1 mortgage, 2 babies, 3 years to be MF, 4 goodness sake!- weezl's diary

boredofbeingathome

weezl74 wrote: »

Good morning all.

Cazz, thinking of you, hope you are able to rest and that life is able to be a bit slower-paced while you adjust to your loss.

I've been reading a few threads on MSE (what else do you do with insomnia?!:)) and feeling a bit perplexed.

Some of you I know, like me, are following Mark88man and his 6000 meals under 50p challenge, with interest. Great ideas on there.

What struck me too was how many people feel that this is a low budget, and must be unhealthy. Further, people seemed to be saying that there is no reason for anyone in the UK to have to live like that.:(

I guess this has made me stop and think.

As a lot of you know, DH and I lived for a year on a third of Mark's budget. (We were 50p a day rather than per meal). ours included all snacks too.

I am not saying this to be virtuous . I am saying that I am worried about us as a culture who believe we have an entitlement to a standard of living which is (IMHO) unnecessary.

In particular I am worried by people saying that they would allow Mark and his family more money than this for food on a DMP.

Being in debt (to the extent where one might consider undertaking a DMP) has the same negative effect on health as smoking 75-100 cigarettes daily, according to health psychologists.

Living on 1/3rd of Mark's alledgedly 'too low' budget left DH and I fighting fit and my body still able to sustain a healthy full-term pregnancy of a baby and to not show up as low in any key nutrients at any of my blood or urine tests. We also concieved on month 2 of trying (with me being 34). Again, no bragging or virtuosity in that, simply my own internal evidence that there is something really uncomfortable and difficult for me in reading that people in that much debt:eek: (which I believe has huge health impacts) are advised to set a high standard of living food-wise, and that this is being done in the name of health.

End of rant, climbs down from soapbox, hopes no-one is waiting to pelt me with rotten fruit

Am debating a 'no food spends til 7th Feb challenge', but will need to top up with one 6pt of costco milk £1.45 which waters down to make 9 pts. Everything else should be covered, especially when my elusive first approved foods order comes!

Hope you are all well

Love Weezl x

You certainly won't get any pelting from me Weezl. I too have been sending folk over to Marks thread, i think it is admirable that someone cares so much about budgeting and doing his very best for his family. As i thought so with your thread too- as you know:D

I am way ahead on my food budget this month and desperately trying to justify my £10 off a £50 spend voucher at Tesco which has to be used by feb 4th:rolleyes::o

Yeay to Shaz Fearnley- Whittingstall- although i think ISOM maybe a tad jealous..:rotfl:

In_Search_Of_Me

Shaz is my friend. She makes nice cakes, jam and is a delicious person. If she had a Fernley whittingstall too I'd almost be beside meself with excitement! As for a smallholding cant we start a copperative?!!

Weezl good news and re the rant...if you wrote a book then you would be educating people about eating healthily on a budget wouldnt you eh!!

boredofbeingathome

The fearnley whittingstall co operative- sounds good

phizzimum

sorry for taking us all on a tangent - forgot this board is MFW not HFW!...I think my whole family is becoming obsessed with Hugh - my girls talk about him like a family friend and they're horrified if someone hasn't heard of him! I know, I should get a life, but I'd rather watch River Cottage and pretend that's my life :rotfl:

weezl74

I don't mind a tangent! River cottage is lovely

Just made a frugal tea, still eeking out the cupboards as I wait for my elusive approved foods order... day 9 now. Makes planning meals and giving DH variety a bit tricksome, but I know the snow has thrown the postal service a lot

frugal tea with couscous:

375g cous cous hydrated with 1 stock cube and 1.5 cans chopped tomatoes. Add drained can kidney beans, left over horseradish sauce from christmas, a couple of lugs of oil some cumin seeds and season to taste.

33p a head for a huge portion or 26p for normal people!

Courgette

Hi Weezl,

wondered if you had any tips on how to cope with first trimester tiredness and still being a tiny bit MSE. I am permanently shattered and struggling a bit with keeping the show on the road. All my energy goes into work which makes cooking and eating properly really hard and I keep getting myself in a bit of a muddle ( nothing serious but things like forgetting to get cheese for DS's cookery lesson at school then having to spend loads in the corner shop cos I just couldn't get to the supermarket).

