To ask for your tips on a very lean month?!

[Wombatbum]

😩 v. cheap meals needed, any other tips to get through the month? I’ve got paid today but due to changing jobs and one thing and another I’ve got a shortfall of about £500 this month. Bonus points if you can make it fun 😂😩

Opp not pop .. Opportunity to clear the freezer out

I always think carrots are filling too
Made carrot and potato mash which was lovely, and they're cheap! Wonky ones especially
Grated carrot bulks out a sandwich as well

Not a great deal to be honest 🙈 a few bags of frozen veggie mince, the usual fish fingers (6 year old is very fussy beige food eater 🙄), oven chips, peas etc.
got a big bag of dried lentils, some rice, tinned toms, baked beans etc
I’m happy to have peanut butter on toast every day for lunch at work! Kids like cheese on toast, we have a panini maker so can make hot sandwiches

This is a good shout thank you, I never online shop!

Have you got Too Good to Go near you? Supermarkets often do magic bags with random bits in but with a bit of creativity you can make lots of meals from the ingredients. Can be a bit hit and miss but generally we've had positive experiences.

Yes I’ve got the app not used for a while but will check it out again!

Sounds like you've got enough in the freezer for a veggie chilli?

Fry an onion, garlic, add chilli powder, add veggie mince, add tin of kidney beans and tin of chopped tomatoes. Add 300mls of water.

Add stock cubes and tomato paste, marmite (if you have some).

Cook for 45 mins or so.

Will do 4-5 good portions.

My local Lidl does £1:50 boxes , they are brilliant. Soup is your friend my lit will eat minestrone as a midweek dinner with bread ( an onion, a carrot, couple of Celery sticks, handful of dried green lentils, a potato, can of tinned Tom's, handful of pasta at the end. Cheap healthy and delicious.

A good trick I've found is to hunt out any gift vouchers you may have stashed away from birthdays/Xmases and pop them on eBay for 10% less than the value. So - £18 for a £20 gift voucher or £45 for a £50 one. If you are having a lean month then £18 in the bank is worth more to you than £20 in H&M.

Not a cost cutting tip - but I’ve seen people play ‘left over roulette’ on tiktok. When you have a few little bits of leftovers in the fridge - make up plates and then cover them with something (tin/teatowel/saucepan) and then someone picks first (dice roll?). It might be a way of making leftover night more exciting? We tend to do leftovers for lunches so it’s on my list to try it to make them into an evening meal.

Also - breakfast for dinner is always a big hit in our house. Pancakes are quite cheap to make and if you make too many you can freeze them for another day.

Maybe doing a master chef invention night could be fun? With yellow stickered ingredients or things from the back of cupboards.

Yep that’s my go to! I try and make a big batch so I can freeze some for another night too

Good idea thank
you I’ve got an M&S one, was going to try and get food with it but it wouldn’t go very far 🙈😂

I’m a long term veggie when I was a poor student lentils are your friend
dahl
lentil spag bol/shepherds pie
Sloppy joes
Bean chilli is super easy and cheap to make
Veggie jambalaya is essentially the cost of rice, kidney beans and some veg
Various veggie fried rice dishes.

Just a suggestion ..
have you anything you could sell on your local Facebook page ?

or try and earn a bit of cash ?

otherwise I use your library for books and magazines, lots of walks and bring a flask and buns instead of eating out

cheap breakfast or lunch: pancakes made with an egg a cup of milk and one cup of flour (Nice a filling and kids can help decorate with syrup or sprinkles) all the better if you have an old bag of flour in the cupboard

The baked beans are lovely in m&s and they are 50p
pasta sauces are not too expensive in there (least it saves your actual cash by shopping there)

Vegetarian stews, soups and veggie pasta are the cheapest option for me and I feel satisfied after eating them. I agree with remark to give up meat for a month and branded products. Babybel cheese, uncle bens microwave rice etc.if you buy them.

Too good to go magic bags are amazing! Yesterday from Morrisons (£3.09) we had potatoes (about 10 big ones) cauliflower, swede, sweetheart cabbage, spring greens, carrots, Celery, radish (x 3 bags), salad x2 bags, mushrooms, apples x6, mangoes x3, mint leaves, beetroot, a pot of pineapple and mango pieces.
Great value!

I have an online voucher code thing called Coupert, you can download this and it gives you voucher codes for online shopping. I use this every week and it usually gives around £20 off a Waitrose shop. Waitrose have an essentials range which is good and cheap. Their eggs are only about £1 and free range.

I got a free box from Green chef with a code on here and they are good and do veggie meals, for a free box click here- others can do this too if they want

www.greenchef.co.uk/plans?c=FIH-MCP4BASXWF7J&plans_ab=true&utm_campaign=clipboard&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=raf-share-hpt

For fun, and a break from cooking lentil stews, the too good to go ap might be worth a look.

I love the 39p Neville's bread from Tesco. You'd get a few meals of "on toast" out of a loaf of that. I love beans on toast as a comfort tea.

That’s when you dip into the savings. A rainy-day fund is there for exactly this sort of thing, so make use of it.

Just make sure to replace what you used when you can.

Good ideas here OP, I have a large bill for car repairs this month and will borrow lots of the wonderful thrifty tips!

Make lentil burgers.

Porridge is cheap for breakfast.

@ImmigrantAlice It's really rather naive to assume that everyone has savings. An increasing number of people are being stretched so far that they cannot afford to save at all.

That sounds good, how do you get a free trial?