Feeding 1 adult and 2 children off barely nothing?

bubbs

http://realfood.tesco.com/media/docs/Real_Food_AprilMay_2013.pdf

Print from here page 3 the coupon is on HTH

salome

I've removed my posts as I don't want the OP to feel any added confusion on top of what she has to put up with at the moment. The suggestion of home ed was offered as an alternative, not a thing to do, and in hind sight perhaps shouldn't have been suggested, as it deterred from the origins of the original post.
x

honeythewitch

salome wrote: »

I've removed my posts as I don't want the OP to feel any added confusion on top of what she has to put up with at the moment. The suggestion of home ed was offered as an alternative, not a thing to do, and in hind sight perhaps shouldn't have been suggested, as it deterred from the origins of the original post.
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I wish you hadn't, because .some others dont make sense now, and the information you gave will be valuable to others.
I thought you made some very good points about the cost of school.

lovesabargain123

With the risk of being flamed here as I don't understand rules of residency etc so I may be talking utter rubbish (it's not unheard of ;-) anyway, I see your eldest child is only 4.. They don't legally have to be in school until they are 5 so I don't think you can get into trouble for keeping her off a week or 2 till a school near your home is sorted and that would mean extra money for food..

I think your best friend here could be porrige oats. Make a pan up for breakfast with a bit of honey or cheap smart price jam to sweeten it up a bit of the kids don't like it plain. Then when you make a meal with mince you can chuck a handful of the oats into the recipe, you won't notice it's there when cooked but you will get double the portion of food.

I don't think an unhealthy diet will do the kids any harm what so ever in the short term till you get your benefits and sort yourself out.

Is asda your only local supermarket? Aldi I find so much cheaper and much better quality

Good luck xx

thriftwizard

lovesabargain123, not in any way going to flame you, but I do know that friends who have been in this kind of position have had to be very, very careful not to do anything out of the ordinary, so that they don't give their exes ammunition to start another court battle. In one case, she had to literally drive her kids 200 yards to school every morning, and run home from work, pick up the car & drive the 200 yards back again every day so that her American ex didn't think they were living in a slum & sue for custody on those grounds. Sadly he was eventually awarded it anyway, as the courts in New Mexico decided that England is a third-world country & no place for American kids to be dragged up in!

I home-educated two of my kids from 9 onwards & found it very much cheaper than school, even including the cost of exams, but I live in a part of the country where there's plenty of history & geography just lying around, and hardly any state subsidies coming into the schools, so outings often cost us £20 per child (to go to somewhere we could walk to & get into with a family National Trust card!) and one 6th-form trip was £3500. One "round" of uniform for 3 set us back £300.

lessonlearned

Some fantastic advice on here about food and how to cut back a little.

I do hope that you get the tax credits etc and any benefits due to you sorted out ASAP.

However, I have to say my experience has been that these can take quite a while.

In the meantime can you raise a bit of extra cash, selling some unwanted stuff perhaps.

If your children are with their Dad occasionally at the the weekend could you manage a car boot sale. Tricky if you have no car but maybe a table top sale where you could take smaller items.

A bit of ebaying perhaps or selling any old gold or jewellery. If don't want to sell you could consider a pawn shop as a temporary measure.

Cards in post office window for any other items such as any baby equipment you no longer need.

Music Magpie for cds, dvds etc or one of the cash converter places. Any old cameras, gadgets or gizmos etc lying around. You might not get much for them but they will be tax free because you are only selling personal items not trading.

Any hardship funds available at your university. Do you have any family nearby who could help.

Good luck.

I have to say your ex sounds like a piece of work - the uniform business is just shocking. You are definitely better off without him, even if you do struggle for a while.

SunshineButterfly

Ideally I would keep the kids at home for a few weeks whilst its all sorted, but yes you are correct.. the ex would use this as ammunition and he is already trying very very hard to appeal the judges final hearing decision.


I do not want to disclose to specifically where I live, but I will inbox the person that has asked (and pray you dont know my ex lol).

I had a wander to Aldi yesterday with a ten pound note. I couldnt carry to much so only bought bits... but I have all the bits I need for my eldest for his snacks and juice for school. I got some pork chops which I have put in the freezer along with some mince meat and I got a few bags of mixed frozen veg.

I have spent on gas and electric, but that should now last me about a fortnight?

Bills are due such as mobile phone (contract) which I will have to pay due to needing to be able to contact the social support worker when things happen and my phone has to be working to follow the contact order (dad has telephone contact with my children on the weekend he doesnt see them).

