omg I have £25 to last til payday - help!

[fraggletits]

due to various large bills last month and this - plus subsequent bank charges from being overdrawn - we are now left with £25 to last til 27th August

so before I commit financial suicide and go for a payday loan I was just wondering if anyone had any serious money crunching inspiration they would be willing to share?

I have lots of pasta in the cupboard, some mince, some pork chops and salmon in the freezer - that should last all next week. I also have some frozen veg. But that's about it - and obviously we're not making any plans for the weekends!

thanks very much

i would get the kids to pick blackberries though.

blimey ok some good tips there colditz thanks - was actually thinking of just going without - maybe eggs for breakfast, no lunch and beans on toast for dinner and stretching the meat out for the kids

These are days I will look back on and laugh heartily about......I hope.

Sainsbury's economy sausages are better than expected.

Buy a bag of lentils and put them in everything to bulk it out.

Could you put up a local ad offering evening babysitting? Could net you £20-£25 for an evening, and is fairly instant?

thanks virgil - any ideas really appreciated.

colditz - great ideas, i would not have considered scavanging round the railways til you came up with it :D - I'll leave the kids at home and don my balaclava I think!

Fraggle, last month when I was skint, I was offered (via a colleague) £50 for taking part in some market research. It was cash in hand and tool an hour and a half. Could be worth having a google for something in your area?

If you're in Leeds, I could pass on details for you.

do you have flour, sugar, rice, spices, salt, herbs, butter, bread?

I agree with the lentils suggestion. You can make an onion, a potato, a few carrots and some lentils go a long way if you make them into soup. It is healthy and nutritious. You might be a bit sick of it by the end of the month but needs must.

You can also buy bread at the end of the day when it is cheaper.

thanks body - i'm down on the south coast - but will google it.

virgil - i have plain and self raising flour, caster, normal and brown sugar, curry and chilli powder, 5 spice chinese powder, chicken, fish and beef stock, salt, pepper, dried dill and tarragon, half a pack of butter left and half a white loaf left. oh and half a bottle of soy.

As for entertaining the dcs, I have done some of my best "parenting" when the budget has been tight.

Save all your recycling and make junk models.

Ask neighbours for discarded newspapers and make them into hats, skirts, aeroplanes, etc.

Make dens out of blankets and the sofas/sofa cushions.

Set up a toy they haven't played with for a while once they are in bed at night so it looks exciting when they come down in the morning.

Cornflour (if you have some) and water makes fantastic gloop that will keep them entertained for hours.

Saltdough and homemade playdough also keeps them busy for ages.

Pray for sunshine so you can spend lazy summer days in the park.

some brown rice (1/4 pack) and about the same of white

thanks carrots, great ideas

Budget baked beans are usually really cheap and taste tolerable.

They would cover the protein needs of the dcs without much cost and are also full of fibre.

Check your local second hand shops as my sister got 50p a kilo for old clothes and got £26 today, cant recall what it was called but worth looking into your local shops?

Iceland do 12 eggs for £1 and also 4 pint milk for £1 if your not fussy with the eggs.

See if you can get the bank charges reversed. I've done this a few times and as long as you don't do it on a regular basis, they are able to do it. Be sure and say that you need to feed young children....

ilove - yes, I might give the bank a try tomorrow - there's a couple of charges there that have come from me using my debit card in good faith knowing I had funds, and then that payment hasn't come out instantly like most do, but 3 days later when there were not enough funds to cover the payment - my dd's birthday present for one.

Thanks thinbride, my local is asda, but I do have an iceland near me as well which is good.

Ok suddenly have visitors arriving in the morning and so can't do fully but some tips -

15 value eggs for £1.50 - use four of these with your flour and butter and a bit of milk to make 24 cupcakes as treats for the children.

Buy a pack of pudding rice 97p from tesco - this will make 5 rice puddings which are very filling. You will need a pint of milk and 25 grams of sugar for each rice pudding. 12 pints of milk for £3 tesco so you'll have seven pints left

pasta - you have some pasta but in any event tesco value pasta is 19p for 500g. 250g will make a pasta bake which feeds four. you could buy five bags which in theory could do ten meals (although you would be sick of pasta bake!) value tomatoes are 33p. you can add to this as you see fit with chicken, tuna, some of your mince, cheese, veg.

1kg of rice is 51p. 5kg potatoes is £1.89

tesco value salad cheese is 50p. use this with 4 eggs and some of the milk and maybe some of your herbs to make 2 quiches - you can make a rice crust using your rice.

will come back with full meal plan

sorry meant that each quiche would need four eggs and about 200 ml of milk.

American pancakes my dc love them and are really simple to make.

aggh - i am two glasses of wine down! - cupcakes would also need your sugar!

now MUST tidy up before visitors arrive!!!

Wrong time of year but porridge oats go a long way for breakfast

Don't forget eggs - we've been in that situation and found that if we gave the DDs the good food then we had lots of scrambled/boiled eggs on toast, omelettes. They are cheap and really quite filling.

Make some soup and freeze it in batches - fill it with lentils so it's more broth-y then at least you have some standby meals.

With our mince I would make a batch of chilli and bulk it up with some of your veg or some baked beans (or leave out the spices and use your tinned toms to make bolognese). You could bulk it so much to do a couple of complete family meals - agian freeze in batches.

Hope you do ok :)

I can't really add anything to all the great practical advice you've been given, but I would recommend geocaching as a free family activity that your DCs will enjoy. It is best if you have a GPS device, a sat nav or smart phone would do (if you have a smart phone, there is a free app), but is possible without.

Geocaching is a fun treasure hunting game that will get you all out of the house for a bit. Go to www.geocaching.com to get started.

There is info here on how to geocache without GPS. If you aren't using a GPS, there are also clues on the geocaching website that can help you find a cache.

Wow, I sound a lot like an advert for geocaching! It's just one of my family's favourite free activities.