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!

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.

This makes sense

Honestly that's plenty, just make sure to meal plan and make a list of stuff fir breakfast, lunch and snacks so you don't end up buying loads of random stuff for the sake of it.

@1000yellowdaisies it is hard if you are working and aren’t used to it/comfortable with cooking. My suggestion for chilli etc would assume you can make a tomato sauce or know how to stretch a jar across a few meals. The soup honestly is so easy and cheap and if you want I can send you a step by step “recipe” but just stick to beans on toast and baked potatoes if that’s what you know your children will eat. It’s all well and good for us to suggest meals but if your children won’t eat them it’s a false economy.

They don’t need juice though!

Where do you shop? I spend around £65 a week in Aldi and an extra £10 in the corner shop for milk / eggs etc. This is for a family of 5. Do you have an Aldi or Lidl near you?

I'd just plan your meals and stick to the list and I think it will be OK.
Surprised by all the people saying they always spend under £100 for families of 4 or 5, I would really struggle to do that. Perhaps they have lunch out. I find shopping is going up every week, spent £180 last week for family of 4.

You'll be totally fine OP but in case it's helpful to you or to anyone else, we've been really trying to slash our supermarket spending and making cheap meals for our family (2 DC and 2 adults.) We've found that mainly eating vegetarian meals has had the biggest impact in terms of saving money. Meals we've had are:

Pasta with pesto, chuck in some frozen veg towards the end of cooking the pasta and you've got a meal. Grated cheese on top if you have it. There are loads of other ultra cheap pasta recipes out there that my DC really like, Nigella's marmite spaghetti is one and cacio e pepe is another (and REALLY easy.)

Jacket potatoes with either beans/cheese/tuna toppings and some salad on the side.

Egg and chips.

Soup and either garlic bread or cheese on toast to dunk.

Vegetarian chilli (you can add lentils or porridge oats to bulk it out for pennies... especially if cooking in the slow cooker the oats just melt down and you can't tell they're in there.)

Oven baked polenta with ratatouille and melted cheese.

I make a stir fry with just egg noodles or brown rice then a sauce made out of store cupboard ingredients..... peanut butter, soy sauce, honey, chilli (for the adults), garlic.

Egg fried rice is easy and you can use frozen veg.

Sausage and bean casserole.

I feed me, DS a cat and a 50kg dog on £50-£60 a week, you'll be fine on £105!

If it was me I'd meal plan for the next week and go from there.
If you know what your having you can write the ingredients down then add them to the trolley as you go.

Cheap meals are things you prep youself and cook

Sausage casserole

Replace chicken breast with thighs. We had thighs tonight in one of them maggi bags. With peppers and onions. Served it with potatoes. So £1 for the peppers, £1 for the onions, £1 for the potatoes and the chicken thighs were £4 a pack for six.
It was really nice.

Spag bol and chilli.
Bulk up the spag bol with grated carrot. Bulk up the chilli with borlotti and kidney beans.

Chicken fried rice. Either use the microwave packs and then add to the pan with a couple of eggs and some chicken thighs. Get some prawn crackers and a makway curry sauce

Fajhitas. Again chicken thighs, an old El Paso sachet and some wraps. Pack of wedges.

Loads of stuff you can do.

@Wafflefudge it depends on the age of the kids.

For two adults and a nine and five year old we are £60 week without trying too hard. Another tenner on extra bread and milk maybe. Includes all work lunches.
We could knock off ice creams and treaty bits if we had to.

Teenagers would add to the cost.

But £180 seems pretty high

Deep breath op. Your panicking because it feels a lot less from what your used to, it’s enough. You’ll be ok. You just need to meal plan and stick to it.

id do an Aldi / lidl shop.
sausage pasta (two sausages chopped up, fried onion, tinned tomatoes beef stock, cook the pasta in the pan with the sausages and tomato)

that leaves sausages for a meal, toad in the hole / sausage and mash.

