Feeding a family on a budget
PrincessVamp666
Posts: 1,176 Member
So - January is always a loooong month, and I am hoping you will share your favourite recipies for feeding your family filling wholesome and healthy meals on a tight budget. It is looking like I will have around £30 a week to feed a family of 3... seems okay, but one is a fussy toddler and the other is a fussy adult 
6
Replies
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bulk buy stuff on offer, and look for reduced stuff in super markets at the end of the day.
also, tell the fussy adult to buy their own stuff if they don't like whats being offered!13 -
Aldi's is my go to place to stretch my budget. Not sure if you have a similar type store near you.3
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Wow. That's going to be tough if you don't already have some stuff in your pantry.
Beans, rice, frozen vegetables, eggs, fruit from the damaged bin, oatmeal. Everything in bulk. Hot dogs, bread. Start looking for a food pantry and/or community free meals.4 -
Get the sale flyers for all the grocery stores near year; I use budget bytes quite a bit for cheap recipes m; meat proteins are going to be your most expensive items2
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Chef_Barbell wrote: »Aldi's is my go to place to stretch my budget. Not sure if you have a similar type store near you.
This. I have a $100 weekly grocery budget for a family of 5, which includes 2 teenagers. This also includes non-food items like cat food, tp etc. I LOVE Aldi
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I've lived very well in the UK on 100 pounds per month. But I had a lot of extras, and often more expensive produce.
Aldi tends to be cheaper than Lidl. Not really good, but you can get really cheap pasta there. Tins of chopped tomatoes are also very cheap. Add things like tinned tuna and onion and a pinch of sugar (don't forget salt) and you have a simple dinner. Look at the fruits and veggies on offer and figure out what to do with those. Cheapest type of potatoes. Onions and carrots tend to be very cheap at the moment. Wholegrain bread tends to be more filling than white bread. You could get thinly sliced ham, 400gr for I think 1.49. Mince tends to be cheap as well. Make bolognese sauce or your own meatballs, or chili con carne. Want to do something with fried fish? It's not that expensive per 4 pieces. Whack in ovendish, add small pieces of potatoes or sweat potato and whatever veggies you can get and roast for about 18 minutes, add those veggies that roast quicker later. Serve with whatever you can get cheap: hummus, make tsatsiki yourself, or ketchup if everything fails.4 -
When you have a tight budget meal planning is pretty helpful. A limited rotating menu may be more economical and appealing to fussy people.
Meatless meals may be cheaper. If you eat meat cut it up and put it in something like soup, casserole, stir fry to make it stretch farther. Soup can be pretty economical.
I don't know your family's preferences. My picky eater almost always likes pasta, eggs, bread, cheese, lentil soup, minestrone soup, potatoes, cottage cheese, some yogurt, fruit, rice. Sometimes things like oatmeal, farina or cereal. She does not like trying new things very much and would happily eat certain foods daily.
My family has enjoyed budget conscious recipes from https://www.budgetbytes.com.5 -
Buy what’s in season 😊3
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dry goods like pasta and beans
canned or frozen
buy what's on sale and/or store brands
buy what's in season
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Soups and slow cooker meals that stretch can be your friend.
Lentils, beans (all varieties), rice (all varieties) and noodles to start. Pick a protein if you have enough money and cook all of it. Then throughout the week use that protein in different recipes.
Go-to for cheap eats for me is lentil soup, black bean soup, chicken noodle soup, beef stew, vegetable soup, curry chicken, chicken taco (meat), pulled pork with bbq. All these can be used with bread or steamed veggie sides.0 -
deannalfisher wrote: »Get the sale flyers for all the grocery stores near year; I use budget bytes quite a bit for cheap recipes m; meat proteins are going to be your most expensive items
Yup, I plan my shopping and menus around what meat is on sale where. OP - not sure if https://flipp.com/ works where you are, but I've found it helpful to find specific items on sale here.
Rice and beans bought in bulk are very economical.
I usually make an egg-based dinner once a week, and that is cheap too.2 -
I save a ton of money on meat buy buying the markdown stuff they have to sell before the end of the day. Sometimes I cook it same day but most often it goes into my freezer. I rarely buy meat that is not in the markdown bin.2
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Fussy toddlers won’t starve. Wait long enough they will eat anything.
Fussy adults can buy and make their own.11 -
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I agree with not letting picky eaters wreck your budget or make the life of the food shopper and preparer insanely difficult.
That said, @PrincessVamp666 you would probably get more specific advice if you offered more details about the pickiness you're dealing with. There's probably as many variations on "picky" in terms of what someone will and won't eat as there are picky people.0 -
If they are really hungry, fussies will eat4
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Buy whole roaster chickens on sale. One chicken will serve you 3 times over. You can eat dinner, use leftover shredded meat for another meal, and then freeze the bones to make homemade chicken stock for soup - just add water, celery, carrots, onions, garlic, salt & pepper, bay leaf and some white cooking wine...so easy, cheap, nutritious and yummy!3
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Buy whole roaster chickens on sale. One chicken will serve you 3 times over. You can eat dinner, use leftover shredded meat for another meal, and then freeze the bones to make homemade chicken stock for soup - just add water, celery, carrots, onions, garlic, salt & pepper, bay leaf and some white cooking wine...so easy, cheap, nutritious and yummy!
