Can i feed me and a toddler for three weeks with £55?

[Fishwearwigs]

Im a regular poster and this is not a begging thread.

I have just done my sums for when i get paid on monday. After my bills are paid i have £55 to spend on food for me and a 14 month old for 3 weeks (18.33 a week)

Can this be done? Has anyone got meal ideas for me please? My toddler drinks 8 pints of milk a week and i drink 4 (in tea but i could give that up and just drink water) so there is a £4 of my £18 gone already. Im a good cook but just struggling for ideas. Ideally id like my toddler to carry on having fruit everyday as well. I have basic items in (pasta, frozen veg and frozen peas) but not much else.
Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.

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@Fishwearwigs

You’re very welcome; I hope it gives you a wee hand to get started!

From the comments here, it looks like Aldi is cheaper for stuff, so you might be able to get yourself some extra pieces for a bit of variety at lunch!

Good luck!

@LakieLady

For a pasta/Bolognese sauce, it’s cheaper to make it themselves but they’d need to be able to buy all the ingredients at once and make a few portions.

Chopped tomato - 31p
Red pepper - 55p
Carrot - about 7p (from a 1kg bag)
Onion - about 10p (from a 1kg bag)
Stock cube - 5p (from box of 10)
2 Garlic clove - about 3p (from a 30p garlic bulb),

Sweat the onion and garlic for around 7 minutes in oil/butter/spray oil.
Add the chopped tomatoes, bring to boil.
Transfer to a blender, and add chopped up carrot and red pepper. Blend until smooth.
Transfer back to pan, add 500 ml of stock and simmer for 10 mins or so. Makes Enough for 3/4 meals. Can be used for Bolognese or pasta bakes (add a bit of cheese for the bakes if they want).

Works our around 27p/37p per meal depending on how much sauce they want. But they’d need to be able to buy all the stuff at once.

Can also add some beetroot as well, or a wee spoon of sugar for sweetness.

Where are you op? If your local to me I can drop you some basics.

I'm Liverpool

There's an app called too good to go which is interesting, might be worth looking at
It's basically shops/takeaways/restaurants, you pay a price and they give you a slot to come and get left over food. Most near me is about £2 but friends have said they got enough for 4 people. Seems to cover bakery/chocolate shops too!

You can do it if you eat really basic food and are smart about how you shop. For example you can get cheap bread from M&S if you come in at the end of the day when they are closing. Don't buy meat and get your protein from pulses like lentils or chickpeas. Cook your food in big batches (stew /soup/paella type dishes work best). Keep fruit and veg very basic E. G. Basic apples rather than berries, carrots rather than asparagus etc. It won't work long term but short term it is perfectly doable.,

@Fishwearwigs what do you have in your cupboards at the moment. I've got some recipes that might help but it's easier to give you costings if I know what you already have
Also, where abouts in the UK are you? If you're anywhere near me then I would like to try and help you out

Make good use out of your freezer. If there are small amounts of pasta sauce/soup left over - freeze it and then you can combine several to make another portion or bulk something else out.
Freeze things like cheese and bread makes sure none is going to waste.

And my Sainsbury’s local sometimes has very reduced things late morning - I don’t think it’s always evenings.
I was in a big Sainsbury’s yesterday at 5pm and then was a gigantic pizza for £1.25 - it would do for 2 meals at least.
I’d see if I could find out when the best bargains are to be had.

Check and see if you have a local community garden , some have community fridges , they get left over veg and fruit from supermarkets . Lidils is cheap I can feed 2 adults and 2 kids for 40 a week by shopping there and the reduce section in Tesco

Skint dad on Facebook
He does blogs
skintdad.co.uk/ways-to-get-free-food/

Are you in London?

800 Tesco stores have a small display with a selection of free fruit on it everyday (intended for children to eat while they’re in the store), and there’s no obligation to buy anything. If you have a store that offers this within walking distance, you could visit each day if possible and pick up a piece of fruit.

Lots of food is cooked everyday in Sikh Gurdwaras (Temples), and absolutely everyone is welcome to visit and eat a meal for free (this is the reason for the food being cooked). If there’s one near to you, phone them and enquire.

If you buy 2x6 pints of milk in Tesco, it costs £3.00, and you’ll have 4 pints of milk remaining. If you have some rice at home, you could make some rice puddings. You could also buy some fine vermicelli (around 40p per packet) in Tesco Asian food section, and make ‘semia.’ It’s a vermicelli-based milk pudding. I usually use 4 pints of milk, a few knobs of butter, 3-4 Tbs sugar and about 1/4 pack of vermicelli. You can find recipes online (some people add dried fruit and/or nuts, but we only use the ingredients I mentioned previously and a few green cardamoms thrown in). It’s still good without the cardamoms. It’s a really simple recipe.

You could also make porridge with the leftover milk, and buy a bag of oats relatively inexpensively.

I would also definitely contact your local food bank, even if you think that you have enough supplies. It would give you a bit of extra peace of mind I think, to know that you have a little bit of extra food in your cupboards. They can also provide nappies, sanitary products and some toiletries. I think you can get a referral from your GP or Jobcentre, but I’m not entirely sure.

I’m sorry to hear of your situation, and I wish you all the very best.

