No idea how to get through the next month

crispycreme_2

Also we are well down on our budget, dp did the dc lunches today. Ds1 ended up with school dinner money and ds2 had jam sandwiches from home and dpbought him drink, yogurt, cheese dunkers etcfrom corner shop on the way to taking him to school.
Then this afternoon he popped out with stepdad to look at car and stopped at sainssburys on way home for lunch bits. £14 later....

Hesaid the boys lunchwas from tips he made last night, but still..

jackieblack

crispycreme wrote: »

Also we are well down on our budget, dp did the dc lunches today. Ds1 ended up with school dinner money and ds2 had jam sandwiches from home and dpbought him drink, yogurt, cheese dunkers etcfrom corner shop on the way to taking him to school.
Then this afternoon he popped out with stepdad to look at car and stopped at sainssburys on way home for lunch bits. £14 later....

Hesaid the boys lunchwas from tips he made last night, but still..

Oh dear :wall:
You're really going to have to get him on board with this

EstherH

Hi Crispycreme.
Sorry to hear about dp's extra spends. Hope it was from tips he had got so as not to cut into your budget but even so, you could have done so much more with that money. Anyway, what's done is done so onwards and upwards as they say. How much money have you spent/got left out of the £90 now?
Morrisons have chickens and pork mince on offer this week and they had 12.5kg sacks of potatoes last week though I don't know if they are still on offer or even if you can get to morrisons as I can't remember which supermarkets you said you were able to get to.

I made a sausage casserole at weekend. Cut the sausage up into slices and put in plenty of carrots, onions, and lentils. Also some oats - can't you tell I have read through Mbaz's thread again. I added a few frozen peppers and leeks and when it had been on for a good while I added a couple of tins of tomato and some puree. Also a little Worcester sauce and balsamic vinegar, mustard and anything else in the cupboard. Just wanted it to taste different to stew or bolognaise so added a bit of this and a bit of that for variety but you don't need to. Anyway, served with mash and peas one day and rice the next with some added baked beans the second day, again for variety. Another tub and a couple of separate portions in the freezer too. It worked out that each portion only had one sausage in but because it was sliced up you didn't notice. Needs must.

Let us know how you are doing.

God bless

Esther x

EstherH

Hi again, I thought i would just share the 'recipe' for pasta bake that I made tonight.

225g pasta
Six rashers of bacon - could use more or less, this is what I had in an
Open pack.
Chopped red onion. - could use white
2 garlic cloves
Handful frozen mixed peppers
Carton of passata
3 cheese triangles
Tin of tomatoes
320g broccoli
Dried herbs
Handful grated cheese

I boiled the pasta

Mixed the passata, peppers, garlic and cheese triangles and blitzed with handwisk.

Nuked the broccoli for a few minutes.

Then put pasta in oven proof dish
Topped with bacon, onions, broccoli and poured over passata mix.
Topped with grated cheese and put in oven for about twenty minutes at 180.

You could swop the broccoli for peas or sweet corn or leave out altogether. You probably don't need both the passata and tomatoes either but I wanted some chunky tomato as well as the smooth sauce.

The bacon was a part opened pack that needed using. Could use left over chicken, gammon or ham. The cheese triangles are what I had in and you could use basics soft cheese.

It sounds like a faff as I have written it but really was very easy and quick and tasted delicious.

I put recipe in inverted commas at the top but it was basically a throw together what I had in, when I got home.

HTH

Esther x

crispycreme_2

EstherH, thankyou for both your recipes . Will have these next week, sound lovely.

Tomight I made a shephards pie out of lentils, onions, garlic, tomatoes, splash red wine, herbs, stock pot, spices etc. Was delicious and reakly suprised me.

Meal planto use what we have;

Steak stir fry ( onions, pepper found in back of fridge, broccoli, sirloin, hoisin,, noodles)

Easy cheese potato pie ( Sam Stern recipe. Will cut a gammon steak up into it)

Sweet potato Curry

Leek & potato soup followed by trifle

crispycreme_2

Now have to work out lunches cheaply. Finding this hard as Ds1 has hollow legs at the minute!

Toonie

If you can bake some biscuits (like Twinks) or scones as they are both quite filling and feel like a good treat. I often remember Mum making scones and cakes towards the end of the month as money was always tight and I used to be one of those hollow leg kids. A biscuit, slice of cake or scone and a glass of milk did wonders.

Good luck!

EmmaHerts

I was wondering if you could arrange for the children to have school-meals so that you know they are getting a decent meal and afters, and you wouldn't have to worry so much about dinner.

EstherH

CRISPIECREME. Your meal plan so far looks good. Ŵas the shepherds pie completely veggie, no meat at all?

I agree with TOONIES suggestion about twinks hobnobs or scones etc.
Bananas are quite cheap and more filling than other fruit. What is the position about free school lunches for your children? How much money do you have left now?

Esther x

patchwork_cat

EmmaHerts wrote: »

I was wondering if you could arrange for the children to have school-meals so that you know they are getting a decent meal and afters, and you wouldn't have to worry so much about dinner.

Unless OP gets free school meals this will cost approx. £8 a week per child so not exactly practical on this budget.