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

Definitely see it as s challenge! Asda sell smart price sweets for cheap 20p a bag etc and there smart price Jaffa cakes are nice too and my dh likes bourbons. Get some things on eBay as 'buy it now' try baking with what ingredients you have - I've found lots of new recipes that way.

loads of flour and sugar?

you can make toffee.
you can make cakes - if you get eggs, you can make a sponge, as they don't need butter. (the texture is in the whisking) - swiss roll is done that way.

there are loads of recipes in with those ingredients here
(you'll have to trawl through for things that don't have other stuff in as well!)

now i've jsut seen you've got butter too.

so what about cakes with no eggs?

have a word with your postman too - round here, our postmen get inundated with fruit and veg from gardeners, and I bet they'd be happy to let you have a few early apples etc from their rounds!

do use those cherry tomatoes - you can cook them up with pasta.

Inexpensive panacakes - make batter with half milk and hald water adding flower to it as required (debatable - which one's better self raising or plain). I would not use more than 2 pints of liquid in total.

filling - grare apples on finest grater, warm it through to thicken, add sugar to taste - may be brown or white , a pinch of cinnamon if you wish.

serve with warm apple filling

If you have panacakes left over - you can slice them into 1/4 inch ribbons and use in soup instead of pasta - add to your soup whilst serving. They swell and are very soft :)

When making tomato sauce (or soup) worth heating up a knob of butter or some oil and then re-fry tomatoes in the pan for better flavour.

Definitely scavenging - we got 3 bags of apples from a neighbours tree that they didn't want and nearly a whole bag of blackberries. Plums are out too so you can easily make some really yummy puds.
Eggs, milk, flour, sugar, pasta, rice, potatoes and cheap tomatoes, oh and beans of different varieties.
It is possible, you seem to already have enough in for next week and then you just need to top up. I'd visit iceland and aldi to try and make it stretch.

I end up doing freezer and cupboard challenge every now and again and it's quite surprising how you manage.

Buy a big bag of rice from the indian supermarket [also lentils].its tonnes cheaper than the normal supermarket price.Buy Aldi pasta [tastes really good for the money] plus tinned tomatoes.I second the advice about buying vegs from the local market.I get a massive bag of fruit n veg for 10 pounds [for 6 people] .Borrow from the library or friends/family a vegetarian cookbook [Delia Smiths is really good].Also farm-shop eggs if possible as they will be healthier for the dc's.Also if you have a local chinese supermarket these are often good value for frozen products for future months.A big packet of 'value' cheese and some tinned tuna as well are useful to have.Also try and borrow some money from your immediate family just to tide you over.

Old games that aren't played any more might earn you some money in Game.

I've just made vegetable noodle soup for lunch (Aldi packs of super noodle type things) that's gone down a storm with the kids. Must have cost about 40p plus the handful of veg that was languishing in the fridge drawer.

Bulk out meat dishes with pulses or veg to make it stretch further.

Amazing advice from everyone :) would just say that although people have been suggesting milk and more's £10 free shopping offer, don't do it! Even though I applied the code at the checkout, they still took the money out of my account without applying the offer, so you could find yourself in a worse position. And they refuse to refund me :( only used it because I had no money, and ended up paying over the odds as they are so much more expensive than the supermarket.

Do you live near a teaching hospital? I used to work in one and they were always looking for people to participate in medical trials. You may get cash on the spot for allowing a med student to insert a naso-gastric tube or a research scientist do a skin allergy test.

Oats are great, very cost effective for breakfast.

They can also be added to mince, though not too much.

I'd cook up all the mince, with an onion, lentils, some grated carrots, kidney beans etc. and then add some chilli powder to one third for chilli, with rice, have another third as bolognese with past and the rest as a cottage pie with the potatoes.

Salmon steaks you can bulk out into a fish pie for everyone, veg, white sauce and a breadcrumb and cheese/potato topping.

Use some of the bacon in a carbonara. Feels nice and meaty but doesn't need lots.

Beans on toast, or baked potato is perfectly nutritious, lots of protein, carbs etc.

