Advice please

SpikyHedgehog

Hi Sarah,

My light bulb moment was last year when my husband had left us and I was waiting to find out how I'd manage on my income for me & my 2 boys, then 15 and 7,and the cat. (We are ok, it was just that moment of panic!)

I used Weezl's website http://www.cheap-family-recipes.org.uk/index.html?opt=p3m1
to help me get the bills down. I didn't get as far as £100 per month, but I was doing it nearly a year after she'd worked out the prices, and including toiletries, cat food & litter, etc. So it can be done.

I don't drive and am currently trying to do an online order once a month so I can get free delivery as it's over £100, then do top up shops locally for fruit and veg.

Butterfly_Brain

oligeo wrote: »

Thanks for all your replies. I really need to make an effort to downshift my brands, and give the value range a try.
I really need to try and do a roast on a sunday and make the meat stretch a few meals too. Those are my two challenges to myself for this month!

Baby steps hun most of us have been there x

oligeo

SpikyHedgehog wrote: »

Hi Sarah,

My light bulb moment was last year when my husband had left us and I was waiting to find out how I'd manage on my income for me & my 2 boys, then 15 and 7,and the cat. (We are ok, it was just that moment of panic!)
.

This is what has forced the light bulb moment for me too. Only I'm still waiting for him to decide if he wants me or not

SpikyHedgehog

oligeo wrote: »

This is what has forced the light bulb moment for me too. Only I'm still waiting for him to decide if he wants me or not

((Sarah)) it's bloomin' rough. All I can say is, make the decisions for the best for you & the children.

My Errant Husband is still with his girlfriend, he's not totally happy there... But that's his problem I do the best for the boys & I, & we're ok. I give them lots of love, warm clothes, good food (that's good for them ), & support them with school & extra curricular stuff.
You can do what's right for you & your boys, & only you know what that is. Good luck!

vanoonoo

good luck oligeo you are making a great start

with the OH - can you try to control his portions a little? dont put so much of the expensive stuff on his plate but perhaps serve with a slice of bread and marg or a few extra spuds or even bulk out the meal with oats or lentils if its a suitable dish to hide them in like a stew or cottage pie or spag bol?

If you are making a dish to serve all 4 of you, instead of the husband having half and you and the boys sharing the rest, for example, portion it out in advance so that you have a portion for the freezer (perhaps enough to feed the boys between them), a portion for you, a portion for him and 2 portions for the boys. if you put aside the "spare" portion to cool whilst you are serving up, you can stash it away in the freezer before anyone even knows its left over and then slowly you can start to build a reserve of meals so that by the last week of the month you will prob have enough leftover portions to feed all of you for a few days (if you did one portion of food every day it's 21 portions in three week which would feed the 4 of you for nearly a week!).

thriftyniftyme

Huge hugs to you oligeo (((hug)))

One thing to bear in mind is that if you buy seasonal fruit and veg they are so much cheaper.

At this time of year I make lots of coleslaw as carrots, onions and cabbage are always pretty cheap - plus coleslaw is filling, hassle-free and goes with lots of things!

I LOVE to serve jacket potatoes with coleslaw, beans or with tuna 'crunch' (tuna with defrosted sweetcorn, peas, peppers and some onion) - cheap, filling, healthy and tasty! And so easy, you can just bung the potatoes in the oven or microwave

HM pizza is good too - it's a little more effort but the kids will see it as a fun treat. Don't go too mad with the choice of toppings: less cheese than you think, tomato sauce, passata or tomato paste, ham or leftover meat are good, but try and do a few veggies (onions, sweetcorn, mushrooms, frozen peppers) as well.

Homemade curry is cheap as chips and can hide a multitude of veggies as well as lentils, pulses and beans.

Also I like sausage and veggie bake in the winter - roast sausages with potatoes, carrots, onions, squash and any other veggies you've got kicking around.

Julie67

Thinking about eating more veg. If I make anything with mince I always grate some veg in to bulk out the meat. You can do this with lasagne or cottage pie etc. Carrots and courgettes are good ones to use. I've made a lasagne for tonight's tea, using this trick and with not a lot of meat, have made enough for 6 good portions. So this does 2 meals for the three of us. My boy is not keen on veg but never even notices them done like this.

thriftyniftyme

Julie67 wrote: »

Thinking about eating more veg. If I make anything with mince I always grate some veg in to bulk out the meat. You can do this with lasagne or cottage pie etc. Carrots and courgettes are good ones to use. I've made a lasagne for tonight's tea, using this trick and with not a lot of meat, have made enough for 6 good portions. So this does 2 meals for the three of us. My boy is not keen on veg but never even notices them done like this.

Ooh yes! And while we're on the subject, mix beef and turkey mince together with a stock cube and it'll be just as tasty but cheaper and healthier too. And add a good handful of oats when you cook mince, as it'll help bulk it even further and make it healthier too!

Today I made tacos made from: beef and turkey mince that had been cooked down together; oats; grated carrots; value kidney beans; frozen sweetcorn; frozen peas; frozen peppers; value mushrooms; and penty of onions. Plus some spices of course (not packet). It was lovely and we've got twelve biG ADULT portions from 1/2lb steak mince and 1/2 turkey mince. It might not be authentic but it's tasty!

Popperwell

What do yout think? I often chop my veg up. Is it better to dice it or grate it. I have access to a mini chopper/knife but am debating whether to get my Nicer Dicer out and start using it as it is sitting there unused...

Wish my freezer was larger, makes the saving of unused meals harder but I can either take less out of the freezer in the first place or just leave it in the fridge for a couple of days...

blossomhill_2

Hi oligeo, I feel for you as we have been there, but we're lucky enough to be in a much more secure place now - but can still remember the worries of feeding young 'uns

Do you freecycle? If you were to put a request on freecycle for windfall apples I suspect you would get offers of fresh picked delicious homegrown apples (not just windfalls) that you could stew up, serve as baked apples, freeze ahead as apple pies and apple sauce, make into juice (this freezes too) and have in lunchboxes fresh. You'd have to invest in some sugar for some of these first though.

There's no need to say what your circumstances are, just a nicely worded ad with "please can we put your winfall apples to good use?" type thing

HTH

(PS, if you buy yellow sticker french loaves, bag them up as ready sliced and just defrost what you need, for less waste)