Having a stress about a food bill for a single mother and child

jbkmum

I am shortly moving into a small house with my son, I'm separated from my ex who my son has resided with for the past 6 weeks since I left to sort myself out.

I've always fed the three of us but I never stuck to a budget, the food shopping got so bad that I bought a chest freezer to house all the YS bargains.....it was that bad.

I'm all flustered trying to work out how much I need to budget for the two of us (he is 8) on a monthly basis. I can't tell you how much I usually spend because there is no usual.

I just want to eat cheaply and healthy - I'm a busy professional so would prefer to cook on a Sunday and reheat during the week. I'm happy eating salmon and couscous at work with roast vegetables so thats fine.

But during the week for dinners, I'm definitely overthinking things.

Would £200 be sufficient do you think? Enough for us to eat plenty of fruit and vegetables, including his lunchboxes (cheese wrap, cheese string, malt loaf, fruit, frube).

VfM4meplse

I think that your budget is more than sufficient. I also think that this thread would do better on the O/S board.

red? Corny? :wave:

jbkmum

Thanks,

Now I just have to learn how not to waste money on food!

dan958

£200 would be achievable for yourself and a child.

You said that you would prefer to cook on Sundays and reheat during the week. I love meal prepping for a number of reasons. I can just get home from work and just microwave my healthy and cheap dinner, I plan all my meals down so that I make sure I use every ingredient and limit waste, I can make things in bulk and porion them out which saves on money.

I started a meal prepping thread a little while ago, https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6013644/the-meal-prepping-thread. If you start to get into meal prepping, please share your recipes.

Some resources I use;

https://www.reddit.com/r/MealPrepSunday/
https://www.reddit.com/r/EatCheapAndHealthy/
https://www.budgetbytes.com

Mrsn

£200 is definitely doable! Make sure you meal plan to make the most of not being wasteful. Good luck

thriftwizard

£200 is absolutely doable; I usually budget £400 per month for 4 adults and a number of furry & feathery friends, and we all eat well & pretty much healthily although there are 3 different diet-types going on - 2 x omnivores, 1 pescatarian & 1 vegetarian.

Owain_Moneysaver

jbkmum wrote: »

(cheese wrap, [STRIKE]cheese string[/STRIKE], malt loaf, fruit, [STRIKE]frube[/STRIKE]).

There you go, money saved already.

joedenise

I would limit the amount of cheese a bit. Why not things like boiled eggs, ham, tuna instead.

I would make sure you have at least 1 or 2 vegetarian meals a week, using pulses. Check out https://www.cookingonabootstrap.co.uk for some cheap veggie/ vegan recipes.

Also try to include some oily fish once a week. Sardines are cheap and healthy. Have a look at the grocery challenge on the Old Style board. There is a list of cheap recipes.

Good luck with learning to stick to a budget.

Denise

jbkmum

dan958 wrote: »

£200 would be achievable for yourself and a child.

You said that you would prefer to cook on Sundays and reheat during the week. I love meal prepping for a number of reasons. I can just get home from work and just microwave my healthy and cheap dinner, I plan all my meals down so that I make sure I use every ingredient and limit waste, I can make things in bulk and porion them out which saves on money.

I started a meal prepping thread a little while ago, https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6013644/the-meal-prepping-thread. If you start to get into meal prepping, please share your recipes.

Some resources I use;

https://www.reddit.com/r/MealPrepSunday/
https://www.reddit.com/r/EatCheapAndHealthy/
https://www.budgetbytes.com

Thank you for these, I'm going to do some thorough research

Owain_Moneysaver wrote: »

There you go, money saved already.

Frubes are because my child is an absolutely demon and can get yoghurt everywhere, to be fair...I buy them reduced and freeze them anyway.

Cheesestrings, I'm partial to them as well but good point - not needed and an expensive way of buying cheese

joedenise wrote: »

I would limit the amount of cheese a bit. Why not things like boiled eggs, ham, tuna instead.

I would make sure you have at least 1 or 2 vegetarian meals a week, using pulses. Check out https://www.cookingonabootstrap.co.uk for some cheap veggie/ vegan recipes.

Also try to include some oily fish once a week. Sardines are cheap and healthy. Have a look at the grocery challenge on the Old Style board. There is a list of cheap recipes.

Good luck with learning to stick to a budget.

Denise

Any recommendations what I could do with sardines for a fussy child? (Making notes)

VfM4meplse

jbkmum wrote: »

Any recommendations what I could do with sardines for a fussy child? (Making notes)

Leave them on the supermarket shelf for now. If its omega-3 you're after, sprinkle pumpkin seeds into his sandwiches.

CRANKY40

jbkmum wrote: »

Frubes are because my child is an absolutely demon and can get yoghurt everywhere, to be fair...I buy them reduced and freeze them anyway.

Cheesestrings, I'm partial to them as well but good point - not needed and an expensive way of buying cheese



Any recommendations what I could do with sardines for a fussy child? (Making notes)

You wouldn't believe what children can do with frubes. When the tube is twisted before opening a frube under pressure can travel a seriously long way when it bursts. The potential use as a weapon was discovered by some of the children when my own House Troll (ds aged 14) was in junior school.

How about fish cakes for the sardines? If you start off with a small ratio of mashed sardine to mashed potato you can gradually sneak more in. Is he taste fussy or texture fussy? If it's texture something easy to eat like fishcakes will probably be ok. My son is texture fussy which luckily also rules out most sweets and anything fizzy.