Is it possible for this girl to be permanently OS?

jo1972

Hi all

Apologies in advance for the mammoth post, I only intended on saying hello

I am a frequent lurker of this thread and have picked up loads of ideas, particularly cooking ones over the past couple of years. I am trying to get my life in order, money is tight since I took a job with half the salary of my previous one but now work in a school so get home early and get the holidays to spend with my 3 children :eek: (dunno if I thought that through well :rolleyes: ).

Now I need to learn a serious lesson in taking on an OS life, I have absolutely no idea for example how you all make a chicken last 3 days there are 5 of us in the house but even if just 3 of us have a chicken roast, and I usually buy a big chicken, it will all be eaten that evening....are we just pigs or am I doing something wrong?? I did notice that there seemed to be more meat when cooking it in the slow cooker though (but we still ate it ).

I love cooking and would love to start cooking more from scratch and freezing for future use, not only for money purposes and convenience but also to try and improve my kids diets by hiding a few veggies in there (loved the post on the slow cooker thread recently about cooking a roast in stock and veg and blitzing the stock and veg to be used as a gravy...loads of hidden veggies!!).

My garden is a jungle in (slow) progress, I hope to grow my own veggies and herbs but definately will not be ready to do anything in till next year, I'm taking it slow as I've tried previously and became overwhelmed with the pure jungle'ness of it all....I've made a bit of a start and am enjoying doing half hour every day or so ready for a working garden next year, so will be looking out for tips of the easiest things to grow Maybe I could get some pots and planters and grow stuff this year to get into it before I start in earnest next year??

I am a serial money spender/waster, if I have money in my pocket then I will spend it. If I've had a bit of a day at work and go to Tesco then I am likely to buy something quick and easy, not convenience microwave stuff, don't like that, but something that costs a fortune all the same, for example, I buy my rice in little packets instead of in bulk like I used to just for convenience chuck in the trolley kind of thing. I buy chopped up fruit in little packets for convenience :eek:, I only shop for that day so end up in Tesco/Sainsburys every single day, in fact I'm a lost cause when shopping. OH and I went to Sainsburys on Saturday and spent over £100 and only had evening meals for Sat and Sun, today there's nothing.....I know, I know :rolleyes:.....help me!!!

I am going shopping today and plan to be more frugal. I have 2 pork joints in the freezer, one will be coming out tomorrow for a roast in the SC, the other I'll save for a Sunday roast, apart from that I've nothing meat-wise. I need to start from scratch, got a few herbs and spices, probably enough rice for one meal but that's about it (we obviously must've really stocked up with that £100 shop :rolleyes: ). So, any hints or tips for my impending shop today would be good, what basics should I stock up on etc etc.

We are a family of 5, me and OH, kids are 17, 6 and 3. OH and I lurve hot food, eat more rice than potatoes but that's probably because I am not confident in doing anything other than roasties and mash. We like trying new things, eat all meat and veggies....OH doesn't like red peppers but that's about it. OH also needs to lose some weight, probably a couple of stone but I don't want to keep on at him so thought I'd make him eat healthily in secret .

So please, if you will let me, become a more regular poster on here, I am desperate to learn, save some money and get back to basics, oh, and cook loads of yummy stuff

tabitha67

Mealplan , write a shopping list and stick to it. This has helped us save £'s, and also time, because I always know what we're having for supper.

The other thing that helped out when we first started to get the shopping bills under control was to cook 2 servings of everything for about the first month or so, and freeze one serving, we we built up a stock of meals in the freezer.

skintmumof3

hiya,
you sound ust like me..lol
i always meal plan first and look on here for ideas.
then i base my shop around that. i go through my cupboards and i only buy what i need for the coming week and that includes all household and toiletries.
i also only do a tesco shop on line, otherwise i would just spend loads.
also check out for any money off codes..
hth
skint
x

mooomin

jo1972 wrote: »

I am going shopping today and plan to be more frugal. I have 2 pork joints in the freezer, one will be coming out tomorrow for a roast in the SC, the other I'll save for a Sunday roast, apart from that I've nothing meat-wise. I need to start from scratch, got a few herbs and spices, probably enough rice for one meal but that's about it (we obviously must've really stocked up with that £100 shop :rolleyes: ). So, any hints or tips for my impending shop today would be good, what basics should I stock up on etc etc.

Hey Jo!

