£63 to feed myself and child in October

jbkmum

Trying to plan in advance and I'm totally lost as to what I need to focus my money on and how to do it. DS is away at my mums for a week at the end of October.

I have to do packed lunches for 4 weeks - usually cheese sandwich, fromage frai, apple or orange, soreen banana cake (potentially cheaper to make banana muffins, only cost would be bananas and eggs). DS drinks water not squash.

I need to do dinners for us two for 4 weeks. I have a freezer full of meat inc a huge leg of lamb, some chicken drumsticks, 60 fish fingers, plaice, haddock.

I've got 4 big bags of paella rice, lots of baked beans, 3kg pasta, tinned tomatoes, pasta sauce, most herbs and spices except basil (prob pick some up). A few different rices.

Have access to a pressure cooker as well.

I'm just really stressed, October will be my 2nd month as a single parent, I'm constantly exhausted. DS doesn't mind eating the same food over and over luckily but I'm trying to make sure I fulfill his nutritional needs. I've got no mince so bolognese is out of the question.

What should I do? I thought perhaps organise my freezer, stick all the meat towards the top and see if I can just cook a meat with rice or pasta each day.

I mean, what do I do with a huge leg of lamb when DS doesn't like Lamb? If I could get him to eat it that would feed us for......3 weeks. I have a gastric sleeve so I barely eat anyway.

Argh sorry just stressed.

Siebrie

jbkmum, good luck! You seem to have quite a lot in the house, so I'm sure you will manage. How old is your son? And how good of (and for) him to only drink water.

Maybe it helps if you think of the 'paella rice' as just 'rice'? I wouldn't pick up basil; it's rather expensive for the budget you have, and probably already included in the pasta sauce. Would you really miss it these four weeks?

Do you have the mindspace to look up vegetarian recipies? Stress makes me unable to learn new things, so I fully understand if that is not something you want to look into right now. But maybe you can swap just an ingredient, for instance: remove the mince and add extra cream cheese and red lentils to the bolognese sauce?

Reorganising your freezer is a good idea, anyway

Prep the leg of lamb, portion up, and refreeze for easy meals for you?

tessie_bear

hope your ok xx

fwiw i wouldnt rush to spend id sit down and do a bit of planning...breakfast/lunch/tea /snuacks for the month on a grid and fill it in using what you have in

when u see gaps u can go out and buy to fill them in

with regards to the lamb u could cook it in the sc or roast strip away meat and freeze in portions that you may eat...if its too stressful to cope with could u give it to family member curry is nice from lamb would your lad eat that ?

with regards to sons lunches are they set in stone ? i know some kids are particular but u might be able to bake something to have in there such as sponge cake or choc crispie cakes

good luck xx

MandM90

Is the lamb raw?

Could you cook it off then split and refreeze as:

- Shepherds pie/hotpot - add in peas and carrots
- Lamb curry (use spices and serve with the rice)
- Lamb ragu sauce (serve on pasta)

?

Then also looks like, with the below shopping list, you have the making of:
- Fish fingers, HM chips and baked beans
- Plaice/haddock, mash and peas
- Fishfinger, bean and mash pie (layered on top of one and other)
- Beans on toast
- Chicken and pea paella
- Lentil pasta bolognese (adapt from BBC recipe: onions, garlic, lentils, tomatoes, mixed herbs/oregano/whatever you have, a stock cube). Serve on pasta with cheese


If you did something like that for the first week you'd need (which should come in at under £15?):
Bread
Potatoes
Peas
Carrots
Dried lentils
Cheese (buy biggest, best value block you can at the beginning of the month, grate it and freeze the lot)
Apples/oranges - whichever is cheaper
Bananas
Eggs
Onions

Don't panic! 60 fish fingers, tonnes of spuds and beans is 15 meals if you have two each (not ideal but you're not going to starve!)

Other really cheap ideas:
Lentil curry
Soup! Make stock with chicken bones and add carrots, lentils...whatever you have and serve with bread. Or even tinned is cheap, especially supermarket brands
Beans or egg on toast is a perfectly respectable supper.

Re: lunches banana muffins sound like a good shout. Would he eat cold tomato and cheese pasta for a change?

Also, please please please don't be afraid to seek help if you need. I believe the doctors may be able to help with accessing food banks?

[Deleted User]

Just popped in quickly to say do you have anyone you could trade the lamb with for another joint ?

dan958

Get some lentils and make a meat-free bolognese (despite it now no longe being a bolognese). lentils are cheap and filling and can be used in a number of dishes.

You've already got the tinned tomatoes, so just need the herbs and spices. Adding extra things like brown sugar, balsamic vinegar, or wine would make it better, but not needed.

Take a look at https://www.budgetbytes.com/ and https://reddit.com/r/eatcheapandhealthy

Would this budget be just for a one off, or would you often being having this budget? If it will be often, I would suggest a food bank - because once you've gone through the supplies you already have, £63 a month for 2 people will be quite difficult (athough is doable)

jbkmum

@siebrie Oh its disgusting how much I have in the house tbh

He is 8, he hates squash and fizzy pop (unlike his dear mother)
Well I did use quite a bit of basil in some pasta recipes BUT I have a big pot of mixed herbs which I’m pretty sure has basil in. I couldn’t tell the difference when I roasted some chicken thighs.
I eat vegetarian/pescatarian quite a bit – easy to digest for me however I’ve been lazy and have been eating John West Creation pouches, they reduced a load of the Salmon ones at ASDA to 88p a while back so I’ve been having one of those every lunch time. For perspective, I can’t manage a full Mug Shot in one sitting! I’ve got tons and tons of Ainsley Harriot couscous in tubs from Costco, so all I need is some aubergine and courgette roasted, then I eat that with couscous. Not worried about me.

