Store Cupboard and budgeting help.

[Deleted User]

Best thing I can think of is make your own baby food if possible.mush up more or less what your eating in a mueli-grater.Its a long time since I had babies (over 44 years but rarely did I buy tins,in those days few jars around)of baby food.I just couldn't afford them My eldest loved semolina pudding and sainsbobs did a tinned one that was really cheap,(bit like tinned rice) and I would divide it up into four or three as she got bigger and she would have some for her tea and would gum on a bit of bread and butter with it as well.An opened tin turned into four or three tuppaware boxes kept very well in the fridge and I would an a mashed up banana or small bit of fruit to it to give it a bit of flavour or even a spoonful of honey.Lunch could be a boiled egg with soldiers nice and easy finger food.breakfast I'd make porridge with water and add a bit of milk to cool it down once made and it was quite filling with again some fruit mashed into it.veg I would add to minced beef and whizz up with the mouili thing which was another cheap meal for babies with some gravy and a bit of mashed spud.My youngest was 10lb.9ozs born and had a good appetite as she was the size of a three month baby very quickly so I managed to get her weaned quickly as well.As long as there is no lumps they might choke on you'd be suprised at how adaptable babies are .The third world have no tins or jars to feed their children with and will often eat virtually the same as Mum and Dad just mashed up more.Babies will thrive as long as they have three things, a clean butt, soft food to eat and lots of cuddles from Mum.

I know its hard when your broke and worry about how you are going to manage but this time next year you will wonder why you were fretting.Your baby won't starve or go down with something awful if it doesn't have a jar of food ready made I'd rather give a baby fresh food made with ingredients that I have put in myself than anything from a jar.Its convenient I know but its also an expensive way to eat.
Good luck honey we have all been in your position and do know how you are worrying about everything but try not to it really will be OK you know
Have a look at a blog called A Girl called Jack (no relation I can assure you) she feeds herself and little boy on a tenner a week.I have tried and tested her recipes and believe me they are delicious.If you email her she will usually reply as well which is nice
Good Luck
JackieO xxx
P.S. I have sent you a p.m. if you click on it there is a message for you

chirpychick

Thank you JackieO, so much.
Your post actually reminded me that I have a bag of tesco value porridge oats in the cupboard, I could give him porridge for breakfast, which is a good start!
Like your baby he was big at birth (10lb 4) but has had lots of feeding issues with milk and failed to put on weight for a long time so I think I got very paranoid about it and as he would eat jars it made me fret less knowing that he wasn't going hungry. However, he has nearly doubled his birth weight now so I realise from what people have said I need to be giving him things that we are eating, blended/mushed to save money and like you say, also so that I know what is going into his food.
I have replied to your PM

Also someone (sorry forgot your name) mentioned about selling things, I always sell on what he outgrows and we have put a few little bits on this week and Im just about to go and sort out the clothes he has outgrown and get them on eBay too. We generally don't have much "stuff" as we don't have much space so anything that's not needed generally does get sold on but thank you for giving me the motivation to get them clothes sorted. Hopefully that will give us a bit extra.

Thank you all for being so helpful!
It's not nice really having to admit that you've lost your way a bit but you have been great and I really appreciate the support.

[Deleted User]

Not a problem that's what we are all here for, to help each other out. I have replied to your p.m. so hopefully it will help you a bit :)
Good luck and happy cooking If you get stuck never forget there is no such thing as a daft question and someone here will always give you a quick heads up answer if we can
Cheers
JackieO xxx

EstherH

Hi chirpychick, have a look at the second purse challenge on the food shopping and grocery board. It looks complicated at first but once you get your head round it (ask questions if you don't understand) its great and you will soon see a saving.
Hope you're baby adapts quickly to homemade food. I remember the worries over feeding, delighted when they ate, in turmoil when they didn't. It's many years ago now. But as JackieO and others have said, they really will be ok and you look back wondering what you worried about.
God bless. Esther x

debtfreesomeday

Hi ChirpyChick

I felt I had to reply to your post as you sound just like me 18 months ago! Our son had severe silent reflux from 6 weeks old until 15 months and has never been a good eater. We tried to give him all sorts of home made baby food but he would rarely eat it and we would waste so much. He would usually always eat jars and pouches of food though which were expensive, but 'at least he was eating something' was our motto. At 2, he is still not a good eater at home, although will eat everything they give him at nursery...

Our son is also not a good sleeper - STILL - and you're right, it is SO hard to function/cook/think on little sleep. I have been trying to lose weight for 2 years now but have come to accept that lack of sleep makes eveything so much harder and I just don't have the energy to cook healthy food after work.

We are now out of debt but have a mortgage and very little spare money every month after childcare etc. I struggle with the food budget massively as we just buy whatever we fancy or something quick when we are so tired.

