Gentle advice please on SOA

honeybee1234

You've had some great advice on here, and you sound like you're getting a good plan to tackle the situation!

I just wanted to add re: the grocery and son eating protein situation... I do the gym, and it is surprisingly easy to get a decent amount of protein easily and cheaply. I myself am vegetarian, and I've used beans and pulses, egg and tofu, and greek yogurt to get protein. Carbs being white rice and pasta. Chicken and rice with cheap veggies is an easy one for a meat eater. Stir fry. Omelette. There's even a story somewhere about a guy who was low on surplus funds who got a cheap gym membership and built muscle eating beans on toast for months. There's no need for protein drinks or protein powder if you count 1g of protein per pound of bodyweight and portion out carbs and fat depending on his bodyweight. 

kimwp

My understanding is that most people get enough protein in their normal diet to put on muscle and all the extra protein that people seem to think is needed is surplus, so most people except extreme bodybuilders are just paying for very expensive urine (as that's where the excess protein goes). So make sure your son is looking at reputable sources for his health education.

In terms of pets, my view is that adding them is a luxury, but once they are in, they are family.

I do think you have areas you can cut back on (as you have already knowledged). In terms of food, I would monitor how much food is being binned (take photos of any food that goes in the bin) - it will be easy with ADHD to not have a good handle on what is in the fridge. 

kimwp

I forgot to say - do you understand why you have your debts? If your SOA is accurate (and particularly if it is generous), then you shouldn't have any debts just from general overspend, so it would be due to less frequent large spends that you should be able to identify eg new roof, new car etc.

Understanding why you have your debts (which you don't need to share,) is fundamental to not getting into debt again.

Exodi

kimwp said:

My understanding is that most people get enough protein in their normal diet to put on muscle and all the extra protein that people seem to think is needed is surplus, so most people except extreme bodybuilders are just paying for very expensive urine (as that's where the excess protein goes). So make sure your son is looking at reputable sources for his health education.

As someone who lives a very health focused lifestyle (I log and weigh my food and have done for eons), I would disagree. A normal diet means different things to different people but very often contains very little protein. E.g.

Breakfast - cereal with milk is about 7g protein

Lunch - say a ham sandwich and some crisps, that's about 17g protein

Dinner - can wildly vary here, but typically around 25g protein.

Snacks - oftentimes have very little protein (e.g. fruit, crisps, chocolate, etc). It's actually quite hard to find convenient protein snacks (generally low fat cheese, yoghurts, and meat).

So maybe you might end the typical day with 50-60g of protein intake, which is great as the average adult needs around 50g of protein per day. Recommendations are 0.75g per kg of body weight, so as someone that weighs ~80kg I'd need 60g to maintain - not too hard.

However, someone looking to build muscle needs considerably more - around 1.6 to 2.2g per kg, which for me would be around 128g - 176g. As I said at the start, as someone that takes nutrition seriously, I know you can't just eat ~150g of protein a day 'accidentally', it requires a conscious effort and unfortunately usually relies on expensive lean meats (else you'll need to eat boatloads of calories to meet your protein goal) on top of low fat yogurts, cheeses, protein powder/snacks etc. A chicken breast for example is 35g of protein so great to incorporate into lunch or dinner, however it's also about a £1 a pop.

The cheapest option for the OP would be to just buy bags of whey protein (and stock up on milk as they're horrible with water, despite what the instructions might suggest!).

I have sympathies with people trying to live healthy lifestyles as it's undeniably more expensive (but I also dislike that this is used as an excuse for poor choices - rice/potatoes/most veg are some of the least expensive foods on earth, it's mainly the protein and fruit that can be expensive).

Sorry long reply but in my opinion:

Groceries etc. ......................... 650

Is not too bad considering there are 3 people in the house and considering the above.

£50 on internet, £63 on satellite and £79 on mobile phones on the overhand (appreciate OP is in contract)...

My wife and I pay ~£25 for internet, ~£25 for subscriptions and ~£16 on mobiles (but appreciate you can only do this if you own a handset), something to aim for when they're out of contract.

kimwp

Exodi said:

kimwp said:

My understanding is that most people get enough protein in their normal diet to put on muscle and all the extra protein that people seem to think is needed is surplus, so most people except extreme bodybuilders are just paying for very expensive urine (as that's where the excess protein goes). So make sure your son is looking at reputable sources for his health education.

As someone who lives a very health focused lifestyle (I log and weigh my food and have done for eons), I would disagree. A normal diet means different things to different people but very often contains very little protein. E.g.

Breakfast - cereal with milk is about 7g protein

Lunch - say a ham sandwich and some crisps, that's about 17g protein

Dinner - can wildly vary here, but typically around 25g protein.

