serious help needed

csarina

You will find lots of help here, I have found that menu planning is the way forward, the menu is not set in stone and can be varied if need be by changing round the dish of the day...... the other thing I find saves me loads is using the menu plan and shopping once a month, if you use Tesco on line you will find that spending over £50 you can usually find a code for £5 off a £50 shop. if you pick a 'cheap' delivery day you will actually make money out of them..... can't be bad.

You can also make pizza using a scone dough, use lard and leave out the sugar, quick to do, even the kids could do it!!!!!!!!!!

Batch cooking is good, but remember to take it out of the freezer well in advance to allow it to defrost.........there speaks the voice of experience..if your children like meat try bulking stews etc up with beans, a tin of cheap beans with the goo washed off tipped in will make a stew go twice as far. Fill them up with extra veg, but not too many spuds......it works well with sausages, we used to call them cowboy sausages, a tin of beans tipped into sausage casserole and served with mashed spuds.......mince is great you can make so many things including home made burgers with it, if you look in the recipe section you will find lots of stuff in there you can adapt...... do your kids like fruit, if so you can cut up a couple of apples, peel and cut up a couple or orages and pears, a few grapes, will make a dish of fruit salad, use the juice from the oranges plus a splash of either apple or orange juice, nice and healthy either as a sweet or for breakfast,,,, porridge is good and filling for breakfast too, not ready brek but the good old fashioned stuff.......

Good luck..............you will manage................

angchris

in my experience of moneysaving (more like totally skint and couldnt afford it!:rolleyes: ) keeping meals simple is the key! i make alot of mince dishes bulked out with tinned veg, pasta bakes are cheap and filling.. i use a pack of bacon bits fried, fried onion/garlic tinned sweetcorn/peas anything left in the fridge basically and mix it all in with some cooked pasta a cheapo jar of pasta sauce grate some cheese on the top and slam in the oven till bubbling. jacket spuds are filling and cheap and the good old beans on toast is a winner every time!;) meat is always going to be the most expensive ingredient in a meal so the more meals you can conjure up without it the cheaper your shopping bill will be we always have at least 1 meat free meal a week if not 2, if you buy a chicken get an xl one and try and make it stretch 3 meals have smaller portions and bulk it out with bread and butter, i sometimes make a sunday roast then monday we have chicken and spring onion with noodles tues chicken n mushroom pie then boil the carcass and make chicken soup which i normally freeze cos by that time im sick of chicken!:o :rotfl:, im sure you will manage fine once you get your teeth stuck into it! best of luck angchris

Gingham_Ribbon

Some great tips there. I would also recommend asking the kids to join in with the cooking in the hope that it would encourage them to try new things. If you find a cheap curry recipe for example, maybe the one who doesn't like rice can have it with a bread roll instead?

And have a look in on the debt free wannabe board too for ideas on cutting back in other ways.

Good luck.

kimmie32_2

elsien wrote:

What do you feed your dog - if it's tinned food, you can save loads by going onto the bags of dried food. Not all dogs like it, but they can usually be persuaded by mixing in a small amoung of something else eg gravy.

Max is on gusto dog food a big bag from tesco for 5.99 keeps him happy for at least 3 weeks. He does seem to like it more with a bit of cheese in it.lol pampered pooch......

kimmie32_2

Thank you all so much for the help. It will be a horrible time but as you said if i get the kids involved with the cooking it should become fun.. I have never thought of doing home made burgers before its their treat on a sat to have burgers and salad and my eldest makes it whos 13. So getting her involved in the actual process instead of buying burgers will be good.
we seem to eat the same thing on 3 days of the week. on a sunday its roast dinner with yourkies tuesday its tuna pasta bake and on a sat its burgers. They love shep pie and stew and chops and another fav is sausage and mash. I think if i got a months plan done and used a lot of variety on the days i am allowed (all hell broke loose when we had chicken on a tuesday before!!!)
i will do my shopping online with tesco for tins and things for baking i like the idea of rolls used to love making them at school... and bulk items then on a sat we can all go to the market and get our fruit and things.
so thank you all so much and i will let you know how i get on....
We usually spend about £140 a week and i want to get it down to about £50. It will just look scarey when i get the shopping done online because i can imagine it will be about £100!!!!

Will have to make a cup of tea and go through all the receipes on here and consult the kids....
THANK YOU xxxxxxxxxxxxx

Bogof_Babe

I notice you mention chops - they are a bit of an expensive luxury aren't they? I suppose pork ones aren't so bad, but the price of lamb chops is eye-watering, for what is actually very little meat.

You could instead buy neck of lamb and make an Irish stew or Lancashire hotpot (I'm not too sure what the difference is!). What a pity your son won't eat onions though, as they do bring out the flavour of stews. Would he eat leeks in a casserole? They would have the same effect.

kimmie32_2

I get the pork loin ones from iceland thats 6 for £3 its not every week we have them.
Right have done my first 2 week menu...

Roast chicken will do 2. york puds and veg
spag bol
chicken and chips from the 2nd chicken and use rest on sarnies
tuna past bake
lasagne
egg and chips with ham
home made burgers and salad
sausage and mash
Chicken tortilla
jacket spud with various toppings
toad in hole mash and veg
steak baguette with salad

So what do you think.

LJM

sounds great but dont forget to work out you breakfast lunches and snacks on your menu planner too

kimmie32_2

Thanks for that i will do the kids lunchboxes and mine for work and snacks are the ones i would of forgotten.... Muppet head thats what i am.....
Thanks again
Happy christmas.
xxx

csarina

Will the kids eat soup, if so you can use the carcass of your chicken to make stock and then make something like leek and lentil soup or chicken soup or just plain lentil soup. I occasionally by a bacon joint which I soak, rinse, throw the soaking water away.... and then do for 15 minutes in the pressure cooker, cut off the fat and mix a little brown suager with mustard and plaster on the fatty bit thats left then bake in the oven for 20 - 25 minutes, allow to cool, you can have it as a main meal with salald use in sarnies and the water from the pressure cooker can be used to make leek and spud soup, the spuds will absorb any salt thats left in the water..... lovely with crusty bread on a cold day. By the way if you cook onions in a stew in a pressure cooker they literally go to nothing, he would not know they were there.

If you look in the recipe index you will find lots of soup stuff in there.