Hard Times: How to cope with everyday living.

dandy-candy

Poor you Beccatje! The only thing you can do is introduce changes gradually. With my kids they liked crisps and chocolates etc, so I kept buying crisps but only had homemade biscuits in the kitchen. They did moan at first but then came around. 6 sandwiches is a lot! How about cutting it down to 4 and giving him a nice fruit salad instead? Keep chipping away at the shopping slowly....BTW pizza's and wraps are a great way of adding in a few extra veggies!

paidinchickens

Beccatje wrote: »

I am finding it very hard to cut costs on our food budget. My family is pretty finicky to be honest. And actually I think they are pretty spoiled. We've always eaten pretty well. I always cook from scratch, that is not the problem. But they are not too keen on budget kind of food. Last week I made a lovely meat/veg pastry roll. With porkliver chopped up into little cubes. The liver was/is very cheap! It was absolutely lovely! With lots of onions, peppers, mushrooms and the liver chopped up.. rolled into puff pastry and baked in the oven... I thought it was fab! But ofcourse DH complained... he doesn't like liver.. said it tastes like a wet dog smells...

sigh..

Then I made a bean dish. With flavored rice with pumpkin seeds and sunflower seeds.. I used dried white beans and chickpeas.. again with onions and peppers all stir fried.. I thought it was nice.. but family was not enthousiastic...

They like the old way.. meat..veg..tatties or rice.. and pasta's with meat/tomato sauce.. big salads to go with pastry dishes and sorts..

It's just hard to get everyone (especially DH) on board! They still want their evening snacking especially on the weekends.. and they won't settle for the cheap crisps but want their favo brands..
Sandwich fillers are also a debate. DH takes 6 sandwiches to work for lunch and he wants cheese and meats to go on them.
The teenagers will eat themselves silly with peanut butter and chocolate sprinkles and the jam's I made are much less popular.
Home made apple sauce is commented on because it is not as sweet and finely mashed as the commercially bought ones.. (Apple sauce is a biggie foodgroup in Holland)

I'm starting to get discouraged.....

just having a moan really..

things are getting tougher by the week! In January taxes will rise, the costs of health insurance goes up tremendously! (and it's mandatory so nothing to be done about that) diesel prices are through the roof...I carefully mentioned the option of getting rid of the car but DH nearly had a stroke at the thought!

I grew lots of veg this year and we have a freezer full of sweet corn... but you've guessed it.. the family has now decided that the sweet corn doesn't taste that great...
grrrr

as I said.. just moaning really.. I have to find ways to feed them and keep them all happy on less money...

The same happened here when we started. DH is on board 100% but the four kids were a struggle. We still have the moans about some foods . I found if there was only my baking in the house they eventually ate it :rotfl:

We are all cheese monsters in this house but I was given and electric grater so it grates it that fine it goes twice as far as normal grating. We used to slice it :eek: but now sprinkle sparingly

DGD is a sultana monster and loves to have a bowl of cherry toms and sultanas when I pick her up from school, I am having to cut back on this as the price of sultanas is just silly.

prepareathome

Beccatje wrote: »

as I said.. just moaning really.. I have to find ways to feed them and keep them all happy on less money...

One thing I learnt when we went through a really bad time in early '80s when we had 3 young children was to disguise the taste - they wanted meat but on £45 a week for everything ( firm hubby had worked for had gone into liquidation so no redundancy) and even back then £45 was not much but that was all the benefits we had for 5 of us ( found out years later we should have had more, but of course never received the back pay) anyway that is another story. I learnt then how to make food my family would eat and still have a healthy diet. Then thankfully vegetables were cheap and so we ate basically a vegetarian diet but to this day they don't know they did. Hubby although happy to eat anything I make, doesn't really like vegetables so I had to become very creative with disguising the taste of them. One thing they all liked was Beef stew, but beef was beyond our budget so would make a big pan of vegetables and potatoes and a very small amount of mince ( soya in those days was hard to obtain and very expensive) and flavoured it with a beef cube. So stew had a meaty taste yet really was mainly vegetables - I made sure I mashed every vegetable so it was a thick mush and colour was brown, looked horrible but tasted fine, and everyone was happy.

I am not suggesting you make that, just trying to give you an idea of how to disguise what you are giving them in ways they will eat it.

Have you tried the trick of buying cheap crisps or whatever and putting them in the bags of dearer brands - ok means you will have to always be seen to be opening them, but you could make tell them you have decided to ensure they do not eat them except when you say so you have put them away, yes be devious, I know it sounds terrible, but when you are on limited budget after being on a bigger one, you have to become like this if your family do not want to face up to this fact and want to continue on the way they used to.

