AIBU to ask if you had £50 for a weekly food shop what would you buy?

[FuckingDiet]

This is not my situation and in no way a begging thread. Between now and the run up to Christmas we see a lot of these types of threads so I thought it would be a good idea to put all our advice in one place. That way if anybody is in need everything is in on place.

I will set a challenge of 3dc aged between 2-10 and 2 adults, your meal plan for the week, shopping list and where you would buy it from with a rough total. Lets see which one of us can come up with the best result.

And as others say, learn how to minimise wastage. Towards the end of the week, I will often put a curry or stew in the slow cooker using up the last few mushrooms/bits of celery whatever - rather than waste. Slow cooker is another boon I find, as a poor person. I can make a decent curry or chilli in there and sometimes stretch some of it two days (the kids won't eat the same thing two days running, but husband and I will).

Ok for 7 meals

Cottage pie
Spag bol or pasta type dish
Chilli concarny (or another pasta dish)
Stew
Quiche, jacket, peas
Sunday roast
Curry(chicken leftover)

Some above meals leftovers, could be used for lunch or an second meal the following night. So there are more than 7 meals.

Lunches: left overs or cheese or ham sandwiches, fromage frais, crisps, Clementine.

At the weekend lunch mini pizzas or beans on toast.

Breakfast wheatabix and banana or toast.

I've based on Tesco prices(easier to check online for rough idea) but know you can get cheaper.

It's been a long time since we had to keep things this tight. So lacking in some ideas.

Some of these lists are great!

I know I use to buy a lot of eggs and flour and made lots of bread/cakes/pizza bases. But they aren't in this list.

My total including toiletries came to £59.96. I was working on 2 adults 2 preteens.(Tesco prices)

Mince 1kg (decide into 3) £3.35
Diced beef 400g £3.70
Whole medium chicken £3.00
Quiche x 2 £2.20
Potatoes 2.5kg x 2 £2.70
Frozen casserole veg 1Kg £1.10
Frozen peas 900g
Beef gravy granules 70p
Pasta penne/spaghetti/lasagne 20p-50p
Pasta sauce 75p
Tikka masala sauce 75p
Long grained rice 45p or basmati 90p
Kidney beans 30p
Chopped tomatoes x2 50p
Tomato puree 50p
Garlic puree 80p
Frozen Yorkshire puds(15) 55p
Garlic bread 40p
Naan bread 2 pack 75p
6 pint milk £1.48
3 loaves of bread £1.50
Butter me up 1kg £1.80
Medium cheddar 550g £2.70
Waffle thin ham £1
4 mini pizzas £1.70
Baked beans x2 50p
Wheatabix £1.30
Small bananas 6 pack 90p
Small Clementine pack x2 £2.00
Onions 1kg 75p
Carrots 1kg 50p
Tea bags £1.50
Coffee £2.00
Little fromage frais 6 pack x3 £1.50
12 pack crisps x2 £2.50
Fresh orange juice 1.5L 65p
Biscuit barrel variety back 900g £1.29
Daz washing powder 22 washes £2.00
Fabric conditioner £1.30
Multi bits +iron 70p
Cod liver oil capsules £1.50
Shampoo £1
Conditioner £1
Bubble bath 55p
Tooth paste 50p
Toilet roll 6 pack £1
Hand soap 50p
Bar of soap 25p.

On other weeks you'd swap a meal for a say breaded fish n chips/ tuna pasta/Omelettes/potatoes boats ect..

I can afford tinfoil, but try and scrub the grill instead. I get that it depends what you cook. I don't cook very greasy stuff, so it is not too much hassle. I just soak it in the sink, and it cleans quickly. But i suspect some foods would make a real mess of the grill.

Grow a fruit tree brill

I make home made quiche frequently. Use ready made pastry. I can make an enormous quiche for £2 - £3. Must cheaper than buying and very easy. Again no expensive ingredients like cream. Just milk, eggs, herbs and cheese/veg/etc.

I don't use the grill very often, mainly for browning the top of lasagne or cauli cheese!

I line baking sheets with tinfoil when roasting vegetables so I don't have to scrub the dish, probably once a week, anything that caramelises so peppers, onions, tomatoes sticks and I don't really want to spend my evening scrubbing when I have been at work all day.

Like I said I buy tinfoil once or twice a year so it is a bit of a non issue.

If you want meat, use half meat and half lentils. Still get the flavour and lots of protein, but much cheaper.

Actually healthier as well.

And YY to foraging.

We use to go bramble picking, and would make pies, crumbles and jam. Also finding an apple tree over hanging from someone's garden or picking a friends Apple's from their tree.

We were also lucky that we could go gleaning after the farmer had harvested, as some of the fields round the village, had peas and leeks in. It's amazing the amount that's left behind from from farming machinery

TheWitchAndTrevor realistically how much food can you forage ?

