how to budget

squeaky

If you check out the Shopping section of the MEGA Index sticky there are all sorts of threads that will help you and quite a number of threads listed under budgeting.

HTH

Bargain_Rzl

Hermia wrote:

Anyway, one thing you could do is make healthy/cheap food that looks like fast food. Pizzas are one example. They are cheap to make and can be as healthy/unhealthy as you wish.

And if they won't eat pizzas with healthy toppings, be resourceful - you can be sneaky and blend various fresh veg into tomato topping so they eat it without knowing it's there

vastsarah_2

hi paul,my 17 year old is moaning about lack of food and fizzy in the house.i just tell him to buy his own and we dont have fizzy because of his adhd brother and not every food is snack food some times u need to spend more than 5 minutes making things to eat!
give them a day a week to start with to do the tea,show them how to make cakes and buns,jellys ect.
i wish you luck as its hard to change there eating habbits as i know!!!!
from sarah

ms_london

As kids we didnt have a choice, and we either ate what was there or went without.

Kids are too darn fussy nowadays!! A lot of them are spoilt brats!!

calleyw

ms_london wrote:

As kids we didnt have a choice, and we either ate what was there or went without.

Kids are too darn fussy nowadays!! A lot of them are spoilt brats!!

But who is to blame. The parents, they are the ones that pander to them in the first place.

Seems nowadays that it is the children that run the home and not the parents.

But back to the subject. I am only 33 so not that old by most peoples standards. But I to was brought up on the if you don't eat it then you get nothing else. And I to was made to sit to the table until it was. And my mother never served anything really horrid like tripe. Just good home cooking like shepherds pie, roasts etc.

Now my BIL was really cruel when his children where little they would be served it up again and again for meal times until they eat it.

Not sure I would go that far. But if children don't have chips/burgers/fizzy/sweets and chocolates all the time then when they do they will enjoy, savour it even more. It is the Tightwad Gazette Book by Amy Dacyczyn. She say that is the wow factor. So if you have something everday day that it is nothing special. But if you only have that thing once a month then it becomes very special and you enjoy and savour it so much more. Very interesting read and worth a hunt down if you can.

Think I might see if I can find my copy if I did not give it away. And have a re-read.


Yours


Calley

[Deleted User]

paul10mm wrote:

Hi all
Hope you can help wife and i both just about to go bankrupt so really need to cut back! we have avereged £85/100 week on food in the past for the 4 of us and i know its got to get lower!Problem is too fussy kids 12 and 10 they just wont eat anything they dont like they know the situation so far we have got them to have mince and pasta a few times a week but rest of time its a real struggle they want pizzas and fizzy any advice???

Hello Paul,
I'm sorry to hear of your troubles ,but as most of the others have said your children are old enough to realise that what they want and what you can afford are two different things . Teach them NO and EAT WHATS IN FRONT OF YOU OR GO HUNGRY.
I was brought up with rationing,and believe me fizzy pop was definetly off the menu. I ate what was on the plate.You have enough problems without any more .It's called TOUGH LOVE but it will be worth it in the end. Who is boss in your house you or the kids. Think what obnoxious adults they will become if they are allowed to get away with it.
PUT YOU FOOT DOWN NOW .It will hurt at first but they will survive .
Good luck, and remember no child yet has died of a tantrum
P.S. I have seven grandchildren and they have at various times ried their luck with Granny,but it's got them nowhere

System

Hi Paul, best advice i can give you is to go through your shopping list and stick to basic food - cut out all the rubbish. I went from spending over £100 a week down to £75, which helped me enormously with my credit card debt.

I shop online now, picking up the odd code from here or there and spend ages on my shopping list, putting stuff in my virtual basket, and then going through it and chucking out the rubbish before submitting it. It seems to work for me.:D

kiwichick

Hi Paul,

The best bitof advice I can think to give you is to write EVERYTHING you spend down in in a spending diary. I used think kid myself that Ionlyspent £75 per week on food when that was really how much I was spending on the main shop. There were ALWAYS trips to the corner shop for milk, bread etc. If I took the kids with me we would inevitably end up buying sweets as well, if you are going 2 or 3 times a week it soon adds up. Writing all these little "extras" down makes you realise what you are really spending and can really shock you.

