sorted?

Try and use what's already in your cupboards...if you have flour, oats, tinned foods try and use theose. When Im tight I usually do these:

Bolognese with spagetti - sure aldi have spagetti for 20p a pack
any leftovers have it in jacket potatoes another day

Tuna pasta bake - cheap tin tuna, mix with bit of stock and herbed chopped toms - cheap 22p tin, sprinkle with cheese and bake

Vege chilli - buy I bake of frozen mixed veg add chilli powder and red beans

Beans and egg on toast - we like this sometimes with chips

If I can get a cheap chicken I will roast it for a dinner and leftovers make into a curry or pasta bake again

Make a quiche - if you have the ingrediants for the pastry make that from scratch then eggs and cheese bit of ham or onion

and my old fave pasta with pesto

Have you got a freezer? Scoop up some of the yellow price label items in your supermarket and freeze what you can.

Pasta bake. A jar of pasta bake sauce from about 80p in supermarket, a couple of handfuls of any frozen veg, fresh veg or a small tin of sweet corn or peas, sometimes I add bacon, tuna, beans or baked beans, a couple of handfuls of grated cheddar or mozzarella for the top (finely grate to make it go further).

Mash potato topped pies. Mince for shepherds or cottage pie if you have enough space in the budget, cowboy pie is great too.

Bangers and mash with onion gravy, add some Yorkshire's and some carrots/other veg it serves as a decent substitute for a Sunday roast.

A roast chicken. Eating it as is doesn't make it go very far, but strip it down and use in stews, curries and casseroles it's the cheapest way to buy chicken. Drumsticks and wings make great snacks.

Basing meals on lentils and beans. Bean chilli, lentil and vegetable soup, dahl, etc.

My cheap basics are bread, peanut butter, eggs, baked beans, beans, tinned tuna, frozen veg, flour, milk, oats.

Porridge is really filling but you can also make baked oats, overnight oats, crumble, oat pancakes, and use them to thicken most things. Split peas and lentils work well to bulk meals out too, or barley.

Peanut butter is high fat and protein and works well to add to porridge or toast to make them much more filling. Can also be added to curry or stir fry and to make satay sauce as well as baked goods.

Eat bread with everything. It's not great long term, but short term having a couple of slices of bread and butter with cooked food fills you up a lot. Also other cheap carbs like potato, pasta, noodles, cereal.

Fruit is expensive and so are snacks.

A big packet of mince can be stretched to make two meals eg spaghetti bolognaise, chilli, shepherds pie. Bulk out the mince by adding a grated carrot or handful of porridge oats whilst cooking.

Egg, Chips and Beans.

Bangers and mash.

You could have slightly smaller meals and have pudding eg a pack of jelly is 50p or we have Lidl angel delight which is 15p plus milk.

Frittata is good- eggs, potatoes, veg
A big pot of beans- chopped bacon, onions, celery, carrots, beans, canellini beans and passata.
Chilli, make it mild if the kids don't like it spicy or make a bolognese instead.
A nice, hearty soup like minestrone
Risotto with whatever veg/meat you have
A sausage casserole like coddle

Pasta based meals are cheap. You could do spaghetti carbonara if you add in a bit of cheese to the ingredients you already have. Tuna pasta bake is cheap and easy and could use the sweet corn in it. Frozen veg is cheap enough and goes a long way, especially if you’ve got an Iceland or Farm Foods type place as they have some great offers. One of our favourites is toad in the hole with mash and a side of carrots and cauliflower cheese. A big pack of mince (a lot of places do pork and beef mince mixed which is cheaper than just beef) will spread for spaghetti bolognese one day, then cottage pie another if you bulk it out with frozen veg.

Scone pastry is cheap- SR flour, pinch of salt, a little bit of oil or marge and water/milk.
It makes a nice soft dough, and you can make scones to have for lunch, sweet or savoury. Same stuff makes a nice pie lid on a tin of fruit to have as a pudding.
Or a fake pizza base. Pat into a circle, smear with tomato purée (really cheap) or ketchup. Sprinkle on some sweetcorn, sliced onion, and a scattering of cheese.

