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.

Locally ( Somerset) there is a company called Bargain Brands. They sell sort life / expired ambient food products - branded and supermarket own label- cereals, jam, canned goods, drinks, spices, confectionery, pasta sauce, pet food etc. as well as shampoo, toothpaste, cleaning stuff. Most items are 25p, some 50p. Also some cheaper, stock cubes 5 boxes for £1, confectionery 10 items £1.
Worth checking to see if you have something similar. Also any food manufacturers with factory shops?
Asian grocers are very cheap for rice, pulses, noodles and pasta.

Just thought of another cheap and tasty meal. Strata - kind of savoury bread pudding. If you buy some cheap end of day bread, use that and layer with your choice of veg, bits of leftover meat, cheese etc. ( You could even use a couple of spoons of leftover Bolognese or soup). Pour over mix of milk and egg and bake. Google a few strata recipes for inspiration.
Something else I do often is fritters. Flour, egg, maybe a splash of milk or water. Then any kind of veg grated or chopped fine, scraps of chees, yoghurt, cooked rice, pasta, herbs, spices. You can use anything. Then fry in spoonfuls about the size of a scotch pancake.
Particularly good have been sweet corn, courgette and mint, grated swede and curry powder, feta and spinach...
I have even used grated breadcrumbs, leftover lentils. Tiny amounts of Leftovers can become a meal in that way.
Also paratha - flour and water, roll out disc and place a spoon of leftover rice, Dahl, cooked veg - again anything really -bunch the top together, roll out again and fry in a dry pan. Serve with yoghurt or ketchup. Google to see the technique, I haven't explained it very well.

Mean Queen blog can give some tips for picking up food bargains:

[http://meanqueen-lifeaftermoney.blogspot.co.uk/]

Clickable link:

meanqueen-lifeaftermoney.blogspot.co.uk/

There’s a great facebook group: Eat on £1 a day and it’s got some brilliant recipes and ideas where to get the best deals

Just to add to ava's incredible post the value rice will actually do for pretty much everything, I've served it in a risotto for guests without complaint. That would save you the pound for the chocolate log or personally I'd prefer for a double pack of chocolate chip cookies (about 60p in aldi) which would give you and your DD a couple of cookies a day each.

I spend less than that every 2 weeks for two adults and a toddler. Only shop Aldi or in the reduced section of other supermarkets and stick to basic foods/ingredients. You won't be eating the most exciting things but you should be able to make the £55 stretch to 3 weeks.
We have pasta in various forms, jacket potatoes with beans, homemade soups with garlic bread, veggie omelettes, roast meats and veg- stuff like that. I tend to do things that can be bulked out with veg (chilli, Bolognese, cottage pie) and we only have meat a couple times a week. Any left overs are either frozen or used as lunches. Absolutely nothing goes to waste. I always buy bananas, apples, and berries for the toddler as well.
It helps if you can meal plan for those three weeks. Figure out what you've already got so you only buy the ingredients you absolutely need. I've been doing this for months and have really noticed the difference in our monthly food spend. It's not great but I'm hoping to not be so broke soon.

Iceland do huge bags of frozen chicken thighs and pork chops etc. But cheap cuts and you might be fine. Won’t be fun though

Had a lie in this morning.

Tomorrow I plan to buy a newspaper and sit in the coffee shop with it 😁

Oops, wrong thread

Brilliant post Ava

I alway use mince when money is short, add a few handfuls of lentils or porridge oats, onions, grated carrot. Cook a large batch and add peas for savoury mince. Peppers, mushrooms, tin tomatoes, garlic and oregano for spaghetti bolognese and chilli spices for chilli. I have it with potatoes, rice or wraps and bag it up in portions in the freezer. If you have potatoes, rice and pasta you will always be able to make up a meal. Wraps are good too, I have them with a little meat, chicken or mince and rice for my evening meal. I have found having not much money has really improved my cooking skills, your be fine. Sorry to hear about your friend and don't feel bad about overspending.xx

I would suggest using the foodbank voucher at the beginning of the 3 weeks, so you don't duplicate unnecessarily. When I've had to use one, we received cereal, long life milk, tea and coffee, tinned fruit, tinned soup, squash, pasta and rice as well as a few treats. You could then make the most of your budget by working around the food parcel. We're vegetarian, so were given tinned pulses, microwaveable savoury rice etc, in place of the tinned fish/meatballs type foods.

Assuming you have Internet, OP, try Googling 'voucher codes'. There are usually free delivery or money off codes for the major supermarkets. I then open up 'offers', and buy only whatever brands/fruit/veg/bread are in there.
Yes, it's time consuming, but I can't afford a social life, anyway (and reading the docket is strangely satisfying!)

