What would you do with £40 for a 2 week shop?

[theroux21]

We’ve had several large unexpected costs in the past fortnight that we weren’t prepared for, leaving us with £40 for a food shop for 2 weeks.

We are a family of 2 adults, one 9 m/o and a dog. DH will not eat eggs, fish or pork (he will eat sausages!). He also needs a packed lunch everyday. As well as fruit/veg for baby. We have plenty of nappies, wipes, toiletries etc. Also need to factor in Halloween sweets for trick or treaters somehow too!

What would you do with this amount for breakfast, lunches and tea? Any and all ideas are welcome! Thanks!

Have you had a look at the olio app for free food?

Here are a few of our family favourite budget meals.

www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/lentil-ragu/amp

This one is absolutely fine without the wine, and with dried lentils and thyme:
www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/veggie-shepherds-pie-sweet-potato-mash

Again, dried herbs are fine with this one:
www.google.com/amp/s/www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/pearl_barley_butternut_61137/amp

Have a look at the Olio app and any local giveaway groups on Facebook.

Bananas are the cheapest fruit.
Eggs the cheapest source of animal protein.

Personally I wouldn't bother with trick or treat stuff you have no obligation and if you're short on cash it's an unnecessary worry. Food for your family is more important than random kids who probably will have more than enough sweets as it is

Jack Monroe’s website lists the prices per serving of each of her recipes so that could be helpful. cookingonabootstrap.com/

And I definitely would be turning off the lights for Halloween!

Call the CAB and if your finances meet the criteria they will sort you a food parcel. I work in safeguarding and you would be surprised how many people find themselves in this position. Next month, make a small donation to give back.

My Local Lidl do £1.50 veg/fruit boxes every Friday - not sure if all branches do them on the same day. They keep them by the tills.

Budget will spread much further in Lidl and Aldi

Veg soup (a few times. Carrot is the cheapest) with toast, dahl and rice, jacket potato and beans, toad in the hole (value sausages), eggy bread for you and baby, bolognese (frozen mince), veg and bean chilli with rice. Frozen veg and fruit for the baby, also stewed apple (a big Bramley is normally 55p ish and will make many baby sized portions).

Repeat these for lunch too. Absolutely don't waste money on trick or treat sweets!!

Tbh, with that budget, DH needs to be less fussy too.

If it's only temporary, I've had a week or so of plain rice with a sort of spiced gravy, egg fried rice and toast... It's shit, but you're fed, and it leaves plenty for the baby and the dog (or kids and cat in my case!). You and DH would cost about £1.50 a day that way.

Nutritionally monstrous longer term, but having done it a few times, fine for adults in the short term.

Forget sweets for Trick or Treat, your nine month old won't care.

Go through your store cupboard/larder/freezer and make a list of all the food you have. Post your list here and you'll get lots of good ideas for meals.

Check if you have any points on store cards you could use.

There might be a social supermarket or fareshare project in your area. It's different from a foodbank as you don't need a referral and you pay a small amount for some food.

My favourite two ultra cheap meals are red lentil bolognese, it can cost less than £1 for 2 generous portions and lentil dahl (I use the recipe on the Jamie Oliver site and it would only be cheap if you already have spices).

@Comedycook

Don't buy sweets for trick or treaters..

Take the doorbell out and sit in the dark.

@1001nights

Call the CAB and if your finances meet the criteria they will sort you a food parcel. I work in safeguarding and you would be surprised how many people find themselves in this position. Next month, make a small donation to give back.

Agreed. I used to work at the local food bank and we could refer people ourselves so they didn't need to go through a church or any other humiliating system of jumping through hoops. We could do three food parcels for a family and they were very generous. No fresh stuff but it would leave you £40 to buy fresh.

Do you have a community pantry? By us, there's one. You pay a couple of quid and get a box full of stuff. Then you could use your budget for the other stuff.

You don’t need sweets for trick or treaters! You need to feed yourselves not random kids.

Have you got any loyalty vouchers you can use.

