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 )

Lots of soup. Root veg is very cheap, very filling, made with split peas or lentils and served with bread is extremely nutritous.
Cut back on meat rather than resorting to burgers/sausages. Tofu is cheaper than meat if you buy it from an Asian store- ditto with spices. Bags are bigger but far better value.
Many meals are tasty with just a little meat- two chicken breasts cut thinly and seasoned well can make a large pan of stir fry, with shedded carrot, cabbage, soy suace and noodles.
Same with curries- a little- or no meat will go a long way- use potatoes, carrots, chickpeas with a little meat-.

Mushroom crepes (tinned mushrooms are fine) or baked mushroom sandwich, any kinds of soup, stuff from reduced section (you can ask in the shops what time they usually put stuff out).

supermodels and toast

Personally I'd have to draw the line at cannibalism, but if not I'm sure you can find someone with more meat on them than a supermodel There's another thread with someone wishing a murderous ex husband dead, win-win?

Not food-related, but there are some really good websites where you can earn a bit of extra cash very easily.

One is called Prolific and is mostly university studies. Another is Qmee, which is lower paid but when every penny counts, a few pounds will be useful.

There's a thread on here called "earn £10 a day" or something similar which is full of reliable links to these kinds of sites. To give you an idea, I've earned almost £600 in the past 8 months. Hope this might help.

Oh. Chicken in white sauce and rice. Chicken condensed soup. My kids love it.

Shredded chicken can last a while and be used for sandwiches, with fried rice or pasta etc.

If you have or can run to some sriracha sauce, it's a perfect addition to egg fried rice with whatever veg you have hanging around. I could eat that meal several times a week if there's hot sauce, and it's cheap.

Buy a bag of soya mince from Holland and Barrett. It will make 3-4 family sized bolognese type meals to feed all of you and costs £1.99. It’s fab stuff for having in your pantry.

For cleaning stuff, a bottle of decent washing up liquid and a bottle of bleach covers most things - use hot soapy water for general cleaning and the beach for things like cleaning the loo.

Shops like lidl, aldi, farm foods and Iceland are your friend in this circumstance.
However to me you would be a prime candidate for a food bank until you can get back on your feet. There are several food banks near me and a couple of them you can self refer.

Different lentil daal and rice
They are yummy and cheap
Check out Chetna's makhani daal recipe on you tube. It's amazing. I make a bit batch every few weeks. My Daughters favourite recipe.
Any chillis made with black beans and veggies.

I think the cheapest, healthiest way to do it is to bulk make a couple of things and freeze half so you get two weeks worth.

Buy a massive box of mince and halve it - make big bolognese AND big chilli - plenty of onions and tinned toms as these are cheap.

Buy big rice, big pasta, big bag potatoes.

Each week buy a big chicken for roast on sunday then save the spare meat for sandwiches and a curry. Get big bag spuds each week for sunday roast, sausage and mash, jackets pots and beans.

The other quick cheap meals for the other days of the week when your not having pasta bolognese or chilli or curry:
Egg and chips
sausage and mash
beans and cheese on toast
Jacket pots, tuna/beans/cheese/chilli

It's not a greatly varied menu but if only for 3 weeks you should be able to eat for about £30 per week.

Good luck! Plus - go to big tescos or cop after 7pm and check out the reduced section - I managed to get a £20 leg of lamb for a fiver last week - I reckon it would feed 10!

Slow cooker bolognese which becomes three meals:

Step 1: Bag of frozen quorn mince in slow cooker with tin of tomatoes (you can use meat if you eat it, or the dehydrated soya mince from Holland and Barrett if you’re passing because it’s mega cheap and you get a tonne of it for pennies).

Step 2: While that’s getting started put whatever veg you have knocking about in the oven to roast: tomatoes, courgettes, carrots, onions, broccoli, mushrooms... pretty much anything you have. Add a whole head of garlic if you like it, or a table spoon of “lazy garlic” or garlic purée. Roast for 30mins on about 200 degrees.

Step 3: Once it’s done add a splash of balsamic/red wine/red wine vinegar to the slow cooker.

Step 4: blitz all your roasted veg in a food processor. Add to the slow cooker.

Step 5: cook on low for 6hrsish.

That becomes bolognese. Save half. The next day use around a third of it and mix with another tin of tomatoes to make a version of this Aubergine Parmigiana. Don’t worry about the fancy cheeses.... a couple of aubergines, some stale bread (or a couple of slices of toast in the food processor) and a bag of shredded cheese and there’s another meal. Layer it all up and bake at 220 for 45mins (put foil or a lid on and take it off for the final 10mins so the cheese goes brown).

The next night use the left over bolognese mix to make a chilli. Stick it back on high in the slow cooker with another tin of tomatoes, tin of kidney beans, any other tinned beans you’ve got knocking about, some smoked paprika and a bit of chilli powder. Cook on high for two hours. Serve with rice or a jacket potato.

My personal go to is probably toast with tuna, mayo and some finely chopped veggies (bell pepper, spinage or tomato preferably) and paprika powder, salt and pepper.

