Yes, you can feed the family for £20 a week!
Glasgow mum Lorna Cooper, 44, was fed up of struggling with her weekly shopping bill – so she came up with a clever solution
Lorna Cooper shows us how
Growing up, my idea of cooking was boiling a kettle for some Super Noodles! My nana was a good, traditional cook, but aside from going to her house for a meal on Sundays, after Mum died when I was 11, my sister and I would largely fend for ourselves. We would go for convenience over quality because I had no idea how else to cook.
Having my daughter, Ayla, when
I was 17, was a turning point. I wanted to provide my baby with good food, so I asked Nana and she’d talk me through how to make steak pie, mince and potatoes, and her trademark Scottish broth.
I went on to have two more children and began creating basic dishes from scratch, and every time I enjoyed a meal at a friend’s house, I’d ask them for the recipe. My marriage ended and, a few years later, I met my partner, John. Between us, we have five children – my three, plus two from his previous relationship. The children are now aged
‘It’s lovely when people tell me that my advice has helped’
between 15 and 27, but so often there have been lots of hungry mouths to feed.
When I was 36, I hurt my back and had to be off work from my supermarket job. Needing to cut costs, I researched simpler, cheaper ways to shop, store food and cook.
Wanting to share what I’d learned,
I set up a Facebook page called Feed Your Family For About £20 A Week. I soon had lots of followers and realised that people really wanted help with cooking well while saving money. I approached a publisher and, in 2019, using the name of my Facebook page as the title, I brought out my first book. It was an incredible success and now, with my Facebook page hitting half a million followers, I am bringing out my second book, Feed Your Family For £20 A Week In A Hurry!, this month. I’ve learned that people aren’t just short on cash, they’re short on time, too.
I’m on a mission to show that cooking doesn’t have to involve expensive and fancy ingredients. It’s lovely when people message me to say that my advice or recipes have helped them.
I’m amazed that the young girl who lived on ready meals has become the woman I am today.