Whole chickens are not really that cheap in the UK, and you'll spend tons on electricity or gas to cook it. I think if money is an issue then TO should also take cost of preparing the food into account.8 -
Buy whole roaster chickens on sale. One chicken will serve you 3 times over. You can eat dinner, use leftover shredded meat for another meal, and then freeze the bones to make homemade chicken stock for soup - just add water, celery, carrots, onions, garlic, salt & pepper, bay leaf and some white cooking wine...so easy, cheap, nutritious and yummy!
Whole chickens are not really that cheap in the UK, and you'll spend tons on electricity or gas to cook it. I think if money is an issue then TO should also take cost of preparing the food into account.
when we are talking about roaster chickens, they usually come precooked-rotesserie chickens. and then they do not need to spend "a ton" of money cooking them4 -
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B&m, home bargains1
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Buy whole roaster chickens on sale. One chicken will serve you 3 times over. You can eat dinner, use leftover shredded meat for another meal, and then freeze the bones to make homemade chicken stock for soup - just add water, celery, carrots, onions, garlic, salt & pepper, bay leaf and some white cooking wine...so easy, cheap, nutritious and yummy!
Whole chickens are not really that cheap in the UK, and you'll spend tons on electricity or gas to cook it. I think if money is an issue then TO should also take cost of preparing the food into account.
when we are talking about roaster chickens, they usually come precooked-rotesserie chickens. and then they do not need to spend "a ton" of money cooking them
Ah ok. Never seen anything like it in the UK. Ok, you have lots of Chicken shops, basically fastfood shops selling all sorts of chicken things, and while they are very cheap they are not cheap in comparison to shopping at Aldi (Lidl is slight more expensive overall) and cooking fresh food. The cheapest chicken is probably an uncooked one from Aldi for about 4.50 GBP. Amount wise, with bread and for example tzatziki it's enough for two for two days.1 -
Buy whole roaster chickens on sale. One chicken will serve you 3 times over. You can eat dinner, use leftover shredded meat for another meal, and then freeze the bones to make homemade chicken stock for soup - just add water, celery, carrots, onions, garlic, salt & pepper, bay leaf and some white cooking wine...so easy, cheap, nutritious and yummy!
Whole chickens are not really that cheap in the UK, and you'll spend tons on electricity or gas to cook it. I think if money is an issue then TO should also take cost of preparing the food into account.
when we are talking about roaster chickens, they usually come precooked-rotesserie chickens. and then they do not need to spend "a ton" of money cooking them
Ah ok. Never seen anything like it in the UK. Ok, you have lots of Chicken shops, basically fastfood shops selling all sorts of chicken things, and while they are very cheap they are not cheap in comparison to shopping at Aldi (Lidl is slight more expensive overall) and cooking fresh food. The cheapest chicken is probably an uncooked one from Aldi for about 4.50 GBP. Amount wise, with bread and for example tzatziki it's enough for two for two days.
the grocery stores often have rotisserie chickens0 -
Buy whole roaster chickens on sale. One chicken will serve you 3 times over. You can eat dinner, use leftover shredded meat for another meal, and then freeze the bones to make homemade chicken stock for soup - just add water, celery, carrots, onions, garlic, salt & pepper, bay leaf and some white cooking wine...so easy, cheap, nutritious and yummy!
Whole chickens are not really that cheap in the UK, and you'll spend tons on electricity or gas to cook it. I think if money is an issue then TO should also take cost of preparing the food into account.
when we are talking about roaster chickens, they usually come precooked-rotesserie chickens. and then they do not need to spend "a ton" of money cooking them
Ah ok. Never seen anything like it in the UK. Ok, you have lots of Chicken shops, basically fastfood shops selling all sorts of chicken things, and while they are very cheap they are not cheap in comparison to shopping at Aldi (Lidl is slight more expensive overall) and cooking fresh food. The cheapest chicken is probably an uncooked one from Aldi for about 4.50 GBP. Amount wise, with bread and for example tzatziki it's enough for two for two days.
the grocery stores often have rotisserie chickens
I stand corrected: it does exist: https://www.sainsburys.co.uk/shop/gb/groceries/sainsburys-roast-whole-chicken-(approx-900g---1100g)
But it's not very cheap. Ok, it states it's 900gr (2lbs). but that's of course with bones. I'd guess this would last a family of 4 about a dinner. Thus this is a lot of money for something that is not really worth it.3 -
Theoldguy1 wrote: »
NOPE it surely does not. There are ways around this. #creativity1 -
Buy whole roaster chickens on sale. One chicken will serve you 3 times over. You can eat dinner, use leftover shredded meat for another meal, and then freeze the bones to make homemade chicken stock for soup - just add water, celery, carrots, onions, garlic, salt & pepper, bay leaf and some white cooking wine...so easy, cheap, nutritious and yummy!
