Is it possible to feed a family of 3 on a budget of £50 a week?

[JamesAndTheGiantBanana]

I'm sure it is but I always seem to end up spending more, and needing to go to the shop every night for bread/milk etc. I have just figured out my budget and I'm going to have a maximum of £50 to spend on all food/cleaning products, per week.

There's me (veggie who eats fish) dp who needs packed lunches for work, and ds (2) who is a bit fussy and mainly seems to live on fruit and bread products anyway.

So far I'm thinking iceland £1 ready meals for us every night, with better things for ds, and cereal, fruit and sandwiches for us all during the day. Any other tips for ultra cheap shopping?

Learn to love your pulses. Add some red lentils to pumpkin soup and you get pumpkin and dhal soup. Much more filling and costs sod all extra. We buy the cheap cans of cooked chickpeas (because I can't be faffed with all that boiling) and make felafel. DH also makes a mean biriani with rice and lentils. His other speciality is canneloni bean mash. Fry some onion and/or garlic in a little oil. Add a drained can of canneloni (or borlotti or whatever you can find in the reduced to clear section) beans. Add a little water, a drop of stock and cook down for 5-10 minutes or so, mashing a bit with a wooden spoon.

A £5 gineau fowl will feed two adults and a child with an enormous appetite for days. Roasted first day, in the lunchtime sandwiches the next, then the carcass stripped for risotto the third day.

I have been reading this thread with interest as I have real difficulty getting my weekly shop to a respectable price....most weeks I spend about £80 and there are only 3 of us.

The main problems I have are due to a fussy DH (not in a won't eat a good variety way, but in the far more annoying gets bored with everything way). He hates lentils (actually I don't really like them either) and pulses generally only get through if used in small quantities.
He is a meat eater and always hungry...if there isn't enough meat he will just end up eating his way through the cupboards all evening. He takes packed lunches but is always complaining that he is bored with this or that or that something is too dry or not flavourful enough......Are you getting the picture?!
He is also into the weightlifting so needs more meat and loads of eggs to boost his protein (luckily those mega-expensive protein drinks upset his stomach so that is one less expense).
I try and do risotto with leftovers and use extra meat from sunday dinner for as long as possible but I never seem to get my shopping bill any smaller.

ARRRGGGHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!

Just to add to my long rant lol.....
...I have tried upping the carbs and just making meat portions smaller but DH just leaves the extra carbs (rice/pasta/potatoes) if there isn't enough meat to eat with it.
He also hates jacket spuds and anything he decides is plain or dry.................
HELP!!
Any suggestions?

I made a lovely chunky soup with pasta in yesterday but this mainly got his approval because it had choritzo in which brought up the price. However I know that if I do similar things too often he will be moaning

"A £5 gineau fowl will feed two adults and a child with an enormous appetite for days"

really - surely you don't get much fowl for a fiver do you?? How much does a £5 one weigh (approx)??

Hi, thanks all. I love my pulses, and quite happy with beans and veg based dishes (obv, being vegetarian)

But ds is at a fussy stage and won't eat most things like that. He sometimes eats veg soup/stew if I push it through a sieve. He is quite hard to cater for, he often ends up with a collaboration of Things He Might Eat on his plate which don't necessarily make up a proper meal. He won't eat meat or fish, we get protein into him with eggs, peanut butter, baked beans etc, but I don't really think he's getting enough.

Dp seems to get stomach pains after most tomato based dishes, doesn't like onions, swede, cabbage, cauliflower, sprouts, won't eat mince, chilli con carne etc or any kind of cooked fruit/dried fruit so he can be a bit fiddly to cater for.

There are some great suggestions on this thread though, thank you! I've done a meal plan (which might get readjusted after reading your responses) and can fit everything we need in, including nappies, washing powder, toilet rolls etc for £200 a month. Just a case of sticking to it now!

A gineau Fowl is about the size of a very small chcken. Roast it with loads of veg and it's amazing how small the portion you can get away with is. I save the legs and wings and serve up the breast. I often have one on a Saturday night when our BF, who is not the smallest eater, routinely joins us for dinner.

The legs will produce enough meat for a sandwich or two and the rest is cleaned off the carcus and added, shredded to pasta/risotto/noodles etc. The problem with meat is that we Westerners tend ot eat far more than we really need in any one sitting. Look at how much meat is in a Chinese dish. The trick is to make it look like you are having a lot while secretly bulking up the meal with cheaper veg and carbs.

I know there's 5 of us (DS3 is 2 1/2 though) but a 1.8kg chicken that I roasted on Monday only just lasted for 2 meals . we had LOADS of roast potatoes with it and tons of veg as well try and make it stretch.

