to wonder what the fuck to do now? (Immediate financial problem)

[Margaritte]

We are on a very tight budget for the next couple of months. We know this, and have got advice from StepChange & I posted a thread on here for recipe /shopping advice.

However, today our card declined trying to pay for £22 or so worth of shopping. We were not expecting that, and now I am very worried and starting to panic

We have some food in for dinners. No packed lunch food though, for ds1 & 2 and dh. We have no milk (well, enough for a bottle tonight for dd) and are down to 3 nappies.

Payday isn't until end of next week, so have to do something until then.

Hi Margaritte, I haven't been on the thread, but saw that in the OP you said the next two months were going to be particularly tight, so I jumped to the end to see how you were doing, about halfway through.

Delighted to see you are feeling like the next four weeks are going to be doable, if still extremely tight.

"The next two months" must've felt like an awful length of time. To be in a slightly stronger position at this halfway stage, through a lot of great advice and, crucially, hard work on your part to act on that advice, must feel good.

Hats off to you and the posters on this thread.

Margaritte, I'll do the meal plans and links from this thread and gather them into one post.

That should save you some time. I'll post in about an hour when I have gone through the 22 pages. Okay?

By the way Margaritte, my Mum (with 9 children) had her tried and tested cheap meals so don't think you have to have 30 different meals for a month! We knew what day of the week it was according to what was on our plates. And of course, we would think "It's Thursday today - liver and crispy dumplings. Yummy!" so we would actually look forward to getting our favourites.

(I know not everyone likes liver/offal so don't flame me for my example!)

We had roast dinner on Saturday, breakfast brunch on Sunday, Stew from the joint on Monday, Mince and onions on Tuesday, Panackelty on Wednesday, Liver and dumplings on Thursday and Fish on Friday.

I am 60 years old and can still remember!

Links/Recipes for Cheap Meals

Saturday evening is a good time to get marked down food in the supermarkets

Consider buying from: www.approvedfood.co.uk/?por_id=dhlcwEbDfwCuBDjezbBmrrzloujeoz1435853849&afid=por2013 to save 70% off shopping (sell by dates are close).

Look at FEED YOUR FAMILY FOR £20 A WEEK: www.facebook.com/fyf20quid and fyf20quid.co.uk/

15 Foods you didn't know you could freeze: www.thedailymeal.com/15-foods-you-didn-t-know-you-could-freeze-slideshow

Slow Cooker recipes: theheartysoul.com/slow-cooker-recipes/?t=HHL

BREAKFAST

Porridge Oats are filling and can be made with water (or half-milk and water) - add a spoonful of honey or jam in centre of bowl for more flavour.

Peanut Butter on toast (or in bread for lunch-time sandwich)

Nutella on toast (or in bread for lunch-time sandwich)

MAIN MEALS

Top Tip: if you have herbs and spices use them to flavour everything up. If not, buy some value stock cubes. I think you can get a box for about 19p. They add loads of flavour to mince/lentil dishes

Tinned sardines/pilchards can be mixed with mash and frozen veg then fry to make cheap fish cakes. (Substitute tinned tuna/pink salmon as alternative)

Flavoured cous cous with some frozen peas and chopped up roast chicken. Buy some marked down chicken portions, roast in oven and chop up. Put some herbs mixed with tomato purée on before cooking to give a little flavour.

Spanish omelette - onion, potatoes, eggs (and add stuff from the fridge like peppers/meats etc.) Alternatively, Mini omelette muffins: allrecipes.com/recipe/paleo-omelet-muffins/

Boil rice in a chicken stock cube for flavour and add shredded chicken and frozen veg.

Home-made Chicken Soup: www.noreciperequired.com/recipe/homemade-chicken-soup#

Minced beef, chopped tomatoes, kidney beans and chilli sauce = chilli con carne. Serve with rice. Add lentils to make into two meals.

Cooked chicken, rice, peas = risotto

Turn sausages into meatballs and serve in pasta sauce with spaghetti. Just skin the sausages and roll the meat into balls using damp hands.

Boil the chicken carcass with carrot and a bit of leek. Drain and keep the stock. Strip the carcass of all the loose meat and add to the stock with more carrot and leek. Add some sticks of spaghetti broken up into inch long pieces and cook through until everything is tender for chicken noodle soup.

Tomatoes, carrot, leek, cabbage, peas and pasta in soup = minestrone soup (I use water, stock cubes and a pinch of mixed herbs for flavour)

Tuna with baked potatoes and salad.

Cheese and pasta = macaroni cheese. Serve with the cut up hot dog sausages stirred through for another meal.

Cut potatoes into wedges and toss in a little bit of oil. Cook in the oven and serve with omelettes made from your eggs.

