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

[munnyya]

I have 350 to last me and dd (2) until 29th of august. This is for food and household essentials like washing tablets, dishwater tablets, shampoo etc only. I think this is incredibly difficult to do? Am I going wrong somewhere? I can’t understand how this is meant to last us until then.

Not sure if someone's mentioned it but I use Smol products for washing and they're really good and cheap compared to big brands.

There are often organisations that can help support parents with young children who lack experience / confidence with cooking and food prep. Buying premade is less healthy and more expensive, so it would be worth your time to invest in yourself to learn some skills, and to pass on to your child. Cooking together can be fun!

The Aldi woman on YouTube I think who plans and cooks meals is great, plus Aldi stuff in general like washing stuff etc is much cheaper than other places if you have one nearby try it.

It’s hardly below the breadline to have a budget of £100 per week for food/toiletries/cleaning products for 1 toddler and 1 adult. That would be the equivalent of £400 per week for our family which includes 2 ravenous teens and we spend nothing like that much!

I don’t think signposting to food banks is relevant here.

I'm in awe of how people are feeding a family of four plus pets etc for 100 quid a week...are these the same people who manage to make 1 whole chicken feed 4 and make three other meals out of it in the same week?? I'm genuinely interested in what meals you make and portion sizes. I'd love to cut our shopping bill down. Ours is a light week if i can get it down to 190 for all 5 of us including the toilet paper, cleaning products etc. Please give me tips. I make all our meals from scratch never use jars or tin sauces etc and no ready meals apart from once in a very blue moon. How on earth is it done? I do buy ALOT of fresh fruit and veg...that alone is about 35 quid in the weekly shop but none of it is wasted I hardly ever throw fruit of veg out. my husband takes a massive salad everyday for lunch and my kids love fruit and veg for snacks, they eat peppers like apples for instance which I obviously don't want to discourage. I don't have to buy many chocolate biscuits/cakes etc because of this although I do buy one or two of whatever is on offer.

It's not a huge amount of money but should be more than enough for you and a toddler. Although I have a toddler myself and I know you can easily spend much in fresh berries, yogurt pouches, and their hygiene products if you want to use branded ones.

Reading your previous posts, it does seem you are relying a bit on prep food - chicken with sauces, prep potatoes etc - those items are significantly more expensive than preparing yourself at home. They will also likely be higher in sodium and fat, as those marinades have all sorts of oils.

If your toddler is not fussy, there are so many cheap meal options, use more beans, chickpeas, lentils (all super cheap if you buy canned and or dried). Vegetables you can buy frozen. Recipes with eggs, such as omelets and frittatas are so easy to put together and nutritional good.

Search for simple recipes online, there are amazing sources in youtube, tiktok, some many good accounts to follow and there are several focusing on recipes for toddlers too

I think most people don’t formally learn to cook, OP.

Most people just get to the stage where they cant afford or don’t want to eat ready meals any more.

I used to live off oven chips with baked beans or packet noodles in my student and young adult days.

Eventually you just have to bite the bullet and teach yourself to make better food. There will be plenty of fails but with Google, YouTube, tiktok, insta, etc etc at your disposal, there really is no excuse to not knowing how to make some basic, nutritious, tasty, economical meals for you and your child.

Switch to Aldi or LIDL. Get a wok and make stir fry meals. Chicken breasts sliced , some finely chopped veg and a sauce with noodles make a great meal. The same with pasta and sauce. Make double the sauce, freeze half and use it later in the month. Do wraps with sliced chicken breasts, veg and salsa. There are lots of quick recipes available on BBC good food.

Unfortunately i never learned how to cook so I have no confidence with it especially for dd.

There is no shame in that. The shame will be if you don't try to change it. Is you mum (assuming she did the cooking in your home, if not your dad) still around to give you some advice, or another family member or a friend you can talk honestly to? Otherwise googling easy meals or maybe start new thread(s) saying I was never taught to cook/store food etc and COL is hitting hard and I am looking for very easy nutritious beginner meals ideas and storage instructions to start. Or a thread saying tell me about your easy, low cost chicken and pasta recipes etc.

Start small and learn through trial and error and before you know it you will be making meals, freezing portions, saving money, eating better, trying new tastes and modelling healthier eating and cooking skills to your dd.

Accept it will be difficult at first if you and your dd's palettes are tuned to the taste of ready meals, but it will be a change for the better.

