To try and make £10 stretch to 3 days meals for a family of 6?!

[superE]

Ok so that title sounds impossible now I see it written down?!

We are saving for a house deposit - so technically we have money in savings so could dip into it but don't want to if I can help it.

I have £26 to last until pay day on Friday!

I need to put £10 petrol in my car to get me to work.

Can I make some very cheap meals to do lunches/evening meal for 2 adults and 3 children (also have a toddler but she eats all her meals at nursery during the week)?

Hit me with some cheap meal suggestions! I need to make packed lunches for 2 of the children for two days this week as well?! Is this even achievable?!

I also already have some things in the cupboard I.e baked beans, bread, wraps, frozen chips, milk etc

Beans on toast for one meal at teatime won’t hurt anyone

Buy a big bag of frozen mince. Do one chilli and one spaghetti bolognaise and bulk up with the pasta

Pasta pasta pasta!! You can make a tuna pasta bake, a massive one so you can use the left overs for lunch.. add in peppers ect and it should only come to £3-4.
Next day make chicken and chorizo pasta.. with extras..

Cookingonabootstrap.co.uk is fab for low budget ideas.

cookingonabootstrap.com

Is this even achievable?!

Yes depending on what you already have.

I would do a complete freezer, fridge and cupboards and see what you can make from there and only shop for basics, Milk and bread.

pasta with red lentil ragu and grated cheese. Really cheap filling meal.

Chickpea curry with rice.

Pasta with a tomato herb sauce and cheese.

Baked potato with beans, salad and garlic bread.

Aldi/Lidl will be your friends here, you get far more for your money than you do in other supermarkets. I can go into Morrisons and pick up five items for £20 whereas I can get three times as much in Aldi.

It is doable although won’t be pleasant, I’d be tempted to at least take £20 out of the savings pot so you’re not surviving on pasta and beans for the next 3 days...

So easy!

Cereal for breakfast
Jam sandwiches fruit bars and cucumber and tomatoes with a banana for pack up
Dinner I would do jacket potato and beans , red lentil lasagne homemade white sauce (super easy to make and cheap you've probably got the ingredients), and finally a homemade pizza (Google yeast free pizza base of you don't have yeast and if you do there are some where you don't have to wait for it to rise) or chilli con carni.

Pulses are great for this situation, high in protein, filling and cheap. Chickpea curry, mixed bean chilli, lentil bolognese etc

Use the beans for beans on toast or jacket pot and beans.
Eggs chips and beans
Buy some pasta and a make a sphag bol, small mince, tins of tomatoes, frozen onion etc.
Cereal for breakfast and sandwiches with cheap bread for lunch. Buy one bag of bannans and one bag of cheap apples for fruit. Aldi is your friend here.
Easy.

Try going to supermarkets in the evening and buying reduced food. That makes a big difference. I bought £200 worth of food for £20 in marks and Spencer’s yesterday. They don’t normally go that cheap but they had so much to sell off). Every so often I do this so that the freezer is stocked. I buy for packed lunches so I try to buy really nice bread and rolls which are often between 20 and 50p in marks and Spencer’s and they go in the freezer. School dinners are too expensive unfortunately.

Pasta with a tomato based sauce is our go-to cheap meal and I do it once a week or so.

I’m not good at meal planning and I waste a lot but I try to keep costs down by occasionally doing the above. I am a bit extravagant with food shopping normally. I absolutely love food and have a big family to feed.

I have not tried Aldi or Lidl because there are none nearby but I’m looking forward to seeing what they have if I can get there.

Good luck- and I would be tempted to use some of your savings and make it up again over the next few weeks.

Porridge is a good breakfast option. Pasta and sauce? Easy to make it stretch with onions and cheap tinned tomatoes. Beans on toast another good option.

A large chicken, as large as you can buy, will cost 6 quid ish but Roast and veg one day, chicken curry and rice the next, chicken and salad sarnies for lunch and you might even squeeze a fricasse or italian chicken pasta as well x

Why don't you take a small amount out of the savings and replace it when you get paid?

