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.

Have you considered a house boy to do it for you?

400 pound does my family of 6 (2 adults, 14, 13, 2 and 4 months for a month. It's only been like this for a while though, we started buying essentials for the cupboards (spices, seasonings different pastas ect) and building them up. We go to the butchers for all our meat and sack of potatoes and do the cupboard/fridge/freezer stuff from aldi. This also includes shower gels shampoos ect from places like home bargains. Plus nappies, wipes and baby milk.

I'll just add my partners a chef so for example we buy 5kg tub of chicken and we get breasts and tenders from each one as he knows how to break them down, some months were left with extra meat and we just buy the same as the month before so now we have a freezer of meat building up too.

We meal plan every month, write it down put it on the whiteboard and stick to it.

Nosh is an excellent book

@munnyya how are you doing today?

@twopercent but if she already has a dishwasher buying a box of Aldi dishwasher tablets isn't going to be expensive, and running a full dishwasher is actually cheaper than washing up by hand several times a day. I'm in the fortunate position of being able to bulk buy items like this, but tablets really aren't expensive.
Would you suggest that she washes clothes by hand too? ( I have a relative who would not allow his wife to have a washing machine as he considered it to be unnecessary. She now has an automatic and can't believe how much easier life is)

@munnyya do you have anyone that can show you a few basic cooking skills? Learning to cook is very important, teaching your dd is too. I grew up knowing basics, but very poor (money poor) & old school northern cooking basics, so lots of stewed to death food. My other cooking skills I learnt myself throughout adulthood.

Just start with a couple of basics, read up on how to cook meat, what seasoning goes with what food then when you have a day to experiment give it a go. I was once given a book which showed me how to cut meat, store food, how to pair foods, it was amazing. Charity shops are full of cook books.

There are tons of cooking programmes on the tele. Some are very complicated like Masterchef, not for beginners, but others are more basic and give you the skills to make a decent meal. Learning to cook is like any other skill, you have to start at the bottom, then when you get more confident you can move up a level or two. I've been cooking for donkey's years but I can't chop veg like the pros, I'd end up with no fingers.

I'm in the unfortunate position of having to buy all my kitchen things again, from scratch, so yesterday I went shopping and bought a stock pot (non-stick) and a medium size (20cm) stainless steel saucepan and a sieve and colander. Plus a set of 3 different kitchen knives and a few basic utensils. Along with a chopping board (a set if you are a meat eater - you need different ones for veg, raw meat and cooked meat) you are set to go.

I use the stock pot for stews, curries etc and because it is non-stick you don't end up with burnt offerings on the bottom. Don't use metal utensils with non-stick. The st/st pan I use for veg, eg potatoes, broccoli, cauliflower, peas and beans etc. A smaller non-stick pan is useful if you heat up soups and baked beans. A lot of things you can do on the hob without bothering with the oven at all. If you like sausages and burgers then you will need a frying pan, but if you buy a lidded saute pan you can use it for frying/sauteing and stir-frying.

As your repertoire grows you will add more gizmos but you don't need much more than these. You probably have most of the above but are afraid to use them. Don't be. Have a go and you might surprise yourself.

Potatoes - you can scrub them clean and chop them to boil them, or prick them and bake them. You don't need to peel potatoes to make something of them.

If you do want to peel them, and you don't have a potato peeler, a small vegetable knife is fine. Just take it slowly!

As for baked potatoes: I microwave baked potatoes and then crisp them up in the oven at the end.

Potato, butter, tuna, mayo, sprinkling of salt and pepper - a complete meal, and filling!

I'd add a couple of metal baking trays and a pyrex rectangular dish for tray bakes to the list, but @VeryHappyBunny 's list is good.

Spatula, wooden spoon, potato masher and whisk too for when you get going.

You could try starting with the dry packet mixes. I like Coleman’s but there are various others.

They all have directions on the back and tell you exactly what ingredients to get and how to mix / cook them. If you don’t own any herbs / spices (which it sounds like you don’t), they make for a good shortcut while you build up your store cupboard. They are more expensive than cooking from scratch but a lot less expensive than ready meals.