The main thing that worked for us is a loose form of meal planning. We write down 7 evening meals that we know are quick, easy and cheap and just stick to them for the week - not necessarily in order, and then plan it the day before, just to make sure you have everything in. On a more 'awake' day, a little bit of prep the day before also really helps - e.g. peel potatoes and put in water & a little milk (to keep from going grey) etc.

The other thing I was going to ask was are you able to get your little one's milk on prescription if he has a feeding issue? My son was on nutramigen special milk and we used to get this on prescription.

Good luck with your struggles, sorry I can't offer a lot of help, but know that you're not alone and it does get easier.

DFSD
X

kboss2010

What's your monthly food budget? do you have a freezer? You need to look at it monthly. At the start buy cheap bags of carrots, onions, cabbage, potatoes etc., chop up and freeze in bags so you can just pull out handfuls of whatever you need when u need it - don't buy ready-sliced root veg, it's cheaper to chop it and freeze it yourself!

I can't help you with baby advice (I don't have kids) but I will say I'm a lazy cook - if it takes longer than 15 mins I don't bother!

Here are my best quick, cheap recipes:

Bacon, peas and cream pasta - serves 4 portions - 1 pack farmfoods frozen bacon (can be chopped and cooked from frozen) £1, 1/4 bag of frozen peas (25p), small single cream (55p, S'burys), 4 cups cheap pasta (2/3 of a value 30p bag, A*di)

How to: Add 10ml cold water to frying pan, fry bacon in water (healthier and no need for oil, when the bacon fat melts it will give you enough flavour) when bacon is almost cooked, add frozen peas. When peas are cooked add cream and continually stir to prevent curdling. Add salt and pepper. Take off heat as soon as the cream is hot and slightly thickened.
Cost per portion: 50p


Chorizo pasta - serves 4 - 1/2 chorizo chopped small (£1 whole from A*di), 1 large onion, 2 sliced carrots, 1 tin tomatoes (33p A*di/4 for £1 Home Bargains), 4 cups value pasta, 2tsp sugar, pinch of mixed herbs (50p budget S'burys), a few chilli flakes/1 tbsp sweet chilli sauce (optional)

How to: fry onions, carrots and chorizo in a bit of water (chorizo will leak fat and garlic for flavour), once cooked, add tin of tomatoes, herbs, sugar and chilli and cook until heated. Add cooked pasta.

Cost per serving: 50p

Japanese rice - serves 4 - 2 tins boneless, skinless mackerel (or 4 poached eggs if you don't like fish) (90p tin S'burys/6 eggs for £1 £land), 2 cups of value rice (50p a bag), 2 stock cubes (10p for 10 S'burys), few handfuls of diced cabbage.

How to: Add boiling water to a medium-sized deep pan, add stock cubes, rice and cabbage and cook until soft. Ensure water is always 1-2cm above top of rice and constantly bubbling. When rice is cooked, flake the mackerel/add the raw eggs carefully (don't break the yolk) and poach with the rice until cooked to taste.

You basically want to end up with water level with the rice when cooked.

Cost per portion: 50p-£1

Cheap, fast way to cook white pasta/rice: Pyrex large bowl, boiling water + 10 mins in the microwave or until cooked (12 mins max I should guess) - check every few minutes to ensure water level is not below the pasta/rice or it'll burn.

allat

Let me see if I can help? Some questions first of all?
Can you cook?
Is the £120 just for food and for you and your partner?
Can you free up money from other things?
Can you reduce payments made on your IVA further?
Is bankruptcy an option?

Food is important. It will keep you well and alive, so it is not the first thing to economise on.

This is what I would do...

1. Learn to cook really well and cook from scratch. You can get cook books from the public library, charity shops and car boot sales. Learn the basics. Pastry, mashed potato, soup, omelette, homemade pizza, bolognese sauce etc. Cooking from scratch means you can eat cheaply and healthily.
2. Work out your budget on a per day basis and allocate more to your evening meal e.g. £120 is approx £4 per day = £2 for dinner and £2 for both breakfast and lunch.
3. Plan your meals for the week using mysupermarket to check prices and only buy each week what you need...If you need one carrot or just one onion...buy loose from a supermarket.
4. Get more from your food...if you make a casserole, make double and freeze one. If you buy a head of celery, plan to use it many times e.g. celery soup, spaghetti sauce, minestrone. If you buy a pumpkin or squash look at pumpkin gratin with cheese, vegetable curry, pumpkin and red pepper soup. Look up "rubber chicken" you can get 3/4 meals from a chicken.
5. Don't buy any ready meals or ready prepared food...buy dried red kidney beans etc and soak them, buy dried basmati or long grain rice etc. Create meals around these staples.
6. Look at the key blogs on this subject ...these are "frugal queen", "skint foodie", "poor girl eats well" "north south food blog". Bookepople has a book on pureeing baby food as I recall with recipes for babies.
7. Create a store cupboard which means that you do not need to resort to eating plain pasta or cereals at the end of the month e.g. pasta puttanesca is a pasta dish which uses store ingredients like olives, capers, tinned tomatoes or think about a risotto using butter, left over fresh vegetables, arborio rice and parmesan. The ingredients I would choose for a store cupboard would include olive oil, rice, olives, tinned tomatoes, tinned sweetcorn, tinned tuna, tinned ham etc but equally important is to use your freezer well and repack YS items into portions for two and freeze.
8. You mention being tired to cook...try cooking in the morning and reheating in the microwave or using a slow cooker.
9. Good breakfasts are porridge with sultanas and peanut butter on toast and toasted stuffed pitta bread with egg/cheese/meat and tomatoes and cucumber are nice.

