£80 for 2 weeks

[Blushingm]

This is all I have. Is it doable?

All my bills are paid. My car has a full tank of fuel (I use it for work as I do home visits).

The cupboard and freezer have some stuff. Is this doable?

Has anyone else managed on this?

It's me at home. DS who us 22 and DD is 17

Yes you can do it. Going forward your adult son needs to be in fulltime work and paying his way. As a parent you are responsible for the well being until they leave compulsory education not until they are 30.

Feed your family for 20 pound a week on Facebook is quite good allot of ideas on there. They've just put that whole chickens are cheap with nectar card in Sainsbury's at the moment so you could buy a couple of those and butcher them down should make up a few of meals.

Some really good ideas here thank you - you're making me feel less dispondent so thank you

DS has been sat down a talked to, he's agreed to contribute 1/3 of his wages going forward and DD is looking but it's difficult here with travel issues. She has even said herself she needs a job to help through uni too

Download jam doughnut app, you buy gift cards to spend in store eg tesco and following the example of tesco get 2.5% cashback back into the app plus £2 for your first purchase.
If you can find a monzo referral code (plenty on reddit) you can get a free £5 for opening an account and making a small purchase.
If not useful for now may be useful in future. Look up groups about making little bits of money, cashback etc for ideas

Do you have community larder nearby? Or use the Olio app maybe.

I would buy big bags of red lentils and yellow split peas, go to the market for vegetables and cook lots of veggie chillies, curries etc. Also tins of black beans etc for Mexican type meals, jacket potatoes and salads etc.

Totally doable OP and you'll handle it xx This might come in handy https://realfood.tesco.com/what-can-i-make-with.html

Make a Dahl and half it. Dinner for one night and add stock to the second half to make soup for another night/ lunch
https://s.samsungfood.com/YMMKr hope the link works

I can’t see if this has been suggested so sorry if I’m repeating. Try to use more vegetables and less meat. For example if you do sausages cook them and then slice them. Tonight I did sausage and mash with cabbage. I’m almost paranoid about sausages so I always cut them lengthwise. 3 sausages cut that way looks like a huge amount.

The same with chicken, thighs are cheaper than chicken breast, chop them and mix with vegetables and pasta/rice/potatoes.

Have you got a social supermarket local to you?
If not go for freezer food and pasta etc, won't be fun but you'll all survive.

Yes, if you meal plan everything including snacks and desserts. I have to make sure we don't eat all the tasty / easy to prepare food first when trying to make the food shop last. It will be boring but Porridge for breakfast, sandwiches for lunch and things like jacket potatoes/ pasta bake for tea should make it do-able. Our town has a daily food share where anything from the local shops that's about to go out of date is given away for a £1 donation, it's usually bread and vegetables. Might be worth looking for something like that? Or raiding your local supermarket in the evening for bakery items that are reduced?
I hope you get through it and things improve.

@AdoraBell we do similar things with burgers and meatballs/ bolognese. We'll use minced beef mixed with a tin of green lentils- we just drain them thoroughly and mash them up a bit then mix in with the mince.

Octopus and O2 have offers for free coffees from Greggs, just bagged myself a large caramel latte for free!

Sure, some do.

Most 17 year olds don't have a job, however. And nor should they be expected to.

This is a good idea.

I got a Sainsbury's Taste Me Don't Waste Me box today for £2. It had:

8 Red apples
2 Granny Smiths
2 Large Tomatoes
7 Large Carrots
3 Punnets different Mushrooms
2 fat sticks rhubarb
2 onions

I've got a big bag of lentils and rice so I'm going to make Lentil soup, Dahl and some sort of Garlicky Mushroom stroganoff. Will get a good few portions of each (I reckon at least foir of each, so that's 12 meals) and I'll still have all the fruit left over. I've got some crumble mix in the cupboard and pastry in the freezer.

Yes, completely doable if you don't have to get gluten-free. Soup, baked potatoes, cauliflower curry etc for healthier meals. If you look on TooGoodToGo you can get so much food for £3-5, how nutritious it will be depends on where you pick up from. If you don't mind a bit of junk, send your adult kids off to get a Greggs one, you get about 4-6 pastries and box of doughnuts for £2.89. The M&S ones are usually veg and salad with calamari or meat for £4.99.

See if there is a "pantry" near by. Called by other names too. Ours offers masses of veg, some tins, treats and sometimes meat or cheese or butter, cereal, soya milk and vegan food. Most often near their sell by dates and destined for landfill.
Costs me £15.30 every 4 weeks and I rarely have to buy veg, fruit or cereal. Made soooo many meals by sometimes adding store cupboard ingredients and sometimes not having to at all. Been a life saver at times x

Often have gluten free too

There are also a couple of apps where you can purchase food close to its expiry date for a few pounds; Too Good To Go and Olio near me usually have amazing things available to collect.

"Sure, some do.

Most 17 year olds don't have a job, however. And nor should they be expected to."

Of course they should be expected to if their mum is struggling to make ends meet. It says a lot when these "kids" manage to leave uni without a days work in them.

No 17 year old will keel over and die because they're having to do a couple of shifts in a cafe of a Sunday afternoon 🙄