Missy’s Surviving the storm so we can dance in the rain.

joedenise

Quite a few of those meals can be done in the SC.  I'd make a very veg heavy bolognaise sauce which you can use for chilli by adding some chilli powder and kidney beans; lasagne, nachos, burritos, shepherds pie.

You can do jacket potatoes in the SC and freeze.  Just put some balls of foil in the bottom to keep them off the bottom then cook on low for 8 hours.  Wrap in foil once cooled and freeze.  

Cook a whole chicken and pick the meat off to make various meals including pies, wraps, pasta bakes.

Cook a veg heavy beef stew - use as stew, once all the meat has been used blitz it and serve and soup with crusty bread and have a pudding for a soup and pudding night.

I've said make things veg heavy and the reason for this is because veg is so much cheaper than meat so makes your food and money go further.  Try cutting it fairly small (or even grate it to hide it if necessary!).

Hope these ideas help.

missymoo81

Ah thank you @joedenise I desperately need to get more fruit and veg into the children so more veg can only be a winner. I will add all of these thoughts to my plan. Thank you. 

In other news OH seems to have had a small lightbulb moment, he is going to get rid of big truck and get a much more fuel saving car! Which is great, as I’m scared to even drive the truck as it’s about 25mpg! Looking At cars that are more 67mpg and only £30 tax

joedenise

That sounds like a win @missymoo81.  Less money spent on fuel and tax will certainly help the budget!

RelievedSheff

That will make a big difference to your budget.

Not sure what sort of car you are after but if you look at some that are a few years old you can get some that are zero road tax.

Our Hyundai I30 is zero road tax and on a run gets over 70mpg.

Not everyone's cup of tea though.

Sarahwithlove

I am loving all the slow cooker ideas think I need to get mine back out! I wonder whether my car should be changed. At the moment it gets 37mpg and has car tax of £165 😱

missymoo81

Thanks @joedenise and @RelievedSheff it will def save us money. It seems as though OH isn’t fully on board with money saving etc as much as I am 🤦🏻‍♀️. It’s like 2 steps forward one step back with him. He showed me a car which was £30 tax and almost 70mpg, 40000miles and 2017, to which I thought great! Now only for him to get super excited about a higher spec model, super version, which is the same price but higher mileage, 47mpg almost £180 in tax and is 3 years older?! Honestly we’ve had a huuuuge row about it! He may want a fancy car but I drive around in a right dog of a car that I hate but does the job. Don’t get me wrong it’s a lovely car and I would drive it too and I would love to have it, but we run such a tight ship, surely saving money month by month on car expenditure is better 🤦🏻‍♀️🤷🏻‍♀️. Boys and their toys! Didn’t particularly want a row on holiday 😢. He has apologised and I think he can see it from my point of view…. Hopefully.

missymoo81

@Sarahwithlove definitely get the slow cooker out. And ouch maybe some thought into a new car for you too! 

RelievedSheff

I know how you other half feels about the car. We really like a nice car but sometimes you just have to put your sensible head on and make the right choice for your situation rather than choose the car that you want to drive.

jwil

RelievedSheff said:

I know how you other half feels about the car. We really like a nice car but sometimes you just have to put your sensible head on and make the right choice for your situation rather than choose the car that you want to drive.

I agree,  you've both had so much stress over the last couple of years with the businesses and finances, it would be better to get on top of things, and then once you are straight you can reconsider the car next time it needs changing.

dawnybabes

I’ve a new car on order, it cannot come soon enough.  My current car does 26.4 to the gallon - ouch ! It’s costing me a bloody fortune to run.  I ordered my new one last Nov, I’ve a delivery date of Oct - my new one is a plug in hybrid as we’ve solar panels so win win, although I’d like it here whilst we’ve got sun 😂😂