What's the cheapest you could feed a family of four...

[santaman2000]

Sadly here the climate is not suitable unless in hot house, last time i was in your part of the world; staying with friends, they had orange and lemon trees in their garden. it was great just to walk down the path to get them directly off the tree.

Yeah I thought it might not be. But I wasn't sure as even over here they're grown in climates as cold as Colorado.

 

[udamiano]

Tonight is homemade spicey butternut squash soup with turkey, noodles, and crusty bread. Easily feeds four hungry people for a total cost of £5, less depending whats in the cupboard.

1 butternut squash = £1.50
2 carrots = £0.10
2 potatoes large = £0.15
l.5 ltr of chicken stock (homemade, just keep the bones in the freezer, and make when needed)
250gr Turkey =£1.97 (from Morrisons)
teaspoon of cumin = (already had) packet cost about 75p from Asian shops, and lasts a good while
1 inch piece of ginger (already had) about £1 but you only use a little and freeze the rest
noodles (already had) about 50p normally
chilli red (already had loose a few p each


Add veg, cumin to stock and cook until soft.

blend until smooth, and keep hot while

cut turkey into very thin strips and fry in a little oil. add chopped chillies until everything has colour.
meanwhile..
Noodles in a pan of boiling water 2 minutes drain and divide into serving bowls.
place turkey and chillies onto noodles, then cover with spicey squash soup.

very little fat, no additives, or preservatives, and very easy to make

serve hot with crusty bread, and enjoy

any left over turkey will go into a stir fry for tomorrows lunch

 

[rik_uk3]

Asking my mother, almost everyone had an allotment, on pretty much any spare ground available, and often traded amongst themselves with produce. (1lb of carrot for 1lb of parsnips etc). She grew up in Hay Mills in Birmingham in the 1940s which was anything but rural.
My Dads family had chickens and pigs in the garden (posh folk LOL from Coventry) so eggs weren't a problem, and often traded for other stuff.

A real time of togetherness and inventiveness, but sadly also of harsh, and dreadful times. But as a nation we were never in better health, so got to account for something

The brummies are a tough bunch lol, gran had chickens and one pig at a time, Grand uncle 'Tosh' was the rabbit man, the family always had rabbit meat, granddad and his sons had 'allotments', the whole garden too was for vegetables. The Anderson shelter (my 'den' when growing up) was buried, earthed over and stuff grown on it. People grew what they could where they could and sharing amongst neighbours and a communal cooking session was not uncommon. They were in Yardley Wood Birmingham.

 

[udamiano]

The brummies are a tough bunch lol, gran had chickens and one pig at a time, Grand uncle 'Tosh' was the rabbit man, the family always had rabbit meat, granddad and his sons had 'allotments', the whole garden too was for vegetables. The Anderson shelter (my 'den' when growing up) was buried, earthed over and stuff grown on it. People grew what they could where they could and sharing amongst neighbours and a communal cooking session was not uncommon. They were in Yardley Wood Birmingham.

They were indeed. The many factories of Birmingham and Coventry used to be hard places to work and the blokes used to play hard as well. I remember you could get absolutely anything made, if you knew who to ask,no matter what it was, little garage engineering shops, under railway bridges, or tucked away in peoples sheds. Some brilliant engineers learnt their trade in that area.

I know yardley very very well. I grew up around there, although I hail from Coventry initially, most of my early childhood (early 70's) was around Hay Mills and Yardley/ Sheldon.
my Grandmother her brother, and her sisters, and their parents each had a house in a row in Ada Road (the old terraced types with the garden up steps) and they always used to share the cooking, even well into the nineties. two of the gardens were converted into growing veg, the end house had a German lady who escaped Germany in 1938. and she used to do all the cured meats. and her husband used to make my mother toys at Christmas. I don't think my Gran ever set foot in a supermarket in her entire life.. it all came from either the garden, or the small family run shops that used to dot the area (all gone now) ah for those simpler times.

 

[rik_uk3]

The house was right outside the No13 bus stop. People often think of the Blitz as being London but because of the industry Birmingham was very heavily bombed in WW2. My playgrounds were down the 'bombers', areas that back in sort of 1958-65 were just that, area's that had been bombed and still not sorted and we used to play in the wrecked houses/sites/cellars. A lot of my early 'toys' were army steel helmets, backpacks, gas masks, uniforms etc.

 

[rik_uk3]

double post edit

 

[S.C.M.]

not going particularly cheap, I could probably spend 2-3€ a day on food (one person). Me and my sisters figured that out, and that I was more expensive because of meat and the fact I'm a (thin) big eater

however students like me can get very good meals provided for lunch for 1.42€(I think). For financially hard-up people, there are two "escalões": "escalão A" which means books, pens, etc. are paid for, along with canteen meals; and "Escalão B" which is half price version of "A".
The Portuguese are very big on good meals (365 ways of cooking bacalhau).

 

[udamiano]

The house was right outside the No13 bus stop. People often think of the Blitz as being London but because of the industry Birmingham was very heavily bombed in WW2. My playgrounds were down the 'bombers', areas that back in sort of 1958-65 were just that, area's that had been bombed and still not sorted and we used to play in the wrecked houses/sites/cellars. A lot of my early 'toys' were army steel helmets, backpacks, gas masks, uniforms etc.

Very little of that area changed until well into the late 70s i remember the bomb holes but not the houses, they were long gone when i was a kid. the field were bought by a sweet factory in the 80s then turned into an industrial estate. all the old small businesses along the Coventry road have gone and replaced by fast food joints and the such. The old police station by the Yardley common became a pub about 20+ years ago... time marches on..

 

[locum76]

I got 1.5kg of Sea Trout for £5 the other day in the Supermarket as it's sell by date was up. As other's have suggested the core diet could be cheap then supplemented with this kind of lucky meal.