Start by looking at the "skint foodie" blog as he explains about the planning and budgeting in detail. He spends more on food than you but his blog is excellent. Before long you will be cooking restaurant type meals for next to no money! I once did a charity challenge where I lived on £1 per day for a week and honestly I ate well. Look at "Live below the Line". I must stress that you need to think of meals in terms of the cost per person, per meal and aim for food that is fresh and healthy.

EstherH

For your emergency store, a tin of corned beef is good for making corned beef ash, corned beef pie and for sandwiches.
Corned beef ash is really easy and quick to make:
Chop up (no need to peel) potatoes and carrots.
One large peeled sliced onion.
Top with boiling water and boil for about fifteen minutes.
Add cubed corned beef a stock cube and salt and pepper.
Boil until piping hot.
Enjoy.

Left overs can be made into a pie. Pastry is really cheap and quick to make.

I would also save enough to make a sandwich each before putting the rest in the pan with the ash.

Tuna is really flexible to as it can be used in pasta bake and sandwiches.
Sorry if that seems obvious. Just remembered that your original question was about an emergency box for the end of the month.

Eggs don't need to be kept in the fridge so if your box is somewhere that they wouldn't get broken, then maybe put some of them away too. When my baby was first born scrambled egg was a staple as it was quick, easy to make and filling and with an orange afterwards to help absorb the iron in it, I considered it a really healthy meal.

Another thing to put in your box could be a tin of stewing steak. Maybe not as economical as buying the meat and making a stew to freeze, but it would be some meat for the end of the month which with the addition of some frozen veg and a jacket potato done in the microwave, would be another very quick and nutritious meal.

Hope these help.
God bless
Esther x

chirpychick

debtfreesomeday
Thank you so much for your post!
At first they thought spud had allergies and intolerances like his dad, (among other issues at birth and a meningitis scare at 7 weeks!) however it turns out he "just" has severe reflux. He was on Nutramigen but believe it or not he can't even keep this down anymore, that was great in a sense for the 3 months it worked because as you say it was free on prescription, however, the reflux "beat" nutramigen - this has been happening with all the formulas since he was born and currently he is now on c&g anti reflux and regurgitation. He has been on this for 6 weeks now but because it is so thick it is a real effort getting him to drink more than a few mls at a time!
Any food with any hint of lumps or strong flavour makes him very sick. (though interestingly MIL brought him some organix baby rice cakes and rusks and he keeps them down!) He gags all the time!
We have been back and forth to HV & GP but refused so see a dietitian or pediatrician (despite HV recommending it).
So as you say buying the jars of food feels like "at least he is eating and gaining weight".

I really appreciate your post because for so long I have felt so alone in this. Thank you so much for sharing.

allat wrote: »

Let me see if I can help? Some questions first of all?
Can you cook? I can sort of cook, slow cooker meals, spaghetti bolognese etc but have to follow recipes, anything I try to make without a recipe goes wrong and is usually inedible even for a hubby who eats everything!
Is the £120 just for food and for you and your partner? £120 is for food for me and my husband, I buy pet food, baby stuffs from other budgets. But the £120 is to include toiletries and cleaning products.
Can you free up money from other things? I have been looking at it today and I think i can free up £20
Can you reduce payments made on your IVA further? The only way we can do this is to go back to the creditors and they say they will have to extend the IVA which being practically halfway through we really dont want to do if we can avoid it.
Is bankruptcy an option? No.

Food is important. It will keep you well and alive, so it is not the first thing to economise on.

thank you so much for the help, will definitely look into the blogs! I really appreciate your advice!

allat

You are doing well...I still use a cookery book after decades of cooking. I have about 350 of them! I have just thought of another site for you which is the Love Food Hate waste site and I have just seen a post about how to make your own cook in sauces. On this site you can type in an ingredient that you have left over and it will then suggest recipes.