I agree that westerners eat too much meat, it is just convincing DH that he doesn't need it that I find tricky. I tend to get some leftovers from a medium chicken but a small one is pushing it.........DH has a huge appetite (very active, so burns it all off aswell, lucky sod!)
We do have enough cash to cover the current food bill but I never seem to manage to put any money aside for a rainy day, which is really the main aim for me.

not just westerners - that's a myth imo. DH most certainly isn't a "Westerner" but his entire family expect meat with every meal. Things are shite in his home country right now so it's more of a luxury and usually only once a day. But certainly decent sized portions of meat.

slug - believe me I use beans and pulses like they're going out of fashion and stacks of veg (usualy spend around £15-20 a week on veg) and lots of carb but there's no way in hell a small chicken would last for more than one meal. Medium will be enugh left for DH to have chicken sandwiches the next day, a large one will just scrape for a 2nd meal with lots of stuff to bulk it out.

O was thinking about this last night. I grew up in a very large household (Children in double figures) so my mum was a past master in stretching the family budget. Here's what she used to do:

Two course dinners, beanyy/pulsy/lentily soup followed by meat meal.

A snack when we got home. She used to make scones which are cheap and filling.

Kitchen out of bounds after dinner. We were very explicitly engaged in something else as soon as we left the table. no lounging around watching the TV allowing us the time to think we might be hungry.

Homemade, very wholemeal bread.

Stuffed: as you can afford it, I'd say the secret is to find ways to buy cheaper meat. I am a huge fan of lamb shoulder - it's cheap as chips and delicious. It just needs slow cooking. I roast it sometmes, but mostly I use it in casseroles and curries and stews. A half shoulder will feed six people for me (so two meals for you two?) and costs about £6. Pork belly is the same - very cheap but still delicious. I have been meaning to start experimenting with ribs as they are very reasonable too, and seem like they're easy to cook - very satisfying for a meat eating, exercising heavily DH.

If he likes chorizo, I'd use that more often in stews and casseroles but just cut the pieces up small. You don't need that much to add lots of meaty flavour?

We don't eat a lot of beef so no thoughts there, but I would imagine there are cheaper cuts?

Always - interesting on the meat? It's a status thing as well isn't it? I would think that some of my slow cooked, cheaper cuts would work for your DH too? Especially the lamb - with lots of gravy, potatoes, rice and veggies?

I feed three (but that's one adult and two children) on fifty euro so it's definitely possible.

On sunday get one of those cooked in the shop chickens. They're about five euro here, and you obviously don't have to pay to cook it! and there's LOADS left over. I can make a chicken korma the next day.

this has got to be a joke, right?

This is a good cheap & quick recipe for using up leftovers: Medium noodles cooked with chicken stock cube - 4mins. Drain and rinse. Stirfry in soy either chicken strips/or any left-over meat, broccoli & thin strips of carrot (or other left-over veg). Add the cooked noodles and 2 eggs. Stir for a minute or until you can see egg is cooked.

Plenty of protein for dh and ds might like sucking up the egg coated 'worms' and eating 'trees'.

Can do it easily, I spend about that for 5 of us.
But you are not a vegetarian if you eat fish.

I bought half a shoulder of lamb last week, but it was so fatty none of us really enjoyed it (and it was expensive for a "one meal" joint as well).

Not sure what you mean by "status" thing -it's just the way they live where he comes from.

Last night I did mince, 500g mince, 800g can of tinned tomatoes, 2 large onions and a massive amount (didn't actually mean to put that much in - got carried away ) of mixed frozen veg (btw - the Waitrose frozen mixed veg is absolutely divine - not much price difference between the supermarkets on the mixed frozen veg packs - but the taste on the Waitrose ones is miles ahead), then did 2 1/2 mug fulls (dry) of brown rice with it.

There wasn't a drop left.

Tonight think I'm going to treat us to a takeaway.

Tomorrow will be spicy tomato and bean soup and homemade bread. Thankfully the bread fills them up quite a bit as they have lots of chunky slices.

Usual bread is wholemeal bread from the Morrisons bakery.

Plan your meals for the week ahead and only buy exactly what you need for those meals. I do this every week and manage fine on our £50 budget for food etc (for two at the moment but I'm pregnant and could easily manage to feed 3 on that budget when the baby comes along). As you're nearly veggie then lentils/beans etc are very cheap and there's all sorts you can do with them - mixed bean chilli is nice (onions, peppers, kidney beans, green lentils, tomatoes, chilli) and cheap to make - you can make loads for very littl and serve with jacket potato or rice.
Use Lidl or Aldi for cleaning products, very cheap and just as good as the expensive makes.

