Food ideas for someone on benefits?

[Amee1992x]

SIL recently lost her job, own fault for being late anyway...

She's now on benefits, receiving food bank parcels & some savings and we help out as much as we can!

But what's some good budget dinners or meal plans? Help her manage her money?

Doesn't like beans/soups.

Before I start going off on one, how many people is she feeding? Just herself or a family too?

Just herself, I should have added that.

You sound horrible.

I'm on benefits. Tax credits.

Are there certain foods I'm not allowed to eat?

She can eat whatever she wants, I'm just looking for some suggestions so she can save money and doesn't struggle? She's asked me if I had any ideas I thought I'd find great ideas on here?

Feeding one can be difficult to do cheaply unless you can store things for the next day / future days, so I'm assuming she's got a fridge-freezer and some freezer bags and tubs?

If that's the case, it's much cheaper to batch cook and then save portions of food, e.g. cottage pie, lasagne, noodles and stir fry.

Sandwiches are a good lunch, or cheese and tomato in toasted pitta, or ham salad in a roll. Stuff like that.

I eat a lot of pasta and vegetables (courgette, tinned tomatoes, mushrooms) with grated cheese, maybe some tinned tuna. Pretty cheap.

She's is finding it hard! We are willing to help her out gave her our old chest freezer, I'll grab her some Tupperware boxes! The food bank gave her loads of tinned veg too, I think she's so used to grabbing whatever she likes & fast food putting meals together isn't going great.

Planned to write her out recepies & ideas 🙈.

One of my favourite things to do with tinned/fresh veg is a really simple veg curry; you can use frozen, tinned or fresh veg or a combination of all three(!) and it makes for a really filling meal. I pack mine with lentils too, and use a curry paste rather than a sauce to make it go further.

Does she eat curries? Or chillies? Pasta meals?

Tinned veg are also ok if eaten as 'sides' to cheaper mains like supermarket fish fingers or sausages. Can she shop at Aldi / Lidl?

I'm not why someone said you sound horrible, if they read your post it's clear to see you are looking to support someone in need, which is a really kind thing to do!
Anyway which supermarkets can she access? Is she able to regularly shop towards the end of the day for reduced items?
Oats are good to have in the store cupboard, mainly for porridge, which will be a fairly sustaining breakfast but they can also be added to casseroles and mince dishes to bulk things out.
Eggs are also good, things like fritata or even egg on toast.
Jacket potatoes with cheese.
Tuna pasta bake
Peppers stuffed with cous cous
Pasta with peas, sweet corn and cream cheese stired through

Thanks for your ideas guys! We got a lot of meat reduced in Tesco last night split between both of us!

Can get to Tesco, Lidl & Morrisons locally at least.

I have no idea why my comment was horrible she is on a budget and does need ideas.

It was probably the bit "own fault anyway for being late" as it sounds a bit spiteful and not in keeping with your desire to help?

It was.

It was her own fault though I didn't want to not post why she lost her job and have people asking questions, she had a warning about being late a good few times & was late again harsh lesson learned! We are just trying to help her as much as we can for now 🤷🏻‍♀️

You didn't need to say that in a post about her being on benefits and needing meal planning / shopping help.

My SIL is on a very limited income. Im looking for ideas for her for cheap meals. She likes xyz and doesn't like abc. Thanks!

That's how I might have phrased it.

Mychildvouldniotbreadtfeef do you have any hints to give the op about eating on s low income?

Yes.

Shop in Aldi and Lidl

Do the cheap yellow sticker meats first and build the rest of your nwal plan around that.

Buy the veg that's on offer that week and buy value pasta and rice.

Hard fruit like apples and pears because it doesn't go off so quickly.

Value everything. Value tomatoes.

Cheap value biscuits for fillers - you cannot make a batch of cookies for what Tesco sell value cookies for.

Make soup. A lot of soup.

Buy treat food like crisps and biscuits but buy Lidl or Aldi or the value range in Asda/Tesco. If you don't you'll get pissed off and buy a take away or easy junk.

Freeze if you can - but be aware the cost of running a large chest freezer

If you put the oven on - fill it. You can cook soup in the oven if it's on and you have a Dutch oven type pot.

Get a slow cooker if you can. It cost pennies to run and makes fantastic soup and stews

Go veggie at least some days.

Value cooking bacon from Lidl - £1.20 for 1kg

Do one shop a week. If you can freeze milk. Because the top up shop for a litre of milk that turns into £10 is lethal.

Work out the cost of getting to the supermarket and factor that in

If Asda / Tesco deliver and you have an offer for a £1 slot - go on and fill your basket with value or savers or whatever it's called first. And see if that gets you to the minimum order.

I get 40 miles to the gallon out of my car. The nearest Asda is a 16 mile round trip. Which is very roughly 15p a mile. So it costs me £2.40 ish to get there and back. If I get a £1 delivery slot that's saved me money

Thanks guys! She's feeling a bit more positive about being able to cope and enjoy meals, she's gonna come over tonight and we are gonna make a pasta dish see how it turns out 🙈

To maximise space in the freezer get zip look bags and put them in a mug empty (kind of with the lip of the bag over the mug if that makes sense) as long as the mug isn't massive it's about one person portion of sauce for a dinner. Take out. Push air out. Zip up. And you can lie it flat or squish into the odd corners of the freezer.

Buy the dry packets for making up sauces - Tesco do their own brand as do Asda. They aren't dear and they make a real difference to the flavour and they're a night off from proper cooking.

Also. Jars of pasta sauce. They are 70/80p in Lidl and while they won't be the best the next day they are edible.

Jack Monroe www.cookingonabootstrap.com is all she needs. I've done these recipes and I'm not even on a budget.

Frozen chicken fillets. Proper whole chickens. For the meat eaters.

One person can definitely eat well from a whole chicken.

Google Barneys Monday night rice. It's dead easy to make freezes great and reheats brilliant.