Its not easy, but once you start thinking this way you will find how easy it becomes.

Good Luck

grandma247

Something I learned in recent years is to cook butter beans or other white beans till very soft then liquidize or food process with only a little water to make a very thick paste then add some cheap cheese such as Cheddar and a bit of grated strong cheese such as Parmesan or similar add salt and pepper to taste and use it in pies or pasties as a filling you can even add a bit of mashed potato leftovers to it as well as some gently fried onion. None of my lot noticed it was not just plain cheese potato and onion pasty.

I rarely have to disguise anything these days because they are used to eating this way now.

Another trick I have used is to put lots of veg and cooked dried beans in a liquidizer with some stock and whizz it up till very smooth,add it to the mince,tomatoes and onions for pasta sauce and cook it till it tastes done. Don't forget to flavour it well.

Can you tell my food processor and liquidizer are my best friends?

Another thing you can do with a little liver is cook it and some pasta separately ,any type will do, then put it in the liquidzer with an egg and seasoning. Whizz it up and deep fry spoonfuls of it, dry the little puffs on paper or cloth towels. Serve with a tomato sauce for dipping. This was on a farmhouse cooking program years ago and my kids never knew it was liver.

Florenceem

Beccatje wrote: »

I am finding it very hard to cut costs on our food budget. My family is pretty finicky to be honest. And actually I think they are pretty spoiled. We've always eaten pretty well. I always cook from scratch, that is not the problem. But they are not too keen on budget kind of food. Last week I made a lovely meat/veg pastry roll. With porkliver chopped up into little cubes. The liver was/is very cheap! It was absolutely lovely! With lots of onions, peppers, mushrooms and the liver chopped up.. rolled into puff pastry and baked in the oven... I thought it was fab! But ofcourse DH complained... he doesn't like liver.. said it tastes like a wet dog smells...

sigh..

Then I made a bean dish. With flavored rice with pumpkin seeds and sunflower seeds.. I used dried white beans and chickpeas.. again with onions and peppers all stir fried.. I thought it was nice.. but family was not enthousiastic...

They like the old way.. meat..veg..tatties or rice.. and pasta's with meat/tomato sauce.. big salads to go with pastry dishes and sorts..

It's just hard to get everyone (especially DH) on board! They still want their evening snacking especially on the weekends.. and they won't settle for the cheap crisps but want their favo brands..
Sandwich fillers are also a debate. DH takes 6 sandwiches to work for lunch and he wants cheese and meats to go on them.
The teenagers will eat themselves silly with peanut butter and chocolate sprinkles and the jam's I made are much less popular.
Home made apple sauce is commented on because it is not as sweet and finely mashed as the commercially bought ones.. (Apple sauce is a biggie foodgroup in Holland)

I'm starting to get discouraged.....

just having a moan really..

things are getting tougher by the week! In January taxes will rise, the costs of health insurance goes up tremendously! (and it's mandatory so nothing to be done about that) diesel prices are through the roof...I carefully mentioned the option of getting rid of the car but DH nearly had a stroke at the thought!

I grew lots of veg this year and we have a freezer full of sweet corn... but you've guessed it.. the family has now decided that the sweet corn doesn't taste that great...
grrrr

as I said.. just moaning really.. I have to find ways to feed them and keep them all happy on less money...

I had six children to feed while on benefits when my husband was very ill and unable to work. I took the attitude - they eat what I cook or go hungry. I suppose as they were brought up on home cooked food from babies - that was what they were used to. They would devour my - toad in the hole/shepherds pie - meat eked out with soya mince - very cheap! Everyone got a small portion of meat when we had a joint - filled them up with vegetables and stuffing/yorkshire puddings. That way I had enough meat left for another meal - curry with lots of rice. I never bought cakes or biscuits - I made all my own. I think the one in the family who has to balance the housekeeping books in the kitchen should make the meal decisions.

Florenceem

dandy-candy wrote: »

Poor you Beccatje! The only thing you can do is introduce changes gradually. With my kids they liked crisps and chocolates etc, so I kept buying crisps but only had homemade biscuits in the kitchen. They did moan at first but then came around. 6 sandwiches is a lot! How about cutting it down to 4 and giving him a nice fruit salad instead? Keep chipping away at the shopping slowly....BTW pizza's and wraps are a great way of adding in a few extra veggies!

Six sandwiches - is that six slices of bread? My husband has two slices of bread at lunchtime with a piece of fruit.