These things are just what I bought yesterday, there are quite a few things I still need to get, not least some plates and cups otherwise I will be eating my food straight out of the pan I cook it in. Hopefully I am moving in on Sunday so I will have to pull my finger out and get them soon.

I've been looking for a wooden spoon or two and a wooden fork, but to no avail. You used to be able to get them in a set of 3 or 4 but I can't find any. If anyone knows where I can buy some please let me know.

I think the last time I bought some top-up wooden spoons it was in Flying Tiger. Charity shops here (Ireland) are good for miscellaneous cooking stuff, particularly Pyrex, which I love because it will go in the oven, microwave or freezer without problem.

Amazon have wooden spoons if you can't find any in a shop.

Also a handheld stick blender. Great for soup. Chop an onion, fry in a saucepan with a bit of oil, i add small chunks of potato too for thickness, add any veg you have, frozen is fine too and some stock (cube or stockpot is fine), simmer for 20 mins or until it's soft with some salt , pepper, and any other dried herbs you fancy. Blitz with blender when done, you.cam make it smooth or chunky by blending less. Cheap, tasty and filling. I like leek and potato, pea and ham, lentil, dp likes butternut squash. Whatever you have is fine.

Hand held stick blenders rock for soups or smoothies, and if you get one of the ones Aldi and Lidl have in the centre aisle quite regularly that have a mini food processor you'll be able to make pate, and puree, and chop veg finely, and do herby breadcrumbs for toppings and stuffing, and all sorts of good things.

Just about any larger supermarket plus Range, IKEA, bargain shops and Dunelm will sell these or more likely plastic ones which are more hygienic and dishwasher safe.
Not hard to find at all.

I'm all for reduction of single use plastics but sometimes plastic is exactly a product needs to be made of.

Wood is generally safer than plastic and naturally antibacterial - wooden spoons are fine in the dishwasher.

In no sense what so ever is wood "naturally antibacterial". What a weird thing to say

Lol, antibacterial, what have you been smoking, wood resin?

We put wooden spoons in the dishwasher because OH is obsessed with the thing but they all come out smelling of 'dishwasher'.

Same with my silicon spoons.

Plastic and silicone are everywhere, but I have tried a variety of supermarkets for wooden spoons to no avail, it is also nigh on impossible to get a decent wooden fork. I think I will have to find a fallen branch and whittle one myself. I always put wooden utensils in the dishwasher and they are fine. I don't like plastic for cooking as it gives off a toxic waste above a certain temperature which can cause liver damage and I already have gin if I want any sort of liver damage. Some plastic contains BPA which is bad for your health, I know Sistema's storage boxes and water bottles don't, so I use those. There is an IKEA near me, it is next on my list for getting stuff for my home. I am having to furnish and equip my new place from scratch. The only things I have from the old one are an extensive vinyl album and CD collection (though no record player) and a few pictures and ornaments. Absolutely nothing of any practical value whatsoever. I bought a bed the other day, at least now I can move in and have somewhere to kip so in the great scheme of things the lack of a wooden spoon is the least of my worries.

The hunt continues.

Wood really does have antibacterial properties and has been proven to be more hygienic than plastic due its ability to kill bacteria which plastic doesn't have. Something to do with microbes, but I'm not a scientist so I don't understand how, I just know it does. Wooden chopping boards are much better than plastic ones for this reason.

Not weird. Scientific, known about for decades. Go read up. It doesn't matter so much wrt spoons, but plastic chopping boards are very dirty and potentially dangerous things with all manner of dodgy microbes retained in microscopic cuts that can't be reached by dishwashers or by manual washing.

Some woods absolutely DO have anti bacterial properties

Yes beech does. Which why it’s been traditionally used in kitchen tools.

OP - I've just done a supermarket delivery shop to stock up on the store cupboard (pasta, pesto, tinned tomatoes, kidney beans, tuna etc).

I got 110 items for £165 after £9 of reductions/deals. There isn't much meat, but £15 is loo roll, kitchen roll and detergent. It's a lot of food for £150, buying carefully and taking advantage of price matches.

There's a delivery charge on top, but buying online helps reduce the anxiety of being there in person, and getting tempted and distracted.