Learning to be frugal in the kitchen

MartagonLilies

Hello:).
I'm hoping to learn a few tips from being in this forum. Our budgeting and money is a bit all over the place. We have debts to pay off, and are hoping to save for a deposit.

We are a family of 5, with my husband working, and me a SAHM. Our children are 16yrs, 9yrs and 5yrs. DC2 has ASD, and will only eat certain food. My other two eat pretty much everything, although the younger one isn't keen on meat and the older one isn't a veg eater, usually they will both eat most of it. They are both wanting snacks all day.
I'm not 100% well, and so sometimes struggle to cook from scratch, as I'm exhausted some days. If like to rectify this though, as Is like DH to come home to a nice dinner more often. I'm also trying to lose weight.

I wonder, even as I write this, if it's possible to achieve what I want, taking all the above into consideration?!
Thankyou , if you've stayed and read this essay! Any suggestions or tips would be greatly appreciated. I'd really like to get a grip on it all.

Nargleblast

Hello MartagonLilies and welcome. There are loads of threads on the Old Style forum that you will find useful. One thing most people find helpful is meal planning, where you plan your meals a few days at a time ( some hard core folks plan a month of meals at a time but to start with just do two or three days then increase). Also batch cooking - if you make bolognaise sauce, you might as well make ten portions, eat five at one meal then put the rest in the freezer for another day. It's like having a takeaway, only home-cooked. Cheaper and nicer.

rach_k

Do you meal plan? If not, I'd definitely start that as it helps you buy only what you need and then use it rather than wasting it. I find it helps with different dietary requirements too, as it's easier to sit down and plan a meal with something for everybody rather than stare into the fridge and try to come up with something!

Do you have a slow cooker?

What kinds of things are the children snacking on? I find it really easy to spend a fortune on snacks if I'm not careful, but most 'kid' snacks can be swapped for cheaper (and healthier) alternatives e.g. cheap cheese cut into sticks instead of cheese strings, a big tub of plain yoghurt with some jam or tinned fruit instead of branded (sugary!) fromage frais, a piece of fruit, a plain digestive, a slice of toast made from value bread... if they're really hungry they'll eat it!

MartagonLilies

Thanks for the welcome, and replies:)
I don't meal plan, no. I really struggle with it, and find that the whole week gets thrown off if I'm really tired one of the days. I should though, I know.I
My youngest is always hungry, apparently, and snacks on a lot of fruit. Also different cheeses and crackers, olives, malt loaf, frubes, rice pudding pots, babybels etc. Oldest eats wraps, bowls of cereal, fruit, chocolate, supernoodles, crisps. Middle one doesn't really snack much.

MartagonLilies

I also wanted to ask about meals. Do you all have 3 meals per day? How about snacks? We eat meat every day too, which probably adds up, just I don't always want pasta / rice / potatoes, it gets a bit heavy.

Th two younger ones eat a mix of school dinners / packed lunches. The older one isn't at school, starting college in September though. My husband normally buys a lunch deal from the sandwich lady at his work.

silverwhistle

That doesn't sound too bad; snacking on fruit, olives, cheese and crackers! I'm sure some parents would envy you. :-)


Best to cut out the crisps and chocolate though; they're the sort of treat I have on a Friday night.



I just cook for myself most of the time and can get lazy but occasionally have bursts of energy and do a bit of batch cooking and baking. Largely in winter a favourite is flapjacks and I also make chocolate cookies with a mix you can keep in a roll in the fridge and slice off and bake as and when.



With the slow cooker out I make ragu' which I freeze in small portions which go with and are bulked out with pasta (tagliatelle or fettucine). If you're feeding a ravenous horde I find a risotto is good: it's best if you use a decent rice like carnaroli but then you can add all sorts of things according to preference. If there's any left over shove in the fridge and make rice balls, breadcrumb and fry them to use up (look up "suppli'").


Another thing that might take a bit of energy are home made pizzas, where you can involve the consumers in helping add their choice of toppings. The basic dough and tomato sauce are cheap enougn though. I once did an English teaching summer school activity making pizzas with the students: one of the most popular extra-curricular activities!

silverwhistle

Just to add, having seen your last post, that meat _is_ expensive. I've a background of living in Italy and you'll find that the amount of pasta sauce an Italian has is less than we tend to have here, a risotto can make chicken meat or a few prawns go further and pizza toppings are a piece of string of indeterminate length!

MartagonLilies

Maybe they would envy me! Maybe not - my middle child eats not one fruit or veg:o. He hasn't voluntarily touched them for years, it's a huge stress of mine.

I like the sound of the cookie dough, and the pizza.

Pollycat

MartagonLilies wrote: »

I'm not 100% well, and so sometimes struggle to cook from scratch, as I'm exhausted some days. If like to rectify this though, as Is like DH to come home to a nice dinner more often. I'm also trying to lose weight.

Batch cooking when you feel OK could solve this ^^^^

MartagonLilies wrote: »

I also wanted to ask about meals. Do you all have 3 meals per day? How about snacks? We eat meat every day too, which probably adds up, just I don't always want pasta / rice / potatoes, it gets a bit heavy.

Th two younger ones eat a mix of school dinners / packed lunches. The older one isn't at school, starting college in September though. My husband normally buys a lunch deal from the sandwich lady at his work.

You - or he if you're not feeling well - could put up sandwiches at home.
What your husband is doing is probably an expensive way to have lunch.
When I used to do sandwiches for me and OH, I'd ring the changes by using different bread - sometimes granary, wholemeal rolls, granary rolls etc. And there's a lot more choice of breads now than there was 15 years ago.
And we never had the same filling 2 days running.

MartagonLilies

I've been wanting to batch cook for a while. We have an upright fridge freezer, so not a tonne of space, however it's a tall one.
I'm not exactly Nigella in the kitchen either:D Although I'd like to learn.

Yes, lunches cost us a lot. DH meal deal is expensive, you're right. My 2 youngest are OK, I think, lunch wise. Today they've taken in mini southern fried chicken wraps, half a pack of Pombears, malt loaf, babybel and a juice carton. Maybe could save a bit there?

GreenQueen

Packed lunch sounds fine, similar to what I pack up for my DD.

You can also batch prepare and freeze sandwiches, as long as you're careful about the fillings - meat and cheese freeze well, salad not well. That way you can spend a few minutes making 5 sandwiches per person at the weekend, instead of the mad rush every morning.

For the meal planning, you may find it better to plan more flexibly, e.g. instead of planning chicken risotto, you may just want to plan "something with chicken", then depending on how you feel, you can do chicken risotto, chicken tray bake or just grilled chicken breasts.

Agree with the PPs who suggest batch cooking. The easy way is to cook double when you make e.g. bolognaise. If you're on a low energy day, just freeze it as bol. If you've got a bit more oomph, make a white sauce and freeze it as a lasagne, for example. That would then be a "ready meal" for a low energy day. These are suggestions based on my family's eating patterns, but I'm sure there are meal examples from your routine.

Good luck - hopefully if some of the suggestions save you a bit of time and energy, that will be able to feed back into you having some space to feel better about things.

GQ