A weeks meal plan for £70 family of 6

[whatwouldjudydo]

I need some ideas for meal plans for a family of 6 to see us through the next month! Had an unexpected vet bill and want to just pay it in one go but means I'll be on a tight food budget. Children will eat most things. I haven't batched cooked etc before so any advice welcome!

First you need to do a stock take and tell us what you have already got

As PP said it's going to depend on what you have available but pretty cheap options could be:

Breakfast:
Overnight oats/porridge
French toast

Lunch:
Egg on toast
Homemade vegetable soup
Jacket potatoes
Tuna pasta salad
Bean salad

Dinner:
Egg fried rice
Lentil Dahl
Pasta bakes
Risotto
Homemade quiche
Vegetable curry

If you’re not a big batch cooker then avoid taking on recipes you’re not confident with when you don’t have the money to replace if it goes wrong.

If it’s just one month I’d do very similar to this;

toasties with beans or soup (chips added for teens/adults)

Jacket potatoes with cheese/tuna Mayo (tuna bulked with sweet corn or veggies)

Chicken burgers (frozen birds eye chicken in bread bun) with veggies/salad

Sausage and mash (2 sausages per person with plenty of mash)

Vegetable pasta and garlic bread

Frozen fish/fish cakes with new potatoes and veg

Soup and crusty roll

Eggs on toast

Butternut macaroni cheese realfood.tesco.com/recipes/vegetarian-butternut-squash-macaroni-cheese.html Forget the cherry tomatoes.

Chipotle bean stew www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/chipotle_pinto_bean_stew_94139

Lentil bolognese www.asda.com/good-living/recipe/lentil-bolognese

Leek and potato pie www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/leek-and-potato-pie

Thanks everyone, well I've managed to do a shop this week for only £40 as to use up what's in the freezer - chicken curry, lentil soup with ciabatta, chicken nuggets and homemade wedges and the kids are at their dads a few days so I'll just have a sandwich or similar.

Probably from next week is when I'll need to start from scratch, probably will have some chopped tomatoes, tomato purée, a cupboard full of herbs and condiments!

Potato, pasta and rice based meals are going to be your friend next month. Filling and relatively cheap.

Tinned pulses are also handy to bulk meals out. I probably wouldn't start buying unfamiliar ingredients for new recipes unless you can be confident that your kids will eat them!

With a whole chicken I would cook it and make wraps and rice or wedges one day and pesto pasta another.

No need for a cooked lunch, I’ve never done my DC a cooked lunch, it’s always been sandwich, wrap, maybe soup in the winter.
A good breakfast, snack for lunch and a filling dinner.

Sounds good.

Generally veggie is cheaper. So going forward a mixture of basic veggie dishes like veggie pasta bakes, egg fried rice with random bits of veg and good to have twice a week to make the pennies go further

I hope the pet has made a good recovery.

I've been seeing lots of adverts for something called "Oddbox" on my Facebook feed. they deliver boxes of over-produced and wonky fruit and veg.

It might be worth seeing if they deliver in your area?

There is a site called Thrifty Lesley which is very good and has meal plans...

Noodles could be a good filler for lunch for the kids.
Toasties
Jacket spud and beans
Pasta pesto
Pizza

I think its doable. Things like mince.. Add onions and carrots and so on with your tomato sauce and make it stretch to a good few portions.

With noodles, I tend to add some protein (like some leftover shredded meat or a few defrosted prawns) shred some cabbage or lettuce and carrot and some garlic and a miso soup base (but I imagine a bit of stock cube and garlic and chilli would work).

Milk helps to fill hungry tummies, as does brown rice and wholewheat pasta.

If you have a Lidl, they usually have £1.99 boxes of veg near the till which are coming up to their end of life but still value for money. You could make soup with some of the veg and a stock cube and freeze some for another time. Much cheaper than tinned soup.

Turkey mince is cheaper than other meat. Batch cook a Bolognese sauce, you can have it as is for spag bol then add a tin of chilli beans to bulk out and make a chilli.

Beans on toast is an ample lunch. I also like whole tinned tomatoes on toast.
Or baked potato with beans.

When I was a student, I used to make a sausage risotto: chop up sausages, fry up with onions, add rice, tinned tomatoes, herbs & spices (whatever you've got) and a stock cube, add water till cooked. A pack of sausages could just about do 6, especially if you can bulk out with some veg (where the Lidl box could come in useful again).

Tuna, sweet corn and pasta with a white sauce, either direct from the pan or if you have any leftover cheese you can grate some on top and bake.

Tesco and Asda and probably other supermarkets sell 'cooking bacon' very cheaply which is just bacon off cuts but exceptional value for money. Can be chopped up and used with pasta, or eggs for an omelette. Sometimes you get proper slices which you could have in a sandwich.