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!

Dunno what recipes you're reading if you're feeding you kids sardines on tinned pasta 😂

But regardless, OP was asking for budgets meal suggestions and I suggested.

Just saw you said you’re not that in to cooking.

In that case I’d second other poster’s suggestions of fried egg and oven chips (if your DC like fried eggs), serve with baked beans.

I do a “risotto” which basically cuts out the endless stirring. Get your largest saucepan, put it on a low heat - put a splash of cooking oil (vegetable oil) in to the pan, add in a chopped onion, stir, add in a third of a box of risotto rice (unbranded supermarket own), stir, then add a tin of tomatoes and a pint of veg or chicken stock (made using hot water and a stock cube). Stir, put a lid on and turn the heat very low. Check 20 mins later, stir, then turn off when the rice is soft. Add salt and pepper, and if you like, chop up a cheap ball of mozzarella cheese and stir it in.

The other recipes are all cheap, but if you’re not sure how to make stroganoff or curry from scratch then do curry with a jar of supermarket sauce, and on another night serve up beans on toast, with a banana afterwards so the kids are full up.

www.bbc.co.uk/food/programmes/b036x3pv

Budget meals here are beans on toast. Scrambled eggs on toast. Lentil cottage pie. Jacket potatoes. Toasties. Risotto. Quiche.

I can feed 6 for a week on £80 easily. Allowing for one fussy kid and 2 fussy teenagers. At a push, I think I could squeeze it to £60 if I had to.

I don't know what the drama is, if that's the budget. You really need to have a good hard look at your outgoing if you don't think that's a lot.

People read the thread.

Op has £105 for everything that crops up left. Not just food. She had to buy calpol earlier, children need shoes ideally but can wait a week etc… so looking for as cheap as possible so she has spare from the £105

Get 1 large chicken and roast it for 1 dinner with potatoes and veggies (I tend to roast veggies - butternut squash can be very good value, with an onion, and some carrot if you have it, any leftovers make great soup seasoned with nutmeg OR chilli).

Leftover chicken at least 2 more nights - ideas include stir fry (noodles or rice), risotto, with tomato sauce and pasta, with freshly boiled potato and veg (chick reheated in leftover gravy if you have it), curry, creamy sauce with mushrooms, fajitas or burritos (or plainer wraps) etc. For only 3 people, you should get at least 2 if not 3 dinners of leftovers and possibly one lunch of sandwiches as well.

(Could also boil bones and veg peelings for stock to make soup or risotto).

Lidl do a pack of "cooking bacon" which is quite good value. Can be used in tomato sauces with pasta, quiches, scrambled eggs, macaroni cheese (with added veggies like mushrooms/courgette/peppers/onion/garlic/peas etc if you want), pasta carbonara. You'd easily get 3 dinners from 1 pack.

1 lb of minced beef would make enough spag bol or chilli con carne sauce for 2 nights of dinners, just add plenty of veg to the sauce when cooking. I tend to make up 2lb of beef at a time, feeding the 3 adults in the house and freezing sufficient for 5-7 individual portions for other nights (I use takeaway tubs recycled, so they are handy for stacking in freezer and hold a single portion per tub).

Eggs are great - do a fry for dinner, make quiches, scrambled eggs/omlettes with fillings (mushrooms, bacon, onion, tomato, peppers, grated cheese etc), use for a carbonara sauce with pasta, do poached eggs for breakfast/lunch...

Also, tinned tuna is really handy.

Tuna mix for sandwiches or tuna melts for lunches.
Nasi goreng (indian stir fried rice dish) with leftover cooked rice (from night before and stored in fridge), tin tuna, half tin sweetcorn, onion, garlic, veggies, curry powder.
Tuna pasta bake.
Fish cakes with leftover mashed potato (given the flour, egg, breadcrumb treatment for extra crunch).

My kids have had a cheap tea tonight, not for any other reason than it's what I threw together quickly after a busy day.

Fried egg, half a big tin of beans each, a quarter of a bag (roughly 8/9) Asda potato balls each, slice of bread, squirt of ketchup and a glass of water.

Total cost per plate 55p

I've just had a notification my universal credit is lower than it should be. I had £50 in my account for everything until the 22nd (payday). Thankfully i had some food in so i got everything out and worked out what meals I could cook with what's in the fridge and freezer and you will be surprised what you probably have and could make. Yes some dinners aren't v exciting (tinned soup with homemade wedges/toast, or super noodles with frozen veg but me and my girls will have something to eat)
Other dinners are:
Mushy pea curry and rice.
Creamy lentil dahl.
Thai red curry with quorn pieces (both hidden in back of cupboard and freezer!)
Veggie chilli & rice.
Pasta pesto.
Bolognase (one day with pasta, next stuffed into peppers)
Jacket potatoes with beans and cheese.
Shepherd's pie.
Sausage, mash and beans.
Burgers in a bun with homemade chips and salad.

