Gosh! Where to even start??

Laurenbelle

I have been reading this board ALL morning and my brain is fried with ideas but how do i place them in order of what to do first?? I was thinking of opening a word doc and copying and pasting recipes as i come across ones that would suit me and my family and maybe another one for cleaning stuff etc but wow i am feeling a little overwhelmed. Any ideas on how to organise all of this fantastic knowledge?
Thank you very much!!

mumoftwo

Small steps is the answer! You decide what is most important to you. If it is saving money on grocery shopping, do that first. At the top there is a "sticky" with the grocery challenge, lots of good ideas in there such as menu planning and setting yourself a budget.

There is also a recipe index where you can find lots of great recipes

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=235198

If you want to get more organised with your home and cleaning, join/read the flylady thread, there is a list of what to clean each day, and they are very friendly on there and you will get lots of support.

Just take it a little at a time.

And welcome by the way

Essex-girl_2

Yep, agree with mumoftwo - start with baby steps.

When I see a recipe on here or anywhere else on the web I copy and paste it into a word doc and have a recipe folder. There's loads in there but its so much easier than having bits of paper everywhere.

I will say spend time on here getting recipes coz there are brilliant ones then start menu planning incoporating some new recipes each week. Then you could naturally progress onto the grocery challenge.

I still have not joined the FL thread but that is my aim this year at some point!

geordie_joe

For recipes, I came across this the other day

http://www.mediaweb.connectfree.co.uk/softcuis.html

I haven't tried it my self, but it's free and looks like it might be useful.

SunnyGirl

I would agree with the two posters above - small steps. Decide where you want to start reducing your spends first - cleaning products, cooking, washing etc and then go from there.

I personally started by doing an inventory of my fridge, freezer & cupboards then doing a menu plan based on what was in there. I made my shopping list out at the same time so I knew exactly what I needed to buy that week. I also looked at making the meals go further - e.g. adding extra veggies, lentils etc and tried to freeze a portion from each meal for future non cooking nights. I tried a new recipe once a fortnight and if it went down well I gradually incorporated it into my menus.

To start the menu plan I made a list of every main meal that the family ate. There was about 20 things on it only but it's grown with adding new meals. I keep the plans going back 3 months so all I have to now is mish mash it around depending on things like the warm weather, evening plans, children plans, work & if I'm going to be here to cook or if they'll have to help themselves.

I hope that this rambling has helped in some way

Laurenbelle

Thank you !! Those ideas have absolutely helped! What i think i am going to do first is change some of my menus from easy ready made to home made for example Wed is Pizza nights so think i am going to make my own and for the nights we have spagetti bolognaise i am going to make home made spagetti sauce and maybe ... maybe home made mac and chee the only thing is my 4 year old is a huge of the box variety and won't touch mine. I am also thinking of starting meals with a starter soup to cut down on the need for an extra big meal so maybe chicken noodle this week. Ok off to look for recipes! Thank you again!

EssexHebridean

I started meal planning by doing a full inventory of what was in my frezer, fridge and cupboards. From there you can think along the lines of working out what meals you can make without having to buy many more ingredients, and also to make best use of what you have which will go past its best. For example, you might think of making, say, fish pie, but although you have the spuds for the mash, you also have some leftovers from a sunday roast that you were planning to turn into a stew. If you use the spuds on the pie then you'll have none for the stew, and the fish pie ingredients are all frozen so will keep......you're better to make the stew and save the frozen fish for a pie another week.

For me, the first real push was to stop wasting food. We've never really been too bad, but without question I waste a lot less now than I used to now I shop from a list and meal plan.

rosieben

Laurenbelle wrote: »

I have been reading this board ALL morning and my brain is fried with ideas but how do i place them in order of what to do first?? I was thinking of opening a word doc and copying and pasting recipes as i come across ones that would suit me and my family and maybe another one for cleaning stuff etc but wow i am feeling a little overwhelmed. Any ideas on how to organise all of this fantastic knowledge?
Thank you very much!!

Welcome to the boards Lauren :wave:

There's so much information here it can be overwhelming. It might be helpful to read Welcome to Old Style which gives a few useful pointers.

I wouldn't worry about collecting all the information straight away, you can find threads on any particular subject listed in Squeaky's most excellent Old Style Index and if you can't find what you want, just ask Good luck!

Aril

I must admit that I was a bit like a scatter gun when I first started:D However, you will settle down promise! As others have said see what catches your eye and try to incorporate one or two ideas that appeal per week otherwise you might end up overwhelmed. As time goes on and you get used to doing something an OS way you'll no longer need to think about it and then you'll be ready to try something else. I can honestly say that I have learnt loads and do many things completely differently to 5 years ago when I first started noseying on the board but now that I'm used to it it just happens naturally.
Aril

SunnyGirl

Laurenbelle wrote: »

... the only thing is my 4 year old is a huge of the box variety and won't touch mine....QUOTE]
I had this with my DS2 he would happily eat bolognese if he thought it'd been made with Dolmio but not if he knew I'd made it from a jar of pasatta & added herbs, onion, garlic etc. It sounds ridiculous but I conned him. I made my own pasta sauce but got an empty (clean) jar out of the recycling box & just left it on the worktop. He naturally assumed that it was Dolmio in the sauce & guzzled it down happily :rotfl:

I think that the trick is to start slowly with them - make homemade pizza into a big deal by enlisting the childrens help to make it - it's amazing what they will eat once they've prepared it! I found that my biggest mistake was to serve up new, homemade foods several times in one week. I ended up with a mutiny around the dinner table & a lot of food in the dog HTH

Edited to add: All of them eat anything that's served up now as the only alternative is to make their own!

lucy*locket

Welcome Lauren, I'm new to MSE too, I discovered it about 6 weeks ago and am well and truly hooked:D. It's a bit overwhelming, so much information. I've just been taking it all in and trying some of the tips, tried a couple of recipes, gradually I'm starting to think like a MSE and reverting back to an Old Style lifestyle. I've saved money on shopping but have a store cupboard full of bargains, I'm using food up before going to the shops, and I've used vouchers to reduce my shopping bill. Thanks to all the great people on these forums:T:T:T