Meals I can make at home with limited food?

[OneBrightAzureBiscuit]

Hiya,

so I am skint til the 6th & don’t have a single penny to my name I’m overdrawn by £30 and am making do with stuff that’s in. There’s very random bits like cheese, fish fingers, tinned food etc does anyone have any ideas for a broke meal at home? Can’t make cheese on toast as no loaf of bread :((
thank you xxxx

Any Foodcycle projects near you? They cook a 3 course veggie meal, no need to register and it's free. If they have surplus food they will give away. One near me often gives out bread and fruit after the meal depending on what's been donated.

Have a Google and see if there's a community larder / fridge near you. Ours picks up food that's just on its best before date to stop it going to waste and it's free for anyone who wants to take it - no need to sign up or anything. And there's always loads of bread.

Have you tried food banks, that's what their there for.

Please list exactly what you've got

Otherwise there's too many variables

It is always worth having a few staples to fall back for when you are broke.

A bag of rice and/or pasta. Cheap, nutritious and filling.
Couple of onions
Frozen peas and frozen mixed veg
Tins of tomatoes
Tins of tuna
Baked beans

Fresh:
cheese and butter
eggs
seasonal (i.e. cheap) vegetables
Potatoes

That should be enough to produce a variety of filling meals based on pasta and rice

Do you have any loyalty points for any of the supermarkets that you could spend on basics (eg bread, eggs, beans, potatoes)?

If not, can you get a referral to the food bank?

Is it just you or do you have a partner and DC to feed? Do you have any relatives who can help you out?

If this is not a one off, have you done what you can to get extra help or review your budget?

If you've got any frozen veg or veg likely to go off, you could make a veg stew or curry with rice? Filling x

Are there any food shares near you. Near me every Tuesday at a community centre there is a food share where they give out free food which is leftovers from local supermarkets and anyone can take some. It's not like a food bank where you need a referral. I have a class there at the same time and sometimes take bread because other wise it would literally go in a bin.

Olio and Too Good to Go websites. Hopefully something in your local area.

Pasta - cook , then grate cheese on top, and put in microwave to melt- one instant cheese, delicious meal (you can add ham, pepper etc if you wish)

sausages - make into toad on the hole - filling and delicious

I would give Too Good to Go a miss. You might get lucky but it's more likely that you'll end up with things that need other ingredients to be made into a meal, or need eating that day or the day after and can't be frozen, eg salads.

The chances of getting something that makes you better off than spending the same few quid on cheap basics like bread, eggs and beans seem low in my experience.

Can't remember where I found this but it's really nice. And you can add lots of other veg to it - whatever is to hand really. Just chop and add when you're frying the onion - so courgette, spinach, pepper etc.

Lovely hot or cold.

Lentil and Cheese Wedges
Ingredients
Serves 6

• 225g (8oz) red lentils
• 450ml (3/4pt) water
• 1 large onion
• 25g (1oz) butter or margarine
• 100g (4oz) cheddar cheese – grated
• 5ml (1tsp) mixed herbs
• 1 free-range egg
• 25g (1oz) wholemeal breadcrumbs
• salt and pepper to taste

How To Make

• Cook the lentils in the measured water until soft and all the liquid has been absorbed.
• Chop the onion.
• Melt the butter in a saucepan and fry the onion until transparent.
• Combine all the ingredients together and press into an oiled sandwich tin.
• Bake in the oven at 190°C (375°F/Mark 5) for 30 minutes.
• Serve hot or cold, in wedges.

I am also on a limited budget but my food is largely supplemented by Olio. This is a food waste prevention organisation and the food is at sell by date or best before. You can download the app, sign up free, and you're good to go. It may not suit everyone's ideal, but it's good food,

The sell by date is simply a stock management system, and if you freeze it the sell by date is irrelevant. I've been using it for 2 years now and my large freezer is always full of free food.

There's also bread, fruit, ready meals, etc and on two rare occasions a whole chicken and a lambs leg to roast. It's a lucky dip every day but the basics are always there, all you have to do is collect it. You don't have to qualify in any way, anybody can do it.

That means you can collect food from a nearby volunteer tonight there are several thousand volunteers within three miles from me who get the food, I request the items that I want and fetch it.

Pasta for like 40p and tinned tuna is quite cheap tuna pasta bake was my go to meal when broke with a toddler to feed.
Also fish fingers + rice/pasta + frozen peas is quite a cheap full meal
If you go to Morrisons at about 6-7pm they usually reduce things so you can get vegetables for 5p and bread and cakes etc

Supercook.com

put your food in there and gives you ideas

Egg fried rice with peas and onions
Soup with any veg you have
Chick pea curry
Bean burgers
Veggie chilli with beans

Another suggestion for Olio.

If you have a family member or friend that you can ask to borrow £10 that would go a long way for bread/milk/porridge etc.

I agree with everyone that you should use a food bank if you can and register for the Olio app.

As well as supermarket points if you have any Boots points they usually sell a bit of food although it would be an expensive way to buy food as they are packaged lunch items and it might not be realistic for you to get there but just on the off chance.

Do you have anything that you can sell on ebay or facebook - price it to sell and cash on collection. Even something that would fetch £5 or £10 would help you out to get a few basic food items.

An overdraft is an expensive way to borrow but if your credit is OK you could ask your bank for a small overdraft and just use the minimum you need for a few days. A 0% on purchases offer on a credit card is cheaper but might take too long to arrive to be useful to you.

What do you have? I would try and use everything at home first before buying anything else

@OneBrightAzureBiscuit

We're all here to help, but we do need to know what you have

I'm used to making meals out of almost nothing so might have some ideas if you share what you have in.
Firstly Do you have anyone at all you could borrow £10 for fresh milk, Bread and potatoes?
Any supermarket loyalty points?

Couple of extra ideas to get supplies - look on too good to go, I've seen people posting half a loaf of bread or pack of cheese as about to go on holiday for instance, also do you have a community pantry, ours lets you take 5 things without any qualification, coupon or proof.

Otherwise lift what you have as I'm pretty good at making things out of random things

Make an inventory of exactly what you have in the house and put the list into chat gpt and tell it how many meals you want to make. It will give you a load of ideas.

Have you checked any loyalty cards to see if you have any points you can use?

I agree - we need a list of ingredients to make sensible suggestions. I would recommend toad in the hole though if you have a few cupboard essentials. Get the cheapest sausages you can and then it's just flour, eggs and milk for the batter. Also, if you have any potatoes, cook them in their jackets at the same time and you can microwave and eat with a bit of butter/grated cheese later and save on oven time.

OP, get a voucher for a local food bank. They will be able to help you.