Right, I need to cut food bill from £50/£60 a week to £30, can it be done ??

[nutcracker]

Needs to feed 1 adult, and 3 children, all of whom have free school meals, but also have a mother that thinks that giving them a sandwich for their tea is a bit wrong .

I shop online at Asda at the moment, very rarely pay for delivery, so bill is normally between £50 and £60 and includes all household stuff, washing powder cat food etc. Already only buy shops own brands so can't really cut back there.

As I said, the kids have free school meals, but I seem to have a mental block on what to give them for tea then as although their school meals are ok, ds in particular doesn't pick the healthy option if he can help it and so I end up cooking another big meal just to make sure they get some veg etc into them.

So realistically, can I do it ??

When we're on an economy drive (usually January!) I make loads of veggie meals, particularly with pulses as they are incredibly cheap.

I make one which is green lentils cooked in a curry/coconut sauce with boiled eggs. Sounds weird but is well scrummy. It's a Delia recipe.

Also homemade Boston baked beans. If you use dried pulses rather than tinned, it's ridiculously cheap.

Chicken thighs are much cheaper than breast fillets and are tastier too.

Braising steak is always good. I use it to make my own mince as don't trust ready made mince.

Instead of buying fresh cod etc, buy frozen pollock which is much cheaper and tastes exactly the same.

Can I whisper (netmums) Ok the forum is crap but they have great meel planners and budget recipes on the site !

meal

That nearly halfing it nutty. Can you not go to CAB and get them to sort out your debts into teeny managable payments?

do they like soup? maybe you could make your own veg soup and serve it with warm crusty bread...
buy a chicken... you could get 3 meals out off a £4 chicken... even if it is chicken sandwiches
these are just off the top of my head.. with have a think

do you menu plan? that always saves me a few pounds...
how old are your kids

Do you have a biggish market near you? We can get 27 chicken supremes (skinless, boneless) for £18, 3lb steak mince for a fiver, fruit & veg cheaper than supermarket and all good quality.
We spend about £40 a month stocking up the freezer with meat and fish, then about £20 a week on other stuff and there's always loads of choice for meals

broccoli and pea omlettes with bread and butter. Cheap quick and easy.

can you get to markets/ green grocers for your veg? much much cheaper than the supermarkets

I've found that the fruit & veg from our local market isn't as good quality as supermarket, so false economy, as it gets binned

I tend to buy all my meat in "bulk" at the start of the month and freeze it. We have a fabulous butchers in town that does really big packs of meat - and often 5 packs for £20 (£5 each usually). For 2 adults and 2 children (3 of those are "big" eaters) I usually spend around £30-40 a month

Vegetables - I make a trip to the market.

Where possible buy "bulk" of anything you can - if you have money available at the end/start of the month rather than weekly.

I buy the HUGE box of Persil washing powder - it's about £11 - but it lasts me up to 2 months or so. It "looks" more expensive buying a massive box/carton of something that's non-perishable - but the money we save in the long run is incredible.

soup very cheap- leek and potato is cheap

tomato soup with lentils

eggs are a good meal

bulk out mince with lentils too

get value brands of washing powder and that sort of thing, value beans and tomatos good too.

chicken is good, as has been said, you get a roast dinner out of it, then left overs into stir fry or sandwich, and then carcass into soup, which you can bulk up with some pasta shapes

Sorry will answer in a mo, am giving brother realtionship counselling at the mo.

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I have £15 a week to spend on food for 1 adult and 2 children. I buy bread, milk, eggs, rice, pasta (don't need to get rice/pasta every week) mixed veg pack, beans, jar of sauce in 2 different flavours, tuna and baking potatoes. I mix a bit of the sauce with the pasta or rice and have with some veg etc very boring but they get school dinners which helps and i know they get meat and fish at their dads.

what veg will they eat? Make them eat lots of carrots and peas, give them an apple with their meal, I consider banana pancakes to be a reasonable occasional meal for children, actually. Apple and cheese with crackers.

If you have a morrisons near you, they sometimes do "Mixed deli meats" for 30p per 100gm. It is perfectly nice deli meat, just offcuts, You have to use that the same of next day, really, and it's good if you don't mind chicken beef pork etc all jumbled up.

Cottage pie with grated carrot in the mince?

I think you will have to cut down on the meat and eat lots of cheap veg/beans etc. What sort of Asda vouchers do you manage to get? I find that with a lot of them you need to spend £50 to get your free delivery, in which case you might be better doing a big shop once a fortnight and then just getting bits on foot.

Tonight I am making a bacon and cabbage frittata. That will be fairly cheap because I am only putting a couple of rashers of bacon chopped up in it. I will serve it with stuff on the side - potato wedges and veg, I think, but you could probably leave out the potatoes if they have had a school dinner.

Tomorrow we are having chickpea casserole. That is really cheap. The basis of it is a couple of tins of chickpeas and a couple of tins of tomatoes - so only about £1 (I buy value tomatoes) altogether. Although I will add things like onion and carrots (but again these are cheap veg), herbs etc and serve it with rice (or couscous or jacket potatoes). But I can probably get enough for two adults and two children for two meals at a total cost of about £2.

Could make chickpea casserole even cheaper by using dried rather than tinned chickpeas.

PS don't buy pouches of cat food. You pay 30p for a pouch (30p per 100g) and 60p for a tin (15p per 100g). Pouches are a rip off.

Lidl/Aldi are good

I can do a weeks shopping for me, 2 children and a very hungry DP and spend under 30 if I buy the right things (althiough, it's been a while sionce I've had to do it, so don;t ask me how!)

Cheap meals are the weayt forward

Plan EVERYTHING you eat, and buy enough for that week.

A good, cheap and filling meal is tinned toms, onion, garlic, herbs, tin of tuna and grated cheese. Bung on pasta. Tis delicius, and my "pauper meal"

It can be done, ypu just have to be a bit organised. There are loads of cheapo recipes on here

Sausage cassarole - tinned tomatoes, or passata, tin of beans, onion, El Cheapo value sausages, cubed potato, cubed carrot, cassarole until cooked.

Cowboy pie

SMALL packet of mince, passata, tin of beans, mash potato on top (like a shepherd's pie), serve with peas.

I recommend cooking a big tub of potatoes and keeping them in thr fridge for a few days so you don't get tempted byt he chip shop!

have a search for baked bean lasagne on here - it's one that was recommended to me 2yrs or so ago when I had £15 (max) a week to spend on food for the 4 of us. We liked it so much that it still keeps popping back into the menu planning

Colditz Cowboy pie sounds good - but buy a BIG pack of mince and split it and freeze what you don't use.......more economical

The only food shop within walking distance is Co-op and I try not to use it as it is pricey.

I can get to Aldi, Asda and Iceland, but I don't drive and cannot afford a taxi back so can only buy small amounts at a time.

I don't have a local market, there is a greengrocers by Aldi but tbh they are no cheaper than the fruit and veg in Aldi.

I am not a very good cook, and am crap at cooking from scratch but I do have a go.

The dd's will eat pretty much anything, but ds is as fussy as hell and likes traditional stuff like roast dinners etc.

I have a slow cooker so can definatly use that more, also have a toasty maker so will have to think of more fillings for that too.

Luckily Colditz we don't have a chippy near enough LOL.

Oh ids are 10,8 and 5, and the 10 and 8 yr olds eat like horses and are never full.

Do roast dinner type food bbut with cheap sausages, or mince and carrots with mash, and things like that.

I know what you mean about the annoying traditional palate. Ds1 won't eat anything 'jumbley', and it was a big step for him to eat baked beans mixed in with things