Fish finger sandwiches are the food of the gods. Serve with wedges and any leftover salad to bulk out.

Using left-overs:

(1) Break the chicken carcass up a bit so it fits in a saucepan, cover with cold water. Add the end bits of a couple of carrots, ends of the leeks (save the edible middle bits) add salt and pepper, bring to the boil and simmer for about 40 minutes with the lid on. Drain and reserve the stock. You could use the stock to cook some rice in then add the chopped chicken and some peas or use it as a soup base adding chopped veg, potato, lentils really what ever takes your fancy.

(2) If you have a bit of flour you could make a well seasoned white sauce and add the chopped chicken along with some sauted onion or leak and a handful of peas, serve with rice or mash.

(3) Make minced meat go further by adding some lentils then you can do spaghetti bolognese, chilli etc.

The Complete Meal Plan Collection: forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.php?t=346932

Pan Haggerty: allrecipes.co.uk/recipe/5658/pan-haggerty.aspx

The 10p beefburger: www.theguardian.com/business/video/2013/aug/12/jack-monroe-cooking-breadline-video Add extra seasoning and a splodge of tomato puree as well. Jack Monroe's site is a godsend for cooking on an extreme budget. She's also very cleverly cross-referenced her recipes by ingredient so if you need to use things up - go there.

LUNCH

Buy a marked down loaf and freeze it, defrost a couple of slices at a time when required on top of the toaster or under the grill. Tinned sardines can be mashed down and spread on bread.

Mini Omelettes baked in Muffin Tin: www.toddlerapproved.com/2012/05/cooking-with-mom-omelets-in-muffin-tin.html?m=1

Don't forget to do FreeStuff: www.latestfreestuff.co.uk/todays-freebies/

(I didn't add the free Graze box to the list PrepperPig because you have to sign up for a weekly delivery to get one box free. But thank you for your suggestion.)

Note to self - go back to bottom of page 5 - link I haven't spotted before.

Phew.... I'll walk the dog now .....

Thank you sadwidow That's so helpful

So it turns out I have less than I thought for food budget, it's ok though, I'm sure I could do it, if I tried hard enough.
I'm so stuck on the meal planning though. I know everyone has helped make it so easy, I just end up frustrated with it (was my biggest challenge when I had PND, and even now it still makes me anxious, stressed and miserable) I have to do it, I know.

Am still waiting to hear back regarding the housing benefit
However, my bills are paid, money put aside for DS's travel to school and I have money for food too. Much better than the position I was in originally. Such a relief.

mixedpeel Yes, it has been awful, although the support & advice on here has got me through. It's been so lovely to come on here & be able to know where to go next

I will get through it, no matter how long!

Hi Margaritte

Can I add to Sadwidow's excellent list lentil soup. Really easy and cheap.

Use olive oil or butter or cooking oil to gently fry an onion - and a couple of garlic cloves if you have them. Then add some red lentils, about a cup full, and then vegetable stock (about 1 litre). Boil it all gently until the lentils are soft and you have a soup like consistency. Add salt and pepper as needed. Mine tends to vary depending on how much stock I add, but if its too thick you can add more water. If you have milk or cream you can add a dollop but not necessary. It will keep in the fridge or you can freeze.

This recipe also works well for using up any vegetables which are a bit on the turn (or the kids refuse to eat them).

Sounds great dithorydora With the vegetables you mentioned, do I use them in place of the lentils?

That's a great recipe ditherydora I'll make sure that we preserve that in v2 of the 'cheap food list*

In answer to Margaritte - and hoping I am not treading on toes - the whole point of red lentil soup is that you can make it from store-cupboard items. Lentils, chickpeas, barley etc is cheap as chips. But, if you have carrot, celery, leak, broccoli, tomatoes etc in the fridge to be used up then chop it up and throw it in the RED LENTIL SOUP and it becomes a VEGETABLE STEW.

I was reading a thread in AIBU yesterday and spotted this link:

www.mysupermarket.co.uk/

I thought it would be good for Margaritte and lurkers who are also following the saving tips on this thread.

Let me see if I can find the thread again........ Gosh, doesn't AIBU move fast! It is now on page 3.

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/2416037-To-become-an-Internet-grocery-shopping-whore

yep - that's right Sadwidow. Just chop up and chuck in what you have, with the lentils (usually spinach or broccoli in this house). I tend to boil it all to very soft and then use a hand blender to make it into soup. But if it is more substantial it is a stew.

Without complicating things too much if you find you are out of lentils (as I have done once or twice after I've started!) you can use potatoes to thicken a soup instead. But I think the lentils are nicer and my kids will nearly always eat the lentil version. They are less keen on the potato one.

Havn't rtft but so happy to see you're in a slightly more positive place op and many lovely people have offered help.

