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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

To those who are not sure you can feed a family for less than £100 a week

327 replies

Metoodear · 28/05/2018 14:03

I posted a few pictures on the other shopping conversation of the food I cooked as people simply refused to belive you can weekly shop for less than £100 and not just eat pasta all week

Just come back from shopping and just wanted to show you my list and weekly plan Monday is not on their because I already have the dinner we are having salmon baby roasted potatoes and squash wedges with green beans

I have 3 kids and a cat no less Sp 5 of us in total this list includes stuff for lunch as well for me and husband

I it can be done if you don’t allow grazing and make a meal plan the

To those who are not sure you can feed a family for less than £100 a week
To those who are not sure you can feed a family for less than £100 a week
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Frequency · 02/06/2018 20:05

She won't eat half and half or brown/wholemeal bread. She likes white bread, seeded bread and granary bread. White bread is most affordable. Outside of school she only drinks milk, water or fresh apple/orange juice but likes to take a juice drink to school like her friends.

Although she's only 11, she is enormous (height wise, she's very slim) and is already starving when she comes home from school, so I am not cutting anything out or giving her food she won't eat.

We don't have sweets, biscuits, cordial or desserts (except for once a week). After school she snacks on baked beans, bananas, plain yogurt and whatever she forages from the garden - although atm the only thing ready to eat is herbs and spring cabbage, which she doesn't like. She's waiting for the cherries, brambles, strawberries and pears to grow. She's also growing strawberries indoors so she can have them year round. Her sister is attempting to grow cucumbers but they aren't going well.

She does sometimes ask for ham and cheese sandwiches, which I give her but obviously it's more expensive than the chocolate spread, so if she asks for chocolate spread, she gets it. Lettuce sandwiches were a thing at one point Hmm. She also got those. Atm it is chocolate spread but she occasionally asks for cheese and onion.

Her favourite lunch when I can afford it is homemade vegetable curry and rice (which she eats cold), or pasta in tomato sauce with tuna and spring onion, cherries or blueberries and strawberries, plain yogurt, apple juice, cheese cubes and doritos.

When we have pears ready and berries and I can stop buying enough bananas and apples to keep a small country going for a month, I will use the money I save to make her veg curry or buy tuna for her pasta.

cathf · 02/06/2018 20:34

Oh God, I wondered how long it would be before the competitive fruit eaters came along.

Frequency · 02/06/2018 20:39

www.slimmingworld.co.uk/recipes/fragrant-vegetable-curry.aspx

This is the curry likes. It is literally her favourite meal in the entire world. She ate it once at my sisters and begged for seconds and thirds and the leftovers to take home for lunch the next day.

If anyone has a cheaper, similar tasting curry without the expensive seeds and cumin etc, I would be willing to cook it and I know she'd be willing to give it a go. She loves all curry bases.

Veg she won't eat are: mushrooms, squashes and sweet potatoes, corn - unless it is on the cob and broad beans. She likes everything else. Carrots and broccoli are a firm favourites.

Or if anyone has any other cheap, practical lunch suggestions that don't involve batch cooking and freezing (as we don't have a freezer), a flask (because we don't have one) or things she doesn't like, I am willing to try things with her.

She's actually not that fussy. Off the top of my head she doesn't like brown anything (rice, pasta or bread), the veg listed above, peanut butter, baked potatoes, peppers or mayo. Spicy things are a favourite.

Frequency · 02/06/2018 20:42

Oh, I forgot, she also doesn't like eggs in any form.

DiggertyDamn · 02/06/2018 20:53

Could you try a tomato based curry? I wouldn't have thought to do it but it's really nice.

Frequency · 02/06/2018 20:59

The one she likes is tomato based, it's the spices, seeds, fresh ginger, baby spinach I struggle to afford.

How would you make it spicy/flavourful without the cumin and mustard seeds and root ginger?

She's not adverse to growing things to eat, especially things she only has to plant once and forget about but they have to be cheap to buy and not need expensive equipment like her sister's cucumbers and also not take up too much space, she's v protective of her grass and would be very unhappy if I plonked a giant veg patch in the middle of it.

Frequency · 02/06/2018 21:01

We have coriander and mint in the garden.

expatinspain · 02/06/2018 21:01

Totally off point, but why are your potatoes in the fridge?!

raisedbyguineapigs · 02/06/2018 21:09

frequency If you want to try and make that curry more cheaply, go to the frozen food section I think in Tesco and you can buy cubes of ginger and garlic mixed, do you don't need to buy fresh. Either leave out the cumin because there is probably some in the curry powder or buy ground, but not in the glass pots. Go to the ethnic section and buy the Rajah packets. Sorry if that's still too expensive, it was all I could think of. Also, cook some red lentils in it. It bulks it out a bit.

raisedbyguineapigs · 02/06/2018 21:12

Sorry I didn't read the bit about you not having a freezer Blush

Frequency · 02/06/2018 21:12

You can buy frozen ginger? Thanks, I will check it out when I'm back at college. There's a Tesco right next door to the college.

raisedbyguineapigs · 02/06/2018 21:15

Yes I've got ginger and garlic cubes. I'm 95% sure they are from Tesco Grin

To those who are not sure you can feed a family for less than £100 a week
DiggertyDamn · 02/06/2018 21:16

I get this curry powder. It's lovely and has all the flavors and bits in. Can you find something like this?
Ducros is Schwartz in English and your supermarkets have way bigger ranges than our so they must have something like it.