My broadband, tv bill and landline are due, but I have cancelled all my direct debits including water, tv license and so on.

I am still in rent arrears and have informed the landlord via text message of the situation though that was 2 weeks ago and he has not replied. I am not sure if thats a good thing or a bad thing as usually if its to do with money hes on the phone that day I am hoping hes just leaving me too it and hoping he will get the arrears asap.

I do not have much I can sell. I have recently stopped using 3 babygates so I may try and sell 2 of those are they are in good condition. The only other things I could possibly sell are the childrens things which I would really rather not do as I would feel extremely mean and I would rather starve myself all week than sell their toys.

Butterfly_Brain

SunshineButterfly wrote: »

Ideally I would keep the kids at home for a few weeks whilst its all sorted, but yes you are correct.. the ex would use this as ammunition and he is already trying very very hard to appeal the judges final hearing decision.


I do not want to disclose to specifically where I live, but I will inbox the person that has asked (and pray you dont know my ex lol).

I had a wander to Aldi yesterday with a ten pound note. I couldnt carry to much so only bought bits... but I have all the bits I need for my eldest for his snacks and juice for school. I got some pork chops which I have put in the freezer along with some mince meat and I got a few bags of mixed frozen veg.

I have spent on gas and electric, but that should now last me about a fortnight?

Bills are due such as mobile phone (contract) which I will have to pay due to needing to be able to contact the social support worker when things happen and my phone has to be working to follow the contact order (dad has telephone contact with my children on the weekend he doesnt see them).

My broadband, tv bill and landline are due, but I have cancelled all my direct debits including water, tv license and so on.

I am still in rent arrears and have informed the landlord via text message of the situation though that was 2 weeks ago and he has not replied. I am not sure if thats a good thing or a bad thing as usually if its to do with money hes on the phone that day I am hoping hes just leaving me too it and hoping he will get the arrears asap.

I do not have much I can sell. I have recently stopped using 3 babygates so I may try and sell 2 of those are they are in good condition. The only other things I could possibly sell are the childrens things which I would really rather not do as I would feel extremely mean and I would rather starve myself all week than sell their toys.

I don't want to sound critical, but while I understand the need for a telephone line and broadband (UB) you really don't need the expensive tv packages

Who is your TV provider?
I ask this because Sky might offer you a good deal if they think that you are going to cancel (I got 6 months free viewing) but still got rid of it in the end, tv is total tripe these days and I didn't see the point of paying the basic sky package of £258 a year to watch the same thing over and over again, so be like me and lots of others on this site who make do with freeview and watch stuff on the internet. Just think what you could do with all of that money.

Fruball

WantToBeSE wrote: »

Thats amazing Fruball!!

Could you post the recipe for the sausage spag bol please? (sorry OP, i hope you dont mind).

Just take the sausage meat out of the skins and fry with half an onion or so, then add tinned toms, stock cube, herbs and pepper just as if doing a normal Bolognese

RAS

SunshineButterfly wrote: »

I have this week applied for an access to learning fund. Although I have no "proof" that the children are dependant on me as I have only just applied for tax credits and my residency order will take another week or so to get to me. But the closing date of the ALF was yesterday.. so I had no choice but to just fill it in and send it without evidence. I have emailed them in hopes they can make allowances and either continue with the form and ask for evidence at a later date or just make an appointment with me or ring me.

Hi You should have Student Welfare Officers both in the University and in the Student Union.

I would advise that you proactively speak to them about the Access to Learing Fund but also about the possibility of a loan.

Your ex is trying to starve you out and you need to make that quite explicit when you talk to them.

A couple of pointers food wise.

Cheese is protein, so do not worry about giving the kids pasta and tomato sauce for tea with or without cheese.

Buy porridge oats and that is breakfast solved. You might even be able to make some into flapjacks for nibbles.

You need fats if you are to get the number of calories required at low costs. The cheapest I found is rape seed oil at £1.29. Although you may get lard nearly as cheap in some places but the types of fats in rapeseed oil are healthy.

The cheapest source of bulk calories is pasta; at 19p much cheaper than potatoes or rice although the rice is second best.

The cheapest source of calories I found were packs of lemon sandwich biscuits in Lidl - for 31 pence. Not great but OK for snacks over a short term.

For vitamin C buy budget juice at 69pish and freeze half. Give to the kids half and half water to protect their teeth and prevent the squits. They only need a very small glass a day and would be Ok for a while if you could not afford it as the body stores 90 days worth.