AIBU to b constantly hungry

[Cheekychops84]

Is it me or are we the only family who are always bloody starving ??? I can't afford to keep the fridge stocked up we are living off Iceland frozen food we get one hot meal a day and during the day I survive off biscuits and maybe a slice of toast! I can't believe it's 2012 and we are living like this :'(

It is shocking. I'm hungry all the time, and BF is not helping either. We've gone into our overdraft this month, and still have another week till OH gets paid.
I'm thinking about working again already, even though I really don't want to. We need more money!!

Thats really worrying having another baby and not being able to eat or have a spare tenner. There must be things that can be cut back, mobiles, inernet, sky tv? how will you feed another mouth when its weaned?

Yes am but can't afford to buy fruit and veg and can only buy the crappy junk food but I've been told my weight won't come off as I'm breastfeeding it's holding onto fat stores. I can't understand y my weight won't come off think its cause all we can afford is bags of fish fingers and cheap crappy frozen food for dinner :( we don't have an aldi near us but we do have a lidl will see what their deals are like ?

So sorry people are going through this

Baked potato with a tin of value beans is cheap and very nutritious (and filling!)

It's amazing what you can get at Aldi and Lidl, and you can get big bags of dried pasta at low prices. Do check out those threads that Cromwell44 mentions.

I slightly prefer Lidl to Aldi.

Out budget it about £60 pw for 5 of but we do go over that budget a little.

Sarryb we are the same I'm well in the red OH is paid next week we don't dare spend anymore at the moment jus making sure kids have enough as they run out so much energy !

Thats really worrying having another baby and not being able to eat or have a spare tenner. There must be things that can be cut back, mobiles, inernet, sky tv? how will you feed another mouth when its weaned?

My DP signed a three year contract in January on a good wage. We decided to ttc and got pregnant first go in Feb. In March the company restructured. Contract wasnt worth a damn. He got another job but lost it in August as the boss had a breakdown. We were then illegally evicted from our house in the same week. DP has applied for 100s of jobs and hasnt got a single interview.

We didnt have another baby on a whim. And we didnt do it to get more benefit.

Oh and the only "luxury" we have is £20 per month broadband and landline.

We use the broadband on our phones as wifi and use the landline for calls. So DP can apply for jobs. We dont have a laptop/pc and we dont top up our mobiles.

Eggs are great - get a big box of eggs - they are quick and easy to cook and will keep you full for a long time. Hardboiled, scrambled, soft boiled with soldiers are a great filling lunch or breakfast and will not cost a lot.

Also, get a cheap whole chicken to cook - just take all the packaging off and shove it in the oven at 180 for about 1 and half hours., strip the meat off and shred it to make it go further - easy to make a sandwich or then cook some potatoes and veg for an easy meal.

hope this helps!

These cost 60p and will make you many, many portions of healthy and filling soup.

m.ciao.co.uk/Sainsbury_s_Country_Vegetable_Mixture__Review_5835487

Cheeky there are threads on here about how to buy and cook family meals. If you search You will find them. All on a budget and as far as I remember the meals were quite good. You could cook a little extra and have it gain for your lunch the next day etc. Iceland isn't the cheapest. You can make lots for your budget. It's just the getting organised bit that takes getting used to.

These cost 60p and will make you many, many portions of healthy and filling soup.

m.ciao.co.uk/Sainsbury_s_Country_Vegetable_Mixture__Review_5835487

Have you had your thyroid checked?

If you're only eating one meal a day (unless it is enormous) and a couple of biscuits, there's no way your weight won't drop unless there's an underlying issue.

Breastfeeding uses an extra couple of hundred calories a day as well.

Goddess it's awful you are not alone , we jus got a move our of a mouldy hell hole into a dryer home it's got no carpet or floors no paper on the walls and its freezing we are trying to get it straight for the kids but we just can't do both it's just not doable. I went to the bank to pay my rent and the cashier yelled. " u no u are overdrawn on this account don't you" Jees thanks for that :0 . We don't have luxuries either the only luxury I consider we have now is our car :/

Yes prams my thyroid was borderline whatever that means? I have lost 2 stone now since having my baby a few weeks ago and prob bfeeding but I have seen that if u are not eating enough u can keep weight on as emergency stores ? Think that is my prob . I also walk 4 miles a day as can't afford petrol and school run is 2 miles each way !

