Aiming to feed family of 6 breakfast and dinners for £70

[IncessantNameChanger]

Ok so I'm really strapped for cash. I'm going to see if I can manage this! I'm not saying it's ideal but it think it's possible.

Disclaimer - its just food. Drinks are tea, squash, milk and coffee

I'm trying to see if I can feed 3 adults and 3 kids for breakfast and dinner for the week ( only me has lunch at home)

Monday
Toast half thick toasty 79p loaf from lidl

Butter 1.99 sains

Lunch two slices of bread.

Butter
Roast ham 89p tesco 125g
Mayo 90p lidl
Cherry Tom's 69p 250g

Dinner

1.25kg chicken thighs £5.99 per kg in Costco £7.49
Rice 48p kg Tesco
Two jars lidl Tikkia 79p

Fruit 6 apples gala tesco 90p

Total 15.71

Would normally have narn bread with curry but just using what I have in

Tuesday
Rest of loaf, ham, butter, toms, mayo from yesterday for lunch and breakfast so additional cost plus more bread 79p

Dinner
2 packs straight to wok noodles lidl 85p each
Pork shoulder steaks 6 pack thinly sliced 4.79 lidl

Bag mixed veg 72p

Apples 90p

Total cost £8.90

To add, if you buy a bag of frozen spinach, you can add some to the curry too.

Or make a chicken curry, a lentil dhal or chick pea curry and a potato/spinach curry and serve for 2 dinners (you can probably set yourself up with a good range of spices from the world foods aisle and frozen garlic and ginger all from Tesco for £5-10 that will work out much cheaper over time than jar sauces.

OP, I know needs must, but make sure you're getting enough nutrition yourself - everyone else in the family will be offered 2-3 portions of fruit or veg a day, and 1-2 portion containing diary.

Longterm if you buy tins of sauce, might be worth considering stir frying an onion, adding a couple of tins of Tescos basic tomatoes and a tin or two of chickpeas or kidney beans - if you've got or invest in chilli or curry power you can flavour a sauce up with that and add to rice - cheaper than jars and chicken.

I have tonnes of spices, some flour and red lentils. Ds19 does a mean Dahl, I need to get him to teach me his technique.

I have added frozen spinage to my list. Good thinking. I have quartered some new potatoes on the turn for a side chickpea and lental currey for tonight. I always use tinned tomatoes for pasta with passata and tom purre and herbs, onions and garlic but the only curry's I can successfully make from scratch involve coconut milk. I have had a delve in the cupboards too. Ds has suggested frozen fruit. I think I need frozen peppers.

I can do a really cheap cooking bacon and homemade cheese sauce pasta which I normally add brocoli Too. Luckily they all like brocoli.

Aldi frozen sausages are £1.60 for 16, they are big and tasty, and well recommended

A good, nutritious cheap vegan dish is fried onions, with other bits of veg, and cumin, and other spices stirred into some boiled rice and lentils, and served with hummus. Much better if you can make your own hummus, and get a bag of dried chickpeas, Chana dal, to make the hummus.

Chorizo chicken pasta. Use thinly sliced onions, frozen peppers, a handful of frozen chorizo ( a packet lasts ages and can be used to pump up omelettes/ chillis/ stews etc), and a bit of chicken ( doesn't need to be loads). Fry together then stir cooked pasta in to coat it. So good!

If money is tight dal is a great option. Onions, red lentils, garlic, turmeric, cumin, chopped fresh coriander, a finely chopped red chilli and a can of coconut milk (can use curry powder instead of separate spices to make it easier) then serve chapattis (I make with chapati flour but you can use wheat flour and a pinch of salt plus water) and rice. Under 50p a head.

Frozen okra as a side is nice, it's in the world food freezer aisle, or pickled aubergine.

Another very cheap meal is mixed bean cassoulet - onions, carrots and celery sautéed, add garlic, paprika, dried herbs de Provence, chopped tomatoes, mixed beans add fresh parsley at the end serve with homemade bread again 50p or so a head

If you have gram flour you can make onion bhajis or falafel: both tasty, filling and cheap.

A tin of value kidney beans, chopped red onion, a tin of tuna folded together with a little vinaigrette makes a tasty salad to go in wraps or serve in bowls with bread. Double the quantities for 6 of you.

If your DS doesn't want his burger in a bagel, would he have meatball marinara in the bagel? Make your burgers into meatballs and serve with pasta or in the bagels moving forward.

I'd use your chicken thighs to make a curry for one night with added veg but keep 6 back to roast for crispy skin with stuffing , roast potatoes, swede, cabbage, sage and onion packet stuffing: add Yorkshire puddings if liked. A big plate of food all in the oven together except the cabbage.

Cheap Part baked baguettes are good for giant hot dogs, serve with wedges and a mound of home made slaw (basically shredded cabbage, onion and carrot).

Omelettes

Cauliflower cheese with bacon on the side (use frozen cauli as they are expensive and pathetically small n the supermarkets at the moment.).

I do a cheap mac and cheese ( you could use any pasta) boil the pasta and mix in a tube of primula
Or make your own cheesey sauce with flour , butter ,milk and cheese . Put half in a dish and pour over a tub of pasatta , put the other half of pasta on top, Top with cheese and bake for 30min . Or if you heat up the pasatta , you can grill the top. Serve with broccoli or whatever veg you have in .