Oooo raisedbyguineapigs we put grated carrot and onion, plus some spices in the cheese sticks today. Onion was brilliant, I recommend it :)

To those who are not sure you can feed a family for less than £100 a week
Frequency · 02/06/2018 21:17

I have a freezer but it is small and very, very full. Things in packets I can normally squash in. Tupperwares full of curries/chillies etc would not fit.

There was one point where we couldn't afford to eat and I relied on Foodbanks/relatives and it scared the shit out of me so we now we are in a slightly better place I tend to hoard frozen sausages, chicken nuggets, cheap pizzas and tins of beans and hotdogs Blush I have stopped buying tins after I ran out of space in the cupboard but I'm not ready to empty the freezer to make room for things which will be eaten within a week in case we have no money the week after. I need my horde to make me feel secure.

Flaminglingos · 02/06/2018 21:27

@Frequency Buy your spices from the world food section in the supermarket or an Asian food shop. The packs are larger and cheaper so it lasts longer. Also, fresh ginger can be frozen or bought frozen, ditto the spinach. Switch it with frozen so you use exactly what you need without wastage. A lot of vegetables are available frozen cheaply, try iceland to make the largest savings.

Frequency · 02/06/2018 21:31

She won't eat frozen spinach but I could leave the spinach out. To be fair, I'm not sure she knows there is spinach in that curry, she claims not to like spinach.

Aldi doesn't have a world food aisle, at least the one I shop at doesn't but I am near a Tesco at college and get free travel to college so I can call in to Tesco on the way home.

WyldDucks · 02/06/2018 21:33

I can do a week for under £100 from Ocado, including lunches. All home cooked from scratch and higher welfare meat, that does exclude nappies and formula though (but does include a cheaply £10 bottle of wine).

WyldDucks · 02/06/2018 21:35

Oh and yes, lots of fresh fruit although I am becoming a frozen veg convert (not frozen carrot though, that's gross!)

Flaminglingos · 02/06/2018 21:36

Ok go to the supermarket an hour or so before closing time and pick up the reduced yellow stickered vegetables and fruit. I bought two huge bags of assorted vegetables for less than a fiver, absolutely nothing wrong with them. I chopped most of them up and froze it for future use. Tesco has a global spice section as well as a global frozen section where you can pick up larger bags of samosas, kebabs & frozen ginger cheaply.

Frequency · 02/06/2018 21:39

I can't get to a supermarket an hour before closing. I am reliant on friendly relatives for lifts or buses. Buses are expensive and my college travel pass is only valid during college hours and on a route which would get me to college.

Tesco is on route to the college. Asda is the opposite direction, Lidl is in a different town altogether.

DiggertyDamn · 02/06/2018 21:43

Do you have a market near you?

When I lived in England I used to go to the market on Saturday 30 minutes before closing and the fruit and veg stalls used to sell a massive bag for a couple of quid.

Frequency · 02/06/2018 22:10

There is a market, actually. I'm not sure what's there, I will have a wander next time it is on. I think it is on a weekday and it's close to college.

Youvealwaysbeenthecaretaker · 02/06/2018 22:13

OP I've got a basic curry recipe which is inauthentic as fuck but it tastes like proper curry. Ifyou get in your frozen ginger and garlic, fry a cube of each with an onion. Add a tablespoon of curry powder, and a little water to make a paste. Then add your ingredients - this can be literally anything - any veg you like, or chicken (thighs are cheap - brown them first), or lentils. If using lentils boil them first, with a stock cube if you have one just to add a bit more flavour. Work the paste over the ingredients, still frying. Then add a tin of tomatoes, water if it needs loosening, cover and simmer until cooked. It's fine on its own or to make it creamy add a spoon of natural yoghurt and stir until heated through.

Frequency · 02/06/2018 22:14

Tbh, veg isn't really a problem. The catering department give their excess stock free at college and I live about 2 foot away from the local allotments, which I complain bitterly about when they're spreading manure but they always have cheap eggs and veg.

It's what to do with the veg they will both eat that doesn't involve using £££ worth of gas, spices etc that I can't afford and equipment I don't have, like blenders and those mini blenders for making curry pastes.

Youvealwaysbeenthecaretaker · 02/06/2018 22:18

I second looking in the foreign food section to build up your spices - you can get big bags of them for around 90p. If you add one of those to your shopping every week you'll soon build up a stock. I decant mine into old food jars but they're also fine in the bag with a corner snipped and a clothes peg to seal.