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 )

Sorry - I meant to say that I know there are things required for those recipes that might not be in your cupboard but are cheaper than you think. eg Anchovy paste is a pound-ish and will last for 2-3 meals worth of puttanesca, or a tin is 80p. And a jar of morrisons sliced black olives is less than a pound I think and will also last 3 puttanescas.

Mushroom risotto can also be very cheap if you use a combination of cheap mushrooms and mushroom ketchup for a deeper taste. I think you can only get that in waitrose now annoyingly (maybe also the anchovy paste). Waitrose do a jar of porcini mushroom paste which would probably stretch to a few meals for £2.50. Buy parmesan in lumps from aldi/lidl rather than the grated stuff.

Someone's already mentioned egg and oven chips which is the food of kings. I will happily eat a big bowl of Baked beans with cheap grated cheddar mixed in and a bit of brown sauce.
Own brand fishfinger sandwiches are also amazing. I give the kids a bit of cucumber and/or carrot and/or red pepper sliced up to have on the side to up the veg quotient and they're often happier with that than with cooked veg.
Aldi and Lidl do really great rice pouches 'spanish/mexican etc which can serve with a fried egg on it.
Fried egg sandwiches - food of queens.
Fake carbonara - fry garlic and chopped bacon (1/2 pack for 4), add chopped cheap mushrooms, fry off, add small single cream, warm through, stir through pasta.

Things on toast a few time, beans, eggs sardines, cheese etc. omelettes, with cheese,mushrooms, etc. Never any takeaways. salad stuff of choice.Cheap shampoos, and bar soap. and not stuff like shower gel in plastic bottles. Make vegetable soup and the like, any veg, with some seasoning spice in it. Baked potatoes, but I don't have a microwave, so take too long in the oven. Usually one type of kitchen cleaner will clean most things, no need for loads of the other specific cleaners. I don't buy any junk food,like crisps and all the other rubbish things. and never buy fizzy drinks at all.

Get on the apps like Olio and Too Good To Go - if you can get a supermarket magic bag for around £3 you will have lots of fruit and veg.

Choose cheaper fruit and veg eg apples and bananas over strawberries. Shop at the yellow sticker shelf.

I’ve noticed lots of the supermarkets do those massive bags of pasta for £3 now.
Lots of places like lidl do veg boxes now too. But check out what you have locally, community supermarkets or veg schemes etc.
I’d also see what you can get in the cheaper shops - make sure you have things like biscuits in, makes you feel you are getting something else than just meals.

My local church does an informal food bank. I think you don’t have to be starving to use a food bank, if you are struggling to feed your family then I would use it. You can always pay it back in the future with donations.

Goodtogo can be hit and miss. I find Greggs good though.

Dry store staples like rice, lentils, pasta and oats are cheap, filling and healthy
Frozen fruit, veg and meat are a great deal cheaper than fresh and just the same quality.
Eggs aren’t cheap these days unless you have chickens so use sparingly.
Meal planning is your friend here, figure out your food budget for the week and plan dishes accordingly.
We’ve been there, it’s tough but doable, we found adding up our while we shopped really helped stay in budget

Have a look at olio app. Also approved foods. Also think about a local food bank.

Oh my days, that sounds properly, properly tight. The petrol is going to wipe out so much of that.

Please don’t be offended or embarrassed, but I’d check out where your local foodbanks are and their requirements re how to access them. I’m thinking about your DCs lunches (assuming they take packed lunches). You can eat some pretty random stuff in the privacy of your own home, but I’m sure your DCs would like to keep a normalish packed lunch if you can.

I like a nest of noodles boiled in a little stock and curry powder with a fried egg on top.

Get the Olio app.

There is a Tesco work near us who lists loads of food free. Everything from bread, veg, sandwiches, ready meals -always a surprise.
All short dated but could be useful for a meal once a week?

play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.olioex.android&hl=en_GB

Lidl and Morrisons do wonky veg boxes for £1/£1.50. Good for Soup, curry,risotto etc.
We use TooGoodToGo app. Shops like spar on it £3 for bag or Starbucks/greggs/costa for £3-£5. Obviously pot luck what you get but good value and a treat - fun for kids. You usually get several paninis and cake and a salad in costa £3.

Tesco worker that should say.

Sorry meant cafe Nero not costa.

You can make endless combinations from

Bread
Cheese
Eggs
Potatoes
Beans

Look on bottom supermarket shelf for cheapest toiletries too. Massive bottle shampoo for £1, cheap face cream 50p, 4xsoap bars pack £1. If you need makeup see if there's anything going free with a kids magazine so they get a treat too (if you've little ones).