I have found that by doing a larger shop online rather than instore sees me spending less as I dont have the kids to pester me for things. By shopping fortnightly or even monthly I can take advantage of bulk buys like 12 packs of loo roll where before I would have bought 4 per week. There are vouchers for use online at the vouchers threads which more than cover the cost of delivery so not only are you having it delivered to your door you are saving a pound or two as well

Link to vouchers threads here; http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/forumdisplay.html?f=38

I dont where you shop but dont be adverse to giving places like ALDI/LIDL, your local butcher or market a go.They really can be cheaper, you just have to open to trying a different brand.

I dont know whether your food budget is the only area you are having problems with or not. If it is an overall budgeting problem then the budget planner is a really good place to start.

http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/cgi-bin/viewnews.cgi?newsid1089226742,17582,

It might take you a few mintues to fill in but gives a down to the penny breakdown of spending. You can then go to the various pages on this site for help on cutting down in specific areas. And DONT BE AFRAID TO ASK. We are all in similar situations here and I have had nothing but help from the folks on MSE.

The guys and gals on "Debtfree Wannabe"

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/forumdisplay.html?f=76

are a great bunch too and will give you advice when asked.

All in all, WELL DONE for making a start. You'll soon be into the swing ofthings MSE style. Remember,we are all here to help. Anymore questions, just ask.

Al.

Tina_D

Hi Paul,
I have a 9 yr old that eats everything, a 7 yr old thats very fussy and a 3 year old that would live on sweets if i let him. I decided that I would start 'proper' cooking, (the kind of meals found in the recipe thread on this board). I wrote a menu for 2 weeks and only bought what i needed. We ate something different every night for 2 weeks. I told the 3 boys and DH that as we were all trying these recipes for the first time we all had try a bit of everything, and by try i mean 3 or 4 fork fulls. If someone refused then they could leave the table but wouldnt get anything until the next mealtime. By the end of the 2 weeks they had all got the hint. The lasting side effect of this rule is that whereas before my 7 year old would make a face and refuse to even try something if he didnt like the look of it now he doesnt bat an eyelid and trys everything. You cant ask for more than that.Some meals were more of a success than others, but there are plenty to try and once you have built up your cupboard basics then watch your shopping bill go down. As for treats then fairy cakes, cookies, muffins wont take you 5 mins and they are much nicer than shop bought.
You have definately come to the right place, my only problem with this site is that it is addictive. Be warned, in 6 months or so you'll have a question about making your own jam or pickling eggs. It happens to the best of us i'm afraid!
Good luck with it all,
Tina

Penny-Pincher!!

Hi Paul

I used to have a fussy eater (dd age 11) but then looking back to before we went old style and cooking properly etc-my OH & I as parents were to blame. We were both working FT and had good incomes, so it was easier for us-when we got in from work, to order a take away and DD got accustomed to all this crap food..and although tasty was full of bad fats, hardly and goodness and totally unhealthy :eek:

My DD wasnt used to eating proper meals and maybe this is whats happened in your case. Although we had roast dinners on a sunday which I used to say I did myself :rolleyes: they were all pre-packed from M&S/Waitrose and you just bunged in the oven..so again the food wasnt proper food and I was just being lazy but hey...its the last thing you want to do when youve done a 14hr day

So my DD's and our tastebuds were all over the place, because it wasnt proper food.

In the past 12 months, we've started mealplaning for the full week and have the occasional treat of a take away, but we do have egg and HM chips once a week All other meals are made now from scratch and we have roasts, bangers and mash, shepards pie, chill, curries, toad in hole, stews, HM chips, HM lasagnas, HM pizzas etc weekly. The taste and quality of the food is excellent and i thoroughly enjoy eating them and are wholesome and full of goodness too. Ive always been good at cooking but just got very very lazy.

18 months ago our weekly foodbill (only from M&S/Waitrose) was about £100 a week plus about 4 take aways a week :eek: Now we spend about £30 a week and eat very well and healthy. We all have plenty of fresh fruit and veg daily and because of my illnesses am constantly scoffing my face

We have crisps and biccies in the house but in moderation...well apart from me..lol. DD is alowed 1 bag of crisps and 1 biscuit each day and as much fruit as she wants.

I was lucky with DD as she eats the majority of the food served, but she knows that if she doesnt eat it-she goes without till next meal or morning.

Good Luck

PP
xx