Wow, you're spending so much money on meat! Italian cuisine was traditionally poverty cuisine, and they're great at making a tiny bit go a long way- a little bit of ham or bacon to flavour a sauce. Pea and ham soup maybe? Egg fried rice with peas, some of those frozen peppers, and again a little bit of meat for flavour?
Spicy sausage pasta (you chop the sausages up) or toad in the hole? Or I used to make a spicy sardine pasta as well, with tinned sardines.
I used to make kipper fishcakes- flaked kippers, cooked potato, chopped onions and an egg to hold it all together. Parsley is great if you have some.
Pizza is very cheap to make, and mozzarella is still one of the cheapest cheeses - although I notice it's gone up by 50% at Lidl over the last few weeks 😬
A big pot of stew- either a root vegetable one ballasted with lots of swede, or a bean based one with some pasta in. You could keep it veggie and just grate cheese on top.

Great ideas on here,most of which we do.
Egg fried rice is filling and cheap and popular here( add frozen peas). I use the slow cooker a lot. Some other things we have:
Jackets and toppings
Sausage and bean casserole
Dahl and flatbreads
Veggie curry
Lots of spaghetti and pasta recipes
Wraps..veggie or chicken
Home made soup with orzo for bulk
Cheese and potato pie
Frittata using up leftover veggies
Make your own hummous and coleslaw
Meatballs...turkey mince is cheap.

I've only spent £7.50 on one meal with meat so far. That's for 6 main meals. £1.25 a head of chicken. Maybe it's too much.

Cheesy bacon pasta is 80p for 500g of bacon for six main meals. Not every meal is going to be meat heavy. Its an Entire week and this is only the second day. Two parents, 19, 15,10,8 kids so even if I did 2 chicken thighs each that's 12 and getting on for 800o1kgvof thighs fillets. I think the teens need 3 each. Maybe not? Not sure now.

if we cook mince it's 2kg to 18 meals. Is 100g of meat per serving excessive? We dont eat meat every day. I thought i was quite frugal with the meat but not sure now.

My son is doing a Dahl to go with the currey tonight. I'm going get him to teach me when we both have the time.

This is making me hungry! Downside of meal planning!

I'd do a big cottage pie, pasta bake, Sausages and mash, jacket potatoes with cheesy beans and salad, spaghetti bolognese, risotto and salad.
Bulk out with veg/lentils/pulses etc to make it stretch further. Jamie Oliver did a £1 meals one off episode which might be on All 4 catchup. All the recipes were really delicious and very low cost but healthy

100 g meat isn't excessive but half the meat and adding a load of pulses is cheaper and probably healthier

if we cook mince it's 2kg to 18 meals. Is 100g of meat per serving excessive? We dont eat meat every day. I thought i was quite frugal with the meat but not sure now.
I normally do 500g of mince or thigh fillets, or 10/12 sausages for six meals, adult and teen. Chicken in a curry, mince in bolognese, chilli, cottage pie, sausages in a casserole, type meals, often with legumes as well for protein.

So closer to 80g than 100g per meal.

I would also swap some of the meat into cheaper things
Jacket Potatoes beans and cheese
Value mince bulked out with lentils (dried), tinned tomatoes, onions, carrots, freezer peppers you said you had them, and used once for lasagne and once for spag bol.
Macaroni cheese (homemade cheese sauce) with sliced tomatoes on top
Porridge for breakfast
Vegetable soup bulked out with macaroni
Pesto Pasta with grated cheese

Chinese style fried rice always goes down well in my house.

Use cold rice which has been left in the fridge overnight, add some chicken or ham, an egg per person and some frozen mixed veg. You can buy tubs of curry paste that tastes like the stuff from a Chinese take away, it's about £2 a tub and you would use less than half a tun for 6 people.

Owing to recent price hikes I have gone back to a great staple - rice pudding. 4 ounces of pudding rice to 2 pints of whole milk and 3 tablespoons of sugar. You’ll need a lump of butter for greasing . Google a recipe you fancy but I find the simpler, the better and cheaper.

Complex carbs are better (ie more filling for longer) so brown rice / brown flour / lentils / pulses are better than white rice, wheat pasta / white potatoes.

Treat meat as A An Other Ingredient - mostly for flavour - than as the main ingredient.

Google jack munroe, she’s ace at frugal tasty food. Make homous wirh cheap tinn d chickpeas, garlic and punch of paprika. I do cottage pie with mash of carrots, spuds n parsnip. Markets and Indian shops are great for cut price ingredients. Libraries have lots of books for inspiration on frugal cooking.

There is no such thing as cheap meat-it’s just not you paying the price!

Iceland are good, they have 3 for £10 on a few things. I got a bag of mince, chicken thighs and sausages all for £10. You can cook it all from frozen.
I wouldn't recommend there jars of sauce, the are branded and very dear.
Jars of sauce and pasta, I got from Lidl. The food is good and reasonable.
If you get the Lidl plus app, and shop there regularly. You can get some money off, they sometimes do vouchers in the national papers.

I get big boxes of own brand cereal - Shreddies, cornflakes - and big bags of oats for porridge with sugar and raisins, and they make a good cheap breakfast

You are overpaying on your chicken thighs.my husband and I have our own shop and we high welfare, locally sourced chicken thighs @ £4.50kg. Check out your local butchers and if they’re good, they’ll give you tips on cheaper cuts (and usually tastier!) that will really bulk out a meal.