A £20 shopping list

Thank you to everyone who commented with suggestions after yesterdays post  about my theoretical ponderings on what you can buy with £20.

I came up with a list but I'm not particularly happy with it. I was trying to find ordinary things  and although it would be filling it's not really very healthy - too much bread and pastry but if you only had £20 (which is after all what a lot of people would spend on just one meal) at least you wouldn't starve! If you are already vegetarian or vegan maybe it would be easier as you would have more ideas for meals without meat. If I could have swapped lentils for the meat it would have been cheaper but I can't eat pulses.
 Dc said why snacks and a dessert? Without the dessert and biscuits there would be a few more pence for fruit but not enough to last all week and surely everyone needs a biscuit now and again? Or is it just me!
 Someone suggested a good green grocer but not everyone has one of those. Our one greengrocers in one town and Wednesday market stall  in the other town both have  no competition so I find they are not cheap. Someone else suggested a farmers market but around here they are all 'Artisan' produce and the one time I went a loaf of bread and some local cheese cost £6!!
Yellow ticket reduced produce were suggested but once again around here the one chain supermarket just does NOT reduce to pennies like I see on other blogs. Of course having a garden and growing things would stretch the budget too but many people don't have that luxury.
Frozen fruit was suggested, that's something I hadn't thought of because I've never bought it as we always have some of our own in the freezer.
And someone is bound to say " you could make a big pan of vegetable soup and eat it for lunches and dinners everyday and that would be much cheaper". Yes that's true but it would be a bit boring and I was trying to plan a normal sort of week.
I think this would be easier if you had the £80 for the month all in one go but of course a lot of people don't have that either.

So..........£20 to spend/ 2 shops/only a few things in the cupboard/3 meals a day + snacks

My £20 shopping list using the My Supermarket comparison website for Tesco and Aldi

500g value cooking bacon 80p

750g.value beef mince £2.69

400g sausage meat £1

1kg value porridge oats 75p

454g value milk powder £1.15

250g.value butter 95p

250g value baking fat 39p

1.5kg bread flour 75p

1.5kg SR flour 45p

yeast 59p

value eggs (15) £1.25

1kg value rice 40p
value spaghetti 20p

2½ kg potatoes £1.15

celery 69p

1kg carrots 55p

1kg value onions 79p

pkt value mashed potato 28p

2 tins value baked beans 48p

2 tins value tomatoes 68p

2 tins value peas 42p

pkt value stuffing mix 15p

jar value mayo 40p

jar value marmalade 27p
bag of value apples 89p
bag of value pears 89p

TOTAL£19.11

from the cupboard mixed sweet spices and curry powder, sugar stock cubes, sunflower oil, salt and pepper, tea and coffee for drinks.

This makes

3 loaves bread to have for lunches and toast for breakfast if needed
porridge for breakfasts / and or the toast

some homemade spice biscuits for snacks 

bread and marmalade pudding for one dessert if you need it

main meals

  a bacon/onion quiche feeding 2 people for 2 days,

 a pan full of beef mince/tinned tomatoes/onion/carrot/porridge oats mix to  make 2 portions spagi bol,  2 portions shepherds pie (using the packet of mash to make the potatoes last all week and probably into next week too) and 4 portions to freeze for  2 days next week 

half the sausage meat/half stuffing mix/grated apple/shortcrust pastry makes a sausage plait for 2 portions with veg and some for lunches

a vegetable curry using onions, carrots potatoes and celery
A scalloped potato meal with a little bacon in for flavouring

That's 7 main meals all served with some of the veg either tinned or carrots. I would prefer frozen peas to tinned but that is a bigger outlay.

lunches of 

vegetable soup -twice                          }                     

beans on toast                                       }            With a small piece of fruit each to follow - 

scrambled egg on toast                         }             half a pear or apple each

poached egg on toast                            }              depending on how many were in the pack

bacon sandwich                                    }

sausage plait with grated carrot salad   }

 There would be several things left so that the next week it would be possible to buy

a chicken and cheese instead of the meat

different breakfast cereal instead of porridge for variety

some dried fruit and more veg instead of some of the other buys

This is actually a lot more meat than we would eat in one week but many of the non-meat meals need extra ingredients that it wouldn't be possible to buy in the first week with only £20...if you see what I mean. I rarely use bacon in a quiche but a red pepper or something similar to bulk it up costs more than a pack of cheap bacon.
Phew..............all that working out has worn out my poor brain, I shall have to go and lie down!

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On a totally different subject - I came to conclusion that listing the books I've read this year over in a side bar would be such a long list it would push all the other things right down the page. So I've opened a separate page and if you click on Books Read 2015 at the top just under the picture you will find what I have read. Thanks to Dc at Frugal in Norfolk for giving the instructions for adding pages. I got lost when it came to tab colours etc but at least I got the page up there! If you've never read Dcs War Diaries that she has on a tab at the top of her blog - I can recommend them for a good read.

Back Soon

Sue