�35 to spend on weekly shop for 3 - what meals would you cook?

[hulahoopsilove]

I only have this until next week, so how do I make good meals with 35!!! In my fridge/freezer/cupboards I already have:

salmon
bacon
garlic bread
2 x french bread pizzas

block of feta cheese

bag pasta
1 x tin toms
1 x tin baked beans
eggs x 6

curry sauce jar

Is it for breakfast, lunch and dinner and are all 3 eating at every meal?

Also which shops do you have access to?

There are some good recipes here http://agirlcalledjack.com/tag/recipes/

agirlcalledjack.com/tag/recipes/

Breakfast - basic porridge made with half water/milk served with frozen berries

Lunch - Home made veg soup, sandwiches, pasta salad

Dinner -
Jacket potato, beans, cold meat and salad
Chicken curry (bulked with veg/lentils) and rice
Roast chicken, mash, veg, stuffing
Salmon, warm potato salad and roasted veg
Pasta bake
Toast and scrambled eggs mixed with tomato and mushrooms
Pizza, home made oven chips and coleslaw

Corn beef hash
Bacon and onion pasta bake bulked out with plenty of pasta, peas and sweetcorn
Omelette, plenty of onion, potato cubes, peas and sweetcorn to bulk it out
Cheese on toast
Porridge can be made cheaply, add a bit of sugar and it's very tasty
veggie chilli, in fact lots of veggie recipes are cheap and healthy, I especially like ones with beans to make them filling

Veg curry and rice
Pasta bake with garlic bread
Omelettes with tomato & feta salad
Salmon with mash & veg
Beans on toast
Bacon & scrambled egg

I would stock up on veg including potatoes, to do jacket potatoes. You can make a heavy soup with lentils, beans etc too. Make sure you have bread for toast or sandwiches and cereal or porridge for breakfasts.

If it was me I'd use up what I had in before buying anything else, or at least some of it.

I'd do pasta with the salmon and tomatoes (do you have any herbs etc in cupboards at all) with feta crumbled on top and have with garlic bread. Leftovers for lunch tomorrow.

Bacon, beans and eggs for another meal. You might need to get a loaf for toast to bulk it out but that should only cost you 60p ish.

Tomorrow get veg and do a veg curry with the jar. If you get lentils you can also do a dhal cheaply and then use more of the lentils for a soup later in the week.

packet of rice 40p.

thanks everyone some great ideas - liking BellaVida's as I can spread out what I already have across several meals.

thanks again

shakshuka eggs - just looking at what you have.

I spend about 40 with nappies and wipes.

I shop at lidl and we don't eat much meat but a whole chicken and a big tub of mince is the meat I'm using this week.

Think we we are having
Chilli & rice -meaty
Cheese broccoli and cauliflower pasta bake
Mushroom pizzas reduced from Co op!
Spicy tomato pasta
Jacket potatoes- beans and cheese
Buritos- chilli
Roast chicken + veg
Chicken stir fry -left over chicken

Lunches are left overs dh takes pack up me and dd have sandwiches, wraps, fish fingers, homemade hummus.

Breakfast toast and oats + yoghurt and fruit

Reduced section is good and try avoid expensive supermarket's.

Hth

thanks again for these ideas Im thinking we need to cut out meat my DS isnt that much of a meat eater. so far Ive worked out we can have:

tonight - sausages (found in back of freezer), mash and peas
mince (make a sauce out of the tinned toms, onions Ive got as well) pasta some of the garlic bread
veg curry and have rest of garlic bread
Jacket Pot with beans
Pizza with wedges
bacon, scrambled egg, toast
salmon - got 2 big pieces with feta cheese or just baked and with left over veg
Have bought a chicken today so roast on Sunday with left overs for sandwiches, pasta and can make a pastry for a pie, might also boil bones for stock/soup

God cantg believe how thrifty Im being but food is soooo expensive :(

I don't know if you have access to a Morrisons but I believe there is a £5 off fruit and veg coupon in the Sun newspaper today with no minimum spend. You could blow out on 2 or 3! Check it's in before you buy though. I missed the last one - went to 4 shops and no papers left so heading out as soon as I get the ds's to school.

I'm not being snotty, but just curious, how much do you normally spend for the week? You seem quite panicked over £35, but that's actually a fair amount for a week for 3 people (well, depending on where you shop ).

The only reason I mention it is because perhaps you might want to consider taking a percentage (say 10-20% of your regular shop) and using it to purchase long life items to put aside in case you have a short week again. I generally do this, and it makes a huge difference. Admittedly, I have a big freezer, so I can stock up a bit - but I keep frozen veg, bread, and a few packs of meat in it (rotating them regularly as I use them), and then I pop a few containers of the UHT milk in the cupboard and some other things, so that if I have a short week for some reason, I generally have enough to get by for the week without having to worry too much.

Again, only asking to get an idea of where you're at on this, as I'm aware everyone's food budget is different, due to many variables.

Sorry, no Morrisons voucher in the Sun. I just went to the shop in the pouring rain to find out! I did get two packets of mission deli wraps for 50p each so almost worth the journey.

Cooking bacon chunks in a spicy tomato sauce with pasta.
Chicken soup with the carcass (plenty of lentils and veg - we' cook for a while then attack the carcass with forks to remove all the meat. It's amazing how much there is) plus a warm crusty loaf.
Cheesy beans on toast.

Well Im spending on average around 60 in supermarket then I bet another 20-30 mid week - ridiculous!

I cant stock pile in fridge or freezer as they are integrated and stupidly small. My DS eats alot of veg and we seem to go through a lot of milk, bread, cereal and crisps

What are you picking up midweek - is it just milk or snack type foods as well? Or one of those "go in for milk, wander out with a bag or two of stuff" kind of things? (sooo been there!!)

Def go for load of bread and pick other things up or decide fancy something yummy for tea and end up spending like ten pounds insteadof the price of a loaf

Then it is best to avoid that by either finding some way to stock up on bread so you don't run out, purchase it at nearby corner shop so you can just pop in and out, or only take enough cash in for the bread.

This morning I needed milk. Nothing else. I know what my will power is like in the supermarket (none at all lol), so I took only enough cash for milk, and walked to the corner shop and bought the milk there. 50p more than in the supermarket, but as I didn't buy anything else, probably saved myself a tenner.