Budget meal help

[justanothermanicmonday21]

I need some ideas of easy simple recipes to keep food costs down - single mum of 4 and really feeling the pinch and trying to keep my weekly food shop to under £100 which I've been struggling with the last few weeks with rising costs. Needs to include breakfast and lunch also for the children plus snacks as two of the children are diabetic.

MN is being spammed with codes for a free Guosto box atm. If you order the 4 person box it's free delivery as well.
I would not suggest you continue a subscription, but if you order a free box and MAKE SURE YOU CANCEL AS SOON AS IT ARRIVES you so don't pay for any more then it would be a big help to your budget for the week.
I had one which came Saturday and it had a fair amount of basic food which depends on the recipes you choose.
( I got 12 chicken breasts, 2 small packs of mince, 2 packs of new potatoes, some other potatoes, 4 sweet potatoes, 2 eggs, 4 bags of salad, 2 bags of spinach, 5 peppers, 3 packs of cherry tomatoes, 5 large tomatoes, 2 carrots, 4 onions plus the spices & condiments etc).
Happy to pm my code, but equally they are all over the promo section.

On an ongoing basis (and no idea how these tie in with the diabetes sorry).

• yellow stickered food & freeze in usable potions.
• meals like jacket potatoes & beans, cheese.
• things on toast (eggs, beans, spaghetti hoops etc) for lunches.
• own branded foods, I find Aldi fine and their own brands are a lot cheaper than branded things.
• a roast chicken will go a long way, roast potatoes and veg to bulk up the meal. Then any left over chicken in sandwiches, fajitas, curry or whatever. Carcass in the slow cooker to make stock.
• make your own soups with on the turn veg.

Again not sure about the diabetes (my dad has age related, but eats everything and just manages it with insulin 🤨) but fruit crumbles are good cheap puddings.

Atm I've got a load of windfall plums a friend gave me (halved, de-stoned & frozen).
Blackberries from hedgerows.
Tinned apricots (drained).
My parents have cooking apple trees so I get loads of them every other year when their trees go mad.

Tip some fruit into a dish, top with crumble (6oz oats - I use the cheapest value brand ones, 2oz plain flour, 3oz brown sugar. Mix together and then stir through 3oz melted butter makes about 4 person worth) and cook for 30 mins.

Under £100 = £14 per day.

You need to build up your budget from the base and calculate what everything is costing. I have done very low budget - it is achievable but takes quite a bit of thinking.

These are the basic principles:
-healthier to eat good veggie food than crap meat
-batch cooking saves time and money
-tinned/frozen fruit and veg is nutritionally OK
-porridge is the best and cheapest breakfast
-don't buy cheap bread, make decent bread as it is more filling
-you have to invest time if you can't invest money
-buy what is cheap not what you thought you wanted
-meal plan meal plan meal plan
-shop around to save cash
-make things like muffins and scones

Cheap meals we cook are:
-jacket potatoes (can you buy a big sack of pots to save cash)
-pasta with cheese sauce
-veg chilli
-lentil dahl and rice
-veg curry
-stir fry
-risotto
-pilaf
-mashed pots and beans
-veggie burgers

Jack Monroe does good cookbooks for budget recipes and has a blog (used to anyway).

I've already had gousto so won't get a free box - recently given it up as couldn't afford to pay for the coming week the week before but was finding it quite cost effective as a 4 box fed all of us easily and not having to think about things.

We normally have a yogurt or fruit for pudding if we do but don't generally have a pudding with every meal and this is one of the things I will be cancelling as it's just an extra thing I cannot afford at the moment.

I have time at the moment - I'm a teacher so off for the holidays and the kids enjoy cooking too so they would like to be involved.

£14 a day sounds so low but interesting when put like that. Lunches I think I can do cheaply - a sandwich, fruit and yogurt is the normal here. It's the snacks and also breakfast - only one of my children like porridge, the other diabetic one only eats one cereal that doesn't send his blood sugar spiking and that's £3.50 for a box - so generally buy 3 of these a week just between them. So £10 a week on cereal!