Refried beans are good. A can of cheap kidney beans, mashed with a chicken oxo, reheated. Have with pita bread or wraps, with some salad and a bit of grated cheese.

Red lentil dhal with carrots and frozen peas in it (rose Elliot recipe) and rice.

Mug of rice is usually enough for four of us.

Vegetable and bean chilli, using onions, carrots, tinned sweetcorn and tinned kidney beans is really cheap and could use the rest of the rice.

Assuming you have an Aldi nearby...

Pasta bake jar and bag of pasta would be about £1 from Aldi, add a garlic bread (50p ISH) and serve with the tin of sweetcorn. Aldi cheesecakes are only 65p if you can afford dessert. - evening meal for less than £2.50

Pasta bake...if you are near a Lidl the creamy tomato pasta bake sauce is great and about 70p...I add a jar of olives (49p at Lidl) and tin of sweetcorn. It is my children's favourite meal and is cheap and easy.

Of its just dinners, then that easy

1/2 your pack of pasta and the jar of sauce (you already have)

Jackets and baked beans, buy 3 tins baked beans, use 1.5 here. (C.90p)

But 1 large onion (~40p) Use 2 slices bacon and half onion, 4 eggs to make an omelette.

If you have flour, make sweetcorn fritters, if not, buy a bag for 40p. Use 1 egg. Buy some milk. Max £2?

cook Other half of spaghetti,
fry up 2 slices bacon, chopped. stir 1 egg through hot spaghetti, and you have carbonara.

make pancakes with flour and milk for tea...one off will do no harm. Buy a jar of peanut butter/jam/honey/whatever for on top. That won't cost more than £1.

Buy a loaf of bread for 40p (Tesco value or similar) have remaining beans on toast.

7 meals... And you won't spend more than £5-6.

If kids or you are still hungry...you still have half a loaf of bread left for toast. And you then still have £24+ for more food.

So long as the £30 is to cover dinners only (not breakfast/lunch and no household supplies), you have a reasonably well stocked store cupboard, aren't particularly fussy eaters and are OK without meat at every meal, you should be OK. My suggested menu would be below, it's a bit lacking in fresh fruit and protein but would be fine for a week!

Monday: Jacket potatos with tuna/sweetcorn and a side salad (you have the jackets and sweetcorn, tins of tuna £2, salad £2 - this will buy you a lettuce, cucumber and some tomatos and/or peppers, or a couple of bags of pre-prepared salad). Total = £4

Tuesday: Spaghetti carbonara with bacon, side salad (you can technically make with the eggs, bacon and pasta that you have but will be on the stingy side for bacon so let's say £2 for extra bacon - hopefully you have salad leftover from yesterday). Total = £2

Wednesday: Veggie curry with chickpeas and spinach, rice (big bag rice £2, tin chickpeas 50p, bag spinach £1, tin tomatos 35p, onion 15p, spices hopefully from cupboard, if not £1 for some curry powder). Total £5

Thursday: 3 bean chilli with rice (rice from yesterday, 2 x tinned beans £2, onion 15p, tinned tomatos 35p, spices hopefully from cupboard but if not then £1 to buy a spice mix). Total £3.50

Friday: Sausages and mash: Sausages £2, big bag potatos £1.5, butter £1.50, frozen peas £1. Total £6

Saturday: roast dinner: medium chicken £3, potatos and peas from yesterday, carrots £1, won't be super generous on the meat so bulk out with yorkshire puds if you can from milk and flour you hopefully have in stock. Total = £4. plus you can make chicken stock or soup from the carcass for next week's lunches!

Sunday: pitta pizzas: pack pitta breads 50p, use your red sauce and cheese to top then add ham (£2) or salami (£1) and serve with side salad (£1). Total = £3.50

I make that menu £28 so you have a little wiggle room to buy some tinned or frozen fruit for afters, or maybe some greek yoghurt? Or even a little treat for the weekend?!

