The 20£ a week challenge!!!How to do SW on 20£ a week!

judywoody

Full Member
Hey guys, my husband and I are really skint this month and I just worked out that we have 20£/week left this month. Bills are all paid - my hubby started a new job and we had to live off my part time wage (still earned too much to receive any benefits).

We might get some benefits but I don't know how long it'll take to process the forms so I'd rather not rely on it.

We don't have to pay for petrol as we don't have a car - my hubby got a bus pass from his new job so he doesn't need to pay for transport fares either. I work from home so no bus fares there either.

But I have some appointments next week and I will use my bike as much as possible. The only thing left is the odd bus fare when I can't use my bike (1.80£ or 3.40 £ return) and obviously food. Oh and a gift for someone who is getting married..wah!! But I might just bake her a little wedding cake for which I got the ingredients anyway. They will only have a small ceremonyl.

I have food left in the freezer and cupboards so I will raid them first.

I will have to cater for my husband AND myself so I need some money saving tips (with regards to food as well as other tips and tricks) - especially because I am on SW...:cry:

We will be ok next month but that'll be a looong 3 weeks until then...

Any idea??
 
Oh and I would like to spend no more than 10-15£ on food just to cover any eventualities...
 
Have you seen the student menu plan on the slimming world website that might be helpful to you. Hugs Crystal xx
 
Thanks - I can't find it though :-( Do you have the link?
 
You can buy store brand pasta for about 10p per bag. If you like meat try a frozen food shop like farmfoods, they are fairly cheap and frozn veg from there too. Good luck, if you dont mind lots of pasta im sure you can do it
 
There have been a lot of threads recently on here about SW on the cheap if you have a nosey around. But my main advice to you would be to go green - this is what I do on my 'lean' weeks and it always works out cheaper. I also pick up bits and pieces at places like home and bargain. They always have stuff like mug shots, pasta and sauce, tinned tuna, crackers etc cheaper than the supermarket.
 
Do you have a local market? I've recently discovered mine and it is amazing!!

I managed to get 4portions of chicken, 10 slices of steak (he gave me 6 free sausages to) 1lb of cherries, 2punnets of strawberries, 1punnet of grapes, a huge supermarket sized tray of mushrooms, a lettuve and 12 on-the-vine tomaroes for £16.50!

It's all locally grown qnd amazingly tasty!
 
Lots of veg ,get those near the sell by date roast them then add to passata or tinned tomatoes to make pasta sauce
Or boil veg in a couple of stock cubes and blitz to make veg soup.
Eggs can be eaten so many ways and can be good value
 
Tesco value penne pasta is 18p a bag and very nice, you could add tin of chopped tomatoes or passata. italian herbs if you have these, a garlic glove, I cook one or two chicken breasts one probably enough for two peope, a couple of rashers of bacon, one onion. I cook the pasta and drain. cook chicken, bacon, garlic, onion, add to the pasta, tinned tomatoes and serve. You can also put a little grated cheese on top and pop in oven to brown. All the family love this and I serve with frozen veggies, ie tesco value mixed veg approx 65p pack. I then heat it up next day any leftovers.

or you can make a tomato pasta sauce to top the cheap pasta with? ie tinned chopped tomatoes, garlic, onion, basil simmer and serve? You can add any veggies to it you have too if you wish and some add a tsp of sweetner to it to taste

buy 15 value eggs for £1.48 ish between two of you you can make loads with them

value long grain rice is about 70p and will go along way with two of you.

You could buy a larger pack of mince and split it to make about 3 meals for two people so could make a chilli, a bolognese, homemade burgers.

A 5kg bag of value potatoes is about £1.70 and again goes a long way, value baked beans etc.
 
Unfortunately we don't have farm shops round here..but I appreciate all your tipps! Off now to get eggs and passata :)
 
Pasta is good ..... cheap pasta, add philadelphia light (hexb on a green day) chop up some cucumber and mix together.