What about omelette for breakfast, particularly in the school holidays.
Or breakfast muffins that you can make in advance.

Or indeed fruit crumble for breakfast!

Single mum here too. Bosh on tik tok has an easy pasta sauce, tomatoes, garlic, red onion, pennies make

Have you got a 'Food Share' or Community Fridge in your locality - these are not Food Banks but offer anyone spare food - ie: excess supermarket stuff, homegrown produce etc.

Porridge doesn't have to be for breakfast

Some cheap meal/snack ideas:

Porridge/overnight oats
Flapjacks/oat Pancakes (make extra for snacks)
Omelette
Toast with various toppings
Pancakes
Popcorn (get the kernels)
yogurt
fruit
muffins
Chickpea curry
Lentil Dhal
Spaghetti Bolognese/arrabbiata/Carbonara
Chilli con carne
Fajitas
Pesto pasta
Jacket potatoes
cottage pie
Stew with homemade dumplings
Burritos
Sausage tray bake
Homemade veggie soup with bread/pitta
Homemade pizza (2 ingredient dough: xx xx)
Egg fried rice
Various pasta bakes

I find having various herbs/spices/seasonings means you can make tastier food for cheaper but know the initial outlay for them can be pricey when you're already on a budget.

Very true, I had it for tea tonight

Brunch
Jamie Oliver breakfast pancakes with added cheese. So delicious if you have time.

Scrambled eggs on toast

Tinned plum tomatoes on toast

Toasted sandwich

Dinner

Toad in the hole

Spag Bolognese

Sausages, beans and mash

Ham salad with rice salad, lettuce leaves, tomatoes. You can grow your own lettuce leaves and tomatoes so easily. Just sow lettuce a few at 2 week intervals. Buy a crown of rhubarb and you will always have puddings as crumble or pie.

Sheppard's pie, which you can pad out with lentils, and veg

Burgers in buns with salad

Tomato & lentil soup with crusty bread.

Pasta arabatica

Bacon lardons, creme fresh and little blue cheese on tagiatelli.

Tomato and mozzarella pasta bake

Aubergine lasagne

So many delicious dishes.

Snacks

Grapes

Apples

Melon

Bread sticks and humours

Cucumber and carrot sticks

Yoghurt. Buy large natural ones. Aldi does one in a little bucket that is nice on its own or good to top crumbles.

Homemade jam tarts or cheese straws

Instead of buying single yogurts buy a big tub of Greek yogurt and flavour it yourself with either jam or blitzed up fruit and you could also add either homemade or cheap store brought granola on top works for either breakfast/ snack or dessert.

Big block cheese instead of grated /sliced

Homemade pasta sauce tinned tomato's, garlic onions and herbs

Buy chicken quarters and cut up yourself to make your own drumsticks and thighs

When I get time I make lots of fishcakes and falafel for the freezer. Really simple but a little more time consuming so good to have a stash for quick dinner. They are also pretty cheap. We really enjoy tuna fish cakes but frozen white fish or salmon all work. The falafel again really cheap we do oven bake ones and combine the chickpeas with either sweet potato or butternut squash so really healthy too.

That sounds delicious @AtleastitsnotMonday - please may I have your recipe for both the fishcakes and falafel? Also what do you serve with them? And how do you reheat? Sorry for all the questions 😊Thank you.

I roughly base the fishcakes on recipe, but to be honest anything goes, I really like tuna, with chopped chilli, sweet potato and black pepper. Serve with anything! Usually salad and coleslaw in summer, but they're great with baked beans in the winter!

This is the falafel recipe is use, I like to add chilli for a bit of a kick. They are good in wraps or pitas with salad and I make a really simple dressing with fat free yoghurt, grated cucumber and chopped fresh herbs.

…hmmm…thank you….both sound delicious and look do-able…I will try them out in the holidays now, and if the kids eat them, they can feature on the mealplan…esp if I can freeze 60 million of each….