Chicken and rice of some sort or risotto, thighs if your family will eat it, breasts sliced and cooked so two will do three people.

jackets with cheese and beans

fajitas, just buy the mix (if you haven’t the spices) and wraps separately not a kit. You don’t need all the sour cream, etc. stretch with veg and again two breasts chopped will feed three, or sack the chicken off and just have peppers, sweet potato etc.

some sort of burger, onion bhaji works well if it will be eaten in your house.

maybe some sort of chilli or bolognaise that’s can do two dinners.

trust the cleaning stuff in aldi and lidl, it’s good.

we would all panic if our food budget got halved. But honestly. You’ve got a bigger budget then I have for four (two teens)

I would buy 500g of mince - pad out with sautéed onions, carrots, celery then add chopped tomatoes, serve one day with spaghetti, and make a lasagna for later in the week. Buy shoulder of pork for a roast (with the rest of the carrots, cabbage and potatoes) and also a stir fry (buy stir fry mix and a pack ready to serve noodles plus sauce of choice or make own ) remaining pork chop up with some courgettes, onions, garlic and a red pepper and fry, add to pasta and half jar red pesto. Ready made pizza base, add remaining red pesto, a ball of mozzarella plus whatever you have in the fridge

£105 is definitely do able but adding to the chorus to suggest Aldi & Lidl. Also try Iceland/home & bargain if you do want any branded bits like beans/ketchup. If you aren't sure where your budget will be next week then I'd suggest longer lasting fruit like pears, apples, satsumas, maybe melon to mix it up and keep in the fridge.
Meal wise a roast chicken one night and use the leftovers with jacket potatoes the second, frozen peas/mixed veg.
Spaghetti Bolognese, I'd expect a couple of portions for the 3 of you with 500gr mince/veg so split over the 8 days.
I do a tomato sauce - onion, 2 aubergines/2 courgettes, 2 tins of plum/chopped tomatoes with cumin, garamasala & paprika. First night with rice and an egg poached in the sauce, second with pancetta and turned into a pasta bake with cheese on top.
An easy fish fingers and waffles/beans tea. Maybe a fish pie you can cook the day before - BBC good food has a good toddler friendly one. I add frozen spinach to it along with the peas/sweetcorn.
Cereal/fruit/toast for breakfast. Leftovers/sandwiches for lunch or jacket spuds with crisps/fruit and a 12 pack of little yoghurts is under £1 in Aldi.

Chicken fajita pasta.

Cook up a big batch of pasta, and fry of some chicken, peppers and onions in fajita mix, or the basic store cupboard spices to make the mix (chilli powder, cumin, paprika) add to the pasta with some cream fraiché or plain greek yoghurt, add salt and pepper to taste and voila, gorgeous and really quite filling.

Cook a whole chicken in the slow cooker and have a mini mid week roast with some peas and carrots, save the left over chicken either for the pasta or make a scratch curry.

Good luck, finding cooking Inspo is hard x

Look at meals that you can make from your store cupboard to give yourself a bit of financial ease.
Pasta with a rich tomato sauce, vegetable paella, tomato risotto, minestrone type soup with tinned beans & vegetables. Bean or chickpea casserole with sausages, jambalaya or a hotpot style meal might be possible depending on what you have available.
What is in your freezer? Fish finger curry from Nigella, sausage pasta, or any potato products to have with fried eggs? Any frozen pastry for a quick vegetable tart?
Other cheap meals, macaroni cheese with sausages or bacon also add broccoli or cauliflower. Spanish omelette ~ use plenty of potatoes. Potato cheese & bacon bake. Spaghetti with sardines.

I usually shop at sainsbury's... mainly habit and mainly because its 5 mins away. But yes I will be going to Aldi, its further away but will be worth it...

As someone mentioned, 105 is what i have left but i was looking to spend as little as possible in case of anything else cropping up... e.g. I left the house this morning planning to spend absolutely nothing, i went to work with a tin of soup and banana in my handbag but i still ended up spending (colleague leaving collection, calpol for 2yo on way home)

I think you'll be fine, but if you or anyone else runs into problems, you may be eligible for Iceland's interest free loans of up to £100 to spend there - meant to tide people over if needed : www.itv.com/news/2022-08-16/iceland-unveils-75-buy-now-pay-later-zero-interest-loan-for-struggling-shoppers

£105 is loads.