SW chips, big heap of them with baked beans, and nimble wholemeal bread ... mmmm nom

Eggs ... add and egg to that ^^^^^ or do an omlette, with 42g mozzerella cheese, add a bit of a salad to it ..... or do it with SW chips. Or scrambled eggs on toast (2 x nimble whomeal hexb)


Plenty of cheapy options to keep you going ;)
 
Onions are cheap and make a lovely soup with an oxo cube.
Make sure you 'fry' the onions on a low heat for a long time (about 20 mins) until caramelised and to get the sweetness out of them first. Add stock, Black pepper a bay leaf and simmer for about 20 mins. If too thin add a tsp cornflour (1 syn) mixed with 2 tbsp cold water and whisk in. Or if you want it totally syn free try potato flakes to thicken.


Sweetcorn Chowder recipe from Tesco Sweetcorn chowder - Recipe - Tesco Real Food

Absolutely lovely especially if you add lots of Paprika. Use whatever onions you have, tinned sweetcorn and if you don't have chives you can use the green tops of spring onions (the bit usually thrown away!)

Oh and remember making cress eggs at school? well why not buy a packet of cress seeds and make cress on your windowsill, using Kitchen paper and any shallow dish. Use as a lettuce cheap as cheaps!

Tesco Value Pasta Sauce is 18p a jar and 5 syns, so between two of you 2.5 syns, it works out cheaper than tinned toms, chuck in any veg you like.
 
I am the same always work to a tight budget, i have 2 children as well.
Planning & shopping around is the key.
Home bargains and BMs do items so much cheaper, things like sugar i picked up a couple of bags the other day they were 69p ber bag where as in our local cost cutter its £1.19 per bag. coffee, tea and hot chocolate is cheaper too. Ive banned all crap out of the cupboards that saves a bit, i used to stock up on crisps and biscuits etc, a great temptation for me but mainly bought for the children and hubbie.
Everyone has a packed lunch, I only buy exactly whats to go in them for the week and hide them so they cant be eaten by the family, school meals are now £1.90 per day per child and hubbie would spend about £5 per day so that saves alot. Morrisons have good offers on fruit and veg and i think they are good quality too. And i try to hold back £5 or so for fruit and veg re stock half way through the week. I do tend to shop around to get as much for my money as possible, but that does take up a bit of time. some times if i am busy i just go to the super market or do it online but it always suprises me how much less i get for the money.
 
Asda have got 3 packets of Ainsley Harriot Cous Cous for £1, I serve mine with roasted vege and a small piece of salmon, you can get 2 bags of 4 salmon at Asda for £5 (frozen dept) they are quite thick actually and if you flaked it up you could probably get away with having half each if you are really strapped. Asda also have 4 tins Branson Beans for £1 and for a treat they have Go Ahead Crispy Slices for £1 at the moment too. Cheap meal, fry some onion, some mushrooms and some garlic, then add to long spaghetti. Also cowboy pie, layer baked beans, fried onions and either slices of potato or mashed potato in a casserole dish and bake in the oven, can add a bit of cheese to the top if you want.

HTH:D
 
I have to agree, Green days are the cheaper options - Tomato and onion pasta, Egg chips and beans, these are all reasonable meals.

For brekkies - perhaps get a value brand cereal (fake weetabix!) and some value milk.

Buy frozen bags of veggies - these can last a whole week for 2 and are usually just over £1 a bag.

Up your water intake - its free!!! and Morrisons currently have Robinsons NAS Cordial at 50p a bottle.

Hope you can work out a meal plan and buy what you need - i think you will do it! xxx
 
when I am on a green day and skint I have a big bowl of pasta (value) with baked beans (value) mixed in and a little grated cheese on top. A very cheap hot meal!!!
 
Ive just been to morrisons and picked up some good sw offers - muller six packs two for £3 laughing cow 16 for £1 Quorn sausages £1 activia fat free 8 pack £2. Plus they always have fruit and veg on offer. Ive told hubs we are going back there all the time!
 
The other thing you can do is pick up meat from the "whoopsey" section where it is reduced and freeze. We bought soooo much meat last week for less than £5!
 
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