How do people feed families on £40 a week?

spiritwood

Edwardia wrote: »

Sorry to be rude.. really ? Well actually I think you just put egg on your own face, because obviously you haven't read my posts as well as you say you have,.

is it an organic egg from riverford laid by a chicken who is a pisces though?

If you had, you would know that we don't have a car, which is why I get food delivered (free, Riverford, free with Ocado SmartPass, 99p, Abel & Cole).

sigh. you missed the point. good for you for affording those things. most cannot. i couldn't.

Secondly, the waffle re: langoustines is your own, since I bought them frozen from Morrisons at £3 a box. The wholesaler price for wild North Atlantic prawns per kilo is often considerably less than the price per kilo for farmed Indonesian/Vietnamese prawns in Tesco.

and most people on jobseekers etc consider even value prawns a luxury

I bought pork loin steaks from Tesco and discovered 11% added water, sodium citrate, sodium acetate and dried glucose syrup. For someone with Type 2 diabetes, an unknown quantity of glucose was a no-no. I was so shaken up by it that we decided to go organic - which has really improved my health and OH feels better too.

so what? what relevance is that. good for you., i eat organic too. that is not the issue. the issue is the way you patronise people whilst bragging tbh. you remind me of the harry enfield character who is " considerable richer than you". if you want to assist people to eat healthily and preferably organic then langoustines will not cut it. stop showing off.


It seems on MSE its OK to feed yourself and kids utter rubbish, in order to afford those designer clothes, holidays, SKY, boozy nights out etc.

this is snobbery and nasty tbh

Basically I'm being called a snob for wanting to eat good food, by someone who says she eats organic food herself. :rotfl:

no you are being called a snob for your attitude not what you eat.

You may call clothes from supermarkets and charity shops, no vacation since 1997, no TV let alone SKY, no smoking and no booze since Christmas a luxury lifestyle, but I don't.

i didn't say that you had a luxury lifestyle did i? you seem to be putting words into my mouth here


If I was the snob you obviously think I am then I never would have married a man from a council estate and accquired in laws with criminal records.

that is not relevant. snobbery is about making sweeping statements about posters on here feeding their kids crap and drinking and having sky. it is classic daily mail-esq rubbish and it is snobby and nasty.

I am not going to apologise for eating good food, anymore than I would apologise for being intelligent, bisexual,half-French, an ex-chef or marrying the man I love.

sigh. did i ask you to apologise for eating "good food" ?
you do seem to like blowing your own trumpet a bit and do come across as very snooty. not sure what bisexual has to do with the price of (organic) eggs either tbh. am i supposed to be impressed? what has half french got to do with it either? or the rest. irrelevant waffle. get real please, if you want to debate then at least stick to the issues raised instead of filling it with red (organic) herrings ( from an overpriced shop)

people here do not need to be told how "lower class" their choices are. help them if you care so much instead of patronising them.

paulineb_2

You are making headway, fab. As I said earlier in the thread and I know other people will disagree with my choices and that is their perogative. I use approved foods for staples such as rice, pasta and other stuff I eat and find cheaper on that site. Stuff such as broth mix, lentils. Sometimes their offers go really quickly so you wont find the same thing on there every week.

For example. I got 5kgs of macaroni for a fiver. How long it will last me I dont know (Im not a pasta fiend), but when I go to tesco I see a small pack of pasta for a quid. I think its certainly worth looking at for your basics, plus if you drink squash as well, they sell it. They also sell pasta and sauce, kitchen roll, soy sauce. I got a box of 12 soy sauces really cheaply and its expensive in the shops.

It costs about 5 quid for delivery, but the savings offset the cost of deliver as far as Im concerned. I know you have probably had a look already, but as I said in my previous posts, it was a godsend to me when I was trying to cut corners financially and you will get a lot of stuff like rice, pasta, soy sauce, much cheaper than you'd find in the supermarkets, even the cheapest supermarkets.

GarnetLady

It's worth keeping an eye on Amazon for basics too - they sometimes have really good prices on pasta, lentils etc.

spiritwood

SandA wrote: »

Yes thats definitely the issue.

Problem is my OH does not realise the financial situation we are in. He doesn't seem to understand that overdrafts won't pay themselves, and when it comes to my little ones first birthday, it breaks my heart that as it stands I can offer him no party, and nothing memorable. It won't be until this point that OH realises that its not choice to reduce our shopping bill, its essential. Our gas and electricity is spiralling out of control at the minute, I know at my review there going to put my direct debit up which makes it worse. I am trying to pay for £110 gas, electricity and water, £33 phone, all of the food shopping, £85 car insurance and £101 council tax out of child tax credit, working tax credit and child benefit.

The problem with the OH is he works hard, in a job he hates, and so goes out once per month spending anything from £60-£100. I can't deny him of that.

My only option is to not take him with me and do it myself. Perhaps I need to deny him going out and wasting money we don't have and spending every penny he has on 'branded' food before he realises what situation he puts me in every month. Maybe wearing clothes to small for him since having baby 8 months ago might make him realise.

Heres to hoping.

being a parent is harder work than any job i have had. i also thisnk 60-100 a month for a night out when you are skint is not on personally. get him to cut back. the baby comes first surely not his night out and insistence on meat eating?

spiritwood

SandA wrote: »

Ok my meal plans for the week are:

Friday - Risotto (with mushrooms and chicken thigh, chicken stock (heinz veg stock for little one) onion and soy sauce)

Saturday - Early Sunday roast (With roasties, frozen veg, chicken, gravy, parsnips, yorkshires, cheese sauce)

Sunday - Chicken Casserole (Using frozen carrots left in frozen veg (there always seems to be loads of carrots in those?!), onion, left over chicken. Already have a packet of colmans sauce mix in)

Monday - Omelette (Eggs, some of the chicken thigh, onion, mushrooms if any left) served with chips probably)

Tuesday - Quiche, new potatoes and green beans

Wednesday - Sausage casserole (Sausages, baked beans, cannelini beans, tomato puree, paprika, onion)

Thursday - Curry (Using rest of chicken thigh, rice, some frozen bhajis I have, pashwiri naan)

Friday - Sausage and pasta (Sausages, onion, pasta and tomato soup)

Here is our list.