Just have a go at doing things as cheaply as possible, and see how you go.

Did you buy actual calpol or the generic one?

@1000yellowdaisies there's an Instagram account called Cardiffmum - she posts regularly with feed a family for a week for £30, and I'm pretty sure she posted something tonight about feeding a family with 15 meals for £30. Also try the Taming Twins blog - she did a student meals guide that came in at less than a pound per person.

It feels tight? £105?!
That'd do me and my 2 DC nicely for a fortnight.
Bloody hell...

Cheap meals in our house

egg, chips or mash & mixed veg
veg fried rice, couple of cups of rice, egg & mixed veg, add some seasoning
omlette or scrambled egg on toast or with salad
pizza, cheap in Aldi or Lidl
stews or casseroles, a bit of meat, couple of spuds & some veg. See what’s on at the Aldi special buys, same with fruit, just but what’s on offer
sausage, Yorkshire puds & veg
a pack of mince can be stretched to a few meals when packed out with veg, chilli & rice one night, chilli in wraps or with nachos another
tin of hotdogs & noodles or spaghetti

So many cheap meal options out there.

At that age my DSs favourite was cowboy pie (mash, beans and sausages sticking out) or jacket potatoes with cheese and beans or spaghetti bolognese.

Bananas and apples as fruit. Frozen vegetables.

I do understand your concern. It is hard when its just you.

My weekly shop this week cost £70. Family of 4:

As well as packed lunch stuff, milk, breakfast, shampoo and some cleaning bits, our dinners for 8 days are:

Bacon and pea risotto (made with chicken stock, no wine)

Egg Stir fry (pack of stir fry veg, dried noodles, soy sauce, oyster sauce, egg)

Spag bowl - 2 days worth, (750g mince, 2 tins chopped tomatos, 2 onions, 200ml stock does the 4 of us for 2 days, could do more days if you added some red split lentils. Day 1 I serve with spaghetti, day 2 in a jacket potato with salad )

Pasta bake - 2 days worth for 4 ,
(500g pasta, 2 jars of dolimio pasta bake sauce, 350g chicken, frozen veg)

Prawn Thai Curry (pack of prawns, Thai curry paste, coconut milk, Mangetout, spring onions)

Toad in the hole

Baked potatoes with cheese and beans,

Chicken legs roasted or casseroled/curried (whole legs can be bought at larger supermarkets - lots of meat on them and cheaper than filleted thighs or chicken breasts) - cook them in your preferred way with a spice rub or in a curry or casserole and serve with rice, veg and/or potatoes. A jar of supermarket curry sauce is less than £1 or make your own using curry powder if you have it, plus a tin of tomatoes or coconut milk.

Macaroni cheese. Cheaper to make your own cheese sauce if you have flour, butter and cheese in. If not, look for a cheap jar of white sauce (béchamel) for lasagne- use that and add a handful of cheese.

Omelettes and salad. Serve with bread.

Two bean vegetarian chilli, include tinned tomatoes and a whole pepper and an onion. Serve with rice.

Mushroom stroganoff, including a pepper and an onion. This is cheap if you have a jar of mustard and/or paprika in your store cupboard. A small tub of sour cream is good to add in (only need half of a small tub, save the rest to have with the chilli above) and should cost 70p or so. Serve with rice.

Sausage, mash, peas and onion gravy.

Pork chops, potatoes, carrots and peas with gravy. (Pork is very cheap, buy a big pack of cheapest chops you can find and freeze half).

Frozen pizza (supermarket own unbranded). Two pizzas between 3/4 people is fine if you’ve all eaten in the day and aren’t feeding ravenous teenagers! Add a garlic baguette (cheap, frozen one) if needs be.

Cauliflower and sweet potato curry and rice. Cook with a jar of korma sauce or curry powder and a tin of coconut milk.

Make sure you’ve got bread in for sandwiches and lunches with some ham, cheese or tins of beans, unbranded porridge oats for breakfast, milk in the fridge and apples and bananas in the fruit bowl. Your budget should cover this easily.

Toad in hole - sausages plus store cupboard ingredients plus veg.