6000 meals under 50p in 2010; feeding your family on a low budget

Penelope_Penguin

nikki20022008 wrote: »

I got the strawberries that cheap off someone else as a swap for my egges so i have to take into account the chicken food that I pay for so thats how it worked out.

You, of course, may do as you like

I just brought it up, as there are some posters on Old Style who decry others as they can't live on tuppence a week. They fail to mention that they get free food from their employer, grow fruit and veg (and don't incude the costs of seeds, etc) and have eggs and meat (for which they don;t include costs of weaners, chooks or animal food).

I'm not for one minute suggesting that you're intending to do this, but it needs to be claer exactly how you stack up your budget.

Penny. x

Doom_and_Gloom

thriftlady wrote: »

Complete rubbish. Two portions of carrots is two portions of vegetables is two of your five a day. Obviously the more variety the better but carrots, raisins, strawberries, orange juice is a good start.

You can only count fruit juice as one portion of fruit no matter how many glasses you drink -maybe that is where you are getting confused?

This is from the NHS guidelineswhich is really useful and explains that fresh, frozen, tinned and dried fruit and veg all count as do pulses like baked beans so long as they aren't being used as the protein part of a meal.

A glass (150ml) of unsweetened 100% fruit or vegetable juice. Juice counts as a maximum of one portion a day, however much you drink. That's mainly because juice contains less fibre than whole fruits and vegetables

I think Nikki's menu sounds well planned and makes use of what she has.

Actually thriftlady you can only count different fruits and vegetables. No matter how much you have of any one fruit or vegetable it will only count as one. 80g is an adult portion on average, just because you have 160g does not mean it counts as 2 portions. They say to try and eat a rainbow so for an average adult the following would cover 5 a day: 80g of carrots, 1 medium banana, 80g of peas, 80g of strawberries and 80g of eggplant.

With fruit juice it only counts as one no matter how much you have of any flavour of juice! If you have a portion of orange juice and then a portion of apple for example it still only counts as one.

rachbc

PolishBigSpender wrote: »

How on earth did you manage to get 6 handfuls of strawberries for 9 pence at this time of the year?



If you post such things, you ave to expect that people will analyse what you're doing. In your case, you're feeding a child a very unhealthy diet laden with sugar - and people need to be aware that while saving money is good, impacting upon your child's health isn't so good.

Its not laden with sugar - there was a single portion of jelly - oj and raisins may not be first choice but both also contain fibre, vitamins and other nutrients that make them far better than chocolate or sweets.

k.o.d

nuttybabe wrote: »

k.o.d - my kids eat the same as me. i dont make seperate meals. i just would give them extra carbs so they would have more rice, brown pasta or pots than me (and yes they do get alot of veg!!). i would not put my kids health in danger!

I dont expect sweetness and light and applause but also I dont expect people to tell me i am endangering my kids when they dont know what we eat!

Thanks for your concern over my child k.o.d but i can assure you they are not suffering as a consequence of me paying back my debts.

I will resectfully bow out of this thread now.

Once again, good luck Nikki.

No need to bow out, but my concerns over the kids are valid, and you are paying third party institutions with money you could spend on food for your kids, so from that respect, you are making a rod for your own back unneccesarily, just my tuppence worth

Penelope_Penguin

mark88man wrote: »

If you want to post on my thread you are welcome, but I find your manner hectoring and dictatorial - perhaps you were more influenced by your communist upbringing than you think - I would ask you to be polite if you can't be constructive.

Please remember that this isn't your thread - the site belongs to Martin and he asserts copyright over all posts.

And IIRC Polish Big is a Mrs :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

Please can we keep this thread friendly, people, or I may need to refer it to abuse. TIA.

Penny. x

MrsBartolozzi

PolishBigSpender wrote: »

Complete rubbish.

You should be eating 5 different things a day to achieve a balanced diet.

While that may well be the government's guidelines, and as we all know they are aimed at people who feel they need to be told exactly what to do, say , eat etc, if you compare this to a healthy eating regime (NOT a low calorie diet!!): We are encouraged to eat healthily most of the time, with takeaways/sweets/treats being "allowed" within the diet, but rarely, so that over a period of time maybe a week, for instance we have eaten our 35 portions of f&v, 3 portions oily fish, enough protein etc.
As the OP said she was using up what was in the fridge from Christmas.

Does it really matter if she has 2 portions of carrots today, and maybe 2 portions of cabbage tomorrow, and two portions of peas the next day? Will her body really be able to tell the difference as long as over a reasonable time period all the needed nutrition is being supplied? This is a serious question,.
If you really think that, how the heck do we cope after being ill for a few days keeping only water down??

OP you are doing well, please try not to let some of these posters get you down. I for one am looking forward to reading how you get on.

[Deleted User]

There are lots of negative and argumentative threads on here but I'm sure that you are not going to let the kids suffer - I, for one, support what you are trying to do and wish you the best of luck x

debtmess

i think what you are doing is great Nikki as with anything there will always be different opinions as to what another is eating, the budget they work with etc

there is far worse things you could be feeding your daughter on, i have a friend who literally feeds her children on takeaways, crisps or chocolate, the only fruit she has is at pre school, she must spend 5 or 6 times the amount you do easily

nitr02007

As an idea to get more of your 5 a day, I always bulk out beef mince with onions, carrots and celery. I have a small food processor which minces the veg up really fine and you can't really tell all those lovely veg are in there.. great for gettings kids to eat veg. I then supplement chunky veg (more onions and peppers) to this if im making a Chilli.. It still tastes really meaty but there's suprisingly little meat in it :rotfl:!

weezl74

Hi Nicki,

the last time I costed it up you could still achieve 5 different fruit/veg servings encompassing the 5 colours which we need to vary for only 23p per person per day. If you can manage the carbs and protein for the remaining 27p (which I think is possible) then it should work out ok.

I can dig out which veg were the cheapest in each category if that would help at all?

I wish you all the very best with your challenge and will watch with interest, since I can't currently manage to consistently live on 50p a day, but look forward to being inspired for when I might be able to

With love from Weezl x