Making plans for a hard month...will it be OK?

Toonie

Well, in the midst of the tightest two months of the year (February and March is always low paid) I had a £209 dentist trip. This means what was already a tricky couple of months is going to be worse. I have around £10 to last me until 22nd of March when I get paid again and then once bills and rent have been paid I'll have around £100 to last until 22nd April but that includes at least £60 for travel to work. My cupboards aren't too bad off having taken advantage of the last months Tesco offer £15 off for new customers but my freezer is beginning to be a little bare. Really I'm just look for ideas for the next 43 days. There are certain things I can't eat due to allergies (alliums, pasta, rice, mushrooms, most fresh fruit (I can eat cooked fruit-got to love oral allergy syndrome), pepper) so my cooking tends to be quite repetitive. This money will mostly be for food, I think I've got all cleaning/toiletries I need. Well, I might need another tube of toothpaste and shampoo, but we'll see when they run out.

Freezer
2 duck legs
400g beef mince
400g pork mince
1 poussin
400g stewing beef
200g frozen raspberries
Several bags of stewed apple (lots of cheap apples available from local market)
3 blocks of butter
500g shortcrust pastry
A couple of bags with breadcrumbs/croutons from stale loaves
Full bag peas
1 pack bacon

Fridge
8 eggs
2 pints milk
1 block butter
1 block lard
1 carton orange jucie
Several parsnips, sweet potatoes, carrots
200g cherry tomatoes
1 large romaine lettuce
2 x 500ml plain yoghurt
Tomato puree
100g cheese

Cupboard
1.5kg Self raising flour
1.5kg plain flour
500g wholemeal flour
2kg caster sugar
1 kg demerara sugar
500g muscavdo sugar
500g beef suet
1kg oats
2kg mixed dried fruit
500g dried cranberries
4 tins plum tomatoes
1 large tin butter beans
2 x 400g tins haricot beans
400g baked beans
2kg red lentils
1kg pearl barley
500g pourgouri (bulghur wheat) (I tolerate this, couscous and noodles far better than normal pasta)
500g couscous
2 blocks noodles
Box of oat cakes
Five McVities apple and sultana biscuit thingys (take to college)
250ml olive oil
500ml vegetable oil

I've also got tea, coffee and orange high juice which along with water and milk is all I drink (well, I've also got a bottle of cider and a bottle of whiskey left from Christmas). The cider may well be opened later.

I've got quite a few herbs and some spices (mostly sweet spices like ginger, cinnamon, cloves and nutmeg). I've also got a rosemary bush in the garden which keeps me stocked up.

Today I'm having mince and dumplings with Yorkshire pudding, carrots and peas which will have enough leftovers to do lunch tomorrow and make a few pasties to take to work.

I work long days (out the house at 7am and don't get back until 7.30pm most nights). Friday I'm at college from 9am until 3.30. It's only me to cook for (I live in a shared house but have the run of the kitchen), I do have a slow cooker, food processor (handy for veg chopping for soups) and a blender.

I've got a Sainsburys and Lidl within walking distance of home as well as a good market and a Turkish supermarket where I get most of meat and bread (50p for a nice loaf of Turkish bread, 5 large pitta for 30p) and a Tesco near work.

Blimey, this turned into an essay. So sorry. Mostly I just want someone to tell me I'll be fine and not to worry, it's silly but I just don't feel I can talk to anyone about this as they don't understand how I can only spend £20 a week on food (and that's a good week). Some of my friends last night were bemoaning their “almost empty” shopping trolley costing them £150 for a weeks food, makes me feel like giving up my three jobs and college sometimes as I struggle so hard and seem to get nowhere.

Fruball

Hiya

Yep, you will be fine What you have above is easily enough until you get paid and we have done meal plans for people for £7 ish a week so with what you have above, and the extra money when you get paid, it will be a breeze

Going on the basis that 100g of meat is a rough guide to a portion, with the poussin and duck legs and meat, you have enough for at least 15 main meals which would last you until you got paid. But what I would probably do is spread them over 4 weeks having either less at each meal or a day with meat and a day veggie.

You have a load of lentils and they are great for a filling dahl meal or soup.

Flour and eggs suet/oil to make puddings.

Envious of the turkish bread! That, with houmous or for dipping in a stew is heavenly!!

Toonie

Thanks Fruball

The Turkish bread is lovely, great as toast as well.

I've never made dahl before, do you have any recipes or links I could follow?

bluebag

Is this for one person, you have a good store there and should have no trouble at all stretching that out if it's the case.
Plenty of stuff to make pies and casseroles.

You can get frozen fruit to make crumbles and pancakes for puds too.

Frozen veg is pretty cheap to add to the stuff you have. Tosco anti dandruff shampoo is 99p and I highly recommend it. Cheapo toothpaste usually has as much fluoride in as the mega dear stuff.

Toonie

Yeah, it's just for me. I also found a couple of tins of pears in the back of the cupboard, so looks like pear crumbled is on the menu!

I have to be careful with shampoo and toothpaste as I'm also allergic to sodium laureth sulfate (found in many, many cleaning products for people/homes), so I tend to stretch out the shampoo as much as possible. The toothpaste is the problem though as using "normal" toothpaste I get really bad mouth ulcers.

BitterAndTwisted

With that decently-stocked store-cupboard and twenty quid a week you should be in clover.

Have a look at this site for some cheap recipe ideas.

http://www.cheap-family-recipes.org.uk

The red lentil pate is yummy, and would be delish with the Turkish bread. Is that the flat pide one? They sell that locally to me and it's really good.

This is a good recipe for dahl but you can omit the ginger and coriander or substitute them for whatever you might have to hand. And you can use red lentils you already have instead of the authentic yellow split peas.

http://allrecipes.co.uk/recipe/1892/dal.aspx

Plus, for the time being I would consider using only 50 grammes of meat a meal. It can't hurt if you combine it with other sources of protein in a day and it will stretch much, much further

Popperwell

Some great recipes in the latest Tescos mag(free)and ASDA mags(free)and available on line...Tesco's lately have started to include some that use leftovers or could be adapted for one...

gallygirl

I came across this blog today - fab recipes on it:

http://agirlcalledjack.com/category/10-a-week-food-shop-recipes/

Inspiring reading as well :T

Popperwell

That's a lovely blog gallygirl, thank you...too many great recipes to hand now to try but time is not as great ahead nor income but until they put me in a home or I pop my clogs I plan to do as much cooking and different meals possible.

FairyPrincessk

Just popping in to say, yes you'll be fine. I'd suggest this might be the time to do an extended meal plan. You've already done half the work by listing out what you've got. I'd just make a list of meals for each day based on what you've got in and keep a running shopping list for things you'll need to top up. Obviously, try to keep your top ups as low as possible--so if a meal needs more than one or two items that will cost more than a tiny amount and those items can't be shared out with other meals, then it might need to be cut. When you're finished that you can price check your list and see how much money you'll need--adjust as necessary and then you can divide it up and buy as needed to avoid things spoiling. It might take a bit of time but you'll sleep better when it is done and you know you're sorted.

meg72

just popping in tosay stop worrying you will be fine,come on over to the grocery challenge to see what others are managing on .