So how can I feed a family of five on £20 a week ?

[paddlinglikemad]

ok..have been put on very strict budget ( due to huge credit card bill!!) therefore after buying nappies and household stuff such as dog & cat food will have approx £20-£25 per week to feed all of us..including bbreakfast for all (weetabix me thinks) and lunch for DS2, DD and me and main meal for all ( ideally that can be split into 2 sittings as DH comes in too late to eat with kids..)
Thats me & DH, DS1 (5yrs) DD (2yrs) and DS2 (10months)...DH will only tolerate one meat free day a week ( but he may have to change!!) ..any ideas for main meals would be most welcome

Buy mince in BOGOF or reduced close to sell buy date.

Make a basic tomatoey mince thing - fry onion and garlic. Brown mince. Finely grate tons of carrots and add. Add 2 tins and tinned tomatoes (value) and a good squirt of tomato puree. Shake of mixed herbs and a shake of cinamon.

Let it mulch down.

If I use 2lbs of mince, 2 tins of toms, a bag of carrots and maybe some mushrooms, that will get around 4 meals for 2 adults and 2 children. A spag bol as it is with pasta, a cottage pie (need to add mashed potatoes), a chilli (with rice) and often a freezer meal for quickness.

Chick pea curry too. Dead easy. Reckon it costs about £1.20 for a meal for 2 adults and 2 kids with a portion left for the freezer.

do you have cheaper stores near you? Farm foods or adli? Alos veg is cheapest at the local market.
Stirfrys are cheap and easy to make, we use sauages instead of chicken.
Also when we are budgeting i look at what meals I can make out of what i already have in cupboard and then plan the meals for the week, and list only what I need and stick to it.
hth

YOu need to look through your cupboards, fridge and freezer and make a list of what you have got in there atm before you start planning anything, to make sure you make the most of what you have.

Is this short term ie a month or so or supposed to be a more permanent thing ?

pan hagglety
uses bacon, onion, cheese and potatoes

savoury rice
rice with frozen veg
handful of dried herbs

make your own bread

if you are in herts ui have a breadmaker i was going to take down the charity shop/

breadmakers are great - recently got ours out again and it costs pennies to make a gorgeous loaf

i got a new one as the one i am offering is missing it recipies and measuring stuff.

ljkk... clearly not a pet person then.

Batch cooking saves loads

Any meat you do buy, half what you would normally use and pad out with loads of veggies. The grated carrot thing in mince is hardly noticeable - well, my boys and DH have never mentioned it

neither have mine popsycal. have been doing it for about a year or so now. dd1 knows as she watches me grate the carrots.

I never thought I would be posting this but - Soya mince. I bought some yesterday to make a vegi chilli for a friend - looks revolting dried - makes loads very cheaply and actually very very tasty - with loads of flavourings - as it does not seem to have any of its own.

At the begining of the year I needed to save some money - so I managed to do this and spend £21.22 on the shopping (everything, toiletries etc and food) each week for a family of three.

I wrote a meal planner for 4 weeks

Rotated most of the 7 /8 meals during the 4 weeks so that I cooked one batch and froze the rest in three portions.

So cottage pie / chicken curry made with a jar of curry paste £1.50 which makes four curry's and add a tin of tomato / spag bog / tuna sauce and pasta / dalh with cauliflower / chicken stir fry using chinese five spice and soy little sherry / chicken casserole anything home made - stock, vegtables and sliced potato, bung it in slow cooker

I made everything from scratch - it is cheaper and if made in bulk you have your own ready meals for the following three weeks.

I always wrote a shopping list on tesco online shopping, so knew how much the shopping was going to be, then knew it would be cheaper when I got to asda - but took cash.

do you have a farm shop local?? Go and buy a sack of potatoes, we find it works out a lot cheaper then buying little bags in the supermarket.

definatly lots of stews and casseroles (esp. in this weather) but you can make a small amount of meat look like lots.

Buy a big chicken to roast and use the leftovers for the following day in a stir fry.

If having porridge for b/fast use a little honey and sultanas to make it seem nicer

if the kids want treats then bake a cake or biscuits once a week and get them to help.

Go to the library and get a student cook book for good ideas on cheap meals.

Make sure you have flour and sugar in the house and a tub of marg - this allows you to make cheap treats like scones. Add a tin of proper coco and you can make lovely brownies aswell. (let me know if you want the recipe - it takes 5 mins to make in one saucpan and 20 to bake in the oven)

You need the treats to keep you going otherwise you may end up falling of the wagon alltogether.

agree with all suggestions on here..

macaroni cheese is cheep and yummy... cheaper if it becomes a value pasta (rather than actualy macaroni) with sheese sauce.... bu a cheap strong cheese so you dont need as much for the same taste.

also do you have people near by giving away apples from their garden? (round there there are loads)

My grandmother has a really yummy pork and apple casserole, with diced pork, and there was a big pack of diced pork reduced in asda today for a £1 which reminded of me of this recipie... combine that with some apples given away free from someons garden and you have 2 big meals for basicaly £1!

Can you go to lidl? they really have some bargains and some of quite alot of their stuff is actually really good!

Porridege for breakfast
sandwhiches / jack pots for lunch (get a big value sack of pots, there will be plenaty big ones for jackets and the smaellr ones can make mash to go on top of a cottage pie. etc

1 chicken can do loats of meals... roast it,
then use the some of the left over meat to make a chicken pie, then use the last bit to turn into chicken soup... with loads of cheep root veg! and serve with bread and butter

bulk out mince for bolognese etc with pulses and beg (I always whizz a whole onion 3 carrots, a courgette and normally a pepper too into a 'normal' size pack of mince befiore adding tomatos etc and i get enough bolognese to feed me, my 5 and 2 year old charges (who both have big appetites) for 3 meals! you could also add a tin of baked beans in to stretch it out even further!

corned beef hash??

Hi paddlinglikemad
I have similair age dc to you[ds just 4,dd1 22mths dd2 9mths] and a after nappies/baby milk and the like proably have around £25-30 a week on food. We shop in places like lidl and aldi, look around for where you can get milk cheapest etc[our local sweet shop is actually the cheapest at £1.10 for a 4pt compared to asdas £1.40].

We use slow cooker a couple of times a week at least with cheap meat cuts and do things like curry bunged with veg, chilli, casseroles. All filling but fairly cheap to do and all the family can eat it.Buying stores own for most stuff helps with cost.

Menu plan so oyu only buy what you need, treats are either rare or home made..shops like home and bargain sell cake mix for 50p and they 'should' last a couple of days.

Try local markets.We have one at a local town every tuesday and there is a meat van.If you go towards the end we found they often sell stuff even cheaper in bulk packs.We once got a chicken and pork chops for £5 and a further bag of meat(chops and the like)for a further £5
Worth looking also for a meat seller who normally sells wholesale.One in our town now sells smaller pieces that they find harder to sell to the public for much cheaper than supermarkets