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

pasta is the way to go and shop in aldi you can pick up some mince, sauce, tuna, cheese for the toppings

A large chicken can absolutely stretch to 3 meals! Roast dinner, curry with the leftovers, and a chicken soup with the carcass and scraps. I would struggle to get 4 meals from it though.

😪

lentils are your friend/ lentil soup, dhal etc. And pasta.

Also, head to your local supermarket after 5, you can buy cheap reduced bread(20p a loaf).

I have a family of 6. There is absolutely no way a large chicken would do more than 2 meals. That's 12 portions already. A turkey perhaps. A chicken, no.

If you have any frozen vegetables or tins of beans use those up, I put frozen veg with pasta and tomato sauce and make a veggy pasta bake.

Baked beans can be used in Spag Bol/Chilli to bulk it out.

Rice with chicken and veg is a favourite in my house.

Don't buy junk food or chocolate.

Potatoes

There's a website where you can put all what you have in the fridge or cupboard and it'll give you recipes. Can't remember the name. Will be back going to have a Google

myfridgefood.com

There are 4 people in our family (DD is 12 but eats half the amount as everyone else) i wouldn't consider buying a whole chicken if it was only going to do one meal, would be cheaper to buy thighs/breast meat. Having said this DH always boils the carcass and makes soup but DD doesnt eat that (but there would be at least 4 portions)

chilli
spag bol
shepherds pie
pasta bake with lots of veggies and passata as sauce
jacket potatoes with cheese and beans

The responses to this are amazing!! Thank you all!

To the poster that said I should use some savings and not be miserable etc. I really could do that and put it back on payday but I want to learn to make money last and living like this for three days will make me more likely be especially careful next month and it helps me know the limits earlier in the month. I don't really see it as being miserable, as long as we all eat and are full for three days we will be happy.

Thinking about it I have a tin of tuna, some chopped tomatoes, some minced beef. 3 chicken breasts in the freezer (the ones you cook from frozen) and also one of those fajita kits (would just need peppers)

Also have a box of cereal (kids eat at breakfast club and I don't eat breakfast so it probably won't get eaten until the weekend anyway)

I have bags and bags of frozen veg in the freezer, there is also some rice in the cupboard!! I can definitely top up with some extras and survive until Friday!!

Thanks everyone

You’ll feel so pleased with yourself!

Bag of supermarket pudding rice will make several rice puddings over. Full fat milk, sugar & a slow low cook will yield delicious pudding & left overs for breakfast. Chuck some fruit on for variety. Dollop of jam is a wonder on home made rice pudding.

Thinking about it I have a tin of tuna, some chopped tomatoes, some minced beef. 3 chicken breasts in the freezer (the ones you cook from frozen) and also one of those fajita kits (would just need peppers)

You’re totally sorted then.

All you need is a bag of pasta, block of cheese, bit of fresh veg and fruit and you’re good to go.

I think it’s a good thing to run down your stores every now and again. My mother has two chest freezers that are permanently full and it drives me mad to know that eventually she’ll end up binning a lot of that.

Love the rice pudding ideA! We all love rice pudding.

The replies have spurred me on and I've put an old box of Lego that my son had in the garage not been used for years as he's too old now and have put it on a selling site and sold for £15!! Woohoo will use that to get us some treats

I think your best bet going forward if you want to make savings with food, is maybe try a new 'budget friendly' recipe one day per week. after a while almost all your meals can be made cheaper if you want to.

Remember you need to make them actually nutritious if doing day in day out, rather than just a 3 day stint, but its a good learning curve

Generally meat and fish are the most expensive element of a dish, so going veggie at least half the week would be beneficial. Eating seasonally is also usually cheaper

I agree anything with pulses is good.

Dd and i made this yesterday.

www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/vegetable-recipes/pappa-al-pomodoro-soup

It wouldn't be cheap (even though it's based on stale bread!) If you use exactly the ingredients JO does but if you use any old bread (anything with a crust will he good - you can also toast it a bit first to make it more crunchy/ less absorbent), cheddar instead of parmesan and whatever herbs you have rather than fresh basil it's still nice. You do need to add salt!

Definitely pasta

If you have canned tuna that's already one filling meal with pasta.
Just purchase a few cheap sauces/pesto, chuck some veg in and you're good to go.
Beans on toast
Rice & beans
Jacket potatoes w/ cheese

@Zoflorabore

A large 6lb chicken's ebible yield would be around 5lb, if not a bit mroe; the carcass used for stock to add to soup etc.

That's 14oz of chicken per person, give or take, more or less for different appetites.

3.5 oz of meat per meal over 4 days, totally doable packed out with other vegetables, pasta, rice, pulses, salad etc.

Totally doable with a bit of skill and imagination

grannieanne I don't think it makes you a better cook, it does make you a bit tight on portion size though. I'm with you on this one, Zoflorabore

a large chicken is about 2kg or 4.5lbs and would cost about £5 (6lb is a capon and not readily obtainable cheap) of that I would think there is about 3lbs of meat plus a carcass for soup a chicken is about 25% bone etc, the cheaper £3 chickens are often only 1.2kg
there are 6 in the family it would do 2 meals at approx 4oz each you can make it stretch further but only by using other sources of protein

try not to buy treats with the £15 you have enough food to last so save it in case the same thing happens next month when there will be less hidden in the freezer

The best way to save is not to spend any wee bonus but manage on the regular money and squirrel it away

£10 I would buy some mature cheddar for jackets sandwiches and to top pasta bake it imparts more taste so you can get away with using a bit less, 6 baking potatoes a packet of pasta enough fruit for you to take 1 piece each per day with your lunches, buy two onions to bulk out sauce for pasta a bit of salad for sandwiches 6 eggs pudding rice
manage with toast for breakfast

lunches cheese and salad wraps/sandwiches fruit if they are going to be really hungry some cheap biscuits
dinner 1 tuna pasta bake use tinned tomatoes mix cheese with breadcrumbs for a crusty top
dinner 2 baked potatoes with cheese and some of your frozen veg
dinner 3 use mince or chicken to make fajitas or do eggs chips and beans
then leave whatever you didn't use the mince or chicken for next month

Sorry, but I'm fascinated by the chicken debate!
Glad your cupboard isn't as bare as you thought it was Op.

fair enough grannieanne I don't tend to buy huge chickens to be honest so that's where we differ.

I am a total foodie though and do tend to give big portion sizes. My cooking skills are not Michelin level by any means but I can feed my family quite well and love discovering new recipes.
Recently bought the Pinch of Nom cookbook for ds and I who are on slimming world ( he's lost 5st 13lb and I've lost my marbles ) and am looking forward to trying new things.

I may buy a bigger chicken next time and see if I can manage 2 meals from it, it's a start :)

@BluntAndToThePoint

It's not me asking for budget meal advice... I don't have a family of 6 to feed, I am merely pointing out it is perfectly possible to have a nutritious and budget friendly meal by using the method I have highlighted.

The animal protein portion size is subjective, especially for a vegan. :-)