All the best OP.

Not sure if you'd want to go this far ( and depends where you live), but wild garlic is in season at the moment, which will add flavour for free in a lot of fishes, and makes amazing pesto.
Nettles are also good at the moment and make a great soup with a bit of potato and onion for body. Tastes like spinach, full of iron and vitamins.

Dishes not fishes!

Some great ideas on this thread, especially from Ava

I often make a sort of budget jolof rice which can last for days for filling lunches/teas depending on the quantities you use. I make it in the rice cooker for ease but you could easily make it in a pan.

I cook onions, add a bit of garlic and sprinkle over some smoked paprika if you’ve got it in the cupboards. Chuck in peas and sweetcorn, mix it all up, add in some rice and seasoning and get it coated with the onions. I then add cheap tinned tomatoes and water as needed and cook it til absorbed so there’s no draining and you keep all of the flavour.

It’s tasty and costs pennies when you portion it out. You could add seasoning afterwards for yours if you wanted so that the base dish would be suitable for your little one. You can change up what you’re putting in there vegetable wise depending on what you’ve got in.

Wraps are also good with scrambled eggs. I like that with chopped bacon or chorizo, or a pinch of spice when I can’t afford the meat options.

Pick up cheap/reduced veg to make soups

Make a huge batch of tomato sauce with value tinned toms, onion, cheap passers, garlic dried herbs and some tomato purée. Freeze in batches and you can heat it in the microwave.

Make bolognese and bulk out with grated carrot or parsnip, freeze some for another time - a pack of mince and 1-2 carrots with some of aforementioned tomato sauce should make enough for at least 4 meals for the two of you.

Make some of the bolognese into lasagne with value pasta sheets. Make the sauce with spread and flour and half milk and half veg stock (value stock cubes are cheap and you'll be needing them for soup anyway). Season the sauce well with black pepper and you won't tell the difference.

Add value kidney beans and some spice to the bolognese to make chilli and serve with rice.

You can use the grated veg trick and mince in a savoury gravy to make cottage pie - add frozen veg to the mince to make it go even further and top with mash and a smattering of cheese. Again, freeze leftovers. Or serve the mince with boiled or tinned potatoes as scouse.

Block of mature cheddar, more flavour so you can get away with using less, grate it yourself, use for sandwiches etc as well.

Tuna pasta - pasta, tinned tuna flakes, half mayo half value plain yoghurt. Add frozen peas/mixed veg/sweet corn to the pasta as it cooks.

Cook some plain rice, add frozen mixed veg near the end, drain, put in a frying pan with oil, swirl in a beaten egg or two, egg fried rice. Perfectly acceptable cheap tea.

Value plain yoghurt and frozen berries for the little one.

Jack monroes trick of using salmon paste as a stir in pasta sauce is far tastier than you'd expect.

Defrosted frozen or tinned veg and some drained tinned potatoes baked with beaten eggs, season well with pepper and dried herbs and you have a frittata. I sometimes serve this with a bit of the home made tomato sauce on top.

Aldi super six offers for fresh fruit - think they have grapes, apples and pears right now.

Chicken thigh fillets are cheaper than breast, a pack of those and some root veg in a chicken gravy with some herbs makes a nice stew that should feed you both for at least 2 meals. Add potatoes to the stew for a complete meal or gave it with mash or plain boiled rice.

I'm glad you've had some help on this thread OP. Mumsnet at its best.

My "student" meals included a basic shepherds pie - fry 1 chopped onion and a garlic clove until soft, mix with a tin of value beaked beans and some sweetcorn and cooked peas and top with mash and a little grated cheese. If you make a bit extra and keep it in the fridge you can add it to another chopped onion and a rasher of chopped bacon and some stock to make soup later in the week.

A tin of mackerel/pilchards is a cheap substitute for mince in a bolognese sauce (bulk it up with lots of grated carrot) - make double and it will make a couple of shepherds pies if bulked out with cooked peas or sweetcorn and the inevitable tin of value baked beans...

If you make extra risotto then you can make risotto balls/patties - Italian toddlers love them - mix in a little grated cheese and bake in the oven and serve with baked beans.

You can also make a good soup by sweating a chopped onion and a garlic clove until soft, adding in some curry powder/tumeric - whatever you have and then adding in 250g of chopped carrot and a tin of chick peas simmering in a litre of stock until the carrot is soft and then blending it - my teenagers aren't that keen on chickpeas but will eat this until the cows come home. This should make 4 adult servings so probably 3 days for you and a toddler.

HTH

Do come back to the thread if you need more support as it is clear people really want to help as you've had a horrible time recently.

@Fishwearwigs I've just PM'd you