Why o fecking why is decent food so bloody expensive???

[mamadiva]

Trying to get more into the mode of cooking from scratch but would rather use free range food although am on vey limited budget

Bloody cheaper buying frozen shite ARGH have to feed 3 adults and a toddler for about £50 a week how the hell am I meant to o that...

Sorry but Tesco has pissed me off now

oh thankk you will try them spose its a bit better. Still need to get round the less meat though LOL oh well one thing at a time I guess.

mamadiva my heartfelt sympathy with the fussy eating...
ds1 (4) eats nearly anything (curry, stilton etc although strangely not lettuce)
ds2 (nearly 2) eats fishcakes and sausages and has yet to touch unprocessed meat or fish (except to throw it off his highchair). Even chicken nuggets would be a giant step forwards...
they both had the same foods when weaning (maily home-made).
I assume he will eventually dare to eat some meat/fish, but not so far.

Jamies meatballs are lovely

Perhaps he is trying to be like Daddy? Don't let your DS see your DP being phobic about new things. Could you guilt-trip your DH into starting a joint 'Try new things' programme with him? What I mean by that is make a colourful list for each of them of what they will eat and they have to try something new each week (but not in front of each other til any phobic melodrama has gone for that particular food). If they like it, it can go on the list.

Have a look at this Your DH needs to stop his mum's issues going on to a 3rd generation.

You might also be able to convince your GP that NHS therapy for DH would directly help your DS. But you need your DH to understand this concept first.

Thanks Buckets

I have tried asking DP to do this kind of stuff but he refuse point blank to eat any veg and a lot of other things too. I ateto think that it is going to pass on to DS but his dad is too stubborn to change taht ebcause he doesnt like it.

I have had to sgtart sitting at the table with DS in the hope that if he sees me eating stuff he might try and his dad just sits on cuch or something but doesn't mae an difference.

mama - what food will your DS eat? I've got a fussy one too, it's a PITA and particularly painful when you need to economise on food.

Haven't read all of this, but re food markets...yes I have been fleeced at Farmers Markets before, but in Harrow (which is anything but posh), there is a little veg stall. It won't help your airmiles / or do much in the way of seasonal food - but last weekend I got loads for about £7. Included 1kg of raspberries. Granted they were going off, but we had smoothies and I made (very easy) jam. Other veg / fruit good too. Just needs eating quickly.

It's a PITA chaos is'nt it?...

He is pretty much guaranteed to eat sausages, toast and cheese, eggy bread, yoghurts and cereal. Other tahn that it's guess work sometimes he will eat sometimes he won't.

Could I be nosey and ask how you deal with it? Do you give in to the feed them anythin thay will take to eat this or nothing type? Everyne seems to have a different POV on whats best.

I just did an online shop(we plan our meals) and I got 14 breakfast and dinners plus some extras for £55. MY DP always asks how I do it, and I don't know. lol....I plan meals around what we have in the house. Slow cooker a godsend, i have some stew in the freezer so thats one meal down, will just make some homemade bread. We feed 2 adults and a toddler, I would say max £40 a week when you factor in lunch and fresh milk etc. And I know if I had to I could cut down on that. We eat free range, but not often organic at the moment which is sad as we want to.

Stuff like sausage and bean hotpot is great, pastrami and sticky onion wraps also good but cheap. I think planning is the key. CHeck cupboards/freezer before shop and work around it.

We have a street market in Brixton by the way (not a farmers market, tho we have one of those in Oval on Saturdays). There's quite a few round here actually. They only sell fruit and veg, so they're not like the European ones with poulterers, cheese vans etc, but they do represent good value.

Get to know your butcher. I did that with our local farm shop and now when I go there, I get good meat because he knows me and cuts which are cheaper but you can't get them in the supermarket.

My DD is quite fussy (was worse around 2-3) and I withold pudding until she's at least tried the new thing on her plate. I make it clear that she doesn't have to eat it all but she had to take a bite and swallow it. Works especially well if you've made some nice cookies or cakes. Spell out the rules v basically ie 'Broccoli first, then biscuit.' Because the pudding is just calories and fats, I don't feel guilty about witholding it but you need to be completely consistent and firm with any new rule.