I would second looking at Jack Monroe’s site. Thrifty Lesley is also worth a look. I did replace some carrots with celery in the ragu link below, but i think the meat is stretched to the max but no further and it is pretty good:
thriftylesley.com/meal-plan-7-beef-ragu-for-3-different-dishes/

You say he eats sausages: does he eat bacon? A packet of cooking bacon costs about 80p and can be the meaty flavour in a weeks worth of dinners.
Eggs, pulses and cheese are your cheapest protein sources.
If he doesn't eat eggs can you disguise them? Carbonara, Yorkshire pudding, egg fried rice?
The packed lunches are going to be the trickiest thing to cheapen, unless he has access to a microwave and can take a portion of last night's dinner.

I second the pp who said approach a food bank. It will just ease the burden a bit and there are some things you can't compromise on (babies and pets!) which the Foodbank will free up your cash for.

Porridge oats for breakfast
Lots of beans and lentil dishes
Cheapest frozen mixed veg
Cheapest bread
At uni the only fruit I ate was cheap apples as I could not afford fancier stuff
Bargain bucket sausages
Get to the shops just as they are reducing things and eat whatever you can get for very little cash

Porridge oats for breaskfast
Cheapest bread
Lots of lentil and bean dishes
Cheapest bread
No trick or treat sweet (turn the lights off!)
Cheapest bag of frozen veg
20p value pasta with value tomato sauce on top
When I was at uni I could only afford apples as fruit as everything else was too pricey
Bargain bucket sausages (frozen might be cheaper)

It won't be a fun couple of weeks but hopefully things will improve for you after that. Good luck OP.

OP if you can share what you have in your cupboards already we might be able to come up with a meal plan. Which shops/supermarket do you usually use ?

Agree with a lot of the suggestions above.

Obviously it will depend what you have in your cupboards / freezer etc, but I'd get value pack of mince, whole chicken, pasta, rice, value sardines, potatoes, onions, garlic, carrots, whatever greens are cheapest, frozen peas, big block of value cheese, family pack mushrooms, red lentils, tinned tomatoes, maybe baked beans, eggs, wraps, bacon lardons. Lettuce / cucumber. Porridge or big box of own brand weetabix and some bananas. Maybe apples if you can. I'd try to go to Aldi or Lidl as you'll get more for your money. If you can get a Lidl bargain fruit & veg box, even better (think they are £2.49).

Big pack of mince should stretch to a few meals - make a bolognese type sauce with lots of veg, eat with pasta, top with mash, add chilli / beans, leftovers with a jacket spud.

Roast chicken - cook extra potatoes & veg, use them the next day for a hash / bubble & squeak type thing with baked beans / eggs / bacon bits, anything you have in the cupboard / freezer. leftover chicken use in fried rice, pasta, soups, sandwiches.

Quesadillas - pack of cheap wraps & cheese with any odd bits of veg / beans etc you have lying around, few spices if you have them.

Lentil dhal, veg curry, cheap & filling.

Pasta - spaghetti with a couple of tins of value sardines in tomato sauce, chilli flakes, garlic, capers, olives if you have them. Or just a tomato sauce - onion, garlic, tomatoes and any leftover veg. Roasted peppers - big jar for not that much at Lidl and blitzed with tomatoes is a really nice sauce.

Soup & bread / sandwich for lunch if DP has a food flask or access to microwave at work.

It's tough but doable, and will be harder if you don't have any basics in already (oil, flour, spices, rice, pasta etc) as that would eat into the budget. Personally I'd scrap the Halloween treats but if you can't, then B&M and Home Bargains and the like often have big bags of sweets for not too much. Good luck :)

Fried rice with peas & chicken & fried noodles with stir fried veggies are cheap and filling. Plus lentil curry with eggs or chicken is lovely. Do you have any Asian shops near you as they're generally a lot cheaper for basics.

Lidl is good for cheap large packs of thighs/breast/mince. Ditto carrots, potatoes & tinned beans/tomatoes. Butter/cannelloni beans are great for padding out meat in stews/casseroles.

Go to the supermarket heavily discounted yellow sticker section around 6pm of stuff that's about to go out of date. Best before will still give you a few days and Use by you can pop in the freezer

Have a look to see if your area has a community shop. We have a community fridge & I think the food is free & we also gave a community shop where a huge basket of food can be purchased for £3
Failing that the cheapest own brand rice, oats, tomatoes, pasta, cheese, bread potatoes. Does husband have access to a microwave at work? A jacket potato can easily reheat & is so cheap.
Try heading to the shop at closing time for the bargains.
I would sit down & meal plan