meal planning and monthly budgeting (bit long, sorry)

ezmerelda

hiya all, been lurking for a while and finally decided to post cos I really need some advice

I read with interest all the budgeting and meal planning threads, and I'm really really strapped for cash now (I had to buy a new car and it's wiped me out) so I could do with some tips for some severe money saving.
After all bills are paid I'm left with approx £150 pm to buy everything, food, petrol, clothes, baby supplies - 18 month old daughter (why did nobody tell me kid's shoes were so damned expensive!!! lol).

There's just me, my OH, the baby and the cat, and up till now i've literally no idea how much I spend on food etc every month. Usually do one big shop about £100, then a couple of £50 ones and the usual go out for milk and end up spending loads :rolleyes: but that needs to stop as I'm skinted and christmas is only three paydays away :eek:

soooo........my main problem with meal planning is that we both work shifts (alternate shifts for childcare reasons) so we rarely eat together or even as a family. He's quite fussy with food, likes fried or spicy stuff generally, wheras I love salads and pasta. He won't cook anything decent for himself, if I'm not there he puts a frozen pizza in the oven or does sausage and chips or something equally as life-threatening. I feel bad for buying the stuff in the first place, but if there wasn't that stuff in the freezer he'd live on cheese on toast or eat nothing at all (he's THAT lazy he'd go hungry rather than attempt to cook something). I never buy ready meals as I don't see the point and luckily the baby will eat pretty much anything, I don't feed her processed rubbish like nuggets and potato shapes etc, I don't buy them so she's never had them at home
I've never attempted to cook in bulk before, but now is the time to start cos money is so tight. That way, he can defrost it in the microwave easy peasy and just add some chips, pasta or rice - which he CAN manage when he puts his mind to it

On my list so far is....bolognese, curries, chilli, lasagne, enchiladas and burritos. all stuff I can make relatively quickly (some from scratch and some packet mixes, no jars or anything) and I know he'll eat but are easily portioned and reheatable. Not necessarily the most healthy of meal selections I know, but he's not big on veg so I could do with some suggestions for other things that aren't difficult to make or need other stuff adding at the reheating stage.

shopping: today spent £80, but that's nappies etc for the month, all the meat, cat food and litter, loo rolls and cleaning stuff, cheese, coffee, spuds for jackets, packet mixes, loads of tins of tomatoes and about a million freezer bags I already have things like pasta, rice, wraps etc in the cupboard and some fish in sauce things, chops and veg in the freezer so this haul should last quite a while (hopefully). If i can get away with just milk, bread and fruit weekly then it should be ok - is it possible to do a month's worth of shopping for £80?? Saying that, when i was a student I could spend £40 and it seemed to last forever.....but I did live on pasta and rice.......lol

Anyway, I know I've waffled on a bit and apologies for the extra long post, it probably doesen't make much sense but have you seen the time?? I can't sleep and my brain is a bit fuzzy. I'll go now.......

any advice much appreciated, thankyou

freyasmum

Welcome to the boards, I'm new here too and everyone is lovely... I'm sure there will be lots of helpful posts for you to read later...

As I said, I'm new to this too, but I'll try my best

ezmerelda wrote:

I've never attempted to cook in bulk before, but now is the time to start cos money is so tight. That way, he can defrost it in the microwave easy peasy and just add some chips, pasta or rice - which he CAN manage when he puts his mind to it

This was my first suggestion. All you have to do is cook a little more than you normally would for a meal and freeze the extra.

Meal planning is great too, and don't do the shopping on an empty stomach as that willl probably make you buy stuff you don't really need/ really want.

You have said he likes pizza, well why not make your own - I'm sure there are lots of recipes/instructions on here for dough and how to freeze them. This not only works out a lot cheaper, but you can have your own toppings and it is surely an awful lot healthier too.

As for him not really liking veg, could you possibly hide them in a sauce by blending them? Think as you would for a child (only grown men seem worse, don't they?!) Does he like potatoes, though? There are lots of things that you can do with the humble spud. Also, if you live somewhere that allows, the mushroom season is almost upon us - lots of free eating there! Im sure your daughter would also find that fun.

p.s. you can also cook rice in the microwave (we do 8oz rice, 1 pint water, salt and turmeric - cos silly OH likes yellow rice!) and then freeze it so it's ultra easy for a quick meal

p.p.s remember that where you shop will make a difference - lidl/aldi/netto, if you have them locally, could save you an awful lot.

What about keeping a price book? Check prices from all the places you shop and write them into a small notebook or whatever you find handy to have around so that you can easily see where the best deals are. Also check out the other boards for deals/coupons on shopping. I recently got over £100 of beauty products in Tescos (hate to plug, but it was worth it) for about £10 and £14 worth of points back!