Snacks - oftentimes have very little protein (e.g. fruit, crisps, chocolate, etc). It's actually quite hard to find convenient protein snacks (generally low fat cheese, yoghurts, and meat).

So maybe you might end the typical day with 50-60g of protein intake, which is great as the average adult needs around 50g of protein per day. Recommendations are 0.75g per kg of body weight, so as someone that weighs ~80kg I'd need 60g to maintain - not too hard.

However, someone looking to build muscle needs considerably more - around 1.6 to 2.2g per kg, which for me would be around 128g - 176g. As I said at the start, as someone that takes nutrition seriously, I know you can't just eat ~150g of protein a day 'accidentally', it requires a conscious effort and unfortunately usually relies on expensive lean meats (else you'll need to eat boatloads of calories to meet your protein goal) on top of low fat yogurts, cheeses, protein powder/snacks etc. A chicken breast for example is 35g of protein so great to incorporate into lunch or dinner, however it's also about a £1 a pop.

The cheapest option for the OP would be to just buy bags of whey protein (and stock up on milk as they're horrible with water, despite what the instructions might suggest!).

I have sympathies with people trying to live healthy lifestyles as it's undeniably more expensive (but I also dislike that this is used as an excuse for poor choices - rice/potatoes/most veg are some of the least expensive foods on earth, it's mainly the protein and fruit that can be expensive).

Sorry long reply but in my opinion:

Groceries etc. ......................... 650

Is not too bad considering there are 3 people in the house and considering the above.

£50 on internet, £63 on satellite and £79 on mobile phones on the overhand (appreciate OP is in contract)...

My wife and I pay ~£25 for internet, ~£25 for subscriptions and ~£16 on mobiles (but appreciate you can only do this if you own a handset), something to aim for when they're out of contract.

By normal, I was meaning one that wouldn't cause people to think "gosh, that's an extreme diet!"

Pernickercisms aside, my point stands, he should be getting his information from reputable sources - there are plenty of influencers out there pushing expensive protein options because they are making money from it - either from affiliate earnings, or simply from getting lots of viewers.

Hazelnutty

My daughter competes at a high level in a sport that needs explosive strength so we have a diet set by a performance nutrionist and buy a *lot* of high protein food like mince, chicken and fish, dairy and eggs and, yes, whey protein (mainly for post-training shakes). Plus a lot of fresh fruit n veg. Family of 3 plus 2 cats and our food bill using 90% L*dl/10% T/S is £350-400. We're eating well and have treats in the house too (current favourite is mini oreo icecream sandwiches!) so although I do budget carefully we're not skimping every which way. Definitely worth having a look to see if you can get a relatively easy win on the £650 grocery budget, which may ease the pressure for cuts elsewhere in areas that are really important to you (e.g. the van and your pets). 

Scarlet_to_Black

Hazelnutty said:

My daughter competes at a high level in a sport that needs explosive strength so we have a diet set by a performance nutrionist and buy a *lot* of high protein food like mince, chicken and fish, dairy and eggs and, yes, whey protein (mainly for post-training shakes). Plus a lot of fresh fruit n veg. Family of 3 plus 2 cats and our food bill using 90% L*dl/10% T/S is £350-400. We're eating well and have treats in the house too (current favourite is mini oreo icecream sandwiches!) so although I do budget carefully we're not skimping every which way. Definitely worth having a look to see if you can get a relatively easy win on the £650 grocery budget, which may ease the pressure for cuts elsewhere in areas that are really important to you (e.g. the van and your pets). 

That’s a very good budget for three people! I have something to aspire to 😁

Hazelnutty

lol it doesn't always work I have to admit! It does help that we kinda have to mean plan with my daughter's sport but top up shops can be the killer. We always have to top up on fruit n veg but once you're there the offers on other things can be so tempting!

Scarlet_to_Black

Just an update. I’ve managed to cancel the in contract Sky TV, and the caravan storage so I’m £113 better off next month. I’ve gone through bills and I’ve cancelled everything that I’d class a luxury monthly on top of this (I had some extra little TV packages with Hayu etc) and I’ll be giving careful consideration to grocery and clothes budget and keeping a really close eye on what is *absolutely necessary* to spend.

So I get to keep my caravan (£100 a month for 12 months of the year for all holidays) and, bonus, dogs and kids without rehoming any of them 😎🤣

Grumpelstiltskin

Do you shop at one of the main supermarkets for your groceries?

If so try the budget ones Lidl and Aldi ( get the Lidl app and you get freebies )

Also have you got shops like Farmfoods and Heron? they can have bargains.