Sainsburys feed the family for a week for £50 - challenge?

Another test recipe.

Chunky chicken and vegetable soup (2 portions)

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Stock, 500ml (or one Oxo cube @ £0.08)
Carrot, 100g: £0.07
Potato 100g: £0.14
Pearl barley 25g: £0.02
Chicken 125g: £0.54
Total: £0.84

Roughly chop the chicken and vegetables, put everything into a pan and simmer for 30-40 minutes until the pearl barley is soft. Partially blitz it to thicken it up and season with salt and pepper. Dosh it into a bowl and serve with a hunk of buttered bread as per above.

I've been working out the calories as I go as well. There are about 250 calories per serving :)
 
Erm, been doing this for months.

My family (me + wife + 4yr old + 3yr old) only spend £45-£50 a week on food. 9mnth old + formula isn't included in that cost for obvious equations.

Lot's of pasta, rice, frozen chicken peices + home made tomato sauces it's quite easy. Include 1kg of cheese a week and my bacon butties for the weekend :-)

That's all from Morrisons - maybe it's easier to hit a £50 budget there rather than at Sainsburys.

Lets look at my last shopping bill:-

3ltrs sugar free orange squash
5 ltrs skimmed milk
5 ltrs whole milk
16 natural yoghurts
2x400g cheese
2xpacks of smoked bacon
4x500g packs of pasta
2x bag frozen chicken fillets
15 eggs
3x white bread
2x brown bread
4x baked beans
2 x honey dew melons
mushrooms
2x cucumber
bannanas
tangerines
apples
iceberg lettuce
cherry tomes
salad toms
frozen cod peices
sunflower spread
potatoes
sweet potatoes

£41.59

Obviously the list changes each week as we run out of stuff but only when we have a gathering or BBq does it exceed £50.

Why is it such a big deal?

Although having said that - all credit to you Jonny for taking the time to find good recipes to make it work and sharing them on. Might do a daily write up myself when I get back from Brighton on Thurs.
 
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Jonny69 said:
Sorry fella, that's not what it's about. I'm deliberately avoiding that sort of thing because I want to do it with better quality, better treated meat. I know the pack you're referring to and it's not stated as free range. Besides, it's a pack of chicken breast - I couldn't think of anything more dull to have to eat :p


I don't think I have either, they're usually red, loads of yellows and a green. We do the same, other half doesn't like the greens either :D

She actually corrected me yesterday too. The peppers from the market are mainly the long pointy Ramiro peppers, so if I'd compared like for like with the supermarket prices there would have been a much larger difference. The difference is the pointy peppers are around 4-5 for £1, whereas the normal bell peppers are around 8-9 for £1.
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Fair enough i understand where your coming from and yea chicken breast is rather dull :/ but a lot meal are a bit dull when your on a diet on low budget. However, it make the treat meals more so nicer.

Good luck with it. Be good if you could post up your recipes as being a student would love to cook budget tasty meals. Any red lentil dishes would be great as got about 3 packs of the stuff.
 
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QuickLink said:
Thighs are great on the bone. So much flavour. Yes, they're nice off the bone but sometimes on the bone is better and more tasty. Easy to debone and use the bones though.
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I dunno how much more flavour you'd get from having it on bone, most of the extra flavour is just it being leg meat not breast meat. Unless I'm having a BBQ I don't buy it on the bone, partly because I'm to lazy to cut it off...:o

Jonny69 said:
Another test recipe.
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I assume that's lunch?

amigafan2003 said:
Erm, been doing this for months.

My family (me + wife + 4yr old + 3yr old) only spend £45-£50 a week on food. 9mnth old + formula isn't included in that cost for obvious equations.
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You're the prime market for this sort of thing.:) An older couple and two young children. Just wait until both your children eat more than you and your wife combined... each...:p

Also yes, not much meat variety in there, must be a bit boring eating the same thing all the time?
 
An older couple
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Cheeky ***!

Amp34 said:
Also yes, not much meat variety in there, must be a bit boring eating the same thing all the time?
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That was just that shop - freezer currently has beef/pork in it as well and there is some lamb in the fridge for tomorrow but obviously we don't need to buy every sort of meat every week.
 
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arknor said:
they dont tell you how many calories each meal is or anything ? i would probably slowly starve eating what they suggest...
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Actually they do, in the first link but it's very very small.

Works out at an average of around 1530 calories a day, or enough for a small child/midget.
 
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