Budget ideas for feeding kids for next week....

[1000yellowdaisies]

I know these threads have been done before but I do find the ideas useful.....
Im a single parent to a 2yo and 7yo and i have £105 left to last until payday on the 15th (8 days)
All my direct debits have gone out for the month so have no bills left, I have nappies and toiletries to last and my car is full ish of petrol so I'm literally talking about our food.
Have cupboard basics like pasta, tinned toms and rice and a few bits in the freezer but no fresh fruit, veg, cheese or meat. I will be shopping tomorrow and would be grateful for some cheap but nutritious meal ideas. I have a slow cooker and have googled a few recipes using cheaper cuts of meat but im dubious about whether the kids will eat them!

£105 really is plenty for an adult and two children, especially if you already have store cupboard basics. I would just make a meal plan of normal family meals that you all like and shop for anything you don't already have in. If you avoid buying alcohol and other luxuries like pre-prepared fruit and desserts then you might find you have change from your £105.

You'll be fine, that's plenty! But check out Jack Monroe for cheap meal ideas from store cupboard ingredients. cookingonabootstrap.com/

My lidl shop today for the week was £90. That’s family of 4, 2 primary kids who get school lunches, but includes lunches for DH and I. I do keep an eye on costs, but I don’t shop to a strict budget (not yet anyway!)

Meals this week include spaghetti bolognaise, chicken with rice, sausages with roast potatoes, breaded fish with chips. At the weekend kids will probably have beans or toast or chicken nuggets from freezer and DH and I will have fajitas. We will probably have pizza either for dinner one night or lunch at the weekend. DH and I usually have sandwiches for lunch or sometimes we have scrambled egg or beans on toast or similar.

I only ever buy lidl own brand yoghurt/cereal/chocolate/crisps etc. I assume that all adds up. I also try and limit expensive fruit to one type only per week and once it’s gone it’s gone. It’s apples or bananas only after that. I usually cook double what I need for some meals and then either use the extra for lunches or freeze for another dinner. Frozen fruit and veg is cheaper and just as healthy as fresh!

How much do normally spend as week?
£105 is more than enough. I spend about £100 a week for me and 3 girls (15, 5 and 3)

I know it isn’t your intention but posts like this are so annoying when people are truly struggling

That’s about what I spend a week for 2 adults and 2 huge teenagers, and we eat really well

What's in the freezer?

I'm veggie but off the top of my head I'd buy:

Large pack of beef mince
Tin kidney beans
Bag of red lentils
Carrots
Leeks
Value lettuce
Tomatoes
Apples
Bananas
Weetabix
Onions
Garlic
Cucumber
Spaghetti
2 big bags potatoes
2 loaves bread
Pack value wraps
4 tins baked beans
Bag of frozen peas
Bag frozen sweetcorm
Fish fingers
A whole chicken or big pack thighs
Big pack of eggs
Milk
Spread
Buy a big block of cheap cheddar and pre grate it into sandwich bags
Cheapest Greek yoghurt you can find
Jam
Oats
Flour

Dinners:
Fry off all the mince with onion, and garlic then bulk with plenty of red lentils, tinned tomatoes and grated carrot. Then split into three and make:

1. Spaghetti Bolognese
2. Cottage pie (add some frozen peas)
3. Chilli (add spices and kidney beans) to put in value wraps and bake covered in cheese with passata for enchiladas type dish
4. Fish fingers, homemade wedges and peas
5. roast the chicken and serve with roasted carrots and sweetcorn
6. use leftover chicken on the bone for a slow simmered curry with lentils and rice or HM naan if you have flour (use yoghurt)
7. simple cheese and tomato pasta bake
8. Spanish omelette with salad

Lunches:
Cheese and tomato sandwiches with carrot sticks
Egg and cucumber sandwiches and apples
Baked potatoes, beans and cheese
Any leftovers (you)

Snacks:
Yoghurt with jam
Carrot sticks
Boiled eggs

Breakfast:
Toast/egg on toast
Pancakes with jam
Porridge with banana

Also if you're really worried why no order for collection online then you can adjust your basket to keep it under £70 or so to give you a small float and collect tomorrow?

I’m the worst shopper in the world (blame Waitrose and M and S) spend way too much on food and even I wouldn’t be phased at £105 for 8 days!

If you want meat I’d get 500 g mince and a bag of red lentils and make chilli and bolognaise, could make a lasagna out of some bolognaise if you wanted. With jacket potatoes/rice/pasta/wedges.

My favourite cheap soup is a couple of leeks, a couple carrots, a couple of parsnips, soup mix pulses (I love pearl barley so always add a bit more) boiled with a pack of chicken legs and thighs (usually about 4 legs and 3 thighs), my Nan only added salt and pepper and it was amazing but I need to add a couple of chicken stock cubes as well, skim the foamy stuff that comes up when boiling off, take the chicken out and strip from the bone and put back in. Add more chopped parsley than you think is possible (the supermarket packs aren’t great value but if I have to use them I would add 4/5, if you have a greengrocer you’d be able to find it much cheaper) simmer for a while. I make that in my 7 l pan. With having store cupboard ingredients in I’d say the two above would be no more than £25 including energy at the most?

Good luck! But you’ll be fine!

I spend less than that for 4 of us without trying to budget. It's ample.

105 is a lot less than 200...
And the stuff i have in the cupboards is the stuff thats cheap anyway to buy like rice and pasta... my fridge is totally empty i have no bread, milk or butter... no cooking oil... i am not the greatest cook and we dont get home until after 6pm when i have collected from nursery/after school club so i probably havent shopped that economically in the past.
Thanks everyone who has made suggestions :)

I spend about £110-130 a week for 5 of us, 4 of us adult portions. Perhaps you just need to think about where you're shopping. I shop in Aldi, the same shopping in sainsburys would cost about £30-50 more

I haven't read beyond the OP, but here are my ideas (sorry if repeating), or what my kids like eating and doesn't break the bank:

1. Pasta and pesto sauce. I sometimes cut (with kitchen scissors!) a few slices of salami or ham on top after serving, thinly and to give some meat.

