Where is a newbie to start?

mumof1and1ontheway

I have never posted on here so I hope I am in the right bit. I am a single mum of a 2 year old (nearly) with one of the way. I am going through divorce and have just applied for a debt relief order. Basically in my marraige both parties were horrendous with financies. And I am rubbish at budgeting.

Anyway as part of the expenditure for the debt relief order I am allowed £40 a month for food so far and £11 a month for nappies etc.
It will increase a little when baby is here.

I am wondering if anyone can help me with ideas for when baby is here... to feed me, my 2 year old and baby (I am hoping to breastfeed but if I can't I will be using my healthy start vouchers sent for baby for formula). I also recieve £3.10 a week in vouchers for my 2 year old.

I mainly shop at asda... but I am struggling to budget and shop in a money saving way.
Some months I will shop online but then its £5 for delivery.. and I then still have to buy milk, bread, fruit and veg weekly. I also end up buying stuff that goes off before I have the chance to eat it. And I do not cook as much as I like, but know once baby is here cooking will be even harder. I did want to cook big meals and freeze but I have a small fridge/freezer so barely anything fits in the freezer!!

Does anyone know where I can get ideas or who can help me with maybe showing me what you buy? If I can budget my food shop and spend less I then have more money for the children. As going down the debt relief order way I will never have money spare for birthdays and christmas's so it would be nice to be able to be able to afford that occassionally. Also I would love to be ahead with gas and leccy etc, for in moments of crisis when things break like the fridge or washer... and so I will not end up stuck.

The debt relief order lasts for one year.. so I will be on income support for the whle year (I wont be able to work anyway because baby is due in august).

So my income is income support, tax credits and child benefit. I also get help with housing benefit and pay £85 a month towards my rent.

Can anyone advice me please? I hope it makes sense I will now have a nosey at everyone elses threads for ideas lol.

Allegra

Take a look at Old Style Moneysaving, especially the Grocery Challenge thread; also check out this thread on how to feed yourself for £25 a month. Good luck and don't be afraid to ask questions

Lindy_-_Loo

hiya, what supermarkets do you have close by?

we do most shopping at tesco but go to netto once or twice a week as they have good offers which we get sent by email each tuesday and friday, works out cheaper for us to get items here.

My boys love pasta, there aged 2 and 4, so thats a filling meal with meat and or veggies. sometimes we have the same thing two days on the run if there is enough left over.

we get milk and bread from farmfoods as havent found anywhere cheaper, £1.00 for 2 litre milk and £1.00 for 2 hovis bread.

take care x

slowandsteady_2

Hi,

£40 a month? thats only £10 per week for you and your two year old? Im sure you have done, but have you double checked that you cant be allowed more?

I would suggest going to Old Style and checking out the pages with the recipes and threads on how to manage on little (we've been there and there are some great ideas!)

Im no expert yet but i can suggest a few things, if you havent already thought of them

rubber chicken-there's a whole thread somewhere but basically its stretching a chicken (or piece of beef etc) as far as possible. When you cook your chicken, make sure you strip off all the meat from all over the bird. Hopefully you would be able to stretch that meat to two-three meals-i.e. a chicken dinner one night, chicken curry the next, chicken and pasta, chicken sweet and sour, chicken salad etc. You could then boil the chicken carcass in a big pan and make some stock discard the carcass and just chuck some cheap veg in and some lentils and make a big pot of veg soup, i do this once a week and it does lunches for three-four days for three of us.

Asda do a big 5kg bag of spuds at a reasonable price, maybe get one of these every couple of weeks and maybe have jacket potatoes and beans/cheese/tuna etc. Make mashed potato to fill up on with the rest of the meal.

Pasta dishes are very versatile, a big 3kg bag of pasta in asda is £3 and lasts us ages, you could just put some tinned tomatoes with it and a bit of your leftover chicken.

Omelettes/scrambled egg/boiled/fried-a tray of 30 eggs in Asda is about £3, and might make a filling lunch

porridge is good for filling up on and cheap. A bag of smartprice porridge oats is less than a pound and will do a good week or more id think.

Bread-try making your own bread if you dont already, you only need strong bread flour and some fast action yeast if you already have some salt and butter in-i follow the recipe on the side of the fast action yeast packs i get from asda.

buy basic brands of tinned stuff/loo rolls/cleaning stuff

Frozen veg is good value. I cant remember what Asdas are but i know tesco do a bag of frozen value mixed veg is 67p.

buy frsh fruit and any fresh veg from the market if you have one nearby, they are loads cheaper

if you can get hold of one-from a friend or off Freecycle, a slowcooker would be a big help, you would be able to do big batches of stews, bolognese, and cheaper cuts of meat cooked lovely in one of them and freeze the extra portions.

Farmfoods do two 2 litre milks (i think) for £1.50 (i think!)

if you are able, check out asda after about 6.30pm when they start to reduce stuff. In my asda its around 4.30 they start reducing, i never go late enough to find the absoloute best times though.

If you have a Lidl, they have their Super 6 fruit and veg every fortnight, where 6 fruit/veg items are usually 49p-69p.

big packs of mince can also stretch quite far-spag bol, chilli, shepherds/cottage pie (can never remember which is which) if you add onions, frozen peppers etc.