We don't eat puddings and "gleaning for leeks" seems a lot of effort for not much reward.

I say that as my family came from a very poor rural area, and my father who grew up in the 1920s was often very hungry.
His father would poach, trap rabbits and fish, they grew vegetables but " foraging" yielded very little.

I actually find the whole idea a bit disingenuous. Whenever I hear the word foraging in Britain I think of the well off middle class in their Boden and baskets skipping over the meadows gathering a few brambles - applauding themselves for being sustainable and at one with nature.

I think like my father's family knew to their cost, foraging was a meagre way of life.

As I said an unemployed friend forages a lot. But she is a very good cook, unemployed and childless,and enjoys doing it. Not realistic to feed a family. I can't imagine most DCs eating nettle souo.

Also gleaning used to be a right given to only certain people. Your GF would probably have been done for theft if he had done this in the past.

I've tried and given up with growing veg as the reward isn't worth it for the effort needed to get a good result, but where we are (greenbelt surrounding a council estate on the edge of a large northern city so about as far from Boden territory as you can get) the hedgerows are festooned with blackberries in late summer/early autumn, but they are quite labour intensive to pick.

My previously planted rhubarb grows very well every year with no input, but we are at the very epicentre of the Rhubarb Triangle. I don't even like rhubarb . I've heard that raspberries grow well without effort too. But commonly suggested tomatoes, courgettes, beans etc generally lead to a lot of chewed up mouldly plants covered in fat slugs and caterpillars.

Barbara- that's my point.

There are thousands of blackberries around at the moment, but even a large bucketful isn't going to feed a family.

No-one's suggesting that a family can live off blackberries alone, merely that they are often available to pick freely and would provide a few portions otherwise expensive berries for free.

Collecting and cooking blackberries can be fun though. I loved doing it as a kid.

speakout I wasnt advocating for everyone struggling to go out gleaning, as one it's not possible for 90% of the population and 2 if everyone did there would be bugger all.

It was just an antidote

As for how much we got.......

Peas wise quite a few carrier bags full, but a lot less peas for freezing after we'd eaten loads of them whilst shelling.

Plenty of leeks though chopped up then frozen.

It was a form of entertainment for the dc going gleaning and because I lived for years without a 2 pennies to rub together, getting the kids out the house and getting stuff for free, was quite a highlight actually.

*Anecdote

I would shop in Aldi and buy the following:

Breakfast:
porridge / weetabix / toast / tea / coffee

Lunch:
part baked bread rolls / toast / brown bread with ham / tomato / egg / cheese / beans / soup / fruit
Dinners:
roast chicken stretched with lots of veg and gravy
left over chicken made into a chicken and broccoli gratin
beef stew with lots of herbs and veg in it with mash x 2 nights
healthy egg and chips with beans (BBC good food recipe)
pasta with tomato sauce, garlic bread
frozen pizza with salad

I would buy all the super six fruits and veg and work meals around them as far as I could and also some of the super six meat offers

I would add in a few packets of basic biscuits & maybe a bar of choc for dd

I think it is just about do-able although we spend more than that in Aldi each week for 2 adults and 1 pre-teen but we buy wine / beer and lots of treats too

DO NOT LOOK IN THE MIDDLE ISLE OF ALDI OR LIDL.

My food shop must be around £60,a week.
But because I havnt got the will power not to look in the middle isle it comes to about £90.

I ALWAYS seem to walk out with a lovely set of photo frames, thermal vests, writing sets, drill or a hedge cutter. I just can't help it

I think, given that this is supposed to be a thread for ideas for stretching a food budget, ALL ideas should be welcomed in the spirit they are offered.

Whenever I hear the word foraging in Britain I think of the well off middle class in their Boden and baskets skipping over the meadows gathering a few brambles - applauding themselves for being sustainable and at one with nature

There are several collectives where I live that organise foraging trips for families and help them to turn the produce into useful food. They also donate the surplus to homeless shelters and sell jam/fruit juice etc to raise money for various causes.

Foraging is definitely not to be discouraged. I've got a freezer full of wild garlic pesto that's brilliant for a quick and cheap pasta dish.

I spend more than this a week, because although I make and eat cheap healthy meals for us all, I also buy a nice bottle of red wine every week and some nice chocolate/biscuits. Have done without these when I needed to, but would miss it. Although probably lighter for it.

I'd probably spend the money on gin and take up shoplifting.

I've got a freezer full of wild garlic pesto

Which wonderfully illustrates my point.

LakieLady

Which wonderfully illustrates my point

In what sense?

I honestly don't think this thread is the place for sneering. It's derailing and slightly unpleasant.