1. Sausages and mash (Iceland sell big bags of frozen sausages?) or sausages in bread buns (the heat at home petit pan packs can be cheap for a pack of 6-8?). Or toad in the hole?

1. Small roast chicken. You can use leftovers for sandwiches or pasta.

1. Fried eggs, chips and beans!

1. Fried egg, rice and tomato sauce were a favourite of mine when I was a child too.

1. Cheese and ham toasties with salad.

1. Wraps with the leftover chicken? The Iceland crispy chicken strips can also be really nice when used in wraps. And the breaded chicken fillets are good as burgers too!

1. Ham omelette

1. Lentil stew with potatoes + chorizo or pancetta cubes (those cheap cuts in bit pieces)?

10. Spaghetti Bolognese

11. Chilli con carne

12. Drumsticks and chips

I know it isn’t your intention but posts like this are so annoying when people are truly struggling

I can understand why you think that. But the OP thinks she is going to struggle. So is as deserving of support as anyone else. I think enough posters have made the point that she has way more than enough. (I spend around that for 3 and sometimes 4 adults and we eat very well).

So if we can help her spend less whilst providing decent food, maybe it will help when the winter bills kick in and she no longer has that much spare at the end of the month

OP - can you share a typical weeks shopping and/or meal plan so we can see where you might be able to cut costs

I am struggling. Everyone is saying 105 is enough. That's great, maybe I need to just shop better.

But both my kids need new shoes, my nursery bill has gone up and my car is likely to fail its mot all of which I'll need to find the money for next month so I really don't need any digs.

You could do it for half that and have a little cushion.

In danger of going down the Mumsnet everlasting chicken road, we had a roast chicken dinner on Sunday and I made the rest into a chicken and vegetable pie which has done the last two nights
I don't do full pastry, just make a very thin top but the kids will eat up the veg much better presented this way and disguised in white sauce! It was a large chicken for £4 so half on Sunday and rest in the pie, served with jacket potatoes one night and wedges the next.

Cottage pie is another favourite. Again I bulk it out with veg (frozen is fine) and lentils. Can do two teas from 500g of mince.

Make lentil soup from the rest of the bag of lentils.

My kids also love banana pancakes. Can be breakfast or lunch. Couple of mashed up bananas on the turn (bought 10 for 10p last week), with plain flour, baking powder, tiny bit of sugar, milk and dribble of butter from the pan.

That leaves three other main meals so a pasta and sweetcorn option, an easy pizza, jacket potatoes and tuna

So top of my shopping list would be:
Whole chicken
Mince
potatoes
Frozen mixed veg
Lentils
Carrots
Chicken stock cubes
Plain flour
Milk
Bananas
Pasta
Passata
Cheese
Pizza
Tin of tuna

I always try to budget £100 a week for food for us four but have never been able to stick with it. Tried taking just the cash out using a calculator when I'm in the supermarket but as I need to go back again for bread and milk I always end of up spending more et fruit etc and it's more like £160-70. So finding this post interesting

If only Advanced Search worked properly OP you could find literally hundreds of threads with budget meal ideas very very easily.

Are we now assuming HQ don't want Advanced Search to work so that people start new threads instead of reading old ones? And if so why are the old ones kept forever more?

£108 !

This week I've done ...
Red & Yellow peppers stuffed with sausage meat, and garlic bread. £1.50 p.p
Wholemeal pasta with tomato, bacon and garlic sauce £ 95p pp
Rainbow trout stuffed with fresh herbs, oven chips and french beans £1.75 p.p.
Pork chops cooked in slow cooker with apple sauce, cranberries & spuds £90p
Pepperoni pizza & salad £1.60 pp
Chicken tray bake with tomatoes, black olives, broccoli, £1.20 pp
Veggie chilli with lentils & rice £1 pp

That's £27 for a week of suppers for three, leaving you £81 for breakfast & lunch. 😀

my fridge is totally empty i have no bread, milk or butter... no cooking oil...

Bread =£2
Butter=£3
Milk=£4
Cooking oil= £3

You'll have plenty left over from £105 to buy meat,veg,fruit and a treat.

Kids are more likely to eat beans and hotdogs on toast with some grated cheese than spaghetti hoops rinsed of all their nutritional value with a tin of sardines on top.

Go to Iceland or Aldi. You will get a mega shop for £105.

If you don't have much time try cooking a day ahead of yourself. So I made the roast and pie on Sunday.

Tomorrow is spaghetti Bolognese but we made the Bolognese today so it's just pasta to cook and warm it up.

Cottage pies or lasagna always seem to cook better if you assemble the day before anyway.

You don't need to do proper cooking every night

I achieved a half mumsnet chicken this week. Less than a fiver on a chicken made a roast dinner, with tatties, carrots and corn. Then wraps with a carrot to bulk and rice. Then a curry with carrot and baby corn with rice. For three people. Probably 15 quid all in for three days dinners. Discount sections, I got a loaf of fruit loaf for 30p that I stuck in the freezer and pull one slice out a day for DSs breakfast.

Pasta with tuna mayo and sweetcorn for lunch? Toast for breakfast.

Chicken fried rice would be cheap

What would you usually eat?

£105 for a week? How much can a 2yo and 7yo eat?

Rather were you meaning that you have £105 but you're looking for suggestions on how to spend as little of that as possible to cover your other bills? Very sensible.

For three of us that’s more than I usually spend for everything.

Budget meal ideas are always good though so place marking out of interest!