I can think of nothing worse than being miserable and not eating well even though you can technically afford to.

Savings are meant to be for when the basics have been taken care of. Clearly that's not the case here and you are short.

Why put yourself through it if you have choices?

www.facebook.com/groups/651859231575794/
Feed yourself for £1 a day group has lots of ideas, and some pinned posts on menus for a really tight week x

I also must look for one of these chickens that makes 4 meals ;)

We tend to use it for a roast and give the scraps to the cat.

You need to do a full fridge/freezer/cupboard audit. Realistically I could do 3-4 days worth of meals without a tenner of top up ingredients. They might not be our most favourite meals, but I've got enough tuna/pasta/beans/rice/random spices in the cupboard and odd things like haddock and sweetcorn and puff pastry in the freezer that I could cobble some (slightly odd) meals together.

What do you have?

I was just thinking the same @Zoflorabore.

It must be the size of an ostrich!

Sounds absolutely doable

Buy a big packet of pasta, a block of cheddar, 2 tins of tomatoes, a box of eggs, 2 tins of tuna (all cheapest you can find). Then spend whatever you have left on fruit (ideally yellow stickered).

Dinners
Eggs, chips and beans
Pasta with tomato sauce and cheese
Tuna pasta bake

Lunches
Use your bread and wraps and fill with egg/cheese/tuna. Supplement with fruit.

It won't be the best food you'll ever eat, but it'll get you through.

I'd be tempted to pop into the best supermarket for discounting on the sell by date in your area. I'm sure there's a lot of Easter stuff floating about cheaply (picked up a very nice pie yesterday that was under £1 for tonight's tea)

It's achievable - i've assumed you've NOTHING barring what you've listed below.... (ok, this comes to £10.21....)

Tesco
400g mild cheddar x 2 (£1.79 each) - £3.58
500g pasta - 50p
tin green lentils - 55p
500g chunky vegetable pasta sauce - 75p
garlic baguettes (32p each) x 2 - 64p
12 Walls sausages - £2
15 eggs - £1.19
250g Ham - £1

Day 1 lunch (2 adults, 2 kids)
Cheese sandwich.

Day 1 dinner (2 adults, 3 kids)
Bag of pasta, jar of sauce (add tinned lentils for bulk), top with remainder of grated cheese, serve with garlic bread on the side.

Day 2 lunch (2 adults, 2 kids)
Cheese Sandwich. Chances are there will be at least a portion or 2 of leftover pasta that the adults could have.

Day 2 dinner (2 adults, 3 kids)
sausages, beans, chips (which you already have beans and chips)

Day 3 lunch (2 adults, 2 kids)
Ham and cheese wraps

Day 3 dinner (2 adults, 3 kids)
Omelettes with cheese and and rest of ham.

Note - i don't usually suggest buying cheap eggs / meat,. however when needs must....

If you give a proper breakdown of what you have in your cupboards / fridge / freezer i bet you can get away with spending less and eating better.

I've also assumed that the kids will not be very adventurous, so best playing it safe with typically kid friendly food.

Lentils! Very cheap and make super curries and soups. You probably already have stock and spices. Avoid meat which is expensive - veggie fajitas with the wraps you have already and onions / tomatoes / peppers. Buy the loose, wonky looking ones and they will be really cheap. Beans on toast is fine for a lunch and a tea on different days. Eggs are also cheap, can scramble them for toast or boil to put in wraps. Tinned tomato pasta is tasty, cheap and filling as well.

Large chickens from my local farm, I can easily stretch it 3 days... maybe I'm just a better cook ;-)

Baked potatoes with a cheap garlic bread baguette.

You can buy a big bag of pasta and some cheap veg. A Veggie pasta will be filling and meat free meals are cheaper.

It can definitely be done, but the meals will need to be quite carb heavy.