To ask for cheap, cheap food ideas

[redandpinkhearts]

£20 to feed family of four for a week!

Do your worst, MN!

Nothing at all in the cupboards?

Remember to buy a packet of biscuits - something sweet really helps.

No one to lend you £10, or to let you borrow a few things out of their cupboards to replace later on.

No, noone to lend op £10 or she wouldn't be posting on here.

I think it's going to be extremely tight and pretty miserable. Could you get a food bank referral to help bulk things out ??

Marmite pasta - cook some dried pasta, mix marmite and butter together, then tip the marmite mix into the drained pasta, stir until melted, and serve. Cheap, quick and amazing.

Do you have a sandwich toaster? You can get a loaf from Asda or Lidl for 30p, make bread pudding and toasted sarnies.
Mash up a tin of sardines in tomato sauce, add a splash of mustard and mayo if you have it, and toast.

Some great suggestions.

Primula squeezy cheese is really good melted on to pasta to make a cheesy sauce

Yellow stickers, chicken thighs, bacon bit and lentils, wonky veg, tons of pasta, rice and lentils, mousetrap cheese and lentils, lentils. Maybe the odd chickpea

Have you absolutely nothing in your fridge/freezer/larder?

If you get pudding rice and milk, you can make a huge rice pudding that will be filling and last for a few days.

Make sure you buy full fat everything : milk, cheese, yog, meat. Don't buy any low fat rubbish, it'll just make you hungrier!

Shop in the evening. Our local supermarkets reduce to 20p or less for bread, fresh produce, yoghurt, milk, meat and fish. Apart from storecupboard basics such as pasta, rice, flour, etc I rarely buy anything at full price. There should still be windfall apples around which you can bake or make into a crumble. Do you have any Nectar points or Clubcard vouchers you can use? Suggest buying basic pasta, porridge, rice, baked beans, tinned tomatoes and everything else reduced. You should be able to do it.

Don't forget your local market,can get some good end of day bargains and you can barter for a lower price.apples for lunch boxes and snacking.
Frozen food often cheaper than fresh in supermarkets last longer.
Yorkshire pudding is cheap to make and very filling.

I don't know where you are op but if you have a coop near you they do a freezer filler for £5 five items, this week in ours it's fish steaks, fish fingers, chips, bag of peas and ice cream, we always get it and they also do a £2.50 meal deal in the fridge which is usually something like 2 pizzas and tub of ice cream or pack of sausages and mash.nip to shop late at night and everything is really cheap. also check if your area has a food share where they collect food that is going to be thrown out from supermarkets at the end of the night and you go and collect for free.
worth a look just incase.
also to people repeatedly asking if op definitely has nothing in her freezer or cupboards, they clearly don't or wouldn't be posting here!

Lots of potato dishes .

You've had some great tips and ideas but far as I can see nobody has yet mentioned this:

olioex.com

May be of some use I hope

Bumping the olioex link

Following for my sister.

For breakfast/dessert:
Crepes or American pancakes - plain/Nutella and banana etc.
French toast
Oats - you can add fresh/frozen fruit (frozen fruit will need to be defrosted)

Other pudding ideas:

• Apple crumble with custard (tinned or with custard powder)
• Banoffee pie
• Rice pudding
• Sago pudding
• Yoghurt with a biscuit

Simple breakfast:

• cereal
• toast
• scrambled eggs
• shakshuka (can be made like scrambled eggs or using sunny side up) & foul mudammas (made with tinned fava beans) - Middle Eastern dish

Lunch/dinner:

• Couscous and roasted seasonal veg/steamed frozen veg seasoned well
• Cheesy chips with tomato salsa
• Chilli con carne - can be bulked up with frozen veg, beans, lentils etc. with white rice/tortilla
• Chips/Wedges, sausage medallions, fried egg and baked beans
• Fish and chips (can get both frozen from any supermarket)
• Lentil soup
• Pasta bake
• Pasta salad
• Pesto pasta
• Shepherds pie (potato element can be made frozen mash/potato/smash & meat element bulked up similar to chilli con carne)
• Spinach and potato curry - can use frozen spinach if cheaper
• Tomato soup with some grilled cheese sandwich (can get tinned soup or make your own)
• Tadka daal
• Waldorf salad

A big pot of homemade broth.
Soup mix with barley,lentils etc in. Soak it for as long as you can, overnight maybe. With some veg from the reduced isle or a market where it's cheap (potatoes, carrots, parsnip, leeks, onions etc)
Chicken stock pots.
Make a massive batch up, simmer it for a few hours and it will do dinner with some toasted bread (french stick is lovely, but if money is low even some supermarket own make toast and butter will be fab)
It will also be enough for leftover lunch the next day. So delicious and costs pennies once you have the stock and the soup mix in.
Same with pasta bake, get a block of cheese and grate it yourself (saves a fortune), own make pasta bake sauce or tinned tomatoes a little cream and some herbs. Done.
You can also roast a whole chicken (on offer at Asda and Lidl atm so under £3) do a dinner with some potatoes one day, and then with the left over chicken the next day boil up a pan of pasta, add some tinned tomatoes and some herbs and done!

Good luck, it can be done. Cheap doesn't have to mean nasty/unhealthy/not tasty. Also for snacks, bananas work out at about 11p each if you buy them not bagged. Really good boost of energy with some peanut butter!

Also, BBC GoodFood does some great budget recipes if you want some more inspiration!

Bread bread bread. Things on toast and sandwiches never killed anyone. Good luck and hope things get better for you soon x

Please consider swapping out low welfare eggs/dairy and meat for kinder and cheaper vegan sources of vitamins, minerals and nutrition! Chickpeas/lentils/spinach/mushrooms/root veg are all going to go further

Following for ideas as ai struggle with meal planning.

Homemade carrot soup. Porridge for breakfast with sugar and milk. Reduced stale bread toast. Supermarket own brand baked beans on the toast. Sorry, you can't afford cheese or meat of any kind on this budget.

We tried to feed 2 adults on £10 for a week three separate times last winter. It cannot be done, not even shopping at Lidl. If the DC are tiny and eat very little you might do it. If one is bf you might do it. You will all lose weight and you will all feel hungry. Children need protein and that budget will not supply it.

Look what Jack Monroe says about feeding herself and her son on £10 a week. That was years ago!

Her Bootstrap Cook website has costed recipes and woukd be my go-to for this.

Bread goes a long way for breakfast with jam and lunches too,and pancakes for dinner. Lots of carbs but oh so cheap. Make soups -chicken stock and onion potato sweet potato or something. I hope the week goes well OP. Can you ask family for some extra cash or a bag of apples or other fruit?