Library books, TV and radio for entertainment. Try not to stay up too late or sleep in past sunrise to minimise electricity use and maximize daylight use.

Olive oil is cheaper than hair conditioner because you don't use as much of it or so often, just a 10p sized amount twice a week and I have thick long hair, comb it through lengths and ends, braid hair so it doesn't look lank and greasy if necessary. Skip styling products that day, the oil should be enough hold.

If you've got messy looking hair but need it tidy for work, then instead of your usual styling products comb it back while damp and put it in a ponytail or braid, spray with cheap hairspray, or comb through with cheap mousse before tying back, or smooth surface after with cheap gel.

Meat, fish and lots of fresh produce would really eat up that budget quickly, so you want things that can be bought cheaply in bulk and stored.

Daal is a great option. Cheap as chips to make, nutritious, filling and warming. If you already have the spices then it’s just the cost of a bag of lentils and a couple of onions, and you would get a lot of portions out of that.

Spaghetti pomodoro - tinned tomatoes (can be the cheapest variety) reduced until velvety with an onion, butter and salt, served with your fave pasta. Pennies per portion and really tasty.

Porridge for breakfast also costs pennies but will fill up the kids and keep them going. It’s also perfectly fine for you and your husband to have for dinner if things are really tight.

Rice and beans - any kind of beans in a can (I like black eyed beans or borlotti, but any you like) served with rice and your favourite seasonings. Again it’s one that will fill you all up and is nutritious.

Are there any community food banks in your area? These aren't the "official" food banks but are independent ones.

We make our own pizza (usually Friday night), using frozen pizza dough, local shop sells frozen dough balls for 75p, 2 dough balls are enough for 2 large pizzas, tomato purée is about 35p and cheese about £1.50.

We mainly eat chicken, rarely red meat, chicken tends to be cheap and things like curry, stews and pies are cheap to make.

Cauliflower cheese, another cheep dish, served with garlic bread or jacket potato.

Fish finger wraps (supermarkets own brand).

Stir fry (Tesco do a deal on stir fry ingredients).

Pasta bake, with or without tuna.

I often buy from the ‘almost out of date’ section and often pick up veg boxes from lidl. Buying a whole chicken and then portioning it can save money (can get 2 or 3 meals out of it), sometimes Tesco have cooked chickens on their club card deal.

‘Good to go’ is also a good app, especially if your in a town or city. You can get left over food from places like Greg’s, also bags of almost out of date food from co-op.

When I was a student I used to have egg noodles, tinned tomatoes & grated cheese.
If I had to I could live on beans on toast ( forget Heinz, Tesco’s own are much nicer & cheaper) or jacket spud with beans & cheese.

Definitely buy a sack of potatoes - much cheaper than small supermarket packs. Chips, jacket spuds and mash can all be supplemented with cheap bread, baked beans, eggs etc.

Beans and rice is a classic cheap dish that has enough of what you need to live on. It's not very exciting but there's lots of ways to jazz it up a bit. Whether you use stock, or fry the rice with soy sauce and egg, coconut milk etc.

Rice in general is an amazing food with so much great stuff in it. It's cheap to bulk buy and lasts well. Stock, garam masala/general spice mix, tomato puree and a spoonful of yoghurt makes a lovely and extremely cheap curry sauce. You don't need meat, any veg will do.

Porridge is a slightly boring, but very filling and cheap breakfast. If you have a spice grinder or any kind of food processor you can blend the oats and make the porridge smoother if that's more to your taste.

Have a look at iceland, they deliver free over 40 quid and when on a tight budget frozen is your friend. You can get a pack of ten chicken burgers for £3, pack of rolls, salad and chips is 2 meals for about a fiver. The stir fry frozen packs are 2 portions for 2.50 and actually really tasty. I can recommend the noodles and top tip add a spoon of peanut butter, dash soy and chilli flakes to the Singapore noodles and make them satay. Really tasty. Otherwise baked tatties with basics cottage cheese, salad. Pasta with homemade sauce and packs of chorizo are reasonable. Basics garlic bread. Lunches eggs on toast, soup, ham sandwiches, supermodels and toast, beans on toast.

Eggs - cheap and a good source of protein.
Chuck anything you’ve got in an omelette. Put potatoes in and it’s a Spanish omelette.

If it’s temporary then I’d go for;
Pasta bake
Bean chilli or even if you make it with mince then bulk it with extra mixed beans
Veggie sausages and mash (better than cheap sausages imo)
Vegetable curry

Also home made soup with lentils