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

*we sell!

Our local butchers is mega expensive as I'm sticking Brooker belt. There are cheaper towns over in the next county so I might have a hunt about.

Butternut squash is quite nice in a curry and my kids more keen on that than cauliflower.

Traybakes are really cheap too, throw in some veg, meat or fish, a drizzle of oil and you can jazz it up with a bit of balsamic or redwing vinegar at the end. My favourite is sausages, cherry tomatoes and broccoli. Can always serve with some brown rice to fill everyone up.

Chicken & veg tikka masala & rice
Chicken enchiladas & rice
Sausage casserole, jacket potatoes
Chorizo tortilla, sweetcorn and potato wedges
Pasta bolognese
Korean pork fried rice
Steak pie, roast potatoes, peas, carrots, sweetcorn

Breakfasts
Porridge or toast with choc spread or peanut butter, fruit

Lunches
Carrot and coriander soup
Ham and tomato sandwich
Tuna and cheese quesadilla
Crisps

Comes in at £69.91 shopping at Sainsburys, you could probably make some savings or add some extras if you've already got a few basics and seasonings in your store cupboards.

I would usually roast the ham in the airfryer which comes out very tender and tasty. ALSO the leftovers is lovely ham for sandwiches. MUCH cheaper than buying cooked ham.

Fresh chicken thighs are £4.50 for 2kg in Tesco.
Not free range but half the price of Costco.

For breakfast pancakes I use Jamie Oliver system- 1 mug of plain flour, 1 egg and the same mug of milk/milk water combo. This makes thick pancakes, use more water for thinner pancakes.

For curries use red lentils and half the chicken. Or cauliflower and boiled eggs. Make the curry, add blanched cauliflower and dress with halved or quartered boiled eggs.

Any other meat options chop or slice and mix into rice or pasta.

Beans on toast, or scrambled eggs.

I made Jamie Oliver’s Tuna pasta bake last night for dinner. It was SO good! And really cheap.

Could you make a mega chilli, really bulking it out with butter beans, kidney beans (any beans!) Onions, mushrooms etc and have with jacket potatoes or rice? I can feed 3 of us twice (& have a portion left for lunch) with just one pack of 500g mince. Or a spaghetti bolognese...

Look up Feed your Family for £20 a week. Loads of great recipes on there.

OP, if you're likely to buy any more jars of sauces, Tescos are changing their own brand - 3 for 2, so you'd get three for £2.20 (ie 73p each) - a bit cheaper than Lidl and you'll get points.

Fish pie-packet of frozen fish fillets (£2.50), Tesco. Potatoes (£1.25 for 2.5kg Tesco) White sauce (flour, fat and milk, make a roux sauce, salt and pepper, onion) .

Home made minestrone soup is very easy to make and very filling with a French stick or just bread. You can always bulk up the minestrone with extra lentils or beans. Sauces in jars are expensive for what they are, a tin of tomatoes crushed with a clove of garlic or something is just as good to have with pasta.

What about porridge with fruit? You can get a big bag of oats and a bag of frozen mixed berries for a few pound and that would do a fair few meals.

Also could do pasta with pesto (90p a jar in sainsburys), garlic and mozzarella. Could do a meal for four for under £4.

Easily doable

I haven’t RTFT so apologies if anyone has already mentioned this. You should download the Olio app to see if anyone in your area is giving food stuff away, you might find something useful

How are you getting on, OP?

I hate to be that person but you could cook far more nutritious meals for much less if you learned to cook from
Scratch - ie not using sauces.

So I think your quantities are an issue - 2 chicken thighs each is plenty, you definitely don't need 3, and you could do less, like 10 between 6 if you cut it up. I do chicken fajitas with lots of onion and peppers, and sometimes carrot.
I often use celery to bulk things out.
Until recently I was cooking for 4 big greedy men and I still wouldn't do more than 2 chicken thighs each.
Also, don't let them pick the chicken out of curries, put any leftovers away immediately - I put them straight into tupperware with lids on when I am servng up, to stop the boys raiding the pan.
Morrocan chicken is really nice, chicken thighs, onions garlic spices etc but with dried apricots or raisins and chickpeas, then serve with rice or couscous. You could throw in spinach too.
Also porridge for breakfast is the cheapest thing ever, either cooked or raw or as overnight oats. Much better than toast.

When you say the kids pick chicken out of the curry, is that eating the chicken from the leftovers or leaving the chicken on their plate? If the second serve theirs without the chicken, fiddly but doable, and see how that goes. If you are concerned about their protein intake then add some red lentils, they be almost invisible on the plate.

Can't you serve up the curry? Or if chicken is in whole thighs tell them they get a thigh and a ladle of veg/sauce each?