Quite a few there will be leftovers for lunch boxes. Other lunches- crackers and cheese. Breadsticks and cheese triangles. Wraps topped with tomato pureee and cheese wrapped up and baked in oven for pizza wraps. Part bake baguettes. Couscous with veggie stock and chopped up roasted veggies. Houmous and veggie sticks/homemade tortillas. Pasta with sauce/or mayo and veggies/cheese. Then i buy a big pack of biscuits and put 2 in each day. A pack of 30p cookies is a weeks lunch treat compared to £1+ on penguins or similar. Cucumber/tomatoes/grapes/apples are cheap enough to add into lunch. If your children are young split crisps into a tupperware tub or buy bigger bags and split up usually cheaper than individual bags.

Breakfast - toast with jam is cheap. Or buy long life milk its 75p for 1 litre and tastes fine. Own brand cereal, aldi I bought their coco pops for about 85p and frosties for 99p. Then they have a glass of fruit juice 69p in fresh section, long life is more expensive right now!

Snacks - raisins or sultanas, breadsticks, crackers, veggie sticks, digestives.

Pudding/treats - packs of ice poles are cheap, jelly, tin of rice pudding, tinned fruit, cheap tub of ice cream with sauce/sprinkles/chocolate spread/peanut butter (whatever you have in!), cheap fromage frais, make some fairy cakes or supermarkets usually have cheap ones! Or make lemonade floats - glass of lemonade with a scoop of ice cream. My girls think this is amazing but it's a cheap treat to make!

I'd write a list of exactly which store cupboard ingredients you have. I'd then look at what you need to add to make a meal and include absolute necessities for the kids eg, yoghurts for example. I'm lucky to have a well stocked larder so when I need to go easy on the shop I get bread, milk, eggs, cheese, kids yoghurts and kids snacks for school and apples, grapes, pears as well as cucumber and carrots and some fish as the bare minimum (ordinarily we'd have a lot more fruit and veg). My simple meals are Lentils and rice or chapatis, chickpea curry, egg and potato curry, baked potato with tuna or cheese and beans, fritatta stuffed with peppers and spinach. I'll do things like mushroom risotto, chicken rissotto, quesadilla, homemade chips and chicken nuggets with beans or sweetcorn and any kind of pasta or noodle dish. I'll use meat if I have it but if not veggie bake does the job or mac and cheese. I'd keep lunch really simple and o sandwiches or soups. This is just an idea of the stuff I make if I'm needing to save money, I do tend to make enough for two nights so I'm not cooking everyday. It's obviously very dependent on store cupboard ingredients and what your kids will actually eat.

Omelette
Tuna pasta
Home made pizza
Chicken curry and rice
Spag bol

Beans on toast
Egg on toast
Egg fried rice
Pasta and tomato sauce

They're not going to get scurvy in a week. I agree you need to look at your budget again as I spend about than for a family of five for a week!

What do they like?
What would you usually buy?

It really depends on what the family would eat. £100 might be enough for many of you but not necessarily for everyone. I'd struggle because my kids will turn their nose to stuff in sauce (7yo and 9yo), so no curries, no stews, no soups. The only things they happily eat that is "wet" is beans or Bolognese.

The only thing that helps me get much lower than my usual £160+ is meal planning to the letter. No buying "just in case", no buying "for the freezer", getting here and there the discounted food of the day at the supermarket. I do it when I can but I work and if I'm busy, I just don't organise well enough or forget to defrost or there are crucial ingredients missing, etc. I definitely cannot use a chicken like Mumsnet does. Standard £4 chicken: I eat a quarter, my DH has a quarter and a bit with potatoes and vegs, my kids share a quarter. I put in the fridge the other quarter, which is usually pulled out for sandwiches next day. I don't have any leftovers for another dinner meal for four?

So much competition here on how little people use, how much they stretch this or that, and how they divide a pea between the family and the dog... It just makes others feel bad if they are finding difficult to see how to do that.

I personally think that the healthier the food, the more expensive it is. And I don't mean "salmon is more expensive than chicken". I mean that a chicken that has not got added water and hormones is more expensive. Breaded chicken that is not chopped and reformed, but breaded pieces, is more expensive. Burgers that are leaner are more expensive. The decision comes down to balancing cost, time to prep, time to cook, and quality of ingredients. All this "I spend half than you and feed one extra adult" cannot be like for like.

Circumstances are very different between households. And the availability of certain supermarkets nearby has a great influence. I don't have a Lidl nearby and I have to plan a car trip when I want to go, which is petrol cost. It also means that my DH has to be free to give me a lift and kids will either be there (= ask for stuff) or we have to go during work time. Sainsbury's is costly compared to Aldi, OP. Definitely give it a go if you can. Or if you have an Iceland, you can fill your trolley in the shop and ask them to deliver it later in the day (at least ours do here).

Can you go out around 5.45/6pm?
Asda do great reductions at this time & Aldi do 75% off. I get lots of meat

Sorry I dropped my phone & it posted too soon 😂
As I was saying, I get lots of meat & other food bits for cheap!