Hubby is ace and does most of the stuff around the house but he works full time too so needs a bit of down time. I'm trying to do some batch cooking (but feel constantly sick so it's really unpleasant with all those totally normal cooking smells wafting about) plus I keep going off stuff so it's really hard to plan ahead.

Right now I've got some lovely leeks sat in the kitchen just wanting to be made into a soup but I don't honestly know if I've got the energy to do it. Am eating healthy snacks little and often (oat cakes, sliced carrots etc) (Mr Morrison sliced the carrots for me, unheard of usually ).

Any tips gratefully received :cool:

weezl74

Courgette wrote: »

Hi Weezl,

wondered if you had any tips on how to cope with first trimester tiredness and still being a tiny bit MSE. I am permanently shattered and struggling a bit with keeping the show on the road. All my energy goes into work which makes cooking and eating properly really hard and I keep getting myself in a bit of a muddle ( nothing serious but things like forgetting to get cheese for DS's cookery lesson at school then having to spend loads in the corner shop cos I just couldn't get to the supermarket).

Hubby is ace and does most of the stuff around the house but he works full time too so needs a bit of down time. I'm trying to do some batch cooking (but feel constantly sick so it's really unpleasant with all those totally normal cooking smells wafting about) plus I keep going off stuff so it's really hard to plan ahead.

Hiya courgette

I definately think trimester 1 is the hardest bit to be MSE about food in. Other trimesters have other challenges .

When I couldn't cook I got DH to make himself 'bung it in the oven' things that I'd already worked out were doable on budget, We had a large sack of costco jacket potatoes and so he'd do one of those with SP fish fingers and beans or peas. Not very inspired, but he coped fine total cost per head 26p!

I found although I couldn't be around food easily, I could still do a bit of planning (but you may not be able to do this due to school work) but I used to take the lappy upstairs and put together an asda list using mysupermarket.co.uk. You can print the list, and so DH could go and get it while I napped at weekends. I'd think up about 4-5 easy frugal meals he'd like, and then pretty much suggest them to him in rotation :rotfl:sometimes I could face certain food smells. Casserole or veg stew were fine, but garlicky or cumin based things were a no-no so I just made batches in the SC of things I could handle the smell of IYSWIM.

DH was much more understanding when I could explain it to him, and then I guess I would say things like: 'I'm sorry love I just can't face doing the leeks but its a shame to waste them,, if you're not too knackered can you chop and boil and freeze them?'. Your DH sounds lovely so I'm sure he would. And it's totally fine for him to take the strain. Fair's fair, you get to do labour, what's a small amount of leek chopping?:rotfl:I guess I'm saying, be gentle with yourself, and do what you can face doing

So I guess my chiefest tip would be to let yourself off the hook if you need to. I know it's galling to throw the leeks away, but you are creating a whole new human who is existing on the very minerals from your bones! If a bag of leeks has to go in the bin, it's a small price to pay!

We also figured that the HipG grant is actually intended so women can have good foods in pregnancy. (I know most people buy a pram, but we got ours on freecycle!) so DH and I did add that mentally to our food budgetting for those awful sicky tired days.

weezl74

more thoughts for you Courgette...

How about letting some pre-processed foods take the strain? These are 33p each if you buy 3, DH could add some sweetcorn, kidney beans, and a handful of sunflower seeds and dinner woulld be less than 50p per person?

weezl74

...and another thought, Ok so that's DH's food sorted, how about you?

I found I had a very limited palate of what I could face. I really hankered after food that tasted 'clean' but I couldn't easily put my finger on what it was! What worked for me was to get DH to suggest meals I might like and then after 10 revolted faces, we'd get one I could face. Then we just bought 10 of them for the freezer :rotfl:one week I could only eat 3 quorn sausages cooked in tinned toms and with a Jacket. Then I flipped onto pilchards stirred through savoury rice. Then chicken soup and HM toast.

Just go with what you can face

Other ideas: carb snack just before bed helped me to not wake up at 3 with sicky hunger.

Sucking gaviscon minty tablets (not the liquid it's too viscous!)

completely cutting out caffeine til 2nd trimester.

Take vits and iron and then even if you throw up or eat weirdly you know the baby is getting all the nutrients.

Sometimes a fizzy drink or squash helps.


Love weezl xx

Courgette

Those posts have made me cry (I blame the hormones ). Thanks Weezl (although I'll actually read them properly tomorrow, got the soup on but that's me for today)

xxx