This month, buy a small box of normal porridge oats instead of expensive cereals. Make it at breakfast with a banana or some chopped up frozen berries. If you are feeling adventurous google oat cookies and find a simple recipe and give it a go. A box of oats can last weeks.

When you are ready to try something else, buy a box of ham stock cubes - carrot, onions, leek, rinsed and soaked dried lentils or split peas and make soup (A hand blender is good for making a smooth soup, but a potato masher is ok too). Put it in a container in the fridge and you can eat it for 3-4 days. Or freeze portions for a couple of months.

Get a large chicken, roast it and remove every scrap of meat. For one adult and child it should be able to do 3-4 dinners/lunches (or more if you have smaller appetites). Cool meat quickly put in a container in the fridge and it will be ok to eat for the next 3-4 days - chicken and veg for dinner the first day you roast it, sandwiches/wraps, baked potato (with mayo and sweetcorn), on a cheap pizza base, with a curry sauce and rice are all simple. Plan your meals/lunches in advance so you use all of the chicken.

Any tins you open (sweetcorn etc) use half and store the rest in the fridge and plan to use the next day. Buy a lettuce and use a couple of leaves a day instead of preprepared salads, it will last longer.

You can do this!

OP I've been thinking about this some more!
I think the way to go is to plan some meals that will last 2 day +
You can store the leftovers on a plate or in a bowl in your fridge covered with foil or clingfilm for 3 days generally.

Bbc good food is a fab free resource so I'd use it liberally.

Look up a recipe for bolognaise sauce for instance & you'll see tons come up - they're rated by users who've made that dish & give it a star rating. And also categorised by level of skill required so you could start with easy ones while you gain experience.

You could make a pot of bolognaise sauce. Use it with pasta the first night. Top with mash night too to make a cottage pie & put any excess sauce into a freezer bag & freeze for another night to top baked potatoes- 3 meals from 1 recipe.

You can do the same by making a chicken curry - rice one night, naan bread another etc you can also freeze leftover curry.

I budget £400 per month for food for two adults a pre teen DS who is permanently hungry and teen DD. This also covers some wine and a few extras. Rarely go over this and don’t feel stretched. We eat well and cook from scratch, but not huge amounts of meat. This also covers school lunches.

Cooking - you can get really into it!

The secrets are the right mixtures of textures, and seasoning, and cooking slowly unless it's stir-fry - so that you can rescue it before it goes wrong.

I mentioned porridge, which probably sounds miserable. But think of porridge simmering slowly with a pinch of salt, half water and milk, until the oats ooze goodness. Add frozen raspberries and blueberries, a spoon of double cream, a sprinkling of toasted flaked almonds. It's heaven! And costs pennies.

For vegetables - I rely on a little butter, or a good dressing, to turn even the most boring into a gorgeous meal. Broccoli al dente with a lemon dressing & some parsley, chopped red onion or spring onion and a little red chilli sprinkled on top - really gorgeous. Broccoli bunged on a plate with boiled potatoes? Miserable, especially if they've been boiled to sludge.

Build up a stock of essential seasonings - white wine vinegar, ginger, garlic, lemon, black pepper, chilli powder, cumin, veggie stock cubes, mustard. A reasonable olive oil will do for cooking and making dressings.

One of my go-to meals now is egg fried rice (with peas and carrot), using rice frozen after an earlier meal - seasoned again with chilli and raw red onion, perhaps a little soy sauce if you have any in. It feels like junk food but is pretty healthy if you control the salt.

A tip for adding carrot to bolognese or veggie fried rice - chop it into tiny pieces and cook in shallow boiled water in the microwave for 3-4 minutes before adding (almost cooked) to the sauce or the rice.

I'm not sure if anyone has mentioned supermarkets that specialise in South Asian food. You can get big bags of lentils and rice, and very cheap veg. They often sell containers for batch cooking too - foil containers with cardboard lids, or plastic boxes. Get a roll of stickers and a sharpie. Make the labels sound enticing, so that you have something on hand when you're tired and stressed, and desperate to go for an Uber Eats (£££££).

Another secret is the right level of variety, which depends on what you need yourself. But if you are eating cheaply and healthily most of the time, you will have a bit more money available for when you really need a steak. And the yellow-sticker food does throw up treats, so there is no need to feel deprived.

£35 a week is a lot for fruit and veg,@Hopper123 but it has got very expensive. I suppose it's only £5 a day between five people though. I'd recommend you befriend someone with an allotment or a plum or apple tree!