Sorry for the waffling back, I'm just going to bed.

I'm sure there are about a zillion things that I have missed, but I'm still learning too

Linzi x

dlb

Hiya, i am quite new too, but have already changed alot of things at home due to the tips on MSE!!!!

My main one being the shopping bill has gone down by over £170 a month!!!

I now meal plan and only buy what i need, and i spend one day a week, normally the day i shop cooking in bulk all the main meals for the rest of the week, then freeze them.

I have got given a bread maker from a friend that she no longer wanted, and i make a loaf a day, only end up buying maybe 2 shop bought breads a week, instead of the 8 we used to go through. ( there are 4 kids DH,myself and step-son at weekends)

Also the slow cooker is always on the go, great for people like yourselfs that work split shifts to, make it up leave it on all day, and just get it when you need it.

I also make my own pizzas now, the kids said they taste like take-away ones (not that we have had a take-away for months now, and dont intend to!).

Free foods are great, this month we have made blackberry sauces to mix with youghut and put on ice cream, oh and elderberry crumble. I now dont buy any biscuits or goodies. i just bake lots of buns and cakes and my own dougnuts (yummmyyyyyy) This has saved me ££££, kids used to have them just because they were there.

I find it fun cutting back, infact i maybe am getting a bit obsessed LOL,all i seem to think about it meal planning and cutting back even in my sleep!!LOL

Have fun!

wigginsmum

Your freezer is your friend with this. When I'm organised I do batch cooking all of one weekend. I cook up huge pots of chilli, bolognese, curry, and freeze it in portion sizes in plastic tubs.

My DH won't even cook himself sos and chips - he goes up the chip shop!

liz.._4

welcome to the forum, I have only been here for about a month but I'm now addicted and people are very friendly and helpful...you'll be fine.

The changes I have made are as follows...
-read martins book (from the library)
-check out changing utilities
-meal planning
-buy in bulk (sacks of spuds are only about £6)
-use cheap supermarkets (Lidl, netto, aldi)
-read gas and electricity meters on 1st of every month
-cook twice the amout and freeze
-never chuck anything away, freeze it and after a few times of doing this you'll have enough for a meal.
-check out near sell by date bargains in supermarket and freeze
-save everything and reuse, everything comes in handy eventually (if you have the space)
-use freecycle (I've had some corkers off there!)
-make this website your homepage so you check it daily
-slow cooker on economy 7 to save on enery costs (its all gone up)
can't think of any more but take it a day at a time making small changes as you go along. If you try to do it all at once you will become disheartened and give up
good luck..its 'do-able' and you will save a lot of money

thriftlady_2

As everyone says cooking for the freezer is the way to go when you're eating at different times.

An easy way to do this is to simply cook 2 or 3 times as much once a week. Eat one meal and freeze the other(s). Pretty soon you'll have a freezer full of ready meals.

If you want to get serious about freezer cooking Google once a month cooking and you will find lots of US sites about cooking massive amounts in just one day and then not having to cook again for the rest of the month.Not tried it myself but worth a look.

Meal planning again is an excellent way of keeping your food bill low:)

wigginsmum

I used to do OAMC with a friend - we'd cook together in one of our kitchens and divide the results. Chilli, bolognese, lasagne, beef curry, chicken curry, Chinese pork. It was a brilliant way to spend a day, the clearing up was halved, and recipes got tweaked along the way.

lynseydee

ezmerelda, reading your post could have been written by me. Your husband sounds so much like mine that I'll be keeping an eye on this post just to see what answers you get that I can do myself. I have managed to get him to start eating lasagne just recently which is one of my favourites and after buying a couple of tescos own I am going to try and start making my own and then freezing whats left over.

ezmerelda

hiya cheers for the ideas
i never got round to replying yesterday, i got caught up in the R&R threads and completely forgot, sorry

today from two packs of mince i managed to get a large lasagne (2 meals, one eaten tonight) and 6 generous portions of bolognese. plus i made too much white sauce, so what was leftover i stuck some cheese in and have frozen that too for a cheesy pasta sauce. sunday will be chicken cooking day, so here come the curries etc. will definately try making my own pizzas, the baby will enjoy helping and throwing cheese and ham around the kitchen will check out once a month cooking too

as for other money saving, we've sorted the utilities and switched to sky broadband for £10 (saving of £15pm). however nursery fees have gone up by £25 so that wipes out the saving really. i've been trying to use the free minutes on my mobile to save the landline bill etc.

woohoo! we'll afford christmas yet!!

dlb

Try canceling sky, i did, and they wouldnt let me, got a offer for the next five month for full package at only £18 a month instead of £36!!!
Just tell them you are not happy to pay the full amount and you want to cancel, they told me they would rather give us a offer than lose a customer!