Only £30 this week-what to buy?

[Maccapaccawentwee]

We had an emergency medical situation with Dd and had to call a doctor out for a home visit. She’s fine now but we’re down nearly €200. We’re in another country and I have the equivalent of £30 for food until Friday, what go buy 🤷🏻‍♀️How to budget food for that amount (we usually spend 80/90)
What are the best foods/meals?

If you have onions, rice and spices I would make a pilaf. If you Google it you can pretty much make any version you like, India, Persian, Spanish style. If you had a bit of chorizo/bacon and some frozen peas that would be cheap version. Chicken and peanut or cashew nut or butternut squash.
I'd also make toad in the hole with the eggs and flour. If you can't afford sausages, you could make the giant Yorkshire pudding and serve with a lentil/tin tomatoes Ragu.
Potato gratin, grate the potatoes, mix with whatever you have to hand, olives, bit of ham, peas, cheese, couple of beaten eggs and bake.

www.google.com/amp/s/www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/collection/budget-recipes/amp good food budget recipes

You're in Portugal so what's cheap & in plentiful supply to buy now?

A loaf of bread in Tesco is £1.10. A packet of yeast is 85p. Just buy the bread.

ideas here cookingonabootstrap.com/

@BackforGood I’m not sure, I just know it doesn’t go far here and I’m a meal planner and not extravagant at all. I just usually would struggle with that amount 🤷🏻‍♀️
In terms of what I’ve got in, aside from flour (I have two bags full, I have a few eggs and a small amount of pasta, garlic & herbs I generally always have and there’s a couple of onions. I need to add to that, aside from the flour.

Have realised we’ll need dog food by around Tues/wed so that’s €5/6 to factor in...it’s hard in that amount 🤷🏻‍♀️

Lidl is here and cheap in some respects but I shop at Continente and have a card, so hopefully I’ll get a small amount off with that 🤞

Have you rooted through your freezer @Maccapaccawentwee.

I always find stuff in it,it mightnt be my 1st choice but i can usually pull something together.

@Maccapaccawentwee

*To buy

I’m thinking chickpeas, pasta, rice, oats, make bread 🤷🏻‍♀️

Its five days you're going to waste a lot buying small amounts of lots of things.

One big value bag is going to work out better

@Bluenightowl

Good to see the everlasting Mumsnet chicken is alive and well in this thread. Haven’t seen it in a while and I’ve missed it.

That is funny but if in response to my post, I don’t think getting two days dinner from a roast chicken for two adults and a baby is farfetched? It would be more amazing if two adults and a baby were able to eat an entire chicken in one sitting without having enough left over to add to egg fried rice?

I’m not a cook myself and I don’t enjoy it so have never made stock or soup.

Tbh making a good stock is a luxury.

You need way more than one carcass and a fair bit of veg you don't mind essentialy wasting for taste that you could have eaten to feel full.

Its a nice thing to do for fun and pleasure but realistically an off brand oxo cube is cheaper and better

Soup, pasta and baked tatties are your pal this week!

@Bluenightowl

Good to see the everlasting Mumsnet chicken is alive and well in this thread. Haven’t seen it in a while and I’ve missed it.

That is funny but if in response to my post, I don’t think getting two days dinner from a roast chicken for two adults and a baby is farfetched? It would be more amazing if two adults and a baby were able to eat an entire chicken in one sitting without having enough left over to add to egg fried rice?

I’m not a cook myself and I don’t enjoy it so have never made stock or soup.

Neither do I. The amount of chicken in terms of breast meat that you get from a whole chicken is far in excess of what you would get from two breast portions, add in the equivalent of a chicken wing and you've got the baby's portion. Then you've got the rest of the bird for a second meal and stock to make from the bones for soup.

It's not everlasting. It's just 1-2 Kg compared to about 400g of meat. Even if it were half bone, that is still more than double, not forgetting that this is where things like potatoes come into play in providing a significant part of the meals.

Use the flour to make flatbreads to go with soup. Get some cheap veg and pulses to make the soup.

Only go to Continente if it really is cheaper than Lidl, which it probably isn't.

[quote Maccapaccawentwee]@BackforGood I’m not sure, I just know it doesn’t go far here and I’m a meal planner and not extravagant at all. I just usually would struggle with that amount 🤷🏻‍♀️
In terms of what I’ve got in, aside from flour (I have two bags full, I have a few eggs and a small amount of pasta, garlic & herbs I generally always have and there’s a couple of onions. I need to add to that, aside from the flour.

Have realised we’ll need dog food by around Tues/wed so that’s €5/6 to factor in...it’s hard in that amount 🤷🏻‍♀️

Lidl is here and cheap in some respects but I shop at Continente and have a card, so hopefully I’ll get a small amount off with that 🤞[/quote]
Cool. I googled them and you can get enough to eat for around twenty five (slightly less, depending upon what you get) and have a fiver spare for dog crunchies.

Thanks so much everyone, so many great ideas, I think I can definitely make it work, it’s just that thought of getting to the till and being short, not great.

I think I’ll go with dinners of:

Omelette with homemade wedges/chips & salad

Macaroni cheese with chopped brocolli & cauliflower

Homemade pizza with wedges & salad

Spaghetti with tinned tomatoes, onion, garlic, oregano

Breakfasts: oats or egg on toast-fruit, yoghurt

Lunches-leftovers from the dinner the night before or sandwiches, pancakes

Dh lunches-leftovers from dinners if there are any and egg mayo baguettes

Hope I can do it

Take your phone with you and add it up as you go along

I love this veggie chilli recipe.

Dhal and rice is lovely.

Potato curry with halved boiled eggs.

Chickpea curry made with onions and tomatoes.

@PattyPan

Take your phone with you and add it up as you go along

This is good advice - also, budget for a few Euros fewer than you actually have. I've done that before - also have left a few things at checkout. You won't be the first or the last.

It definitely depends on what's cheap over there. At home you could easily feed your family on £30 it would just be repetitive. Porridge for breakfast, beans on toast, ham sandwiches for lunch, meat and potatoes or pasta bake for dinner. It's what most of us grew up eating so boring but easy.

[quote PattyPan]@TalktotheFoot I think they meant why bother cutting a hole in it when you could just put the egg on top of the bread which would be much less faff![/quote]
Dropping the egg in a hole in the bread makes for a really nice snack. We call it a one-eyed steak in this house.