P. S I spend less than £100 per week on a food shop for 3 adults and a cat. I make a list, plan meals, look in the reduced section. I try to buy stuff that isn't branded as own brands are cheaper and often almost the same. I would say we eat well. We eat fruit and veg regularly, 1 of my kids has coeliac disease and the other has ASD and is very fussy.
And maybe invest in a slow cooker. Great for winter.

OP you can fix this, it’s not easy and it will take a few weeks, but you can learn how to cook basic meals which cost less. Sorry people are being nasty - a lot of people aren’t taught these skills and don’t have the kit, it’s a huge problem. I would start to research the following - one thing at once and then make a short list of what you want to try and start to try making things. Couple of tips, if you’re missing essential kit (pots / pans, grater etc, see if anyone locally has anything to give away via a local Facebook group. Also, dont expect DC to be grateful and love everything you make. It will be healthier and better long run, but your cooking will have less sugar and salt and if they’re used to ready meals it will be an adjustment (also children are brutal eaters as we know)!
Topics to research;
Easy, quick one pot / low equipment meals
Kitchen equipment - pans, slow cooker etc
Food storage guidelines
Budget cook influencers

And! If you're feeling overwhelmed, just remember that it's like any other skill.

Little and often, building it up bit by bit. Master one meal at a time!

It's really difficult when you haven't learned how to cook, OP. I hope the recipes suggested are helpful for you.

You can batch cook things like baked potatoes, freeze them (just a ziplock bag is fine), and then reheat quickly when you want to eat them. They're excellent for a quick, nutritious meal, and you can do things like cheesy beans, egg mayonnaise, cheese & bacon, anything you like really. Then serve with salad vegetables like cucumber (usually around 60p each), tomatoes, etc.

Traybakes, like a PP suggested, are lovely and easy. I do things like chicken drumsticks, potatoes, carrots, onion all together in a tray, then serve with green beans. You can jazz them up with herbs and spices according to taste.

I know it's a huge amount and if we wasted some I'd cut it down but it all gets used and eaten. Good idea I'll need a gardener friend for sure 😁

Can I put in a word for Delia Smith's online cookery school?

https://www.deliaonline.com/cookery-school

It takes you step by step through a lot of basic processes, including things like how to make a sauce.

OP, no one ever taught me how to use a computer. I just got a computer and got started back in the 90s. Cooking's the same. You just look for a recipe and off you go, following the instructions.

I also recommend BBC Good Food where you can enter a couple of ingredients and it will give you recipes. People comment on them, which is really helpful in helping to develop your confidence cooking. You don't need any experience to make a traybake, just a knife and a baking tray:
https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/collection/traybake-dinner-recipes

Fair enough you never learnt to cook but it doesn't mean you can't now. You have a dd to feed so there is your incentive. Aside from the cookbooks people mentioned you can use YouTube to look up recipes and cook whilst watching someone else. That way if you are new to cooking you know what each stage of the meal should look like and you'll get tips on the way.

Don't be so hard on yourself but now is the time to make a change and go for it.

I spend £75 on me, 18yo, 16yo & dog in Sainsburys deliveries on food then £20 a month in a home shop on cleaning/toiletries. I only ever buy milk and bread in between - corner shops are £££.

Make your own pack lunches, eat cheaper meals like beans on toast or jacket potatoes on some nights, make portions to freeze eggs Spag Bol costs under £5 and makes 4 portions.

I agree mobiles and internet are needed, I try to keep mine to the bare minimum, but if you only have enough money for this or food then you would learn to live without the tech.

I just find it ridiculous that schools don't teach basics like how to cook and feed yourself and how to budget. Not everyone has parents who can teach them, some parents don't even know themselves.

I have spoken to class room assistants of reception classes who tell me there are 4 year olds who can use an ipad but are not toilet trained. I despair. This is two different people at different schools.

I can cook but I desperately need someone to help me navigate the smartphone/broadband prices and deals. Different generations, different problems. Maybe we should all get together and pool our individual skills. Any tips will be gratefully received.

Miguel Barclays ‘One Pound Meal’ books are great for nice but easy to make meals.

Looking down your nose at someone who hasn't learnt or sneering as some posters have done is never a great way to encourage people to try something new. Not everyone is as confident at new things for all kinds of reasons.

Fortunately there have been some really useful posts alongside the dross that I hope will help the OP and others who may similarly benefit from the thread.

Nought wrong with pasta & sauce or toppings on toast OP, don't be so hard on yourself! Sure, variety is important, but meals don't have to be super complex to be balanced, enjoyable and expensive.