Have you got any Boots Advantage Points? They can used to buy food or essential toiletries.

ninedragons I'd rather go hungry than have a naso-gastric tube inserted

but I get where you're coming from

you need a bag of these www.tesco.com/groceries/Product/Details/?id=267751652 i add mine to everything from spag bol, to chilli.
as someone said a bag of carrotts, think asda do them for 76p. i can get a week of carrot soup plus, carrot sticks for the kids, grated carrot to go with meals like jacket spud and by the end of the week the couple of manky ones get made into carrot scones.
i would also recommend frozen sweetcorn as i have found this goes far.
if i were you i'd stock up on 16p tins of kidney beans & tinned toms. plum toms are normally few pence cheaper so go for them & whizz them up. you could make a good meal from a 9p bag of pasta, tin of toms, tin of kidney beans, handful of lenils & some frozen sweetcorn. add a few herbs and it will be tasty.
make hmemade soup. have things on toast like 15p tin of hoops, couple of tins will do the 4 of you and maybe add an egg.
asda cheap spagetti is 20p at the mo so a packet of that and some pesto would be yummy!
make your own wraps, these will do for lunch or tea. make a cheap chilli with again the lentils, kidney beans & tin tom & do enchilarders. i top mine with a carton of passata & cheese for the boys.
jacket spuds & beans are cheap & cheerful. don't buy baking pots loose though as they work out more.
i would 2nd iceland for eggs as they are the cheapest i have found, also the milk.
i'm sure i'll be back with more!

also pound shop do 3 tins of tuna for a £1 if you havve one near you, it will do for tuna & pasta or even fishcakes if you will be getting spuds.

wow! thank you so much everyone - amazing tips, recipes and offers! (Thank you so much shiney/mole and everyone else, very very kind but I wouldn't take your hard earned cash/fruit!)

ninedragons had to laugh at that but thank you anyway! There's money in donating eggs for IVF as well!

me and the kids have been in the park for most of the day. I stopped in at asda and have got lentils, 1 onion, bananas, value cereal and 15 FR eggs for £2.50. Going to make lentil curry for me and dh tonight, the kids are going to have salmon, runner beans and mashed potato. They've got yoghurts for after and I've found some raisins too, so am going to attempt some raisin biscuits & pancakes.

Still feeling chipper - thinking it may well be a novelty though!

Am going to give the bank a go now I think.

Thanks again everyone :)

thanks for that scabbysnake - really helpful - forgot about poundshop doing food - I'll check them out tomorrow.

that is very very kind - thank you shiney - if I see the startings of scurvy appearing on the kids I may pm you! I think I'm going to be ok though - bit like being on i'm a sleb get me outta here - except without the slebs...or ant n dec, or the jungle. just the rice and beans

I'm fairly certain that a bank is not allowed to take benefit money out of your account for bank charges, so if your income is mainly tax credits then they are not allowed to take this. It may be worth your while looking on money saving expert.

Now there's an idea... www.zetatalk.com/index/blog0809.htm

Do you have to pay for anything else before the end of the month or can you spend the whole £25 on food - if you can you'll be fine.

A bit of an adventure huh

Bodyofeyore - get yourself down to Aldi Blueberry bushes are £1.50 atm. It lasted last year so hopefully it's hardy.

Mackrel doesn't need bait???? how cool. I had visions of squidging worms on a hook.

justfive - no thankfully all our bills and travel for the month are paid - that money is purely for food. Definitely an adventure - I'm determined to have no more bank charges next month so that we can start living normally again.

timewasting lol! not heading out into the garden with our knives and forks just yet

It's a challenge to try to survive on very little for a while - but it's good knowing you have money coming in at the end of it.

If you get stuck though - Shiney is lovely and wouldn't have said it if she couldn't afford it/didn't mean it - you can always pay her back when you have the money. Just whatever you do, do not get a 'payday loan'

When we were kids we thought it was amazing when we were allowed to make our own ice lollies - we did have some lolli shapes, but loved making them in tupperware beakers even more as you could turn them upside down and you had 'big lollies' and then a drink

Have a look at this site Cheap Family Recipes. It is based on the premise of feeding a family of four for £100 per month.

I know you don't have £100, but as you already have a fair bit in and only have to make 16 days after tonight rather than a whole month, you might find some of the recipe ideas useful.

You have enough in for about 5 meals with one or two cheap fillers.

Think about buying a chicken - you can get a tesco 1.8 kg chicken for £4.12 which is a large portion of your budget but you could easily get about 4 or 5 meals out of it (a roast dinner, stir fry, chicken pasta, soup etc).

You then only need another 6 main meals - jacket potatoes and beans, beans on toast, fritata / omlettes are all dead cheap and won't get boring if you alternate with some of the more exciting meals.

Also second the Old Style Board on Money Saving Expert there is some fantastic ideas on meal planning.

Good luck

thanks for that lenak really helpful advice and that's a brilliant site you've linked. I'm going to have a good read of it tonight.

just5, funnily enough, there is a beaker of frozen blackcurrant juice in the freezer at the moment, my oldest loves her beaker sized ice lollies :)