I wasnt implying you got yourself into this situation it was genuine concern. I know how hard it can be, so if you are the only earner in the household there is surely benefits you are entitled to unless you are on a pretty good wage? like i said dh works full time i stay at home we get child tax, working tax and obviously our child benefit. We dont get housing benefit or countil tax benefits but we are in HA housing we would if we were in private. We spend approx £70 per week on shopping that includes food and everything else inc nappies etc, we dont buy value anything, we would have more free cash if we did, we have phone and broadband, and run a car. But we dont go out or have luxury time at all. Its just hard to imagine how anyone could be so skint they cant eat at all there must be ways around it .

Great meal suggestions on here thank you everyone will try and write a list and make things go a bit further. Will also try lidl and go later for reduced items.

cheeky where in the world are you? I have spare food which I would happily travel to and drop off if you are near me in the SE? I hate to think of people struggling to feed themselves while also BFing and feeding their baby, more to the point it surely isn't ethical while we are proudly(???) showing off our country in it's jubilee year and as Olympic hosts. Billion pound floatilla boats. The list goes on. Don't have much against those things other than it seems so wrong that folk are struggling to meet their very basic needs and it shouldn't be happening in 2012 FFS.

I opened this thread thinking it would be about greedy eaters like me!

I do find it hard to imagine anyone not actually having the food to give their child. Do you have debts? Something is going drasically wrong somewhere.

Me too Morally. But I have been very saddened to read what I have. I agree something is going wrong somewhere.

It sounds like you've lost quite a bit. Even if you start out at (can't remember?) 16st or roughly that sort of weight, 2st is a large amount to lose in a few weeks.

So probably the thyroid thing isn't too relevant then. That's good. And I'm glad your baby wasn't tiny.

Yes if you're not eating enough on a daily basis your body will hang on to some stores as it goes into 'starvation' mode. But it will still lose weight.

I think you've got two separate issues here: first one is money, and having enough to eat day by day for everyone.

Second thing is the weight situation which I'm sure must make it a lot more complicated. And even when you are trying to lose weight, starving every day isn't the best way and it isn't healthy.

I hope things will turn around soon financially and you can get into a better sort of balance x

As everyone else says...

1. Food bank
2. buy and cook cheap food from scratch.

Buy a big bag of value oats to make porridge for breakfast. Make with water not milk.

Cook rice, pasta, potatoes, lentils, beans all that kind of stuff. Don't buy jars of sauce, buy 35p value tins of chopped tomatoes. It plum toms are cheaper buy those and cut with scissors in the tin.

You don't need to eat meat.

Frozen veg is cheaper and less wasteful than fresh so keep buying value bags of peas or whatever.

Stop snacking on biscuits. Actually quite expensive and do nothing nutritionally for you.

For lunches get into soups - I love carrot and corriander. Big bag of value carrots, one litre of stock, one onion and spices (cumin and corriander). Would do 3 or 4 lunches and freezes well.

Suppose of you don't have spices in the house then it will be reasonay pricy (bags 60p each in ethnic supermarkets) to buy them suggest buying a couple of key spices you like to flavour your meals with.

Is there anyways who could help you meal plan and show you how to cook from scratch?

I don't know how we have managed to get into the mess I really don't :( will make as much as can spread until next pay. Think I will just bite the bullet and go back to work earlier then planned.

We save a lot by making our own bread...we buy sacks of flour from Cosco and yeast isn't much....that, with salt and sugar makes beautiful bread.

Our sack lasts for ages....loaves of horrid cheap bread are more expensive than making your own on a week by week basis. What could be nicer than home made soup and home made bread? It's lovely for lunch...or for a light tea with something to go alongside it.