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If you only had £8 to buy food/drink with, What essential food/drink would you buy?

115 replies

CatsSleepAnywhere · 11/04/2012 15:39

As the title says, What types of food would you buy?

OP posts:
Frontpaw · 11/04/2012 16:51

We could write a cookery book.

LesAnimaux · 11/04/2012 16:58

Personally I would cancel one of the DDs, then pay the bill over the phone when your DH gets paid.

stressedHEmum · 11/04/2012 17:13

make tuna pasta with sweetcorn and dress with some oil and vinegar
make sausage casserole

buy
potatoes
dried chick peas
onions
head garlic
more pasta

make jacket potatoes and beans
wedges and spaghetti with a pizza finger
cook and chop up the fish fingers, mix through the rest of the beans and top with mash, kind of like a shephersa pie.
Soak and cook chick peas, divide into 3.

Make pasta and chick peas using cheap pasta, half a head of garlic, a splash of oil and 1 portion of the chick peas. Fry the garlic in the oil, add chick peas and cook till hot. Stir through hot pasta

make chick pea and pasta soup - couple of onions, 1 portion of chick peas, rest of garlic. Cook in stock for about 20 minutes. Blend until thick but still with some chunks. Add a couple of handfuls of pasta and cook for another 15 minutes.

Use the rest of the chick peas with your tin of toms and some frozen veg to make curry.

porridge for breakfast, if you buy powdered milk, you can make it with water and just add a couple of spoons of milk powder.

Use your flour to make things like scones/pancakes/potato pancakes whatever that you can eat at lunchtime.

Will be very hard, though.

stressedHEmum · 11/04/2012 17:16

Just noticed that you have onions and a couple of beef burgers. You can chop the burgers into chunks and mix into fry rice and veg. Replace the onions in the list above with some cheap fruit for the kids.

liveinazoo · 11/04/2012 17:19

have Pm you cats

TheMonster · 11/04/2012 17:19

Just ring the bank and say you want to cancel the direct debits and they do it. You don't need to give a reason to them. You can cancel them if they are a couple of days away.

MrsTractor · 11/04/2012 17:19

Don't buy bread, buy value strong white flour and make soda bread, you don't even need yeast and it's really quick to make - no need to wait for it to rise. This recipe doesn't even need buttermilk/milk & lemon juice

Irish Soda Bread

Combine:

4 cups flour
1 tablespoon sugar
1-3/4 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1-1/2 cups water
2 teaspoons cider vinegar

Stir; it very quickly becomes dough. Form a round loaf. Place on greased baking sheet. Cut slits in top. Bake 40 minutes at 400° F. Best eaten the same day but you can sprinkle it with water and pop it back in a warm oven for 5 minutes to refresh it the next day if it's a bit dry.

Cheap vegetable soup, add porridge oats to bulk it out very cheaply. Oats can also be added to most curries/bolognaise/sauce based dishes.

Tomato pasta - saute an onion, add a tin or two of tomatoes, any dried herbs you may have (oregano or rosemary or basil etc) allow to reduce and then add a spoonful of cream cheese, serve with pasta. Tesco & Sainsburys value cream cheese is about 45p for 200g and tastes just as good as Philli for less than a quarter of the price.

Potato pie - boil potatoes and a finely diced onion together, drain, mash, add a little milk, butter, an egg and season. Top with breadcrumbs and a little cheese, pop in the oven for 20min. You can also add finely ham if you had any or stir some tinned tuna through. Really tasty, filling and cheap.

Spicy tuna pasta - good slosh of olive oil (assuming you already have this in your cupboard), slice and saute a red onion, add a tin of drained tuna, pinch of chilli flakes, pinch of dried mixed herbs, mix through to heat, serve with pasta (reserve a couple of spoonfuls of the pasta water to loosen the sauce).

Spanish omelette - finely chop any veg lurking in the bottom of the fridge (frozen veg would also do), saute, add a couple of eggs beaten with a dash of milk and season.

Buy whole milk - you can water it down if necessary to make it go further and it still tastes ok, skimmed milk on the other hand is vile if you do this.

Buy cheap stewing beef and make a casserole, your frozen casserole mix would work fine in this, as would the tinned carrots etc. Serve with the above soda recipe. You can bulk up the leftovers with some more stock and a few handfuls of porridge oats the next day.

If you have to manage on next to nothing then I would say that potatoes, oats, pasta, tinned tomatoes are your friend. Your meals may not be a nutritionally balanced as normal for the next 10 days but it's not the end of the world as a temporary fix.

