sammy_kaye's £100 a month food budgetting

sarah1975uk

Omg how inadequate do i feel now. What a fantastic post. Such an inspiration, and at such a young age and with a toddler too WOW! :T I bet your OH adores you! I think if i had half of what you have my DH would keel over with shock lol;)

Sammy Would be really greatful for a typical 7 day meal planner.

Im definately gonna be trying this one out may be slightly over £100 as 2 adults and 3 kids to feed in our household.

Penny-Pincher!!

Thanks Sammy! What a great helpful post. You manage very well and your diet seems very balanced too.

Well done girl!

PP
xx

ceridwen

Interested to read that... confused about the fruit..and wondering how long the kg of bananas and bag of apples is for. That would be about 4/5 days worth of fruit for just me - so I cant quite figure out whats what on the fruit front on your shopping list - is that the supermarket shop and you go to greengrocers as well for extra fruit and veg throughout month?

rosieben

Thanks for that Sammy, you do so well! :T

sammy_kaye18

charleysbabes - no i make my bread by hand - im saving to get a breadmaker but know my mother has one which she barely uses and its basically another thign to dust but she wont part with it - but i am trying and hoping to inherit soon. If you want to try making bread by hand id recommend using Kethrys page to making bread (i know praise again Keth!) Its always worked for me and has been the only recipe ive used.Her site is http://kethry.wordpress.com/

Zed 42 - I know - Ben has always had homemade baby food since he was little and he loved it - i like to know that he knows whats in his food. He can already tell me what i need to make fairy cakes which is good and he half way memorised twinks hobnobs recipe!!!! I was mortified a few months back, my OH has a son form a previous relationship who has just turned 7. I did exactly the same and one day said as a treat come on we'll make some burgers and homemade chips, a homemade macdonalds type meal if you like, and when i asked him to get me soem potatoes out he just looked at me stupid, he didnt know what chips were made of, so i spent ages explaining that to him and the same with cakes - he presumed they came from a box!!

Penelope Penguin - I dont feel 23 though - i think I should be considerably older - I seem to much prefer hobbies of an older lady than i do those of a younger one. My sister (turning 21 this year) is all about the clubbing, pubbing, eating out and ann summers party. Whereas im happiest at home with a vat of homemade soup on the hob, curled up with a hot chocolate reading a good book! Total opposites as you can tell!!!!!


Skintscotslass - ive not made lemon curd yet - it was one of my experiments for this year. I doubt I will make it for less than tescos but ill know waht goes into it whereas the tescos one i have no idea- and possibly over the long run it will save me money - although i dont know yet - I'll have to work it all out before hand though - also i can gift lemon curd in christmas food hampers to several relatives. And Yes we do have a lidls near us but with little one being in school for only 2 hours a day it would take me a good hour to get there so i dont get time to visit it, and a kwiksave in the local town is being coverted to an Aldi so its just a waiting game now for when it opens

Annie123 - I will defiately be looking up the greenfingers board from now o - Ive got seeds ready to go which were given to me by a gentleman form the local allotments who i got talking to whilst walking the dog. Fingers crossed if my growing goes well ill look at saving up for one next year.

ness w - no i dont tend to buy any more fruit and veg than that. Like i said at the start of the post, I do have alot of frozen veg in my freezer too - I work part time in a coop shop so when veg is reduced usually to 10p for example i tend to buy it and freeze it so i still have a selection of frozen veg - think theres runner beans and sweetcorn at the minute which was corn on the cobs but i cut the kernels off and later froze them. - was handy they got reduced and were bogof! I do have a few tins of fruits too (also reduced) which we tend to use too - basic stuff like pear quarters or tinned peaches.

D&DD - I should be thanking you - your apple braids are awesome and i use several of your recipes on a regular basis!!! . I do feel quite lucky - alot of people my age are in debt to their eyeballs already with various expenses etc but im lucky that i only have one debt of £300 which i think is pretty good. (and thats a catalogue bill that i pay off monthly - most of which was stuff for our flat when we first moved in)

Triker - lol i know was at a total loss when i first joined MSE. Thsi site is too addictive but it helps alot. This is actually my second time on MSE - my first account was hacked - I joined just after my son was born in 2004. I was only 20 with a new born baby, first time ever living away from home and in a new location so no friends/family nearby. That was a wake up call and a sort of 'right if i dont make do im in the poop cos theres no one here to help me' kick up the bum i needed. Id be glad to come over and help you out too!!!!

