We need to make some changes! Please help

pinkie_pie

Our family eating habits have to change. I've spent hours this weekend trying to decide what to do and thought I'd ask the lovely MSE bunch for advice I imagine it's not an uncommon plea but I feel in over my head.

Our issues are as follows:
1. We spend way too much money on food. For a family of four, well over £400 a month. Could be £600 even. I tried joining a grocery challenge but quickly got swamped.
2. I'm struggling to plan meals everyone will eat. I used to be good at meal planning! My oh is wary of fruit and veg, and loves carb and meat heavy meals. My kids have pretty standard tastes - they aren't fish finger or chicken nuggets kids, they like a bolognese or fajitas or so on. I've developed a recent dislike to a number of meat products and am happy to introduce more veg meals but I don't know how well it will go, even if they were 'good' ones.
3. Health reasons - I NEED to lose weight. We are getting married in 3 months and I'm overweight, I'd much rather make changes now than do something faddy. I really struggle with willpower though. I've introduced bento style lunch boxes with the kids - it has been great do far as they don't fit junk food in! I'm rapidly running out of exciting ideas though, I work 50+ hour weeks and I need to be more organised to fit it all in.


Feeling very overwhelmed, does anyone have any fantastic advice or resources they use please? Is weetabix a 'good' boxed cereal? And are they any affordable but not sugar filled alternatives to milk for my increasingly vegan taste?

Chris25

I can't really offer you much advice pinkie, but someone will be along to help you out.

Things like ragu, cottage/shepherds pie etc can be bulked with with blitzed veggies, or lentils.

Yes, weetabix is a 'good' cereal - has fibre, no sugar & can be eaten hot or cold. What about porridge? that's good too and you can add oats to crumble toppings or to minced beef to help stretch it a bit.

can you get everyone around the table & help meal-plan with you. get a difinitive list of what people like & explain how important it will be in helping to save money for the family.

good luck.

dylan2011

Take it one step at a time hun, and biggest tip is plan, plan, plan! Especially as you are so busy with work. Set aside a day asap that you can sit down and make plans - meal plans, shopping plans and budget plans.
Perhaps write a stock list of everything you have in fridge/freezer/cupboards etc. I found doing this and living out of it for a short while really made me realise how much I was "wasting" thinking i needed to go shopping when really I didn't. Batch cooking will help as well with your lack of time. x

maman

I like the idea of asking everyone what they would like on the meal plan but what about getting them all to help too.


I totally agree with meal planning to get organised and save money but it will only work if your OH is on board with it. I get really cross with some posts on here when women (and it is almost always women, but I do remember a couple of men) are having all their efforts to save being sabotaged.


Share the cooking and other chores.

rinabean

With plant milk, 'normal/plain' is sweetened and unsweetened is specifically marked as unsweetened. I've been drinking it for years and that still sometimes catches me out haha! The more expensive milks are generally better - the very cheap soy milks are watery and split but the £1-1.50 soy milk is creamy. The only exception I've found is aldi's soy milk which is cheap and not watery (still not quite as nice as the expensive ones, but decent). I like alpro almond milk but it's dear. Most of the plant milks that are normally more than a pound come on £1 each or 3 for £3 offers on a rotation between different brands, supermarkets... I look out for when my favourites are on offer and stock up. You need the space and the money up front - and to check the dates - but it saves you going to the supermarket 'for milk' which is my biggest downfall (apart from 'for bread').

I can't help with the meal planning sorry, I never stick to a plan! http://cheap-family-recipes.org.uk is the best meal plan I've ever seen. There's a vegan version and a meat version. Ofc you don't have to stick to the £100 (or slightly more now I guess) plan in its entirety if you don't want to but it's a great starting point for your own, or just recipe ideas.

I agree with getting everyone to understand that you're trying to save money. Don't let them make extra work for you!

seemasfriend

I know what you mean about being overwhelmed by the grocery challenge but do persevere. Maybe a £50 reduction in budget a month to start with? It might also help to keep a spending diary for a month to see where the money goes. Facts are harder to ignore if you are struggling to get whole family on board.

I regularly cook with my grandchildren and find they will eat a huge variety of food if they have cooked it themselves. Are you able to co-opt any of yours into helping out?

Don't beat yourself up- you are working long hours and can't expect to be superwoman!

Good luck

misermello

I know how frustating it can when you are trying to cut back on spending and how much you are eating.

What I tend do is make one meal for everyone and then serve mine on a very small plate (side dish/saucer). This way you still get to eat nice meals just in small amounts.

Try to make sure at least four of your meals a week are soups. Homemade ones are especially cheap and low in calories. Tinned ones are still good, if you are too busy to make them. To make them more of a meal for your children and partner I would serve them with toasted cheese sandwiches.

Good luck and don't feel guilty about this.

Happyscrimper

Hi there

I was packing a few too many pounds myself, and then one day noticed i wasn't! I think mostly what i did was tried not to go back for seconds unless i needed them, cut out my 8pm biscuit and tea and got out walking more. Walking takes off more than you think but not as much as going to the gym probably, but any start is a good one.

I also tried not to completely stuff myself but just eat until satisfied instead of stuffed, I will eat the odd bit of goodies maybe a couple times a week, but try not to have much of that in the house, so i have to actually go up to the shop if i want something, sometimes that's all the deterrent you need! And if you still want it at least you have to walk up and get it! Also, fizzy drinks have TONS of sugar in them so i try not to keep those in the house either except on the odd pizza night or something. Another thing I did was started to substitute stevia for sugar in my tea. cheapy tesco-type brand ones arent nice, so spring for the name brand stuff and it helps too.

There is also a tea (I think from twinings)it is a green tea with jasmine, orange blossom and lotus flower. It is an acquired taste as it's a tea you drink without milk and a bit of honey but apparently lotus flower has something in it that helps you metabolise your fat. they say to drink it at least an hour before you eat.

There is tons on here about meal planning, but if you get overwhelmed, just stick budget meals ( or something similar) into your browser. I find BBC and Allrecipes to be quite handy.

Good luck!

pinkie_pie

Thank you for the advice everyone! Had a busy morning already!

Going to sit down in a mo with some lunch and try to work out a first week plan then I'll get the kids to contribute to next weeks over the week. I'm going to lean towards meat free and try not to overthink vegan, at the moment I've been struggling with animals products but as dairy is in so much and I can't tackle everything at once, I'm going to make cutting out more processed foods a priority (and home cook more) and at the same time be more aware of what is in what we are eating so that I can later decide if I'd rather try something different. Plus with money saving a big priority I want to use up what we have in the house.

Will have a look at the websites, also the tea! I drink black tea anyways so that isn't too much of a stretch! I think my biggest obstacle is finding online shopping uninspiring, we only have waitrose and coop in walking distance (I don't drive) and while I'm a costco member it's 30 miles away!

Possession

Personally, after getting input into the meal plan with the rest of the family, I'd get strict that they eat what they are given. You might all need to make some compromise but that's what living together in harmony is all about.