Time to pull in belts again....

hot.chick

I like the family conf idea...

sounds like already know money is tight and are being supportive.

Maybe agree on 10 - 14 meals that will be good for all, and base the meal plan around those?

I think once you have a real on paper view of what meals work for all, other ideas that fit this will flow - and we can always help.

Maybe find things where the base of the meal is the same it's just the accompanyments that doffer for each?

Good luck

trigger2

What works for me is cooking up a large pack of mince, then dividing it, so cooking some with onion, toms etc for a bolognese, making some abit spicier, & keeping some plain for shepherds pie. It takes a few pans, but with differing tastes here it has certainly worked out.
Another thing I do regularly is either casseroles or the bbq pork in cola, in the slow cooker. Do big portions then you have more than one meal, which can then be padded by whatever they eat ifyswim !
Padding out here is done by hm soup, bread, or whatever carbs they eat at a meal. Hope this makes sense, I'm tired today !!

Regards

trigger

puss14

I agree with a lot of suggestions. Soup as a starter can be inexpensive and filling and perhaps desserts could be cost effective and help to fill them up- rice pudding, apple crumble and custard, pikelets etc

Perhaps also if they like kidney beans you could make tomato based bean salsa (add chilli afterwards to cater for tastes) and use this as amain or even side dish so then not so much meat is needed. Regarding your OH not eating pasta could he have bolognese sauce with rice or potato when the rest of the family has pasta? Perhaps when you are having sausages feed middle one some form of fish instead.

Maybe when meal planning plan that there will be enough leftovers for the person who wont eat the next nights meal. o if you are going to make quiche and salad make sure there is enough leftovers from previous night to feed OH. Given the options of egg which he hates or leftovers with fresh salad I am sure he will be fine especially if everyone is on board about the budget. Everyone sounds old enough and reasonable enough to understand this isnt forever and as a temporary measureit's easier to put up with. You may even find you stick doing certain things after the leak crisis has passed. Good luck.

fluffybunnies

aliasojo wrote: »

OH: Will not eat pasta of any kind, nor eggs.

Eldest: Will not eat any kind of fish

Middle one: Will only eat 'healthy things'...loads of salad/fruit/veg/baked potatoes. Wont eat things like sausages, chips etc.

Youngest: Wont eat anything highly spiced. Loves simple things like mince & tatties.

Me: Will eat anything.

1) Fish pie with lots and lots of mash on top, eldest can have the mash with some cheap sausages etc, or shephards pie for everyone (depending on what you can find cheapest)

2) Baked potatoes-don't use 'baking potatoes' the normal larger ones from a sack are good- value beans and cheese for filling

3)I notice middle one likes lots of salad, if you get a pot and some 'cut and come again' lettuce seeds you should be able to rgow lettucve indoors all year round, miles cheaper and not full of pesticides

4) Stew, full of the cheapest veg you can find (my mum always put baked beans in as well), lentils to bulk it out. MAybe serve with rice, bread or potatoes to bulk it out.

5) Pasta bake, chuck a potato in the oven for OH

6) Curry, serve youngest with some baked beans and rice as an alternative (what my mum always used to do with us)

7) Pizza- make the base by mixing self-raising flour (value is great) with water until it forms a dough, roll out and fry in a little butter, spread with watered down tomato purree (50-50, otherwise is too strong) and top with a little grated cheese and anything else that takes your fancy, plonk under grill until cheese is bubbly. Serve with the lettuce you grew earlier.

8) A cheap pudding can help cut down on the main course portions and make it cheaper, try making sponge puddings in the microwave using some value soft spread, sugar, value self-raising flour, an egg or two and some flavourings (a good one is ginger sponge <add a little ground ginger to the pudding mix> with lemon sauce <cornflour, lemon juice and water> or a chocolate sponge <just add a little cocoa>) Afraid i can't give you measurements for these as i always cook 'by eye'.

cassan

Forgive me for butting in, this has probably been mentioned before, but here in Scotland the local council is obliged by law to ensure that houses are "free from damp", which includes leaking roofs, this covers council and private houses. I'm not sure what the situation is in England.

My roof leaked for 20 years, in every room, eventually part of the ceiling collapsed. Depressing isn't it. Got a grant to sort it earlier this year - what a difference it has made!

thriftlady_2

If everyone likes fish except one can they not have eggs instead of fish. Eggs are a brilliant source of protein and are quick and easy to cook so the wouldn't be too much trouble.

For example if you are doing simple grilled fish then a poached or fried egg isn't too much extra work. Or if you make fish pie you could do an individual one with sliced boiled egg in it instead of the fish.

I'd definitely go with a big sack of spuds as everyone likes them. Simple baked spuds can make a meal with fillings of mince (spicey and not), cheese, egg, tuna and sweetcorn, beans, broccoli and cheese sauce, hummus.

floss2

Also, accompany every main meal with h/m bread & butter/spread, to fill any gaps.

aliasojo

Thanks all, very kind of you to take the time.

I should have mentioned earlier that I dont have a lot of time to cook from scratch. I'm the chief DIY'er and most of my energy is taken up with the refurb. Cooking stews or mince etc is fine as I have a pressure cooker and even if I'm late finishing up, I can always chuck stuff in there and still have dinner ready.

I dont really have time (or the energy at the moment) to go down the whole home made bread route but maybe will do when I have more time.

Will see about buying a big bag of spuds....I used to get them years ago from the milkman....until we stopped having a milkman. So much for progress....I wish he'd come back.

Told OH I'm going to do a meal plan tonight so now I've said it out loud, I'll have to do it. Thanks for the suggestions.

cassan...I got really excited when I saw your post (I'm in Scotland too). I phoned the council who told me that yes, technically you can get grants but in reality I probably wont. They have to allocate a large part of their grant budget to adaptations for the disabled and the infirm. All the new applications have to go to a panel and they decide who gets what. So someone who has little income for instance will be classed higher than we would with OH working full time and earning a reasonable wage (even although on paper we have less than the cut-off limit for applying). Having a disabled son would count for us but it looks unlikely we would get anything.

The roofer I called can't come out for a few days so I'm praying it doesn't rain, or at least not heavily. I have plastic sheeting across the joists in the loft to try to stop the water seeping down through the plasterboard joins but the taping is already down in the eldest's bedroom with the wet.

I can't say I'm having fun tbh.

PurpleFairy26

One suggestion would be (once you have decided on meals that the majority of you like) is to over cook and freeze up one portion of each afterwards, then on days when you are eating something one of the gang doesn't like, they can just have the one portion of what they do like defrosted from the freezer. We have many one portion pots in our freezer - so much so that sometimes we all eat different things to free up some space! This just means that you don't feel like you are 'always' cooking seperate meals.

I know you have a pressure cooker, but, do you have a slow cooker, this is a live saver and things always seem to go much further from here, soups/ stews etc.. can be made easily by throwing anything in... even if time is really short. I would echo the comment about the big bags of spuds (and onions if you can too) these really are the staple of our diet and £5.50 for both lasts us well over a month. the onions can always bulk things out, make a nice soup, be added to some basic pastry for a tart or added to pizza base. As for spuds, if nothing else you can bake them and add anything to them - even different for different folk, curry, beans, cheese etc... Or alternatively make a massive batch of mash and do different things with it - add chesse for cheese & potato 'pie', add corned beef for corned beef hash.

HTH

Jonno

sandraroffey

doesnt buildings insurance cover leaking roofs????