To think it’s actually hard to live off this for the rest of the month?!

I had cookery at school but it was things like making a strawberry milkshake or apple crumble - which are good to know and fun to make, but it would have been way better to learn how to cook actual healthy meals.

So many people (Including myself) struggle with the basics of cooking and it’s the most valuable skill you can ever learn.

@munnyya I would use YouTube and look up recipes. This is a good way to start to learn to cook. Even if it's simple start like making sauces etc. That's what I did and some recipes from my MIL. But I search up recipes on YouTube and use those. Like a modern day cook book.

Start simple. When you master the basics everything else is easier. Just make sure you follow the instructions and as you get more confident you can tweak things!

Shop at lidl/aldis and make a list.

Or if you shop online stick to your list based on your meal prep.

You can buy cheap takeaway style containers for freezing food. Some supermarkets sell them too.

Just make sure the food is cooled completely before freezing.

To be able to shop like this is a bit of a privilege…if you’ve spent money stocking up, when you run out of loo roll you can’t wipe your bum on a handful of rice!

Does anyone run introductory cooking shopping and meal-planning courses for time and cash strapped new-ish parents? It's the kind of skill set a young single person may not need, and when they do need it, life and all the responsibilities of new parenthood don't make learning 'on the job' easy.

Preferably in a venue where the children could come too.

That's over £100 per week for shopping, as you have said for food and toiletries (not something that needs buying daily) for just two people... assuming no big bill like rent is left to come out then thats perfectly normal and yes many do live on less.

You should be ok, just make an exact list of what you will need

I think the point is that OP’s budget is not actually that small for the number she’s shopping for. She has over £110 a week for the next 3 weeks. She doesn’t need to live of rations and rice. If her concerns are easy fast fuss free food she still has the budget for things like meal boxes to make her life easier. Her budget should be more than enough and yet she’s somehow struggling with it.

It can take a little time and effort, but you should be able to make your money last with some preplanning. Try to plan all your meals for this month and do one big shop. See where you can batch-cook meals (such as pasta sauces, curries etc) and freeze extra portions to be eaten later in the month or have the leftovers for lunch the next day. Don't be too proud to buy cheaper options for some food and shop around for special offers on things like shampoo, conditioner etc.

Most supermarkets have nice recipes you can download, that provide cheap and easy meal suggestions if you're not too confident in the kitchen. Again, make a larger portion and freeze hald=f for another dinner next week.

There's also a really good app you can download onto your phone called "Too Good To Go" where you can buy food at a fraction of the cost from local supermarkets and restaurants. It's a great way to get some treats and try different foods. My daughters used it quite successfully when they were at uni and living on a very tight budget. Most of the time, it was a great mixture of fresh fruit and veg, but as you never know what you're going to get it can be "interesting"! ne time my daughter ended up with 20 bunches of spring onions and another time she got enough clotted cream to keep her in cream teas for two years! The bags only cost £3.50 and you get upwards of £10 worth of food, so they are helpful.

If you are buy washing tablets you are not budgeting properly, why choose the most expensive option and why on earth do you need laundry cleaner, dishwasher tablets and shampoo etc at the same time ? Try buying one expensive item a week from now on instead of needing them all at the onetime. You need to plan not just wait until things run out.

Oh mate. I think you’re getting a hard time. Times have changed and lots of people who didn’t/couldn’t cook before have to now and it’s hard.

I’d start with googling ‘how to’ grills sausages and make a baked potato. Then microwave frozen peas. That’s one meal.

Then I’d buy mince, pasta and a jar of pasta sauce. Follow the instructions on the jar - meal two.

Then start googling ‘tray bakes’. I use the green roasting tin book but there are other idea that just involve chopping something, throwing it in a baking tray and putting it in the oven.

You can work up to cooking. It’s ok to start with what you think you can manage.

OP, how old are you?

Personally, I think that is extravagant especially as PP says the child can still eat her ready meals 'if she doesn't like' the Gusto box.

You do know that most major supermarkets have recipes online?
They are categorised into 'cheap, quick, etc.'

AND you can add all the ingredients in the recipe to your basket for delivery or click and collect.

