food budget

[nearlyfinisheduni]

is it possible to feed 2 adults on £25 per week? What sort of things would be the most economical to buy while still being healthy?

Yes it should be - lots of pulses to bulk out meat dishes. Veg curry, soups, jacket potatoes and ratatouille, veg lasagne, chilli and rice. Joint of gammon roasted will make a couple of meals

I do 2 adults and 2 toddlers on about £35-£38 a week in Aldi. Usually make a cottage pie and a chicken pie and they both last 2 nights with lots of veg on the side to bulk the meal out. We have a sausages and mash night, a pasta bake night and a jacket potato night too, sometimes a random night with whatever was reduced or on offer. Lunches are boring soup or sandwiches and breakfast just cereal.

You need plenty of cheap, nutritious bulk. i.e. Porridge oats, bread, pasta, dried pulses/grains, potatoes, root and other vegetables. Porridge oats are a really healthy and far cheaper breakfast than cereals. Root veggies, grains and pulses make lovely chunky soups which are fine for lunch or supper with some bread. Pasta with a simple sauce ditto. Eggs are a cheap and versatile source of protein and thick, spanish-style omelettes made with potatoes are really filling. Bananas make good snacks and are sub 70p/kilo

Hi, that is tight but not impossible IMO. You would have to be strict though. It is hard to sustain long term, just because boredom sets in I think.

If I were doing that I would have porridge made with mostly water for breakfast to start the day off really cheaply, so I saved more cash for lunch and tea.

Become friends with dried pulses, for example I do a recipe for yellow split peas that takes a while to cook but is less than 25p per portion (Madhur Jaffrey's Chana Dal recipe, just google it), it uses half a pack of split peas and makes 4 portions. Lots of protein in lentils and other pulses.

The trouble comes with anything you eat outside the house - I find cheap rice/pasta/couscous dishes are simple but if you even go near sandwiches it gets pricey, just because they never seem to fill me up! I usually take a cold version of pasta or similar instead now.

And yes to potatoes, eggs, baked beans - all cheap and filling. Cheese can be cheap if you find the bargains and it does cheer up almost everything, a little grated on spuds or whatever goes a long way.

Picking up on Pew's very valid point about boredom after a few weeks of the same, pick up a few spices and herbs. Buy the refil packs as opposed to the glass jars. Build up a variety and then adjust your soups etc to get a different flavour.

Yes, I've fed the two of us this month on a £41 inc delivery shop from Tesco and a couple of top ups about £10 in all on reduced bread/milk.
But it's been a bit boring the last week and a half I have to admit though, if I see another tin of 6p mushy peas I may hurl.

It's obviously easier if you have some storecupboard things to fall back on, flour, eggs, herbs etc.

I've been making a cheapo homemade microwaveable sponge served with 6p Tesco value instant custard and having a bowl of HM veggie soup with that afterwards, it really fills you up and costs pennies really.

yes tight. I think that my shop is simple food but end up spending an absolute fortune....kids have multiple food allergies but even so

Our food bill is almost always under £40; we buy a whole chicken and joint it ourselves then use the carcass for stock and use the left over scraps of meat to make pies (homemade pastry, v cheap). I make my own bread rolls for packed lunches (make dough in breadmaker) and DS and I have a baking afternoon every weekend when we make the biscuits and/or cake for his lunches.

I gave DH a sausage maker for his birthday so we have just started making our own sausages (especially good as we can make salt free ones for baby DD); the meat for them is dirt cheap and they are better when bulked out with breadcrumbs anyway. We eat quite a lot of minced beef; made into keema, spag bol, burgers etc. and bulked out with pulses. Cheap joints of beef make the best casseroles and slow-cooked curries or tagines and can be bulked out with lots of veg.

try this site
www.goodtoknow.co.uk/money/galleries/28971/50-recipes-under--1-per-head

Should have added that DH and I could eat for about £25 a week I reckon as we would eat less meat and live off potatoes and pulses. I buy meat and cheese as I feel the DCs need to get their protein and that pushes up the bills.

Great link, thanks moomoo - have got several new meals for my budget meal plan now, thanks

Oh easily, from Waitrose even (approx prices):

3 big bottles of whole milk £3. 6 Eggs £1.30. Porridge £0.75. Giant bag potatoes £3.50. Frozen peas £1. Frozen spinach £1.30. Kippers £1.60. Onions £1. Chicken £5. 12 good sausages £5. Bread £1.35.

bangers and mash
jacket potato with kippers and spinach
roast dinner
spanish omelette

etc

Potatoes will last three weeks at least, peas two, porridge two, so the next week you can buy cheese or butter or hot cross buns or green beans or whatever.