Cheap meals for 5 days

[BrightSunshineyDay]

Can anyone help please?
I have £30 to buy food for me 3 children to last until wednesday evening. I have an Aldi nearby. I know it can be done but I am really lacking in inspiration. So if anyone has any ideas I would be most grateful :)
Oh, I have a handful of potatoes, rice, 2 tins of beans, 3 sausages and a frozen bag of tuna steaks. I have a bread machine and a slow cooker.
Thankyou :)

Should say me and my 3 children

Should say me and my 3 children

Cut the sausage up and mix in with beans and cheese and serve it on toast or with mash.

Tuna, rice and frozen veg?

Pasta cooked with onions,bacon,mushrooms,cream and garlic.

Spanish omelette.

Buy some cheapy tins of rice pudding, angel delight and fruit for puddings.

Make a "hash" with the potatoes, chopped up sausage and beans. Buy some eggs and add one on top to make the sausages go further, you could bulk it with a medium onion and 4 mushrooms?

www.simplyscratch.com/2013/01/fried-eggs-over-breakfast-hash.html

I've had it in a cafe in Brighton, mixed with beans and it's delicious.

Sausage and bean casserole with mash (no spend)

Egg Fried Rice (3 eggs, handful frozen peas, tin sweetcorn, soy sauce if you have it)

Tuna steaks with green beans and sauté potatoes

Make a huge dahl to eat with your rice (twice)

Make a big pot of lentil and veg soup for supper twice

Egg oven chips and peas (food of the gods)

Porridge for breakfasts (can also make some flapjack for treats)

Homemade bread as toast (with egg or beans or leftover soup) or sandwiches for lunches

I'd buy some cheap meat and make a big casserole which would last for a couple of days.

I'd buy some veg and make a soup which would last for a couple of days, and which you can eat with some nice home made bread.

You can make a sausage pilaf thing with the rice and sausages - add one onion and a tin of sweetcorn.

Beans on toast

Tuna steak and mash

Sorted.

Some great ideas so thankyou :)
Never made dahl so will have a google as see it mentioned on here a lot.
Ashamed to say I have used my breadmaker only twice.What works out better value - ready made bread mix or buying the ingredients seperately? I would like toget into the habit of making my own but for the moment just want to concentrate on making money stretch for next 5 days.

Just noticed this in mn while I was looking for recipes. Sounds nice.

I do this in the oven. Sausages and sliced onion first (or baby onions?) for 15 mins, the add tinned toms and beans, worcester sauce, salt pepper etc. Bake for another 10 mins. Top with diced or sliced par boiled spuds, top with a little cheese.

Bake for another 20 mins until golden brown.

YUM

I second Spanish omelette - get loads of veg in there to bulk out the eggs. It's a meal in itself, really, or serve with potatoes.

Add onions, apple and sultanas to the beans with some curry powder and serve with rice. It's delicious, I promise!

Pour batter over the sausages for toad in the hole.

Lentil soup is your friend.

Check Aldi's special deals on their webpage: they have cabbages at 39p each (bubble and squeak) and mince for £1.39 (bolognaise)

I would buy a big bag of red lentils, a big bag of value pasta (29p from Tesco for 500g), milk, flour, eggs, and lots of cheap veg. Maybe cheese if the budget stretched to it.

Well, to buy ingredients separately you'll need bread flour, yeast, butter and salt. Bread mix for one wholemeal loaf at Tesco costs 75p. You won't get the basic ingredients cheaper than that, but once you've got them, they'll make more bread for you than just that one loaf, iyswim. In the short term maybe get the mix but stock up your cupboard when you can afford it to save money in the long term.

Thankyou for more ideas :)
I have never made spanish omelette either but it sounds good.
Actually I have realised I basically do tge same 4/5 meals all the time so this seems a perfect time to try out new meals.

Oh, and you need tinned tomatoes or passata for soup and pasta sauce! 35p from Tesco.

Buy 750grams of mince, that will do two meals, spag bol and a cottage pie, bulk out the mince with carrots/onions. Sausages you could make a casserole/stew. Chop them up with onions, carrot, pepper, thicken it with a bit of gravy. A cheap meal here is pasta cheese, just cook pasta, add grated cheese, butter, maybe a dollop of cheese spread or a laughing cow triangle then cook it in the oven. Egg and chips?? This isn't healthy but it's ok for a one off, get the frankfurters in a tin and make hotdogs and oven chips.

For this particular stretch, if it was me, I'd be going to the supermarket at the end of the evening and hitting the reduced bread section, rather than making my own. A bread maker can be quite hit or miss.

Very often you can get a few baguettes for 20p each, and sliced bread for 1/2 price to throw in the freezer.

Beans on Wholemeal toast is a pretty decent meal as you have the complete mix of high & low biological value proteins there.

When I am especially frugal - a tin of 15p value tomatoes on toast is a super cheap lunch or supper.

Buy a whole chicken and do three meals
-Roast

• chicken fried rice (or risotto or curry)
• chicken soup

Make a veg and bacon soup. Fry some cheap cooking bacon, onions & garlic. Add water and a stock cube and whatever veg and seasoning you've got. Cook till soft, then liquidise.
Pasta with tomato & bacon sauce.
Value sardines or beans on toast for lunches

Re breadmaking - I buy ordinary plain flour (45p) and sachets of yeast (29p for two) from Lidl. I can get about four large loaves out of this.
The trick seems to be the order you put ingredients into the breadmaker, so, salt, half the flour, yeast, rest of the flour, sugar, oil, water. And make sure you measure the ingredients properly. I also make fruit bread by adding some sultanas and cinnamon (nice for breakfast).

I'm also a fan of sausage casserole

Making your own bread is cheaper per loaf, but you have to lay out for the ingredients first. The only downside is that it gets eaten quicker, and you eat more of it because it's so yummy.

I agree with wally. Ask in your local supermarket what time they reduce their food right down. Our tesco reduces bread to 10p - 20p a loaf about 6.30pm. Also all their fruit and veg down to pennies and meat, fish and other fresh foods by 80 - 90%. I go weekly, stock up and freeze. It can be a bit hit or a miss, sometimes very little, sometimes loads of stuff but always worth the effort.

I did Aldi savoy cabbage and bacon last night - Cabbage 39p, few rashers of chopped up bacon, stir fry onions and garlic - yum.

Their Butchers sausages are £1.39 for 8 - great quality & value to serve with the cabbage if you need x

I do a shepherds pie - mince topped with carrot and swede mash. Serve with a small piece of broccoli. Usually a large packet of mince will make enough for two nights.