Aibu to ask what you eat when you are broke?

[NCsobroke]

I don’t mean feed your family for £10, I mean dinners like baked potato and beans that cost a couple of quid. None of us are v picky and no dietary issues.

The kids mostly eat a v healthy balanced diet, lots of whole foods and tons of fruit and veg, maybe frozen pizza on a Saturday, don’t really have takeaways often etc. I hate the thought of them living off cheap freezer food not enough fruit snd veg.

Also needs to include lunches as we don’t qualify for FSM despite being on UC as husband works FT.

We are so broke. We usually receive universal credit which we live off as DH wages all go on bills and rent. We won’t receive any at all this month and can’t do anything about it.

2 adults, 2 children. £110 to last for the next 3 weeks (plus toiletries and cleaning stuff and petrol for DH 2 hour commute )

Baked Frittata - with whatever I can rustle up from the fridge/cupboard /garden/hedgerows.

@Mirw you are wrong and rude. You can make up to £1000 by selling online before you are required to declare it to HMRC, it’s called Trading Allowance. I don’t believe selling used personal possessions is relevant to UC claims either.

Kidney bean curry, loads of diff recipes if you Google it. Cheap, healthy, kids eat it, and can knock it up in 25 minutes if the beans are ready soaked xx

@NCsobroke

Years ago we lived in London in a shared house. Had a friend in the off-licence [Victoria Wines] who could knock the tops of wine bottles and sieve the wine. We had two "desperates". "Broke one" which was curried potato and "broke two" which was just potato.

We had tow

@Mirw really? So add guilt to the mix? This is absolute bull - you need to go get a life.

[quote danni0509]@Clutterbugsmum that’s sounds delicious![/quote]
I thought it sound delicious too.
Going to give this one a try midweek.

Food bank

OP, you should talk to your Council. There still support lines in many local councils for families in financial hardship and they can help you either with money or food parcels.

@Mirw

If you are getting benefits you need to declare what you make selling stuff. People forget that...It is like those who sell stuff on ebay or vinted then do not declare this income to the tax man... It is income. Needs to be declared or yoy are bring dishonest.

A quick google search tells me this is not true, I don’t have a business and I am not a regular seller. My husband sold his PlayStation to afford fuel to get to work.

It was sold to ‘raise emergency funds’ and we made a loss not a profit.

Thanks though for adding to my worry that we’ll have further reductions in future for any mo eh we raise to keep our heads above water this month.

Look in the reduced section of the supermarket. If it’s cheap that’s dinner for a couple of days. Stretch out the meals with reduced veg.

One slice of white fish can be cut in 4 and coated in thick batter then deep fried. A favourite in this house.
Look at the frozen veg in Iceland - their own labels are cheap.
Potato cut into slices thick batter and deep fried, makes it go further. SPAM also can be in batter too.
Mince quarter of a pound can be stretched by adding grated carrots 5 mins before serving - add any cheap veg. and pasta will stretch the meal.
Don’t buy fresh bread only buy bread that’s reduced.
Rice boiled and a packet of powered soup add any cheap veg or salad chopped finely. Pasta can be added.
Let the reduced cabinet of the supermarket and the supermarkets own labeled be your ‘go to’ area.
Oven Baked potatoes are good but so very expensive to cook!
Never have the oven on for one meal. Economise with oven use.
Stock cubes, stores own labels will be useful for taste.
Good luck.

Boil up a ham hough to make stock then veg and lentils in for lentil soup. Then cook some of the ham with a tin of tomatoes, onion and garlic and paprika if you have any, mix with pasta and a bit of cheese on top for a pasta bake. Any left over ham for sandwiches. Can get a good few days of eating for very little spend.

*Jacket potatoes are cheap. Serve with loads of cheap sides: baked beans, small amount of leftover bolognese sauce, chilli, tuna, cheese.
*Egg and chips ( with or without beans)
*Potato hash (very ‘northern!) - small amount of diced beef simmered with lots of potato and a chopped onion. Add a little chopped carrot if you have it. Can be thickened with a little Bisto, flour and water.
*tortilla wraps; fry whatever you’ve got: onion, pepper, mushroom whatever. Flavour with whatever you’ve got like chilli sauce, herbs etc. Pile on warmed tortilla and wrap up.