HTH

MrsTractor · 11/04/2012 17:20
  • finely chopped ham

or you could mix through a tin of sweetcorn

TheMonster · 11/04/2012 17:21

Search on FaceBook for selling pages in your area - we're flogging lots at the moment.

ballstoit · 11/04/2012 17:21

How old are DCs?

If pre school, do you have a Sure Start centre you can walk to? Ours does 5 x play sessions a week in which children are given a snack of fruit and toast/crumpet/breadstick half way through. If you could get to some of those, you'll only have to do very small lunch amounts for DC those days. It also has a 'cafe' where parents can help themselves and DC to drinks...you could go to get a caffeine fix if you need one.

Do you have any church run groups near you? Most ask for a 'donation' for activities, so you could forget your purse this week and again get snacks and drinks. If DC are school age, do you know if you pay in arrears for school dinners? Could you get them to have dinners until pay day and pay for them next week, or if they don't do payment in arrears, you could forget the DCs lunchboxes on last day before pay day, and say you have an appointment so can't pick them up. Most schools will then give DC a school dinner which you pay for the next day.

TheMonster · 11/04/2012 17:21

We've made about £20 in the last two days - not big bucks, but enough to make a difference!

TheMonster · 11/04/2012 17:22

That's good, ballstoit. You have to pay £1 per child in my local centre!

birdsofshoreandsea · 11/04/2012 17:24

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

TitsalinaBumSquash · 11/04/2012 17:30

If you're in West Sussex I would gladly give you a few bits, my cupboards are stocked! Either that or get a Tesco delivery to you, I've been there shopping on £10 a week for 4 of us, it's not fun. PM me if I can help. Smile

Mama1980 · 11/04/2012 17:43

Where abouts are you? I would be happy to help if local. I lived on rice, porridge and eggs for protein once when I could barely make rent.

Slaymill · 11/04/2012 17:52

You should contact your Water company ours Severn has a Charity fund to help pay bills. They cover other biils as well as water. Does your local council have a hardship fund. There is a charity called turn2us that has details of lots of charities.

grow

Have you considered landshare to grow your own ?

I also make raspberry buns alot. 4oz self raising flour, 2 oz marg , 2oz butter, 1 egg. Mix roll into rounds place on baking tray small dollop of jam in middle cook to lighlty golden about 160.

tuna jackets

or adapt these with tuna

Tuna, Pasta, Sweetcorn,Campbells Condensed Mushroom Soup and a bit of grated cheese.

Pitta Bread fish fingers with lettuce.

frittata also great cold.

sausages with easy ratatouille tin of tomatoes, left over onion red or white and red pepper bung in a pan and cook off.

CatsSleepAnywhere · 11/04/2012 18:06

Wow! Thanks for all the replies, will try and read through in a bit. x

OP posts:
CatsSleepAnywhere · 11/04/2012 18:07

Tonight we had potato waffles, beans and cheese.

OP posts:
birdsofshoreandsea · 11/04/2012 18:12

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Hulababy · 11/04/2012 18:18

Cheap tinned tomatoes for the pasta. Maybe some veg to go in with it - simple mixed veg or corn.

Make own bread? Or a simple flat bread so no need for yeast. More tinned tomatoes and make pizza.

Casserole - potatoes/lentils to thicken it up and make it go further. Sausages maybe to go in it.

TheMonster · 11/04/2012 18:24

Please do say vaguely where you are Smile Don't be shy - lots of us have had help from wonderful MNers in the past, me included!

TheMonster · 11/04/2012 18:24

Oh, porridge oats thrown into casseroles and the suchlike help to thicken and fill it up too!

CatsSleepAnywhere · 11/04/2012 19:58

Hi all, I raided DD's piggy bank, she had £13.00 Shock. I didn't think of looking there earlier. I do feel a bit bad for taking it but will hopefully give her it back one day.
Anyway, I went shopping just now and bought:
cat food £3.00
washing up liquid 46p
blue top milk 89p (for DD)
green top milk £1.25
fish fingers £1.00
chicken fingers £1.00
eggs £1.68
potatoes £1.25

total: £10.46

so I have about £9.00 (plus a bit of loose change).

DH seems to think we might be getting child tax credit into the bank soon so I will have to keep an eye on the account to see if it does appear. As you can tell, I'm pretty unorganised. Blush

OP posts:
TheEpilator · 11/04/2012 20:18

seriously - you spent £3 on the cat and only £5 between the rest of you?!

I'm not the woman who put that cat in a wheelie bin or anything, but honestly if your family can survive on a £1 pack of fish fingers, why can't the cat?!

LesAnimaux · 11/04/2012 20:22

Yes, you need to be more organised! Have a look when your last tax credits went in, and the next lot should go in 28 days later.

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