Also this odd recipe that my mum used to make but I love: Rice, tuna, hollandaise sauce, canned corn, lemon/pepper, boiled sliced eggs and slices of tomato on top. Kind of odd but works

Sorry to hear things are difficult just now OP. Hopefully it will ease soon.

When I've been in this situation I have worked out what i have daily. So, I think it gives you £5 a day or just over.

If you have it all out in cash then put it in a drawer and only take £5 into your purse a day. So today you have £5. You can do it just in your mind if you'd prefer to use your card of course.

Have you got anything in the house for today? If you do then you don't spend the £5 but keep it til tomorrow. You then have £10 tomorrow.

With your tenner tomorrow you could buy something like a bag of onions and pasta, tins of tomatoes and another veg. Some bread and jam and porridge. Value beans for lunch. Small bag of 69p apples. That sort of thing. Make sure you have enough for that day.

That means you have some stuff leftover for the next day, porridge for breakfast and or toast and jam. And onions to make the basis of something else. Next day buy some red lentils and rice and make a dhal.
Next day a bag of carrots to make a big pot of lentil and carrot soup.
Every day you buy food for that day knowing that some of the stuff will last. You keep adding to what you've bought. But you can never go over the money you have in your purse. It used to keep me right. I used to get a reset every day with the new fiver. It does rely on having a bit of time though to go daily or every second day. And having shops close by. No point if you have to drive ages to the shops. But it can be a way if thinking that can work.
I know you're worried about being healthy but it's only for 3 weeks. Just get as much as you can to fill you up. You can get back into a healthy balanced diet when things ease.

Jack Monroe is great. Soups are cheap and filling. Biggest bag of cheap potatoes you can find. Reduced stuff at the end of the day. And now and again a value packet of custard creams thrown in for fun.

Can you pick up some seasonal or temp work? There seem to be lots of vacancies recently.

Not sure where you live but we buy a sack of potatoes and it can be really cost effective (providing you like potatoes), they can then bulk a meal out. Sort out the big ones for jackets, then cottage pie and add loads of lentils to the mince. Leek and potato soup. Make mashed potatoes and then fry them. This is a huge treat in our house!! Mashed potato mixed with cheese and then under the grill (we call it cheese pie) great with sausages / beans.

Dried pasta and then make pasta bakes, cheese sauce with bacon and leeks, make your own tomato sauce with a tin of tomatos, add garlic / chilli to taste.

Wonky veg, when peeled and cooked no-one could ever tell.

My personal go to is probably toast with tuna, mayo and some finely chopped veggies (bell pepper, spinage or tomato preferably) and paprika powder, salt and pepper.

??? Are you suggesting this as a buget meal for 4 people?

Huge bag of spuds, mince, pasta, rice, tinned veg, passata/tinned tomatoes, eggs, flour, cheese, onions

Shepherds pie
Spag bol
Rice and veg
Veggie patties, homemade chips and beans
Chilli and rice
Potato pie and veg
Homemade pizza
Homemade pasties and chips
Quiche, chips and veg

I am always drawn to Glenryck tinned pilchards which used to be under £1 a tin but now usually £1.20. Protein and Omega 3s for so very little money.

They are a bit hardcore though. The best I have come up with is making them into curry with peppers and curry powder/paste.

@NCsobroke I think food banks are for ppl who are having a tough time-and you are.

No shame in it-and when you get back on your feet you can stop but I think ppl donating to food banks would be so happy if it made a difference for someone like you who is struggling at the moment.

No judgement.

That seems better than borrowing money to me!

Good luck

Pasta tuna, pasta bol, savoury rice, if you can hit supermarkets between 6pm and 7pm you might be able to get yellow sticker meats and veg bread ect I was lucky last week got about £60 of shopping for £14.50 getting yellow sticker and freezing and tbh at a put we have pasta and just sauce, or noodles and hotdogs ect

Do check the mark downs at local supermarkets- worth finding out the times- prices can be totally incredible- bags of produce for 10 or 20p, meat less than half price, often 5-6pm in my local stores, but can vary- but always check the reduced sections.

We buy the big bags of potatoes (8kg for£3) so things like cottage pie work out well for us.
I buy 500g of mince but bulk it out with frozen veg and lentils. Can get two nights of teas for two adults and two kids out of it
Frozen veg and fruit are great if you have the freezer space. Aldi frozen raspberries are cheap and I put them into porridge for cheap breakfast. Easier way of getting fruit into the kids for low cost.
We eat a lot of soup as can buy or use up veg on its last legs. The Aldi part cooked bread rolls and baguettes are really cheap but coming out of the oven warm makes it feel fancier! Also handy to have in for packed lunches.
Do you have a slow cooker? Again great for cheaper cuts of meat of makes an amazing steak pie for very little effort and cost if you are happy to make your own pastry.

I would be genuinely angry if I found out one of my children was this close to the bone and didn't ask me for help - especially if there were grandchildren involved! I would seriously reconsider asking your in-laws for help if they can remotely afford it. If they are nasty about it then at least you know what kind of people they really are, which is useful information.