If you had £20 to feed a family of four, for a week (10 meals), what would you make?

[LaChatte]

Two adults, one pre-teen with a moderate appetite and one 5yo who doesn't eat much.

How would you go about it? Everything else has been paid for, so it really is just to buy food with, and I'm trying to meal plan but lacking cheap ideas!

No meat or fish intake is required, as 4 days a week we all have a full lunchtime meal at work/school (already paid for). We have store cupboard basics (seasoning etc.).

IA clearly BU for having posted this in AIBU instead of chat.

Definitely some pasta/rice or potatoes.
Potatoes can be many meals

Cheese & potato pie
Porridge
Anything with lentils
Scrambled egg on toast

porridge made with water. (75p for a kilo) and sugar or sultanas.

spagetti (20p per pack in aldi) with chopped tomatoes (31p per tin aldi) carrots (less than 50p per kilo) and onions (not sure of price of white) with broccoli (39p aldi supersix) (garlic for flavouring)

2 tins chopped toms, a pepper (50p ish) and tin of kidney beans (23p) with rice to make chilli.

Dhal is good if you have the spices - easy to make, filling and can go on rice, potato, even toast. Could be nice with a hard boiled egg. Sometimes I dilute it to make soup.

bag pasta is 49p in lidl pasta bake sauce tomatoes an bacon flavour is lovely. Buy big bag of patotes for week do spuds or homemade chips alternating each evening the mince and meatballs cheap in lidl and box fish fingers 15 for 1.25 do couple meals sausages bacon all cheap to do along with spuds and tasty

Bean chilli with rice, if your kids will eat spicy food:
3 x tins of beans (kidney, canneloni, whatever)
2 x tinned toms
Onion/garlic
Spices: smoked paprika, chilli, cinnamon, coriander

Leek and potato soup

Macaroni cheese

Get a load of chickpeas, you can have them as homous, falafel or stirred into pasta/rice.
Stock cubes make rice/pasta more appealing for not much money.
Use flour to make chappati/roti/pitta bread.
Cauliflower cheese is fairly cheap to make, especially if you skimp on the cheese in the sauce and just grate some on top.

Economy sausages. take off skin and roll each into 4 balls. fry with onion. add 2 tins economy toms. herbs. maybe a stock cube. slowly simmer and serve with spaghetti.

Refried beans are good too. I love pulses! Smoked paprika makes them amazing but you could do them without. Value kidney beans would be lovely, and you can have them with a bit of cheese on top, so you don't have to use too much cheese. Again good with rice or on a baked potato.

if it's a short-term thing I wouldn't stress about nutrition - plenty of basics pizza, basics chips, basics baked beans, cheap sausages, lots of stuff on toast. I can't do homemade chips for cheaper than frozen.

Toast - value loaves
Beans - value brand
Pasta & cheese
Bag frozen value veg & rice
Chicken legs 2 quid make batch casserole serve with rice
Toasties & soup

And repeat

Check what you already have in cupboards first

I don't know how this would work out price wise but something like:

1. Pasta bake with a ton of frozen veg in.
2. Jacket potatoes with salad.
3. Egg fried rice.
4. Beans on toast.
5. Pasta and pesto & garlic bread.
6. Soup and crusty bread.
7. Mushrooms on toast.
8. More pasta bake!
9. More jacket potatoes!

10. Invite self round to someone else's house!

Plus a load of cheap basic chocolate, the sort they have at Lidl for 17p.

There are many great meals you can make.

I have managed to get my weekly shopping bill down to £35, shopping at Morrissons, but this includes formula milk, nappies and toiletries.

I know you say you do not need meat/fish intake, but every meal I produce has one or the other. So here goes-

1. Homemade beefburgers with potato salad and corncobs. (Costs as little as £3 all in for 4)

1. Garlic chicken and mushroom risotto with sweet peppers. (Again can be done for as little as £3, feeds 4)

1. Homemade meatballs in tomato sauce with spaghetti. (Depending on the portion sizes, this can actually cost as little as £2 for 4 people)

1. Sweet chilli chicken and rice. (Usually costs about £4 for 4)

1. Pork/turkey meatloaf with jacket potato, beans, cheese and salad. Alternatively with mashed potato, mixed vegetables and gravy. (another at £3)

1. Couscous stuffed marrow. (I often use this as a side, but we have had it as it is several times. Just £2)

1. Bacon and mushroom pasta bake. (Cheap as chips if you use cooking bacon and chuck in a tin of chopped tomatoes)

That is the dinners, so I would say (unadventurous, but healthy) fruit in porridge for breakfast, cereal and yoghurt etc.

