Frugal Food

For those of you who have not yet heard of A Girl Called Jack, I recommend you get straight over to her blog as soon as you finish reading this. After finding herself in financial dire straits, she started the blog as a way of sharing recipes that she was able to make for a few pence in order to feed herself and her young son on the small amount of money she had available.

She has recently started the campaign #22mealsforacoffee to highlight the difference the cost of your daily coffee could make to a family struggling to make ends meet, encouraging us to spend that money donating to the very worthwhile charity The Trussell Trust, who provide foodbanks around the country, rather than popping into Starbucks every morning.

Easy Peasy Soda bread - 32p

I decided to take on the challenge of cooking the recipes from her blog, and seeing how easily I could get my food bill down. Over the past weekend I have knocked up her Mexican Bean, Chilli and Chocolate soup, her Easy Peasy soda bread and her Kidney Bean, Carrot and Cumin falafels. I didn't want to have to buy anything new so I substituted some items for those we already had in the cupboards, and everything turned out wonderfully. According to her prices, these two meals (we had the bread with the soup) cost me 85p. Healthy, nutritious and frugal - that's the kind of meal I like!