You are going to have to learn to cook, its the only way to get the good shop down

Learning to cook is easy enough , it just takes practice

I was 13 when I had to cook the christmas dinner for 10, sure the turkey was that well cooked it fell off the bones , the sprouts were like bullets , but hey ho, nobody died, the food got ate

I think I can now say 47 years on and Ive cracked the christmas dinner :)

I learned via Delia Smith, back in the days when you only had books to learn from and along came Delia with her learn to cook programme - she still has free online cooking classes

Nowadays I would advocate Jamie Oliver. Hes got lots of series on the catch up channels - ALL 4? And his series meals for £1 or less is an excellent starting point - good solid easy recipes with no fancy skills needed - and all costed to £1 or less per portion. Think its called £1 wonders. So it may be 4 or 6 portions made, you eat once, then freeze the rest in portions using washed out take away tubs so you eat again without the stress of cooking another day . See him make something you fancy then look up the recipe - they are all free - check you have all the ingredients and follow along. Watch him make it so you understand the recipe

Just keep it simple, you dont need it to look perfect, just to be edible and hopefully tasty

I do cook every bloomin day and Im busy and tired and often do a chippy tea - but for me thats still peeling the spuds, cutting the chips and cooking them in the air fryer and then sticking baked beans in the micro and frying a couple of eggs and if thats not filling enough theres bread and butter. Like I say, putting something home cooked on the table doesnt have to be fancy and Im not buying processed frozen chips when peeling a spud is hardly taxing and you can get quite a few spuds for the cost of a bag of frozen chips. Enough spuds to do a variety of dishes for the week

OP, I’ve recommended this website on here before but it really is great if you’re not a confident cook. She has a video on every one of her recipes showing you how to do it so you can see what it should look like at each stage. Most of her recipes are really simple, quick and easy. Have a look around and find a couple that you like….

recipetineats.com

I lived off far less than that as a single mum.

Havent read all through - can I recommend a charity called Bags of Taste - they give bag of food for £1 (may have gone up_) which bring to you then teach you how to cook the meal with phone tutorial. The recipes are tasty and huge quantities

I don't know what cooking equipment you have, but scrubbed unpeeled potatoes can be cooked in the microwave - stab them one or twice with a fork, zap them until they are soft. Cool and peel, then you can mash them and add butter and milk and re-heat, or slice them and saute them in minimal fat or brown them in an air fryer if you have one.

You can cook a big pan of rice, drain it, serve what you're going to eat then spread the rest out out to cool. After dinner, once it's cold, divide it up and bag as much as would do the two of you for one meal and freeze the bags. Then you can put the rice out on a plate and microwave it for any dinner it's needed.

For adding into sauces and cooked food, frozen chopped veg will be cheaper and fresher than buying fresh prepared stuff. Likewise berries for puddings - not a nice textured for eating as fresh and raw, but fine of you're going to process it anyway.

A cooking apple peeled, chopped, and zapped in the microwave is cheaper and better that stewed apple / applesauce.

Some canned food is good - don't underrate tinned tuna, tinned sweetcorn, and the eternal wonder that is tinned tomatoes.

If you're asking your librarian about cookbooks, Annabel Karmel has written some good stuff about food that adults and small children both enjoy.

Buy own brand washing powder not tablets for a start

I came on to suggest Gusto boxes too. They have an offer on for new customers. The recipes are really good and you get all the ingredients you need, measured up and a step by step set of instructions on what to do and when. Great for a novice cook. I still do them now we don't receive the boxes.

www.gousto.co.uk/box-prices

I buy the Magum brand from Aldi at €2.50 for a box of 40 tablets.
So for a €12.50, that’s 200 tablets.

Much better value and work well.

I have working away and my husband has been working from home , feeding the kids with salad, cheese and ham sandwiches, bananas and yogurts, very cheap.
For dinner we would have something more cooked-cooked when I come back.

For food for two females, that is more than enough. Not if you havent paid all the bills already, or if you commute. A big shampoo can be bought for 1 pound and lasts for more than a month if you dilute it with water.

Don’t feel disheartened OP, you can do this. It’s never too late to learn to cook. My grandad had to learn from scratch after granny died and he really enjoyed himself in the kitchen once he got started.

Don’t waste money on branded items when things like dishwasher tablets, washing powder, washing up liquid, shampoo etc can be bought very cheaply from Lidl and Aldi and is just as good as the big name brands.
Clothes washing gel can gunk up your washing machine so stick with powder.

Good Housekeeping magazine regularly lists these items as their Best Buys.

There’s thousands of YouTube videos on cooking and Jamie Oliver and Gordon Ramsay both produce good basic ‘how to’ videos that you might enjoy watching. Frozen veg is very cheap and won’t go off in the freezer and you only need to take out what you plan to eat, so you won’t be wasting any.

Look online for your local Adult Education Centre and see if they offer a beginners cooking course starting in September that you can join? They’re usually free of charge. If it’s in the daytime, they might have a crèche available for your toddler too.

This. And the MN definition of 'poor' is to be unable to afford to eat like this.

Can't cook is bullshit. If you have functioning hands, eyes and half a brain cell, you can cook. My 9 year old can cook ffs.

Fill pan with water
Place on heat.
Drop pasta in
Wait 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Drain water, add jar of sauce
Heat while stirring.
Tip onto plate.

There, cooked.