Mardathas meal planning thread

EC12345

zarazara wrote: »

I think its a good idea to eat up everything you already have with only a limited amount of additions, ie allow yourself to buy bread,butter,tea,jam,fresh fruit and veg and nothing else until the freezer is empty and the cupboards too. meanwhile put the money you would have spent away in a savings account or jamjar. in about a month or so you will beable to start afresh with a shopping /menu list.

Hello, this is exactly what I do. There is £85 odd in my pot at the moment. I started the pot again this January so I'm not doing bad at all. I normally keep the money and then spend it on a weekend away or a special treat. :j

annie123

mardatha wrote: »

but he has decided he likes going into the shop. .

next wednesday give him £10 tell him to go and get what he wants....you're not feeling well!

zarazara

hear hear annie 123. If my OH moans I never buy the thing again. what did his last slave die of?

mags50_2

marri_lou wrote: »

My hubby is like this. He moans when his favourite yoghurts are not in house, but will not go to shops himself. So I pick them up on way home. Enough for say 20 days at 1 a day. He eats them all inside a week.

Then he moans he has no yoghurts left. He won't go to the shops. I say I'm not going to ahops again. On my own. We BOTH go to the shops. He them mumps and moans his way around the shop to the extent I vow to never go to the shops with him again. I threaten him on occasion with various items around the shop to stop him moaning. We buy in yoghurts. He eats them all inside a week

He moans he has no yoghurts. I go mad. Refuse to go to shops. Husband complains furiously and moans how no-one loves him. Sullks like a petulant child for everytime he opens the fridge.

Yoghurts are now on special. I buy in 40 because he's always wanting yoghurts. Get home with said yoghurts, unpack and proudly display my yoghurty love to husband.

Yoghurts sit in fridge. Husband decides he no-longer likes said yoghurt and switches his allegiance to beetroot. I have to now sit and eat yoghurts for the next 6 weeks solid to make sure they are not a waste of money.

For this scenario substitues yoghurts with beetroot/heinz tomato soup/heinz lentil soup/ fruit pudding/ crisps/ white stilton/ olives.

I swear I would have a simpler life with a toddler.

Oh I'm so sorry...but I'm laughing out really loud at this :rotfl::rotfl:
I think I must be one of the lucky ones...hubby only has the occasional whinge if there's no chocolate in the house...but thats about all.... I really do feel sorry for all you lot with your yoghurty hubbies... :rotfl:

---

Have just re-read this...hope I haven't offended anyone with what I put down...it was meant in the nicest possible way...it cheered me up on a horrible snow-bound evening.... I think it was your way of writing...it just sounded so comical

mardatha

Marri Lou I think you might have my husband there. it's ok. You can keep him. I'm just off to change the locks.

leiela

Goodness if my husband moaned about yogurts he knows EXACTLY what he'd get and it wouldn't be yogurt.

I guess im lucky i have my husband well trained, he gets what he's given and HE LIKES IT....

thriftlady_2

leiela wrote: »

I guess im lucky i have my husband well trained, he gets what he's given and HE LIKES IT....

Mine too;)

SunnyGirl

thriftlady wrote: »

Mine too;)

AND MINE :rotfl: He's very good & eats whatever is made without comment luckily. He was brought up on meat & potatoes and didn't start eating pasta until we got married & he can still only eat a childs portion of it but thats all. I sympathise with people with fussy dh's it must be like having awkward kids :eek:

SunnyGirl

Just read the thread through & have to say that I hide food from the 4 kids too lol!! I use big pans, the slow cooker on top of the cupboards & even the ironing basket (no chance they'll go in that!). I also buy rubbish crisps or all ready salted it's amazing how they don't disappear as quickly. I too allow free range eating of toast & fruit but try to limit cereal as the elder two boys will have 2 bowls at at time each. It's the milk too that they go through - I'm currently using 6 pints a day although thats only a pint each I suppose?!

Back to the original question though of being stuck in a rut I try to make a new meal once a fortnight & if it's popular it goes into the menu plan. I keep the plans that I've typed out for 12 weeks at a time and just rehash them each week now. I also get some great ideas from the menu planning thread each week.

Savannah02K

Oh, at the end of a tough week thank you so much for bringing back a lovely memory. My mom used to hide treats from my brother. Once she hid a packet of choc bikkies (a real treat in the early 60s in our money blighted family) in the spindryer. But then ............. yes, completely forgot about them and put the bedsheets in to spin! Priceless.

Re cutting back, I went from a two family household to a one family household, plus I was a student and only working part-time. I found like so many others here have said, best way is to give up cards and only take cash with your list to the shops. Also, walk there if poss, that way you can only buy what you know you can physically carry (think back to ye olde days when your mom used to have to carry shopping home). Since going back to work full time and doing a weekly shop (with cards) I've noticed my cupboards/freezer/cubbiehole under the stairs are groaning with food. This thread has inspired me to go back to cash only and what I can carry apart from a once a month 'big shop' for the boring stuff like loo rolls etc. Apart from anything else, when using cash I always used to save anything under a £1 and that very quickly built up. I had a 5p pot, a 10p pot, a 20p etc and emptied my purse every day. What is it in our mentality that allows us to live on very little when we have to but when we get the extra money that just gets absorbed?