I know exactly how it feels, many times me and do have had to scrape through til payday, trying to buy anything cheap that will just fill a tummy, going without food ourselves, selling stuff etc. It's a dark miserable place and it can be very lonely too, but keep your head up, you'll get through this temporary hardship and things will be looking up for you soon.

I'm east mids so a bit far but if anyone else in east mids needs help through a hard time please pm me.

Thank you dithorydora. Can I freeze all portions of this? I wanted to make some today, although my blender broke - was a cheap one (well, food processor) and have had for a few years. I will look on the freebie site for a hand blender.

Will have a read of that link sadwidow.

LegoComplex Yes, it's been lovely to log and have all the moral support. It really has (and still is) helping me through this. Sounds cheesy, I know Is very true though. MN have been fab, and stopped me getting emerged into the darkness you mentioned.

Hi, yes I think have frozen all the versions. I might leave the cream/milk out and add it in when defrosting. But it would probably be fine.

Hi margaritte,

Do I have any jobs to tick of your job list? I know you've done something about debt management and sorting funds, but not sure what.

sadwidow Yes, I have finalised my Stepchange budget. I need to send off the copies of letters they gave me, to companies I owe.
I am still non the wiser regarding HB, and extra confused now due to the Budget yesterday.
I have sorted the allotment, and have to pick up the keys

You, my dear, are doing BRILLIANTLY! :) Well done to you, and those helping. I may have something in my eye catching up with this thread.

Haven't finished reading yet so sorry if I'm repeating, but I wonder, do you have any less common skills or knowledge that you could share, particularly with children? Music, languages, maths or something?

I used to work in a music school as a teen, as I played an instrument, and recently just put a simple notice up on the local FB selling group. I was upfront about the fact I'm not qualified and would just give casual lessons, and to my amazement I got responses very quickly. I charge around half what local professional teachers charge, and it's still more than double my hourly rate for my day job! I even take my DCs with me as they play with the pupils' siblings, or pupils can come to my house instead.

My family have been on at me for years to do this and I'm very glad I bit the bullet and did it. It's really helped my depression and anxiety too. Hope this post helps you and/or others.

Thank you CaptainSubtext

I don't think I have any skills not that could be used that way anyway. Will have a think about that, or perhaps ask DH if he thinks I do .
Your business sounds fab - well done!

hello margaritte, just wondered how you're doing?

sent you a pm a week or so ago

I have parcelled up a food processor and some extra food bits. Dropped of via myHermes at 4.30pm this evening.

It should arrive by next Wednesday/Thursday.

Hi Margaritte I've been following your thread and glad that you have made progress. I hope things continue to look up for you and you find yourself in a more stable financial position.

The MSE website have put a list together of free and inexpensive kids summer holiday activities that you might find useful.

www.moneysavingexpert.com/travel/school-holiday-deals

I'm sorry I haven't been on here - I haven't managed to get on. I've replied to PMs this morning too Gymbob & sadwidow

Thank you for the link MsAspreyDiamonds I'm going to make a and have a look through that now.

Just the right time, as the school holiday organising has been daunting me.

Hi just read this thread and my DM about in mid 1970s was in this situation due to divorce.

She had a house she let rooms in but had to deal with SS thinking she was sleeping with the male lodgers

Her main meals were stuff with nut roast (you used to be able to buy it in a tin), we did have shepherds pie etc but a lot was veggie food. She made her own bread without a bread maker and own cakes. We also grew veggies (peas, beans, tomatoes, potatoes, lettuce) in garden but if you get an allotment Margaritte then you can work out what grows. We had an apple tree and glass kilner jars to store/freeze apple purée.

We did go to jumble sales for clothes and second hand shops for toys. We even got a holiday in UK from doctor as we were so hard up and my mum needed a break. Other holidays were through friends in countryside.

My mum was very lucky as she was a writer, had had children's books published and got a small windfall from that, but we had no central heating (oil gas heaters?) or gas fires used until they broke.

My mum could/can see and had her own sewing machine so my school dresses were made that way. She also trained to be a teacher and tutored privately later.

Things can and do change. My mum said that when she qualified as a teacher soon after (or at same time) she use unexpectedly inherited a life changing amount of money from her dear uncle which wasn't expected but he'd stayed a couple of times and saw how bad we had it.

Anyway things do change for the better and you're doing great OP. I will PM sad widow for help I can give.

I have an easy, cheap recipe for nut roast.
Equal amounts of chopped mixed nuts and dried stuffing mix. The cheapest way of buying mixed nuts is in the homebaking section, they're about £1 for a bag. A box of sage and onion stuffing mix is 15p (sainsburys basics). Just make up the stuffing, stir in the nuts and bake as usual.
This is nice cold as well, with salad or bubble and squeak.