I have countless meals in my head, but not entirely sure what meals you are after, ie breakfast, dinners?

Bacon - cut 2 rashers into little squares fry up with garlic mix into pasta add cheese (makes packet of bacon go further)

I'd start with a giant pot of homemade lentil soup - just onions, carrots, leek & stock added. Would only cost a few £'s & last all week.

Dinners: baked potatoes, pasta & sauce, beans/eggs on toast, lentil or chick pea curries with rice.

Fruit/yoghurt for dessert - tinned stuff is fine.

To do it successfully you'll need to buy in bulk and eat a lot of the same thing. OH & I were on the breadline last year, I am truly sick of potatoes and curry. Best of luck with it!

Omlettes, filled jacket potatoes, pasta & chunky soups.

12.5kg of potatoes for £2 in Morrisons this week so would have multiple uses for them. Eggs are £1,60 for 20 in Iceland and bread is 2 for £1 in Morrisons. If I'd got these for less than a fiver I could add to them to feed 4 people pretty easily.

Pasta and sauce (tinned Toms, onion, herbs) x2
Pasta bake, as above, with breadcrumbs on top for crunch
Make lots of both to leave leftovers for your other 3 lunches.

Baked potatoes, beans, cheese
Tuna fishcakes (mashed potato, tin tuna. Breadcrumb coating) with veg (carrots, cauliflower)

Veg curry (carrot, cauli, chickpeas) with rice
Beans on toast
Veg fajitas (wraps, spice, chickpeas, onion, carrot, pepper)

All filling, cheap, and using lots of the same ingredients so you can bulk buy cheaply.

Jacket potatoes, omelette, pasta with sauce and garlic bread, toast for breakfast, toasties, beans on toast, rice with veggie curry, macaroni cheese, soup and cheese on toast.

I would look at offers in the frozen aisle such as pizzas, rice, veg, pies to do with mash, sausages etc, get a huge bag of potatoes and you can do mash, jackets etc.

Do you have any long lingering items in your cupboards or freezer we could help you use up (i.e. any stuff like Lentils, tinned tuna, couscous, barley, pudding rice, frozen peas, dried Iranian limes bought for one recipe you have no idea what to do with or any frozen meat)?

Dinners are easy, breakfasts are demotivating. Try doing bacon and scrambled eggs or jam on toast for the kids. Porridge quickly gets depressing.

I've just taken stock of what I've already got. I actually have to make do for three weeks (30 meals), we have 98€ to last us that long, which works out as roughly £20/week (we're in France, that doesn't change much though)!

cupboard:
2 jars of pesto (we get 2 meals/jar)
1 kg of dried pasta
1 kg rice
1 jar of dried lentils (mixture)
1 packet of lasagna sheets
1 tin of tomatoes
dried chickpeas
dried beans
Weetabix
oats
5l milk
disgusting instant mashed potato

fridge:
10 eggs
cheese (cheddar & parmesan)
butter
red pepper
carrots
cauliflower
lardons
crème fraîche
lemons
fruit yoghurt

freezer:
broccoli
french beans
flat beans
onions
peas
5 baguettes
2 packets of fish fingers

Meals planned so far with what we've already got:

1. Carbonara pasta (uses up: 1/3 of pasta, 1/2 lardons, all crème fraîche, 1 egg, 1/4 parmesan)
2. Cauliflower cheese and rice (uses up: the cauliflower, 1/3 cheddar, 1/2 l of milk, 1/5 packet of rice)
3. Houmous with carrots and peppers (uses up: the chickpeas, the carrots & the peppers)
4. Fish fingers, peas and disgusting mashed potato (uses up: 1 packet of fish fingers, the peas, some of the disgusting, never-ending, instant mashed potato)