New to this and feeling very stressed!

rachbc

oh and remember its about finding your comfort level -not a how low can it go competition. Lentils in spag bol were a step to far for my lot - but lots of onions, carrot, celery and toms to bulk out 200g of mince is ok. We still eat meat with every meal and have a roast on sunday, occassional king prawns/ steak etc.

I agree about using cash- we take it out monthly and its been great. But I do take a card shopping just in case I see some bargains - eg last week I popped out for milk just as sains were reducing all the meat and fish - so I got £35 worth of meat for £15. When I got home the £15 was taken out the housekeeping jar and paid back into bank to cover the card payment - do the same when we do an online shop

cyclingyorkie

good advice given here - there is a thread for sainsbury's basics in the shopping section - people post what they do and don't recommend.

My kids (fussy teens) love the basics tortilla chips and midget gems!

Meal planning is the way to go - if the kids are old enough ask for their suggestions for a couple of days a week. I have Iceland pizzas in for emergencies too - they're good and the kids will eat them.

Write down everything you spend for a week - you'll be horrified! You'll also know where you can cut down without people noticing....

flipperOSN

There is some very good advice in this thread, particularly about taking it slowly and finding your comfort level.

I've been slowly getting my housekeeping life into order over the 10 months or so. The first month I started properly on the new regime I went a bit mad, started baking masses of bread and cookies but just ended up exhausted and miserable. Partly because the kids ate all the lovely smelling/tasting baking that was around the house as fast as I could make it, and partly because I ended up spending more than I saved on baking equipment and things that I probably didn't really need. As a result I then went backwards rather than getting better for a bit. But now I've put together a rotating meal plan based on meals I know that we all like and I'm sticking to it without feeling massively stressed. These are mainly things I know we can cook so there's no extra pressure to learn except at my own pace. I've also found it helps a little to think of it as a challenge to see what you make with what you have - rather than a nightmare that you can't make something perfect. Some days it is a bit like scrapheap challenge in the kitchen but I think of it as fun. I hope that is useful!

skipsmum

Hiya,
I would echo what the others say, take it slowly. I tried to completely change how we shop and eat in January and failed miserably - due to fussy kids, ill health, lack of cooking skills and disorganisation!
Now I have set a target that I will cook 5 meals a week, and two of these will be from scratch. The others can be freezer based or things like the asda readymade lasagne. We get take away/fish and chips on the 6th day and MIL cooks for us on the 7th.
This may not seem like much but my first target was to put ready meals in the cooker twice a week!
I just wanted to illustrate that little steps can be better than big leaps.
Skipsmum

lambanana

I agree with anyone who says take cash, I find I always do better if I take cash and I walk round the supermarket with my list and a calculator to check I'm not going to overspend (often I'll print off a list from mysupermarket so I have prices on that but I can compare with any other offers if I have my calculator!) I'm fortunate that I go shopping on my own as we don't have any children, I realise lazily wandering around the supermarket with a calculator may not be a possibility for you!

Try not to cut down too much straight away, if you don't meet your target you'll only feel disappointed with the whole experience. I would suggest maybe allowing another £200 for the rest of August, making a list of everything you have in the cupboards/freezer now and meal planning for as long as possible with that trying to use everything and buy the extras you need taking only a little cash to the shop.

Downsizing__for_sanity

Welcome to the thread! You can do this - but the rest of the family need to get on board a bit as well. We eat far better now that we think a bit about what we want to eat in advance, but spend far less. Of course, there are always the odd "sod it" days when we have fish and chips instead of what's been planned but they are few and far between, and we actually enjoy it much more as it's such a treat when it's not so often.

A good tip is to think of an emergency standby meal that you can make out of the storecupboard/fridge and that everyone likes. Ours is tuna pasta bake - easy, cheap and quick. Tin of tuna, pasta twirls, HM sauce/squeeze of tomato puree, add some fresh/frozen veg, mix and top with cheese.

Another thing - I only actually "plan" for 6 days out of 7, and usually write in "omelette/leftovers" for tea on a Friday night. The reason for this is that plans nearly always change at some point during the week, and I'd rather have to stretch my resources or make a meal from the freezer than have to throw out food one night just because we ended eating at a friends or something.


DFS

pauleyc

You have some brilliant tips here so will take a few on noard myself,
I too am a SAHM of 3 (12, 22 months and 6 months-all boys) so try and do my best to keep food down (difficult when my eldest eats me out of house and home lol)
What i do is make meal plans, DONT take my eldest shopping and i also get the money out before i go in the shop - this in particular has helped as i roughly tot it all up in my head as i go round. Meal plans are such a good idea too.
I also buy my meat at the butcher when is better quality, may seem a little more expensive for example 6 chicken breasts just over 6 pound but they are huge and 2 of them can feed 4 of us. I make my own southern fried chicken (nuggets) out of that, stir fry and then maybe with potatoes one night (i cut it all up and put it in bags) Also with mince (again from butcher) which is cheap, (about 2.50) for 2lb i make burgers and freeze and split the other 1lb into 2 halves, make mince and mash - use lentils to make seem more and you honsetly cant tell.
HTH
Just some of the thing i do

Tibbie's_mum

lauren_1 wrote: »

I used to lose £30 each time i popped in for milk, my habit breaker was money bags with £5 of change and just take 1 when you go to get milk. Usually i'l remember that i need bread or if i do see a true bargain i have some extra money.

Fantastic idea Lauren, my milk trips can end up being anything up to £70 sometimes.

I'm thinking of using the local milkman to stop this, even though the milk's more expensive it'll save me money in the long run!!!

Nicoll

Popped to supermarket at lunchtime to get a few top up bits, wrote a list and actually kept to it. Only went to aisles I needed and knew I had to carry shopping all the way home so wasn't tempted to buy anything extra to carry.

This may sound pretty basic sense but bit of a miracle for me

zarazara

Hello Mrs Bea and Welcome Aboard!
I too,found it very overwhelming and stress-making to begin with. Its taken me several months to get where I am now. I would advise starting with changing just one thing. Anything. It could be HM cake or buns. It could be adding a tablespoon of pearl barley to casseroled meat to stretch it further. Meanu planning is good. Dont try to change too much to begin with. I think keeping a record for a month of all your family meals would be good. Then work around that. For example,if you serve chiken nuggets 3 times a week ,change it to 2 times and do something cheap like beans on toast instead for the third occasion. In fact, I find a plan along the lines of
Sunday roast
Monday left overs
Tue cheap meal
wed meat and 2 veg
thur pasta and sauce
fri cheap meal
sat pizza and chips
this works for us.
Try cutting down on shop bought snacks,biscuits,fizzy drinks.
Hope this helps.