£30 for 2 weeks shopping

[lucysmam]

what would you want to eat?

Obviously meat is out of the question apart from a large-ish chicken to stretch as far as poss.

Other than that I was thinking

pasta bakes
potato bakes
omelettes
jacket spuds
a veggie curry
some soups

& after that I'm stuck.

We usually manage to eat meat every night on a budget of £50 a fortnight but rent has gone up, meaning shopping budget has gone down so any other cheap/easy/tasty ideas would be appreciated

Thanks

Risotto
Roasted vegetables
beans on toast

Also, go to supermarket late at night if you can and buy loads of reduced items which you can freeze.

had forgotten about risotto, cheeers, will add to my list. Not sure my oh would class roasted veggies or anything along those lines as a meal but worth a go.

Have started popping into co-op over the road when they do their last reductions but it's hard to keep to my budget doing that as there's always something there to be had iykwim

how many are you feeding?
Rice puddings are great to eat after a smaller meal as it really fills you up.
Porridge fro breakfast as it again, fills you up longer than cereals.

Kidney is a very cheap meat lovely with mash and gravey

Pasta with different saucesmake your own tomato pasta sauces as they are cheaper.

with large chicken you can make
chicken pie
chicken soup with bones
chicken curry
chicken risotto (easy and cheap)

With leftover pastry - fish pie, cheese twirls for snacks.
toasted cheese/tomato sarnies and chips (my fave meal sometimes!)

If you can stretch to some meat - minced beef can go a long way- spag bol, bulked out with vegetables, chill, cottage pie (all can be bulked out with frozen vegetables) (if you cannot afford beef mince, maybe veggie quorn might be cheaper?).

start planning what you're going to eat around what you already have in the fridge/freezer.

only 3 of us, lo is nearly 2

puddings are good, always go down well. Will look for some recipes in a while

Not too sure about kidney, remember hating it as a lo

muppetgirl, I would love to but they only ever have 2 weeks worth of food in them as it is, very few left overs

Mince will probably feature a few times as it's so versatile & can be bulked out quite a bit

Egg and chips (favourite when we were little)
Eating at friends/relatives houses?
Anyone you know have fruit trees? Loads of fruit going to waste at the mo could be used for pies/crumbles

offal isn't that cheap - in reality you may aswell get chicken and make a big curry.

Pearl barley is a good cheap bulk food that takes up the flavour of a casserole or stew and will make it last three dinners instead of one Do the stew in a slow cooker and add the paerl barley and it will cook with the stew long and slowly.

Dalh is a good cheap meal with some pitta bread to dip - £1 for two meals and it keeps well so you could make it Sunday and eat Monday and Friday.

Also, get yourself to a Lidl or Aldi and stock up on your cupboard items, like chopped tomatoes, rice, beans, etc. Also, their fruit and veg are cheaper.

£30 omg hope on earth will you do that id find that sooo hard

candyfluff, I'm hoping it won't be too hard. First to go are treats we would normally get on our fortnight' shopping. After that, I'm going to sit & write a listof cheap meals & plan very strictly from there.

I've managed before with £15 for one week so hopefully it'll not be too hard

Dahl is a good one, not had that for ages & always goes down well in our house.

We go 'whoopsie' shopping on a sunday afternoon, could you do this? We get good value, good quality, meat, fruit, veg, bread, etc by doing this, then bang it in the freezer.

I tend to cook from scratch, bulking out with veg and lentils that I have in the cupboards.

lucysmam- i know supermarket shopping is better than struggling through town ,but if you can get to Doncaster market (and get someone to help carry the food back)its a great place to buy cheap quality veg and the fish market is really really good,i think for fresh stuff its much cheaper than a lot of the supermarkets.

does that mean get all reduced price food end of date sort of stuff thats a good idea

I asked in a big supermarket the other day if they had an ripe banans - he said oh yes we have just sorted them to chuck them out they gave me a carrier bag full free and I have made 4 banana cakes, have 8 in the freezer and can make smoothies with ice cubes or banans and custard for pudding.

make your own bread, much cheaper than shop bread.

Porridge and jam for breakfast to fill you up?

Bulk out mince meals with dried soya mince - before I had tried it I wouldn't have thanked you for the suggestion, but I am now a convert

Egg fried rice. I do 1 egg person scambled.

Cook rice in the morning and allow to cool completly.

The cook a chopped onion with whatever veg i have and any bits of meat left over. Add rice and a tsp od 5 spice powder and soy. Mix together with rice and egg and cook until rice is heated through.

Do poached egg with beans and either toast or jacket pots.

Asda at the mo have chicken wings (about 24 for £2) which cook with homemade pot wedges (or wrapped potatoes as dd1 calls them).

moyasmum, I tend to go to the market separately for fruit & veg & my lo's buggy carries it all back for me. We know a few of the traders as well so they keep any odd bits that would otherwise have been thrown at the end of the day & I tend to do what I can with them; usually a soup of some kind.

Ivvvvyy, I bake everything already that I can.

It's not so much the sweet treats that are a problem it's just a menu plan that's still exciting even though it's cheap & isn't going to get boring after I've used it a few times. Bags of value flour are only 33p at the mo & last a few weeks so I manage quite well on that front.

Cous cous, rice & pasta are all cheap

Lentils, chickpeas, beans etc - can make some lovely stews, soups and curries from these

Cous cous, rice & pasta are all cheap

Lentils, chickpeas, beans etc - can make some lovely stews, soups and curries from these

MrsM, I'm not very successful with chickpeas unless they're out of a tin which are more expensive I think although I would have to sit down & work it out on paper to know & my other half will only eat beans of the baked in tomato sauce variety for some reason. Any other type of bean put in front of him is sneered at & I'm told it reminds him of something random like a body part

Not had egg fried rice for ages either so will add that one cheers & will see if MIL is going to Asda over the next week to have a look for those chicken wings for me. They'd do loads for the three of us.

Haove a look on Miaou's world famous shopping thread some good ideas there

get a big pack of mince from asda (frozen not ideal but ho hum) 1KG is £2.39. (sad I know this I know! lol)

but with that use half for a cottage pie - (will serve 4 very hungry adults) and half for a spag bolg - again same thing - also if you save half of what you've cooked from each of those then u have a meal for the following week already made as well.