£11 a week food shop

[Novynu]

Looking for very cheap meal ideas. I do eat meat but meat is probably out of budget.

I have around £11 per week for one persons food for the next 5 weeks.

So far I have spaghetti and sauce
Cous cous with a few vegetables thrown in
Batch cook salad to eat over few days lunch

TIA ☺️

I believe Morrisons are doing a free jacket potato and beans in the cafe for a short time.

Rice with some frozen peas and sweetcorn and spices.

Beans on toast or beans on jacket potato.

Porridge and banana can be quite filling.

I agree with recommendedations or any batch cooking you can do with lentils and tinned tomatoes with some frozen veg. You can make it a bit like a veggie chilli and eat with rice and pasta.

Tesco do 500g of pasta for 41p which would do a few meals and also b&m do a 5 pack of instant noodles for £1. Good for lunches and can add other bits (veg/meat if you have any/eggs) in or have with toast

am I right in thinking this is fairly long term, and not just £11 for the next week, kinda thing?
try to make more than you need for dinner, as the leftovers work for lunch or dinner. Definitely try to make sure you’re getting nutrients, frozen veg will be the cheapest way. Dried beans are often cheaper than tinned and you can roast them and mash some of them (cannellini beans make good mash!).
something like a roasted veg traybake can be adapted easily and made to last a few days, flatbreads can be made cheaply with flour and water too.
Aldi sometimes does vegetable boxes containing surplus veg which are quite cheap if you can get creative!

Lentils are your friend! A large bag of lentils costing. £1.20 (bought red lentils yesterday) will make lots of meals, buy onions, mixed curry powder chilli flakes (or fresh red chillis if in budget) and ideally fresh coriander and a pack of creamed coconut (pataks contain 4 sachets) plus 1kg brown basmati rice and that will make 16 portions of dal. If you can afford it/have leftover add peppers, green beans, courgette, aubergine or anything really to change it but the above is the base. I worked out my coconut dal with aubergine at 59p a generous portion (lidl prices, rice bulk bought from Asda world foods). Ps brown basmati is healthier than white so a good choice if on limited budget.

Mixed bean chilli is another cheap option take a finely chopped onion, finely chopped carrot and sauté, add a can of mixed beans, a can of chopped tomatoes, oregano, chilli and cumin (or lidl have chilli seasoning at 29p a pack, you only need half a pack for this) and cook, serve with rice and if you can a sprinkling of cheese.

Chopped bacon / lardon risotto is another go to of mine. It's a two pack for £1.50 I serve 3 people with one pack.

1 pack lardons (half a twin pack) one onion, 1 lemon, 1 cup risotto rice (lidl is cheapest) 1 vegetable stock cube (or chicken) dried oregano or mixed Italian seasoning plus back pepper, whatever cheese you can afford.

Fry lardons with onion, add rice and zest of lemon, add 3 cups boiling water plus stock cube, add seasoning, add lemon juice. Cook until rice is done, add extra water if needed. Add cheese - dried up cheddar gone hard can be used, obviously Parmesan but I've used a bit of Stilton found in the fridge, "Italian hard cheese" or even a "cheese fondue" bought and gone out of date! Add any fresh herbs you have but not essential, can also add green beans, spinach, asparagus or similar if left over from other meals. This serves3 portions

For meals a mix of basic cooking & creativity can help - you can make a big pot of pasta sauce with bacon , onion, and any summer veg you can pick up (peppers, courgette, mushrooms) , chopped toms & Tom purée.

stir fry is another way you can make use of what you can get - thin strips of meat with finely chopped whichever veg you can get - if you have stock cubes add them when you are cooking the meat- saves adding other more expensive sauces.

Use whole milk for the next few weeks, and I would suggest using milk for porridge- yes it costs more but it is a lot more filling and nutritious made with milk.

If you can get to the shops later then the reduced food can help.

also- if you can then get to a food bank , and if you have children then please get in touch with the school as they will be able to offer support.

If you haven't, have you looked on your local social media for your local food pantry/community fridge, where you can often take about 8 items for free, or some, you pay £4 or so and they'll give you a big bag of stuff.