With stress, what happens is I try to plan too much and then I go totally into the headspace of, buy everything to make things when I could use what I have. It’s like I blank out what I already have. Its ridiculous.

@tessie bear I wish the leg fit in the slow cooker its that big! Unfortunately all family is at least 2 hours away so I’ll just need to do something with it. I wasn’t sure whether I should roast on the bone then reuse in curry etc or whether to defrost and chop it up then cook different meals?
DS lunches – cheese sandwich is the only thing set in stone really, he won’t eat anything else apart from a honey sandwich (which he has had for the past two days as I ran out of cheese!) I have a load of oats so I can definitely make banana flapjack (lower sugar content than the normal)

@mandm90 Raw and Frozen – can’t remember the weight of the damn thing though!
So shepherds pie would work, I’ve got some potatoes left over from a roast dinner my ex did for DS on Sunday. How would I do it? Roast the lamb then what? I’ve never made a shepherds pie – or would a hotpot be easier. Lamb curry I can manage, lamb ragu sauce, is that just tomatoey?
I think we can be okay without needing to go to a foodbank, the problem is I get stressed with trying to work out what to do and end up choosing a recipe that needs another 12 ingredients and it all goes to “pot”. If I can stick to a couple of recipes a week it won’t overload my brain

I’ll try him with some cold tomato and cheese pasta at home and see how he gets on, so much pasta I’m drowning in it.

@bbh123 I wish, I’d love to trade it for a load of chicken thighs – DS loves those!

Thank you all – super helpful

jbkmum

dan958 wrote: »

Get some lentils and make a meat-free bolognese (despite it now no longe being a bolognese). lentils are cheap and filling and can be used in a number of dishes.

You've already got the tinned tomatoes, so just need the herbs and spices. Adding extra things like brown sugar, balsamic vinegar, or wine would make it better, but not needed.

Take a look at https://www.budgetbytes.com/ and https://reddit.com/r/eatcheapandhealthy

Would this budget be just for a one off, or would you often being having this budget? If it will be often, I would suggest a food bank - because once you've gone through the supplies you already have, £63 a month for 2 people will be quite difficult (athough is doable)

just a one off, usual budget is £200 for everything household related.

Its because I've got double council tax to pay, double energy bills, DS father couldn't afford child maintenance as he was moving into his own place (and I accepted that because I'd rather he had a home so DS could go to stay). I might end up being okay mid way during the month but I need my UC and child benefit to start coming in (DS lived with his dad for a couple of months until I moved to my new house, weird situation)

dan958

jbkmum wrote: »

just a one off, usual budget is £200 for everything household related.

Its because I've got double council tax to pay, double energy bills, DS father couldn't afford child maintenance as he was moving into his own place (and I accepted that because I'd rather he had a home so DS could go to stay). I might end up being okay mid way during the month but I need my UC and child benefit to start coming in (DS lived with his dad for a couple of months until I moved to my new house, weird situation)

You'll be fine then. If you have things in the food cupboard and freezer already, you'd be suprised how long you can live off that.

If you are stuggling to come up with meals with the ingredients you have, there are websites where you can put all your ingredients and it will give you recipes to make.

quintwins

IF you go to Tesco they do 36p bread and slices of cheese 10 for £1, they also usually do some sort of 50p fruit offer (think they have banana's this week, but I've had plums, peaches and oranges) which is usually 5 pieces then the creamfeilds yogurts are 12 for 73p. I would make the banana bread if you have the oven on anyway, but if not they do 12 wee buns for 75p. Make and freeze a 10 sandwich and all the buns and keep the fruit in fridge so it keeps and you have 2 weeks of pack lunch for 2 weeks for less than £4.

Dinner wise write a list of what meals you can make with what you have in for the next week and just add what you need to it. Then do it again next week before you know it it will be the end of the month.

If your really struggling and it's a one off speak to school about getting school meals and paying next month.

Working_Mum

You've got loads in the freezer and stores jkbmum - quintwins idea of doing things a week at a time is a very sound one. Your list of stuff will put you in good stead to plan and shop from home first.

I would defrost and slow roast the lamb and then make shepherds pie etc and pop back in the freezer until you are ready to eat it. I recently made mashed potato with baked spuds and then roasted the skins in the oven afterwards as a snack - win for me on three counts - no waste, no peeling spuds and a second meal!!

I make up a batch of flapjack on a weekend and my kids eat that during the week for snacks - i always add bits and bobs of dried fruit etc to use up what I had hanging around.

Try and breathe when you feel a bit overwhelmed, I have been where you are and it can be so debilitating. Focus on your breathing and bring yourself to the task in hand and you will get through it. Sending you big ((((HUGS))))