Ideas,Ideas,Ideas

debtmess

Ok sorry for the naff title.

I am going to be in need of a little help.
To cut a long story short I am Mum to 3 wonderful boys, I have just taken a full time job which starts in September, I am on IS etc at the moment.

Here is where the fun starts.
I need to save what I can over this next month as my IS etc will stop.
I am need lunchbox ideas for 3 hungry children on a budget and they are not overly keen on sandwich's and salads. I also like the idea of being able to spend as little time as possible making them up.

Dinner ideas when your leaving the house at 7.30 and not collecting the little ones until 5.45, I have 2 childminders to visit one may provide the youngest his dinner.

My children are 8 and under so very little they can do in way to help me.

I am aware there is a lot of threads but costings will have changed dramatically, the worrying is starting to set in.

Boodle

Lunches: pastry things like savoury rolls, pasties, plate pies, savoury scones, samosas could take the place of a sandwich/grain salad.

Last minute quick dinners: I think there was a thread somewhere if you do a forum search you might find it. I would stick to things like couscous or pasta with simple quick sauces/tinned pulses and frozen veg, or "stews" with tin tomatoes or gravy and tin pulses + veg heated up together then served with bread or microwaved jackets. Beans on toast with a green veg. Microwaved jackets with baked beans. Muffin/pitta pizza done under the grill with frozen veg. They would all take 10 minutes.

[Deleted User]

Easy things for lunches chicken drumsticks, seedless grapes(off the stalk), carrot sticks and a little jar of hummus,cold sausage cut in chunks, cherry tomatoes, cucumber sticks, sultanas/raisins in a jar, breadsticks, cereal bars, pretzel sticks, cheese cubes/cheese strings. All easy to eat and hardly any preparation needed so quick to make up.

Easy suppers prepared at the weekend, homemade meatloaf heats very well in the microwave and is also nice cold with salad. Leftover meatloaf makes a quick and easy pasta sauce with some tomato added, cook extra pasta and you have basis for a salad next day. Homemade tomato based pasta sauce made at the weekend also makes a good topping for pitta bread pizzas and whizzed with milk makes a tomato soup most kids like, add in some pre cooked pasta and top with grated cheese and i'ts a meal. Eggy things are quick and easy, eggy breads and ketchup or scrambled egg and baked beans easy to do and most kids like them. You will be time short so if you can think of things that will overlap as meals it might help. Cheers Lyn.

debtmess

Thank you for ideas so far looks like I need to get myself a microwave.
I just worried for the initial weeks that follow working, the time frames and dashing about, its all a little daunting but not enough to put me off.
Time management is something I am going to have to work on. Im getting a head start house wise by having a mega clear out meaning housework can easily be fitted in, the daunting part is feeding hungry children in time for a bath and bed, whilst keeping the costs down takeaways are all to easy but stupidly expensive and unhealthy.

quintwins

You could try quiche or mini pizzas for lunch, these are so easy to make in a muffin tray. crackers are very popluar in this house, with abit of butter and philly or cheese and cucumber, or grapes (my kids school gives them cheese and grape sandwichs!) i love cold baby new taties with butter and cheese (added when there hot) we take these on picnics all the time, you can make homemade yogurt in your slowcooker to keep costs down or even just decant value ones into plastic pots (it's so silly that you would even need to do this but i would never risk my child being teased over a yogurt)

dinnerwise i'd get a slowcooker you can make anything in it from casarole to breads, and a steamer for some spuds and veg, also if you can afford one and don't have one a nice big freezer will be a godsend.

i make pizza baps which are just baps split in 2 with tom puree or pasta sauce(i make my own and would recommend this it's yummy) cheese and usually sweetcorn and ham but also anything else we have.

if you get a chance have a look at these sites

http://www.cheap-family-recipes.org.uk/
(not sure if the costs have been updated on this lately but it's not to far out and made by some lovely mse'ers)

http://crockpot365.blogspot.co.uk/
(this is more for ideas and can be adjusted)


Also given the fact your so busy i would prob recommend shopping online, ok so you don't get any whoopsies, but you also don't get teh temptation to buy things you don't need and if your shopping with kids it only gets worse, you can shop online know exackly what your getting and exackly how much you've spent, they can come at night (slots are usually cheaper then) and will even carry it into your kitchen.

my tip for the inbetween period (as you may be a month without money as is stops and you have to work a month in hand) is to get extra of the elec and gas meters now if you can and stock up on tins and dry goods to make meals should you run out, if your sure you son't run out of lelc stock the freezer up aswell.

Good luck i'm sure you'll do fine, theres plenty of help on here and your kids are still just young enought that they don't care about brands ect

quintwins

small side note, your kids don't need bathed everyday, mine get bathed once a week and washed the rest of the time, my youngest has exzema so it's bad for his skin anyway, my older 2 always hated it so we limited to to needs must now they love it, also heating water is expensive so will save you abit that way, i'd say 3 nighst a week is more than enough for normal none bath phobic with normal skin kids

debtmess

quintwins wrote: »

small side note, your kids don't need bathed everyday, mine get bathed once a week and washed the rest of the time, my youngest has exzema so it's bad for his skin anyway, my older 2 always hated it so we limited to to needs must now they love it, also heating water is expensive so will save you abit that way, i'd say 3 nighst a week is more than enough for normal none bath phobic with normal skin kids

Thank you both posts very helpful, I bath mine everyday as their very messy (buts that is me as a worrier) 2 have eczema and steroid and aveeno creams I guess bathing them first has been a part of a nightly routine, if I attempt to drop it down to every other night I can assess how it works out :j

Great idea about the meters I honestly did not think of extra top ups now, that may just save us from the dark if things get a little on the hard side.

Take_it_like_a_man,_sonny

Try fruit salad, in house of TILAMS we love it. A big bowl goes a long way. And with ice cream, what else do you need.

It goes in lick boxes, so can get to schools. As hols are here, you can wean the ... onto it during the summer and they will love peeling the fruit and chopping it up as well.

PipneyJane

A piece of advice given to a friend on a different forum: prepare/cook tomorrow night's dinner tonight, so that all you need to do is reheat it when you get home/finish it off/cook the pasta or rice. That way, your hungry children will be fed ASAP after they get home and you won't be stressed out while trying to prepare dinner.

(I think this is brilliant. My friend certainly road tested it well. She was a single mum with two kids; the giver of the advice is a working mum with twins.)

debtmess

The ideas that are coming in are great, it just seems so daunting with your own thoughts iykwim. thank you for the contributions. When I was at college n volunteering (which is what got me this job as such) I was not doing the full working day so none of this was a previous worry.

quintwins

debtmess wrote: »

Thank you both posts very helpful, I bath mine everyday as their very messy (buts that is me as a worrier) 2 have eczema and steroid and aveeno creams I guess bathing them first has been a part of a nightly routine, if I attempt to drop it down to every other night I can assess how it works out :j

Great idea about the meters I honestly did not think of extra top ups now, that may just save us from the dark if things get a little on the hard side.

When the twins were little i bathed them everyday til they were about 8 months, however at there age they know when bedtime is they don't need a bath to tell them that, you never know you could find it helps there skin.

I hated being on a meter it wasn't so much we couldn't afford any elec (well we couldn't but we always could get abit) but i would forget to put it on, theres nothing worse than waking up to no elec, i wish i had a meter for my heat but we have oil i paid £550 to fill our tank at the start of summer, and i hope it will last us the year if not abit more

You could also do portions of stew,soup and sheperds pie for the freezer at weekends that can just be microwaved.