Whole chickens are not really that cheap in the UK, and you'll spend tons on electricity or gas to cook it. I think if money is an issue then TO should also take cost of preparing the food into account.
when we are talking about roaster chickens, they usually come precooked-rotesserie chickens. and then they do not need to spend "a ton" of money cooking them
Ah ok. Never seen anything like it in the UK. Ok, you have lots of Chicken shops, basically fastfood shops selling all sorts of chicken things, and while they are very cheap they are not cheap in comparison to shopping at Aldi (Lidl is slight more expensive overall) and cooking fresh food. The cheapest chicken is probably an uncooked one from Aldi for about 4.50 GBP. Amount wise, with bread and for example tzatziki it's enough for two for two days.
the grocery stores often have rotisserie chickens
Which in the UK are tiny and really expensive1 -
Buy whole roaster chickens on sale. One chicken will serve you 3 times over. You can eat dinner, use leftover shredded meat for another meal, and then freeze the bones to make homemade chicken stock for soup - just add water, celery, carrots, onions, garlic, salt & pepper, bay leaf and some white cooking wine...so easy, cheap, nutritious and yummy!
Whole chickens are not really that cheap in the UK, and you'll spend tons on electricity or gas to cook it. I think if money is an issue then TO should also take cost of preparing the food into account.
when we are talking about roaster chickens, they usually come precooked-rotesserie chickens. and then they do not need to spend "a ton" of money cooking them
Ah ok. Never seen anything like it in the UK. Ok, you have lots of Chicken shops, basically fastfood shops selling all sorts of chicken things, and while they are very cheap they are not cheap in comparison to shopping at Aldi (Lidl is slight more expensive overall) and cooking fresh food. The cheapest chicken is probably an uncooked one from Aldi for about 4.50 GBP. Amount wise, with bread and for example tzatziki it's enough for two for two days.
the grocery stores often have rotisserie chickens
And it's often a loss leader item in U.S. grocery stores -- sold very cheaply just to get you in the door, in hopes you'll buy other stuff. When they're on sale, they're often cheaper than a raw roasting chicken, although they generally aren't as plump as a raw roaster.1 -
Buy whole roaster chickens on sale. One chicken will serve you 3 times over. You can eat dinner, use leftover shredded meat for another meal, and then freeze the bones to make homemade chicken stock for soup - just add water, celery, carrots, onions, garlic, salt & pepper, bay leaf and some white cooking wine...so easy, cheap, nutritious and yummy!
Whole chickens are not really that cheap in the UK, and you'll spend tons on electricity or gas to cook it. I think if money is an issue then TO should also take cost of preparing the food into account.
when we are talking about roaster chickens, they usually come precooked-rotesserie chickens. and then they do not need to spend "a ton" of money cooking them
Ah ok. Never seen anything like it in the UK. Ok, you have lots of Chicken shops, basically fastfood shops selling all sorts of chicken things, and while they are very cheap they are not cheap in comparison to shopping at Aldi (Lidl is slight more expensive overall) and cooking fresh food. The cheapest chicken is probably an uncooked one from Aldi for about 4.50 GBP. Amount wise, with bread and for example tzatziki it's enough for two for two days.
the grocery stores often have rotisserie chickens
I stand corrected: it does exist: https://www.sainsburys.co.uk/shop/gb/groceries/sainsburys-roast-whole-chicken-(approx-900g---1100g)
But it's not very cheap. Ok, it states it's 900gr (2lbs). but that's of course with bones. I'd guess this would last a family of 4 about a dinner. Thus this is a lot of money for something that is not really worth it.
But you also said that the energy for cooking a raw chicken at home would cost "a ton." Perhaps you can do the math and get back to us on which is the better option?
And do we have some reason for believing the OP, who hasn't been back, is in the U.K.?
ETA: sorry about the tone of the first paragraph -- I was trying for something less snarky than "instead of criticizing other people's ideas, maybe you could offer one of your own," but I think I really missed the boat. Is your point that in the U.K., no form of chicken -- raw or cooked -- is budget-conscious, given energy costs?
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Buy whole roaster chickens on sale. One chicken will serve you 3 times over. You can eat dinner, use leftover shredded meat for another meal, and then freeze the bones to make homemade chicken stock for soup - just add water, celery, carrots, onions, garlic, salt & pepper, bay leaf and some white cooking wine...so easy, cheap, nutritious and yummy!
Whole chickens are not really that cheap in the UK, and you'll spend tons on electricity or gas to cook it. I think if money is an issue then TO should also take cost of preparing the food into account.
Whole chickens are the cheapest meat here in the US - is that not true in the UK?
A 5 pound spatchcocked chicken cooks in only 50 minutes at 425 degrees F.
https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10706093/spatchcocked-chicken-where-have-you-been-all-my-life0
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