Pavlovs_dog - I most certainly will although if its anything like that monsterous post you will have to bear with me for a bit!!! Think i may have to write it in parts then put it all together for you all to see. Lol just noticed your in Cymru too - where abouts?? im south.

softstuff - wow thanks!!! I have never tried pizza dough befor ebut bf use to live on the stuff when he was with his ex - ive never known a man eat so much junk - but hes coming round to it so i want to make him a few healthier alternatives to what he was eating without him missing out. Think ill have to give that a go at some point. Think there is remnants of a bottle of olive oil left in the cupboard somewhere - will have a root in a minute i know ive seen one lately.

Penny-Pincher - thanks very much. I know it probably could be better but im hopign this year with the growing our own veg it will get much better. My gardens only tiny but has enough space for a good number of tubs and hanging baskets to hang/grow things in so im hopign that will help and even if i grow basics - like carrots/tomatoes/peas - then it frees up a little extra money to go towards more.

Ceridwen - no thats jsut fresh stuff we tend to get in. Like mentioned previously - i do have odd bits of fruit in the fruit bowl at the minute - like for instance jsut looking at it now i can see about 6 apples, 3 bananas, 4 possibly 5 pears and a bag of grapes, plus there is tinned fruit in the cupboard and alot of frozen veg in the freezer so i do have a back stock of both if you like. These are fresh items though. The apples tend to end up in lots of things as bf wont just sit and eat an apple, whereas i will he prefers his apple pies etc but its usually int he form of an apple braid (curtosy of D&DDs recipe!). The bananas we dont tend to eat alot of so usually end up as banana bread but little one will eat them with his breakfast too. He also likes to have his raisins and gets fruit as his snack in school so hes not fussed in eating it when he comes home.

Anyone who hasnt got a personal reply - i have pressed the Thanks button for you and thank you very much for your kind words! x x x x x x x x

toria27

I often read your threads and try to take tips from you so thanks for posting this. I am currently spending £130 a month to feed 2 adults and one 2 1/2 year old, this is for breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks. I really struggle to do this though as DD eats so much!!
for example since she got up she has had a glass of milk, good bowl full of ready brek, a banana, satsuma, large rice cake and an apple. She is still saying she is hungry but I will make her wait until her snack at 10.30 now, she will then have a couple of hanfulls of grapes, lunch is a mince, veg & rice casserole and a yogurt then tea is soup, a ham and mushroom omlette. She will also have a biscuit later or a bit of homemade cake (ive made carrott, apple, raisin and sunflower seed cake to try and fill her up) plus another glass of milk, if really hungry she will have some raisins, breadsticks or crackers later too.
I do find it really hard to keep up with her demand for food and didn't know a little girl could eat so much, it must be because she sleeps 13 hours at night sometimes 2 in the day aswell, but when she is awake she doesn't sit for more than 5 minutes.

sammy_kaye18

Toria - my ben was the same - he hit 2 and i just could not fill him up, he was constantly eating - hes still very much the same now but atleast you are giving her healthy options rahter than the usual crips, chocolate and junk that soem mothers give their kids. (not saying they are always bad but some mums do give them everyday all the time)

I use to keep a tupperware tub int eh fridge of chopped up carrot and cucumber sticks and told ben that was his tub he could eat what he liked from it. At the minute hes also really taken by twinks hobnob flapjacks - they are yummy and ive managed to get some raisins and things in them now so they are slightly healthier for him to have, he doesnt eat these all the time but i find the oats are filling him up and if he sits and has one as a midmorning snack with a glass of milk hes ok till lunch time.

He sleeps about 11 hours a night with no naps in the day and hes at schoo lbetween 12.45 and 3.15, from which he always coem shome hungry - the school is like a 5 mintue walk form my flat so by tiem i leave to pick him up and get hoem its been about 20 minutes so i can normally put something in the oven on low and its cooked by the time i get him home and hes starving

patentgirl

What a fantastic thread Sammy you really do well and eat healthly and as you say know what goes into what you make which for a 23 year old is amazing you have certainly given me a few tips and I am double your age as a few others have said a menu plan would be good if you could please!

MegsMum_2

Great post Sammy.:T I would also love to see a meal planner as I'm always running out of ideas for main meals and end up spending more money on something because I can't think of something to cook.
I will also be printing it out.

Aril

Thank you so much for taking the time and trouble to do this Sammy Kaye. It not only shows what can be done but I am sure will inspire many.
Aril:j