My tips would be:

• Pasta (Big bags on offer in Asda at the moment)

• Tinned tomatoes/sweetcorn - can't tell the difference between shops own and branded myself

• Rice

• I also buy pasta sauce which isn't OS of me, but does mean that if I forget to take dinner out of the freezer in the morning we can have pasta n sauce instead of takeaway :rotfl:
• Mince - buy better brand if you can (Not "value" but maybe the next one up) as otherwise you lose a lot of weight in fat coming off it. Buy in bulk and batch cook things like chili or bolognaise for the freezer
• Chicken - when you buy a large one for roasting make soup out of the bones. Some people bake pies and things, but I'm not that OS yet!

Hope that helps!

mooomin

Ooh, also find out when things get reduced in your local shop and do you shopping then. My Morrisons reduces their bread just as I finish work, so that's when I buy most of mine. M&S near me reduces meat on Sundays in the afternoon, so I get better quality (In my opinion!) for the same as I would pay for supermarkets own.

brighterfuture_2

Hey Jo

Im trying to ghet back to being OS at the minute as my OH really isnt and has 10k of debt to show for it.

As others have said batch cooking/bakin, and freezing is great. Ido all the usual suspects curry, sag bol, lasagna, moussaka. Ive just dusted down my slow cooker as OH and I both dont get home til gone six most evening and far to often he has been able to seduce me into having a take away, (that we really cant afford at the minute :rolleyes:).
Plan was to grow my own veg this summer but at the minute we are in housing limbo due to finding out our landlord has the house up for sale, just after we had moved in :mad:. So Im planning for next year already

Days out with the kids will be another one you may want to look at now you'll have the same holidays. We always take a HM picnic with us and look for vouchers for reduced admission or free activities days at museums, stately homes and festivals, which are all good fun

chivers1977

Before you go shopping STOPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPP!

What have you got in your cupboards/freezer/fridge? There must be some meals in there!!!

Gigervamp

With regards to the chicken, it does sound like you need to control the portions a tad. There are 3 here who eat meat and I find that a 2 kilo-ish chicken will do the sunday roast, (slice off the breast meat. There's usually some of that left afterwards) sandwiches for hubby's lunch for 3 days, (using the rest of the breast meat and possibly picking some of the other meat off the carcass) drumsticks for DS to snack on and the rest of the meat becomes either a curry or pie/pasties. And of course, the bones become stock.

I realise that there are two more people in your family, but the breast alone *should* be enough for one meal, leaving the rest of the chicken meat for at least one other meal.

Mummyroo

Ah you also sound like me! though I am trying hard to improve! Though the thought of £100 for 2 meals is enough to make even my eyes water ! I have found meal planning a huge help, I like you used to suffer from a bad day at school and not be bothered to cook anything so end up ordering pizza or going to sainsburys for rubbish on the way home. Now I meal plan ( thanks to the threads on here) and will write down on thursday night what we will eat for the next week. I then check my cupboards and freezer to see what I have and what I need to buy, this also allows me to change plan if I find a packet of mince in the freezer that has been lurking a while so I can use it up.
I only work 2 days a week so I plan very easy quick meals for those two nights ( perhaps you could look at what days are hardest for you and do the same for those days) then I plan meals for the other days but am pretty flexible about what day I will do them on and only decide the night before to get stuff out of the freezer!
It really works, I'm still shocking for buying stuff because it's on offer but atleast a lot of the stress of deciding what to eat tonight is taken out!!
Good luck you can do it!!

Glamazon

I have just started to seriously get on board with this

Meal Plan BEFORE you go shopping
Write a shopping list and base it on what you need for the meal plan
Batch cook

Spent £50 on food and have got the following meals out of it (1 portion per person - two of us)

I got 1kg of mince (2 500g packs for £5), 16 sausages (50p for pack of 8) and 12 chicken breasts (3 packs of 4 breasts for £10)

18 portions of HM chilli & bolganese
6 portions of HM curry
2 portions of sausage casserole
4 portions of plain sausages to go with mash or jackets
6 portions of mexican chilli chicken
2 portions of chicken for chicken and egg fried rice
2 whole chicken breasts for mash and veg on a Sunday

I bulk out the curries and chillis etc with grated carrots, peppers, lentils and porridge oats!! I posted the receipes on the May grocery challenge.

Make your own rice - whatevers left freeze or make a rice pudding
Fruit - buy it on offer and then make up little food bags of it for the kids.
Roast dinners - bulk the dinner out with veg and potatoes instead of loads of meat.

Buy loads of tinned tomotoes, kidney beans, lentils - I get the value stuff

HTH

twinkle_star_2

As well as all the threads here about mealplanning and stocking your freezer and storecupboard I found this website helpful http://www.thefamilyhomestead.com

It's very american and quite religous-based but her lessons on managing a household and meal planning for a big family (8 kids!) are acually pretty helpful and detailed.