Our local food bank can deliver if people are unable to get to them.

So try contacting all local food banks- Our nearest one is Trussell Trust and needs a referral (but they tell you how to get referred) but some don't need a referral at all.

Soup, beans on toast, pasta and rice dishes. I think you will find it hard unless your buying it up front. 900g of cheese is just under £5 for example and about 2-5kg of pasta and rice is cheaper than bags of 500g. I would work it out from that. If its weekly then beans in lidl are cheap or the basics. I did my weeks food shop for 6 people under £70 a few weeks ago. But that's buying big packs, cheapest bread.

I went to Asda yesterday as this month has been financial tough for me and bought 75p pizzas and bags of chicken burgers 8 for 1.50. Instant noodles for 25p.

So if you didn't have the 55 up front your looking at buying 8 burgers, six roll, beans, bread and salad then more or less eating the same thing every day.

Until we get paid I'm allocating £5 a day paired with raiding the cupboards and freezer. Longer term I'm adding to Monzo pots to cover the thing that got me low on cash this month ( school residential and tyres) I'm driving around also with a slow puncture and a tyre a ml or or two off being illegal. Its not great right now

Thank you for the suggestions everyone. ☺️

Bag of porridge is less than 50p and will do all your breakfasts for the 5 weeks.
So you've got £10.95 for 14meals. 4 baked potatoes £1. Two tins of beans 80p.
£8.15 for 10meals. Bag of pasta 50p two jars of pasta sauce £1.
£6.65 for 6 meals. Bag of rice £1. Frozen mixed veg £1. 2 jars of sauce of choice £1.
£3.65 for 2meals. 2 tins of soup and a loaf of bread? £2
£1.65 left. I'd buy some frozen berries for the porridge or some bananas.

It's not exciting but it's doable.

Potatoes and onions are cheap, versatile and go with loads of other things. And as people have suggested, you can get some great bargains at the supermarket when it is reduction time, especially if you have a freezer.

Do you have a Facebook local page? If you ask on there someone may take you to places that offer food free or cheap food?

Any allotments nearby?

i would get red lentils onions garlic, rice.
dhal.

baked beans on toast if you like that

Sign up to OLIO where you can get free food that people no longer want

It’s not going to be exciting or nutritious but it’s doable. Instant noodles, rice, pasta, beans on toast, soups etc evening yellow sticker hunting is a good shout. Look into community pantry’s and too good to go apps.

i have watered down whole milk in the past
or you can try long life milk

no need to buy tins of soup imo
and potatoes, you can buy large potatoes that dont have to be specifically jacket potatoes.

frozen spinach is very versatile.

Lentils, beans, rice, potatoes, veg and bread. One 150g pot of powdered vegetable stock will do you soups and stews for ages.

I regularly put food on the Olio app, you should be able to pick up food for free in your local area.

do you have sainsburys/tesco points to use up?

When I tried to do it I mostly ate jam sandwiches. Jam was like 30p a jar and bread 36p from Asda.

For more meal types I had chickpea curry using just can of chickpeas, chopped tomatoes and rice. Sometimes adding frozen spinach. Tasted pretty good.

Or big packet of potatoes, cook them up and have them with baked beans or cheese or the chickpea curry as leftovers, it's great as you can prep a big load of chickpea curry and have it with anything or if you have the potatoes you can make a potato curry and have it with rice or still over potatoes

I have porridge with water for breakfast. Takes a while to get used to, but perfectly filling. Then I have cream crackers for lunch and occasionally an apple if I can afford it.
dinner will be tricky.
jackets are a good suggestion if you’ve the energy to cook them.
i have done normal white rice cooked with stock cubes, occasionally a fried onion or any veg you have. So like a risotto. Add cheese if you have it.

pasta with olive oil / butter salt and pepper.

nutritionally it’s not great, but you won’t be hungry.

Soups are actually expensive to make. If you compare it to a basic meal. And tins of soups are expensive seeing as it won't fill you up for long