Florenceem

paidinchickens wrote: »

The same happened here when we started. DH is on board 100% but the four kids were a struggle. We still have the moans about some foods . I found if there was only my baking in the house they eventually ate it :rotfl:

We are all cheese monsters in this house but I was given and electric grater so it grates it that fine it goes twice as far as normal grating. We used to slice it :eek: but now sprinkle sparingly

DGD is a sultana monster and loves to have a bowl of cherry toms and sultanas when I pick her up from school, I am having to cut back on this as the price of sultanas is just silly.

I brought sultanas in Aldi this week - think I paid 79p for a packet. I use them in baking.

Florenceem

prepareathome wrote: »

One thing I learnt when we went through a really bad time in early '80s when we had 3 young children was to disguise the taste - they wanted meat but on £45 a week for everything ( firm hubby had worked for had gone into liquidation so no redundancy) and even back then £45 was not much but that was all the benefits we had for 5 of us ( found out years later we should have had more, but of course never received the back pay) anyway that is another story. I learnt then how to make food my family would eat and still have a healthy diet. Then thankfully vegetables were cheap and so we ate basically a vegetarian diet but to this day they don't know they did. Hubby although happy to eat anything I make, doesn't really like vegetables so I had to become very creative with disguising the taste of them. One thing they all liked was Beef stew, but beef was beyond our budget so would make a big pan of vegetables and potatoes and a very small amount of mince ( soya in those days was hard to obtain and very expensive) and flavoured it with a beef cube. So stew had a meaty taste yet really was mainly vegetables - I made sure I mashed every vegetable so it was a thick mush and colour was brown, looked horrible but tasted fine, and everyone was happy.

I am not suggesting you make that, just trying to give you an idea of how to disguise what you are giving them in ways they will eat it.

Have you tried the trick of buying cheap crisps or whatever and putting them in the bags of dearer brands - ok means you will have to always be seen to be opening them, but you could make tell them you have decided to ensure they do not eat them except when you say so you have put them away, yes be devious, I know it sounds terrible, but when you are on limited budget after being on a bigger one, you have to become like this if your family do not want to face up to this fact and want to continue on the way they used to.

Its not easy, but once you start thinking this way you will find how easy it becomes.

Good Luck

It was the 80s when I was feeding six children - three of them boys with huge appetites - plus husband and I. You can live and eat well on benefits - just have to shop around and cook!

Florenceem

grandma247 wrote: »

Something I learned in recent years is to cook butter beans or other white beans till very soft then liquidize or food process with only a little water to make a very thick paste then add some cheap cheese such as Cheddar and a bit of grated strong cheese such as Parmesan or similar add salt and pepper to taste and use it in pies or pasties as a filling you can even add a bit of mashed potato leftovers to it as well as some gently fried onion. None of my lot noticed it was not just plain cheese potato and onion pasty.

I rarely have to disguise anything these days because they are used to eating this way now.

Another trick I have used is to put lots of veg and cooked dried beans in a liquidizer with some stock and whizz it up till very smooth,add it to the mince,tomatoes and onions for pasta sauce and cook it till it tastes done. Don't forget to flavour it well.

Can you tell my food processor and liquidizer are my best friends?

Another thing you can do with a little liver is cook it and some pasta separately ,any type will do, then put it in the liquidzer with an egg and seasoning. Whizz it up and deep fry spoonfuls of it, dry the little puffs on paper or cloth towels. Serve with a tomato sauce for dipping. This was on a farmhouse cooking program years ago and my kids never knew it was liver.

Was the programme - Farmhouse Kitchen with Dorothy Sleighthome? Thanks for the butter beans idea for pasties - I have some butter beans in soak now for tonight - as a vegetable but will definitely try your idea.

culpepper

with the crisps; I think if you actually add up the cost of the cheap crisps and then only buy expensive crisps for that price,they will soon see that you can get so many more.
I mean, if a pack of crisps is £1(no idea as we don't buy them) and 5 cheap packs are a pound,you could say 'this is the budget, I am allowing £1 this week for crisps and so you can have this one expensive pack or these 5 cheaper ones'! They might choose one pack and that would still fit the budget or they might prefer more but not so trendy and either way it would still be in budget.
Really you could do this with anything providing you reckon up the 'amount' you are prepared to spend per week on each food thing.
Then they must decide,the luxury thing but less of it all week or cheaper but more of it. For hubby with his 6 sandwiches (30 a week!) that could become 3 meat sandwiches every day or 6 sandwiches still but not meat. That way it isn't only your choice and there is less blaming .