Jacket potatoe cheese and beans
Tuna pasta (pasta, tuna, tin tomatoes, tin sweetcorn and some cheese if you have it plus an onion)
Carbonara (chopped up bacon, egg yolks, spaghetti and cheese) use the egg whites to make merengues with some cheap fruit
Fish finger pie - layer fish fingers with peas and then top with mash
Homemade pot noodles - instant noodles with some peas, any chopped up cooked meat you have, seasoning/spices, and any other cooked veg etc or some tomatoes. Can also access in an egg to cook in the hot water
Risotto - rice, stock and then whatever rice and meat you have.

The best meals are something saucy so you can chuck whatever the cheapest meat and veg is into a sauce like curry or tomatoes etc and serve with rice or pasta or noodles

Rice pudding is cheap and easy. Big milk is £1. Pudding rice is about 70p. You only need a spoonful of sugar. If you've got a slow cooker you can make it in that and it's less electric.

I found we could stand up to three pasta meals a week. A really cheap thing to do is buy a tub of cream cheese (Lidl 70p) and spaghetti (45p). You can make a cheap cheesy sauce with about a third of a tub of cream cheese similar to this. You can get three main meals for four sorted for £1.60.

Another thing I did a lot was a hearty breakfast porridge. Would think you'd need to spend £1.89 to cover all breakfasts. Half milk (£1) and half water with jumbo porridge oats (39p). Pinch of salt. Then I would stew some (like, 2, so 20p) apples (just cut them up and put them in a pan with a spoonful of water and the lid on - cook on high heat to quickly stew) and have that with the porridge and a bit of peanut butter stirred in. Or if you don't have any honey etc in, buy some ginger nut biscuits (29p) and crumble one into each bowl - it gives a gingerbready flavour.

If it's a longer term thing then buy some garam masala this week. Then next week buy some garlic and ginger. Then you can get chana dal and a bag of brown onions and eat tarka dal for pennies. If there's a WorldWide Foods near you that's the place to go. It's a bit much to buy all in one go if you're not set up for it and if you don't know you will eat it, so I wouldn't advise it this week.

Have you got anything in the freezer?

How old are the children?

I’d do:

Spaghetti bolognese
Chilli and rice
Jacket potatoes with either sweet corn bacon and cheese or left over chilli
Mushroom, bacon and/or cheese Omelette and toast
Lentil curry and rice
Tuna pasta bake
Roast chicken drumsticks or thighs, broccoli and sweet potato

Using Tesco bare minimum ingredients needed:

Mince 1.99
Tinned tomatoes 0.35
Rice 1.20
Tinned Beans x2 1.10
Onion x2 0.20
Mushrooms 0.95
Bread 0.79
Lentils 1.15
Tinned tuna 0.79
Penne 0.29
Chicken 2.10
Broccoli 0.55
Sweet potato 1.00
Total = £12.45

I’d also want:
Milk £1.09
Cheddar £2.50
Coleslaw £0.80 or (carrots and cabbage to make from scratch)
Naan £0.75
Cooking oil £1.10
Chilli powder/Paprika: £0.90
Turmeric: £0.85

Grand total: £20.44

Great recipes - my top tip is to find out when your local stores do their mark downs. It's different for each store, but you can often get some huge reductions. If it's a, 'use by,' date - be sure to check whether it's suitable for freezing.

honestly, if money is that tight - spend the £5-6 I suggested. Save £10. ANd maybe keep £10 to buy things like a another pint of milk/oaf of bread/ treats for the kids so they don't notice etc.

You don't have to have "nutritionally complete" meals for the week, if it's a one off.

Sod buying tuna and more meat... - it's expensive. And if you're scraping for money now, it means times are tough, so save the money

I'd be tempted to make the jackets go further too - by using them as wedges. Then you could get away with using 3 for the 4 of you and save a potato for another day to make into chips or putinto a soup or whatever.

Mash and Jackets are a "waste" of potato - you use more than you might if you had them another way.

@kojolo

That cheesy pasta recipe was one of my student staples. I used to add in whatever veggies I had in the fridge / freezer too. Spinach and mushroom are good.