Im not too brilliant on the recipe side of things but hope that helps a bit. Im sure someone with a better knowledge of recipes and posting links than me will be along soon!

itsallinthemind

mumof1and1ontheway wrote: »

Anyway as part of the expenditure for the debt relief order I am allowed £40 a month for food so far and £11 a month for nappies etc.
It will increase a little when baby is here.

Its £446 for 2 adults and 1 child per month for food, groceries, clothes

£40 per month will not cover a child of 2's follow on milk?????

This simply has to be incorrect, even £40 per week!

hermum

£40 a month for a year, for an adult, a toddler & a baby is ludicrous. IS pays more than that surely for food, so how can a debt relief order leave you with that small amount.
What about cleaning products & toiletries? Is that an amount on top?
If you can't feed yourself properly you either won't produce good milk or you will end up ill as the baby will take all the goodness you do have.
I would try & get a larger fridge-freezer or another smaller freezer, so that you can batch cook & freeze down. Try Freecycle or your local Gumtree.
Is your husband helping with the debts?
If you belong to Mums & Toddlers or anything else like that or have a large family or circle of friends see about a shopping circle, either from approved food, or to take full advantage of the supermarket offers. Unfortunately when you're on a limited budget it isn't always possible to take advantage of good offers.
Jacket Potatoes with beans & cheese
Stews with loads of veg & lentils or barley is good & cheap, Pork hocks are only about £1.40 each, I can make a stew from one, that becomes more of a soup come the end of the week, last me nearly a week. Or ask the butcher for some bones. With dumplings, it's a good filling meal.
Try baking your own bread, cakes & biscuits, cheaper & much nicer. Again try Freecycle for a free breadmaker.
Have a veggie meal once a week, pasta, with a tomato based sauce, whizz some veg up in it.
Beans on toast with a poached egg.
Minced Beef, cook it all up as you would for cottage pie have cottage pie one day, another day, Suet Roly Poly, same mix as dumplings, roll it out & then spread cooked minced beef, over it, not up to the edges & then roll it up & bake it. Stir a few spoonfulls into cooked pasta with some veg & pop some cheese on.
As someone else said, a chicken you can eat for a week from virtually.
I would though question if it's right that you are expected to feed yourselves on such a small amount.
Good luck.
As well as the different threads on here, search the internet for cheap recipes, look up wartime recipes.

Katiehound

I would agree about getting a larger freezer. If you don't have freecycle in your area maybe you have small ads in the local paper? or advertise in local supermarket (free) Lots of people have new kitchens and just ditch the working appliances- maybe ask a local kitchen fitter if they have anything suitable?

our local greengrocers sells off slightly sad fruit & veg in bags marked 'for animals'- but its fine!

Wonder if Citizens advice bureau can help over the money- see if there is a way of getting a bit more?

hope everything goes well- just stick in there.

mumof1and1ontheway

Sorry that was my error I meant to have written £40 a week for food. and £11 a month for nappies. I also get healthy eating vouchers for fruit, veg, milk and formula (I get £3.10 a week for me being pregnant and £3.10 a week for my son).

My local supermarket is asda which I mostly use, I occassionally use ice land. I am in the middle of negotiating a fridge swap with someone needing a smaller fridge freezer so if that works out I can make big meals and freeze portions etc.

My husband is not helping with the debts as we have taken half each which is why I am going for the debt relief order. It just means that if I spend £40 a week of food I will have £40 left over after bills each month for anything I like. But my way of thinking is to spend as little as possible on food.. so that I have extra to add onto gas and electric so I am infront and so I can stock up on things like nappies and wipes. I am also worried with things like birthdays and christmas's as children can be so expensive in these times.

I am not allowed to save once I have applied for a DRO though so I have no idea how I will work that one. But I am sure there are money saving ideas for birthdays too.

Im going to re-read through your suggestions and make some notes so that I can try and come up with things both me and my son like that I can do thank you

hermum

£40 a week for food is loads. Do check out the other threads, especially on the old style thread, great recipe & budget suggestions on there & everyone's really helpful.
Also keep an eye on the Grabbit board, great for bits & pieces for the kids presents.
Also try car bot sales & charity shops, I'm always amazed at just how much brand new stuff is sold for kids in them.
Try & start menu planning & write a list from that, as I'm sure that trying to shop with 2 babies can be quite distracting.
It might be worth trying to do 1 big shop a month & then your bits & pieces weekly.
Do a budget & try to stick to it, say £40 a month for the big shop & then £10 a week to top up. If you can stick to it most months then you should always have a reserve, for kids shoes etc.
Or when there's a really good offer on laundry stuff or things that go in the freezer.

itsallinthemind

Hi OP, I do not spend £40 including toiletries/household, very manageable and we eat a very good varied diet.

I was wondering if you have been to your local sure start center? They not only run healthy eating sessions, but also have dietitians available too

Also home start http://www.home-start.org.uk/findus/findus have volunteers, if you need someone to help you budget/shop on a one on one basis in the early days, due to having high needs with a baby and a toddler, they can help.

Obviously there is a wealth of information on mse, but if you need a little more guidance with the basics, then they can help