Mushrooms 350g
3 Onions
1Kg long grain rice
Whole chicken (1.5kgish)
chicken thigh (500g)
gravy granules
cheese sauce (packet)
parsnips (although will sacrifice these if necessary)
Potatoes (enough for roasties for 4 + baby, can I use the new potatoes from aldi, I home make roasties)
Goose fat - Again, will sacrifice if can't get cheaper then £1.50
Yorkshire puddings frozen
Garlic bread (2 baguettes)
Pasta shells 1kg
Pork Sausages (12)
Bacon (Enough for breakfast over the weekend)
12 eggs (breakfasts, omelette, scrambled egg for little one)
12 bread rolls (for cobs)
Bread 400g (toast for little one)
Curry sauce (Usually korma, usually get it for a £1 on offer)
Pashwiri naan (Usually find these for pennies, but will sacrifice if can't get cheap)
Tomato soup (sausage and pasta)
Cannelni beans
Soy sauce (for serving with risotto)
Kitchen roll
Multisurface cleaner
Quiche
Tinned new potatoes
green beans (frozen)
stuffing mix / frozen stuffing
baby milk (7.99)
squash (2 bottles of, usually on offer for 2, only reason why I get 2)
tea bags
fruit pots for little one (usually cow and gate ones, I dont think there to expensive)
Pasta 'n' Sauce / noodles for lunch for me during the week

xx

there is so much meat in this :-o expensive and unhealthy...
and why can't the baby eat what you do? mine always has?

SandA

To be honest when I ask him to, he says he will, but then he just doesn't and tries to hide how much he spends. All I get is that he goes to work so deserves to enjoy himself now and again. I can't argue with that.

would be nice for me to be able to go out or buy myself some new clothes. Being on my own with little one all day is hard. Especially since I do all the night feeds (and currently dealing with teething) so he can get sleep for work.

SandA

spiritwood wrote: »

there is so much meat in this :-o expensive and unhealthy...
and why can't the baby eat what you do? mine always has?

He does usually. Unless were eating junk I will make him something else up. He will have risotto, roast, casserole, quiche, sausage casserole and sausage and pasta. Only thing he wont have this week is korma because to much salt and sugar in the jar, i'll do him some steamed veg with chicken or something instead.

I definitely want to cut down the meat. I may just not buy sausages and use the left over bacon in the dishes I was going to use sausages in?

xx


My other option is to just cook without meat and buy some frozen dippers for him. I can certainly go without meat everynight, I barely eat my meat anyway. x

dlusman

paulineb wrote: »

For example. I got 5kgs of macaroni for a fiver. How long it will last me I dont know (Im not a pasta fiend), but when I go to tesco I see a small pack of pasta for a quid. I think its certainly worth looking at for your basics, plus if you drink squash as well, they sell it. They also sell pasta and sauce, kitchen roll, soy sauce. I got a box of 12 soy sauces really cheaply and its expensive in the shops.
.

I would agree with the pasta / noodles type stuff from approved food. They will keep for ages and dont really go "out of date".
Was looking around this morning, and they also had some new crisps in today with dates in May : 30 packs for £3 ( 40g - which is slightly bigger than some of the other brands )
Also good cheap dried beans / lentils can be bought in bulk and store for ages- something like
http://www.approvedfood.co.uk/?pid=53987

paulineb_2

Also veg like courgettes, onion, aubergine, you can make a ratatouille really cheaply. I make that and you can have it with mash, you can have it with pasta, it also goes ok with noodles like egg noodles (I dont eat them anymore as I dont eat anything with egg in it)

For tonights dinner Im going to make a thai green curry. I got an industrial sized tin of green curry paste from approved food, tofu again from approved food, 33p. I also got a case of red thai curry paste from approved foods for a penny. Coconut milk from approved food, 40p and either brown or white rice. Its very easy to make and if you are meat or fish eaters you can add prawns or chicken, takes about 20 mins to make.

You get so many recipes online and it can be trial and error, but what I do is, the leftover veg from a curry goes into soup so Im making the most of the veg I have. I like spinach and I can put some of it in a curry or two and the rest in a soup pot.

As for branded foods and unbranded, its well known that a lot of the value labels and the better labels come from the same production plant, theres no shame in buying value labels and I also see no problem with buying yellow stickered food or food thats reduced by supermarkets during the day, in fact if I had a choice to buy something at the full price or reduced, it makes sense that I go for reduced.

spiritwood

SandA wrote: »

To be honest when I ask him to, he says he will, but then he just doesn't and tries to hide how much he spends. All I get is that he goes to work so deserves to enjoy himself now and again. I can't argue with that.

would be nice for me to be able to go out or buy myself some new clothes. Being on my own with little one all day is hard. Especially since I do all the night feeds (and currently dealing with teething) so he can get sleep for work.

sorry if it seems i am picking on you but i actually feel he is being disrespectful of you .... you bring up a baby. bloody ard work . do you get a night off at 100 quid? no thought not if he spent just one week doing all that you do he would soon realise he has it easy and as for not helping you with the night feeds either? :-o sorry but i think you need to get him to respect you more me dear. not on. even if he did one a week it would help you (fri night if sleep is an issue- of course you don't have that luxury). he sounds very sexist tbh