Finely chop one red pepper, one small red onion and one small carrot.
Sauté in two tablespoons of oil ( I use olive oil or rice bran oil)
When soft add a crushed clove of garlic (or a teaspoon of garlic paste) and cook for a further minute.
Then add 1 cup of garden peas and 300mls of vegetable stock bring to boil and add 1 can of drained chick peas.
I add a pinch of parsley, cumin and cinnamon here plus salt to taste.
Now add a cup of cous cous, stir in and take off the heat.
Leave for 5 mins to absorb the liquid then fluff with a fork......it is ready to serve.
Can be eaten on its on or as a side.
Hope this helps

lentils, onions ,cauliflower ,rice, vegan curry type stuff .
avoid anything processed .
porridge porridge

big cheap cabbages with peas and soy sauce if u can get some cheaply
more rice ,

Sorry I am on a train while typing this!
Correction add the chicken peas, bring to boil then add the garden peas - frozen is best

Whatever is reduced at the end of day.
Combined with cheap meals like pasta and sauce, veggie curry and rice, pizza and chips, jacket potato, omelette and salad, beans on toast

I try to grow as much as possible

@NCsobroke if you are on Facebook, see if there is a community fridge nearby. We have one where I live and another in the next village. They have loads of food and it's available for a donation if you can afford it or for free if not. It's totally separate to a food bank (although see if you can get referred there)

I haven’t read all of the advice so I will probably be repeating, but we use the Too Good To Go app so for £4 you can get £12+ worth of food at our local BP/M&S garage so it’s often very good quality food that can be frozen or will last much longer than the best before date.

Also, not a quick fix solution but a longer term plan- we cordoned off an area of our garden and now keep 3 chickens. They are very cheap to keep, but the eggs they produce give us many a good meal! We’ve also sold eggs to work mates when we’ve had a glut and that’s brought in some extra cash to buy bread, milk, cheese etc

Good luck OP, it’s a horrible feeling worrying how you will make it to pay day when you’re looking at your hungry children

This is MN at its best!
I was just going to say that this is the time of year when everyone is looking for Christmas presents. Have a look through your wardrobe, book shelves or do some general household decluttering. Have a look in your loft, garage, garden shed. Selling on FB is free and people collect it from your house for cash. You just need to dig out some items, take decent photos and off you go.
Good luck

pasta tubes with garlic,chilli cornbeef onions spanish school food

I don't know to many recipes but find out your local supermarket discount times (when they put everything going out of stock during the day on major discount) when we used to be very price conscious you could pick up scores of things fresh veg bags at 10p a pop and to be fair the food is normally good for a day or 2 after it's more "health & Safety" but it can get quite heated during this time depends on how far it is and practical!

Carrot and potato soup with garlic bread
Lentil curry and rice
Lentil bolognese and mashed potatoes
Pasta and tomato sauce. Fry some garlic before you add the sauce in.
Vegetable curry made from frozen veg
Creamy mushroom pasta made with a homemade white sauce
Mashed potatoes with a mushroom and gravy mix. Use Bisto.

Thank you so much to everyone for all the supportive, positive comments and recipe ideas.

I have found a local social supermarket which at first looks seems amazing value and offers lots of fresh fruit and veg for the £3 a week subscription.

Can’t find the post now but whoever suggested it - writing to MP isn’t a bad shout. The more visible these issues are the harder it is for them to ignore.

As a family we qualify for some UC which is what we live off after DH wage pays bills and rent. We fall through the net when it comes to any additional support though such as FSM/childcare etc. But that’s fine as usually we manage - just.

There is nothing to bridge the gap when something goes wrong though, so this month when husbands pay was early we had our income counted as double what it was and hence no UC whatsoever. There needs to be some real support for families to bridge this gap.

I am trying to ignore the guilt/shame of being in this position - although I can’t ignore the frustration. We both went to uni, made decent life choices and have high level, relevant degrees and experience etc but can’t survive on his wage alone and I can’t afford to work because of high childcare costs, I hope things will be better when we get the universal free childcare hours and I’m able to go back to work.

Thank you again for all the kindness and suggestions, I have taken a lot on board and feel a bit more able to tackle the next few weeks

Risotto - just need rice and stock then any veg you have to add to it.
Chilli - tin of tomatoes, kidney beans and mince
Pasta and homemade tomato sauce