serious help needed

sammy_kaye18

Hi Kimmie

Im still trying to get my head around meal plannign and the shopping - our home finances took a major dip in November when bf had to leave work due to medical issues (£840 gone completely which was his wages) so now we live on £465.16 a month - adn after everything im left with £80 a month for food shopping. I dont drive either and i dont have a debit card to use tescos online (bfs is so overdrawn its not even worth trying to use it!) and thats to feed me, bf, 2 adn a half year old and a 3 year old jack russell terrier.

So i have to go to town by bus or walk, and get a taxi home with my bounty which costs me a fiver.

I found makign alot of meals myself was the key. I make sure i do an inventory of my cupboards,fridge and freezer before i go so i dont buy thigns i dont need. Im not a marvellous cook - was never taught when i was little so many things end up as trial and error! Also baking has helped me no end. I found makign a sponge cake much cheaper than buying a little pack of cakes form the shop much cheaper, more fillign and lasted longer!! It will do us a few puddings rather than one and leaving us hungry again.
Also making shepherds pie and roast dinenrs help us alot - rubber chickens are good and im about to have my first attempt at cooking beef soon too - have never tried - so if anyone in the south wales area smells burning soon could they please come and extinguish it!! Ive found too that buying cheaper alternatives was a good choice too.
I used to buy 10 muller light yoghurts for £4 adn they got eaten in like 3 days. SO now i buy cheap pots of natural yoghurt and buy a cheap bag of apples, cook the apples down to make a puree and mix it into the yoghurt when its cooled - my osn loves this and you can do it with most fruits and then just refrigerate the left over puree and have a variety on hand - ben loves apple and pear at the minute but hopign to try him with strawberry adn raspberry come the summer.

anyway best be off - feel free to email me thoguh hun and have a natter and maybe we can help each other out a bit with our food/money saving

love

Sam
x x x xx

elona

I make burgers with turkey mince and everyone loves them.

I also found that you can make cakes in the microwave - got a plastic cake "tin" in a charity shop for about 50 pence.

Have finally got most of mine to try my pea and ham soup that I make in the slow cooker which saves time and energy (and does not stick!)

How about home made pancakes stuffed with cheese or bacon bits, leeks etc. or whatever you want. You could also make them sweet and add a bit of ice cream or fruit in them as well.

Jake'sGran

LJM wrote:

i make my bread rolls from the little packets in morrisons 59p makes 10 rolls but i can easily get 12 out of it there lovely and always come out perfect we have them with our meals and for hubbie and kids lunches[/QUOTE

My daughter used this for the Christmas day meal but I have always made bread the traditional way. It is so easy and you can make any quantity at one time. Morrisons sell fresh yeast and I used the last this morning. Mixed it with a half teaspoon of sugar, warm milk/water and left it until I got myself ready for the day and then put in the flour, about 20 ozs, and tsp salt and then started mixing and kneeding. It's risen nicely now so will be ready for lunch as today I fancy fresh muffins with Spam and best butter. Usually we have hot meals but I just fancy that today and then will have something very different tonight.

hardpressed

Soya mince is very cheap either mix it with ordinary mince or use on it's own,it does need added flavour but is fine for chilli etc. Before you do a Tesco or Iceland order check out the BOGOFs on a website like 'Mad about bargains' and stock up on things that will freeze or keep. Do you buy 'value' things, most of them are pretty good, try them and find out which your family like. If you can put £1 away every week in a 'treat' jar, then when you get a bit fed up, treat yourself to something nice, you deserve it. Good luck.

MrsTinks

There are some great ideas on here already but another thing is if you have a mate who can drive you to the local market (saturday and sunday markets - the ones with loads of tat but also usually some good fruit and veg stalls) and take advantage of the offers they have. I've come away with LOADS of bargains from our sunday market and the secret is to then spend an hour chopping and dicing and slicing and then freeze it I have bags of chopped onion, peppers, couliflower, broccoli, mushrooms, peas (they needed shelling but they were a bit manky on the outside so no-one wanted them, once shelled they were just fine, paid pennies for a huge bag), courgettes, tomatoes (including cherry, they are still great in sauces or grill them with other veg and some herbs and then liquidize for roast med veg soup yum!), and if you wanted you could take an icecube tray and do chopped garlic in a little water in each tray, saving time when you need some chopped garlic.

Doing it this way makes it a lot easier than always buying fresh and cheaper than buying supermarket frozen I find

sammy_kaye18

Tine

That soudns a good idea - i work 2 days a week - 5- 10pm one day and 3 - 10pm on another day, plus in the week i have to work around 2 and a half year old and bf, nto to mention trying to do all the usual housework


think i mihgt give the frozen pre chopped veg thign a go - thanks!

kimmie32_2

Thanks for all your ideas i will pm you Sam with my email so we can keep each other going.....
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OH AND HAPPY NEW YEAR!!