I agree cutting down on meat will save you a lot of money but be sure to get all the vit and min you need from your other food, the last thing you need in your situation is to start getting run down .
Having said cut down on meat , all the main suppermarkets sell 'cooking bacon' in the chilled meat aisle ( normally hidden at the bottom of the shelves a bit out of site ) this is off cuts/ mis-shapes etc tescos is 60p for 500g it can be a bit fatty but at that price who cares .
Bacon & pasta, - - put large pan of pasta on to cook, fry bacon ( about 1/4 of the packet ) , add onions / mushrooms/ peppers or what ever you have to hand , add a cheap tin of tomatoes heat through, drain pasta return to pan , bung bacon mix in with pasta mix well serve . ( top with cheese if you have some ) .
I can have this cooked from scratch and on the table in 15 min it cost about 70/80p but is enough to feed to hungry adults

Do you have any of the stuff your DD has grown out of? Could you sell it as bundles on local facebook groups to get quick extra money? I know smaller stuff doesn't go for much but facebook means people come direct to you without ebay fees or postage or even paypal if you ask them to bring cash.

Supermarket reductions -- if you can't make evenings try just before 2 on a Sunday. Sunday early closing usually means markdowns happen around then.

I’ve found you can water down milk 2:1 mil-water or ideally 3:1 and it’s fine for cooking with.

for Ava - very kind!

You mention you need to have a tight month next month as well. If it’s going to be over a period of longer than a few weeks, and you can manage the cash flow situation I have found Asian/African food stores often have things like 10kg onions for just over a couple of pounds and other bargains which could work well. Asda do a value penne as well as a value spaghetti I think so you can get 500g spaghetti for about 20p and 500g penne for 30p. I have found frozen peppers to be a jolly cheap way of adding them to pasta sauces (500g for £1) so you could potentially produce a sauce with those, tinned toms etc to maybe over a couple of weeks bring the price of ava’s meals down a little further and give 50p here or there for a treat, which on such a tight budget will make a big difference.

Buy a big big bag of porridge oats & 2 packs of cheap frozen berries - that's breakfast for 3 weeks.

Buy a big big bag of pasta and 5 jars of own-brand (asda?) pasta bake and 2 bags of cheap frozen veg - That's dinner for 10 nights out of the 21.

Buy frozen Casserole Mix, stock cubes and add frozen chicken strips, shred and add more water to taste. That's dinner for 5 nights. Use some of the chicken with rice and an egg and stir fry - dinner for 3 more nights.

4 large potatos for £1 and 3 tins of beans (25p each?) and a block of cheese is dinner or lunch for a couple of more days.

Buy 3 cheap loaves, butter (spread!), mayo and a 3 pack of tinned tuna. That's lunch for 5 days and toast for snacks.

Buy 3 bags of fruit a week - apples bananas pears (£3)

It's all basic and repetative but it can be easily done.

Also OP your HV can get you access to a food bank. That's what they're there for

I could and have done, but dont drink milk. Water for yourself and milk for toddler but thats alot of milk she drinks. You need to meal plan.

Op are you ok for nappies and wipes etc?

We're just popping in as we'd like to remind everyone that, although we're awed daily by the astonishing support our members give each other through life's trickier twists and turns, we'd always caution anyone never to give more of themselves to another poster, emotionally or financially, than they can afford to spare.

Very best wishes to you, OP

Please go to the food bank so that they can give you food to help stretch your money further x

A chicken is your friend! Roast is always good with roast spuds and veggies, then any number of easy pasta, rice or stir fry meals with the bits, in a salad or sarnie too. Boil up the bones and make soup with any veg you have or can get really cheap. Bigger bags of veg are better value and cheaper per kilo. Look for cooking bacon too. It's super cheap (60p in tesco) but have a rummage to find a pack that's not too fatty. I trim the fat and cut it up to have with pasta and a tomato based sauce, or it's nice in omlettes or frittata and you get a lot of usable bacon for a mini price. A tin of tuna in a jacket spud or mixed into pasta makes a change. Special fried rice with just about anything chopped into it, a beaten egg and lots of soy sauce is good too. Toasted sarnies and soup are filling and yum. Good luck OP. X

dried pulses (beans or chickpeas) are under £1 and when soaked overnight and boiled give you a lot of food. if you make your own sauce (with tomatoes paste and some spices), you have some pretty decent and filling meals (with rice). Question is if your toddler likes it.

I would probably cut back on meat/fish for these 2 weeks as vegetarian is defo cheaper and 2 weeks meat free won't do any harm.

Other than that, pasta dishes with various sauces (usually a hit with toddlers too). Check supermarkets in the evening for offers. our local Tesco and S'burys is selling stuff dirt cheap after 7.

Aldi/Lidl often have some cheap veg on offer. Frozen peas etc are also cheaper in Aldi/Lidl.

Some ice cream as treat for the little one? you can get a tub pretty cheap as well.

Hope you get through it ok. sounds really tough.

@ ClaraMumsnet

The OP made it perfectly clear from the get go that this was not a begging thread.

She is fully taking onboard all of the great suggestions from lovely, helpful posters so I feel that your post is unwarranted here and in fact is borderline offensive to both the OP and any other members that have offered advice/assistance.

If OP does not come back to this thread it will be MNHQ that chased her away and that would be a real shame.

I don't know if they are available in England but a Ham Hock costs less that £1 and makes great soups and broths plus you can pick off the ham bits and use them in an omelette, risotto... pretty much anything that can be jazzed up by a tiny bit of tasty meat.

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