Nigella's minestrone soup - serves 3

1 can mixed beans (44p)
1 jar tomato-based pasta sauce (99p)
750ml stock (one stock cube, 8p)
100g macaroni (68p for 500g bag)

Perfect.

hotchpotch

cooked leftover sausages from freezer chopped into 3 , cook large pot of pasta when almost cooked add broccoli fresh if left in bottom of fridge or out of freezer cut left over potatoes into thick slices left over mushrooms,peppers onions anything like this left in fridge fry up leftovers for a few mins in frying pan then layer up in very large dish pasta mix fry mix pasta etc place in middle of table and watch it vanish it's only a bag of pasta because everything else is leftovers if you have chicken you can add this i serve with garlic bread my grandchildren love this because they take the bits they like and sometimes even the things they don't.

I agree about the breadmaker - I'm on my second freecycled one; never paid a penny for either, and make a loaf every couple of days for pennies (it takes a bit of getting used to at first as it's not as salty/sweet as shop bought). You can make bagels, pizza bases, I even made chelsea buns the other day using some left over mince meat from christmas as the filling!

For sandwich fillings; buy a pack of smoked mackerel from a local fishmonger (about a £1) and flake it into a pack of "value" soft cheese, mix together and season. It lasts all week in the fridge :)

I picked up 10kg of onions at the local farmers market for £3 this morning; they keep fine in the garage/shed, and although I plan meals in advance, I don't settle on a specific veg - I see what is going cheap in the greengrocers that day.

Don't cook sausages whole - use the sausage meat in pies (make your own pastry) and you'll need less per person - bulk it out with roasted veg in the pie serve with mash and gravy. If you can, buy potatoes by the sack for a couple of £ and keep the same way as the onions! I never use more than 125g of raw meat/fish per person (at a push, 1lb will feed 4); as long as it is good quality, that it plenty, imo

I find that buying little and often is cheaper for fresh as I pick up what I need for the next couple of days on offer - but one big shop for the bulky/ambient food and when things like orange squash, spreads etc are gone, we do without til next month!

I freeze even the smallest amount of left overs - then when DP or I need a quick meal, we have something there to keep us going - or we have an evening where we reheat several tubs and have an assortment of dishes with homemade naan/tortillas/dumplings/scones!

I make my own yoghurt for cooking as well - you don't need a fancy kit - milk, a thermal coffee mug, and a small tub of yoghurt to start it off is all that is needed.

I also plan one "indulgent" meal per month - it doesn't have to be stupidly expensive, but a dish that we've not tried before using something more unusual or that takes longer than usual.

If you can - grow your own this year to save money too There might even be some free courses locally to get you going - we grew over £150 of veg last year and we'd never even tried before. We've adopted another local garden this year so we've got more space. Even if you don't have a garden, you can grow herbs (we have basil in the bathroom) and tomatoes will grow in hanging baskets. Forage if you can - I use nettle-tips instead of spinach, for instance

You've a good head start being a veggie.

When I was on a budget (thankfully no more) my strategy was:

1 lentil soup dinner per week (I found DC loved* th unchallenging texture actually). Onions, lentils, a but of cumin/coriander & a chicken stock cube in the slow cooker. Serve with olive oil and finely chopped raw onion and a slice of cheddar. weirdly delicious.

1* baked potato meal pw (I get spuds from TESCO - at the time they were 50p for 4 - my microwave had a handy 'combi cook' function). Top with tuna or cheese or beans (or salt (!) when I was doing slimming world)

1* pasta pomodoro p.w. (onion, carrot, two tins of value toms, a pinch of oregano in the slow cooker. Value pasta. Easy on the cheese)

I also do minestrone soup (but DC complain - no idea why) - fried onion, carrot, celery chopped tomatoes, kidney beans, bay leaf water in the slocker. Add cooked pasta at the end. Slow cooker chilli beans served with value tortilla chips make a delicious Friday night TV supper treat.

To begin with it felt like it was too simple - I'd been raised with my father demanding a three course meal every night (soup/meat and two veg/desert), so serving 'meals in a bowl' felt strange - but honestly it's enough, and so much less clearing and washing up compared to 'traditional' meals.

Having this backbone of ultra cheap but popular meals meant that the budget on the other days was eased.

In terms of strategy - I find much easier to budget when I shop online. The delivery charge is more than justified by the lack of impulse buys. On your budget - I'd suggest a monthly delivery which has all the tins, frozen veg etc that you need. Note that bread and milk freeze well.

Slow cookers are also very useful. they eliminate those 'too tired to cook - eat expensive junk' evenings'.

• Oh - and will your DH take a Tupperware of leftovers for pack lunches? Peter that to sandwiches - and it's cheaper as it reduces waste - but my DH complained that it was hard to eat 'sloppy' food at his desk.

Was just going to comment and then realised that it was a 2009 thread! I doubt the OP is still following it .