Meals on a budget?

Replies

• xemx

  Sep 19, 2009 6:33PM

  sorry to hear about that, its unfortunate. i'l keep my fingers crossed that it turns around for you soon!
  
  but as far as cheap meals go you cant go wrong with pasta, i have yet to meet a kid who doesnt like spaghetti! and simple things like sausage and mash and simple rice meals also do the trick!
  
  i find if you work out meals at the beggining of the week, most ingredients will cover two or 3 meals so it goes a lot further. plus if you make meals slightly bigger you can also freeze most of those.
  
  and you usually get meat cheaper if you bulk buy then freeze half so saves more in the long run.
  
  sorry i havent been much help, i run out of ideas of what to cook myself!
  

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• xemx

  Sep 19, 2009 6:36PM

  http://www.netmums.com/food/Cooking_on_a_Budget.266/
  
  just googled and there are loads of ideas on here, hope it helps x

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• LittleChickpea

  Sep 20, 2009 2:24AM

  Oh, Sorry to hear that.. same thing happened to my dh not long ago. have you heard of healthy start vouchers? you should qualify if your partener not working, we get ??3.10 every week in a voucher to spend on fresh fruit and veg and fresh milk.. this is for one child, you get more if you have more children or are pregnant!! it dosnt seem an awful lot but it pays for Eoins veg ect and makes sure he gets lots!! They also can be used for formula milk, Just google healthy start! all the best hun xx

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• karen130770

  Sep 20, 2009 5:04AM

  So sorry to hear that - I think it's one of those things that in this current climate it's happening to more and more people.
  
  We too eat on a budget and I've learned to cook quite frugally. First thing is, plan your shop well - so before you even go, make a meal plan for the week of both lunch and dinners then you know exactly what to buy and you don't waste food.
  
  Spaghetti and pesto with a little grated cheese is soooo cheap to do - the most expensive thing is the pesto but the whole meal for 3adults and 2 littlies in our house comes under ??3 - bargain! Baked potatoes, buy bags of frozen chicken instead of fresh - check that there's no rubbish added obviously, but it's as good as fresh and much cheaper. Same with fish - buy frozen as it's cheaper. Look in the bargain bits for food - freeze straight away and it's fine. Buy fruit and veg from markets etc.
  
  I'm off to look at some of those sites now!
  
  Good luck and hope your circumstances change soon enough.xx

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• ccbmommy

  Sep 20, 2009 8:48AM

  So sorry to hear about your circumstances, hopefully there is something around the corner for both of you.
  
  Have you watched Economy Gastronomy on BBC2 (might be Wednesday at 8pm)? They also have a book out too. They've been showing families how to cut their weekly shopping (food) bill down by quite a bit. They do a bedrock recipe, say like a sauce, which you make a lot of and keep all week and cook various things from it. It seems to work for all the families.

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• pink_gerbera

  Sep 20, 2009 10:30AM

  I was also gonna recomment economy gastronomy, the bedrock recipe is a really good idea, last wk they did a roast chicken at the beginning of the week then the left overs they made into a reice dish and sumthin else i think then used the bones to make stock.
  
  If u buy mince bulk it out with lots of frozen veg or buy fresh veg when its reduced or on offer, and u shud get quite a few portions. Def look at the reduced bit in the supermarket, u can def get sum good bargains in there.
  
  Sorry to hear about ur situation and hope it gets better soon x

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• hollypollyxx

  Sep 20, 2009 3:14PM

  sorry to hear about you and yous husbands jobs 2 meals that i do which are quite cheap are
  veggie soup i just use what ever veg i have in with some stock and maybe lentils or a broth pack
  veggie curry i use tinned tomates curry powder to taste sweet pot, carrots, onions ,mushrooms,and cauliflower but like the soup you can use wot ever veg you want
  i cook these in the slow cooker in big batches freezing some so i alway have some meals ready if i dont feel like cooking.
  aslo we somtimes have what we call throw it all in pasta which is pasta tinned tomates or a jar of sauce and wot ever i can find to throw in maybe a bit of cheese, chicken ,sweetcorn ,tuna,sausage,bacon or ham
  
  [Modified by: hollypolly on September 20, 2009 08:19 PM]
  
  

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