Peer pressure helps too, she has wolfed down v surprising foods when sat at a table with cousins.

mamadiva - I'm not very hard on him, as he has had other issues (sleep/toilet training/getting him out of buggy) in the past that were more important, and a huge language issue. So I've picked my battles. I tend to think that if he's genuinely hungry he'll eat toast and fruit, but usually cook stuff I think he'll eat, serving him veg etc on the side just in case. When out and about I do what buckets suggests - say - you've got to at least try some of that meat if you want ice cream.

Things that have helped a little - peer pressure and getting him involved with "cooking", so he'll stir the pasta etc.

Thanks Chaos and Buckets.

Do you know Chaos it's funny that you mention these things! My DS doesn't really sleep, will not even ;look at a potty or toilet without screming and quite lazy when it comes to walking. Well atleast it's not just us then

nelix2000
pastrami and sticky onion wraps sounds yum - how do you make them?

Just out of interest, how's his eye contact?

This is what i do to save money on food:

Eat meat only once a week. and Fish twice (eat mackerel and herring as they are cheap as anything, really good for you)

buy fruit and veg from greengrocer rather than morrisons (about 1/3 cheaper on average)

Bought a slow cooker - great for making cheap cuts of meat/ various kinds of veg go a long way.

Eat barley instead of rice (it's 39p for 500g and lasts forever, really filling and really good for you)

Jacket spuds two or three times a week

Greens are about half the price of spinach but just as rich in folic acid/vitamins/iron etc

Tinned beans (pinto/borlotti etc) cost very little and are packed with protein etc if you're not eating much meat.

You do have to be committed to eating differently though.

I spend about £50 a week on 2 dd's,dh & I.We do eat meat most days too.I buy sacks of potatoes from a farm,meat in bulk from the butcher or at a push,frozen meat[is cheaper than fresh,oddly enough].I don't buy foreign meat or battery chickens though.I stock up on bread when it is reduced in ASDA,at 12.45 & 7.45ish,and freeze it.Fruit and veg comes from the market,and during the summer,I grow 99% of it.We have chickens so don't pay for eggs.Milk seems to be our biggest expense now,sadly we gave up our dairy herd,so the days of free milk are over.

Not a lot to add to what other people have said but I put lentils/beans/chickpeas and broth mix into everything! Adding a couple of handfuls of pulses and some barley means we get at least another two adult sized portions out of a meal. Just don't do what I did on Saturday and forget about it-I am so used to using my slow cooker that I put a casserole on the hob and went upstairs to wash dd's hair...ages later I smelt burning and all the lentils had sunk to the bottom and were burnt onto the pan. The burnt taste had gone right through the whole casserole too Still ate it though I haven't yet salvaged the pan.

And I rarely serve a piece of meat (eg no chops/steaks/whole breasts)-I almost always cut it up and mix with other stuff, this way I can feed the four of us on one or two chicken breasts rather than one each.

I usually spend around £100 once a month then allow another £20 per week for extra milk/bread/veg, it is pretty easy once you get used to a different way of cooking (the hardest thing for me is not being able to cook a lot of the things I used to love)

Just read OP and I suspect you may already have been give this advice but just on the off chance you haven't.

I'm on a tight budget myself so appreciate how hard it can be!

Can you try eating more vegetarian food in the week? (pulses etc are much cheaper than meat/fish). I was thinking you could try quorn mince in spaghetti but I don't know if that is particularly cheap.

I also second barley which is great, you can make a delicious leek and potato soup containing this.

Meals can be bulked out with items like cous cous/pasta/rice all of which are cheap.

Also baked beans/poched egg on wholemeal toast is a healthy balanced and filling meal as well as being easy to make.

I see your DH doesn't a lot of stuff..thats a lot tougher to deal with. You are doing the right thing sitting down to eat with your DCs and showing them they can enjoy different stuff.

mumski really easy
slice an onion and drizzle on some olive oil, place under a gril for 6-8 mins turning it once or twice, the liquid will evaporate leaving them sticky
Heat your torilas as you normally would, spread them with some soft cheese(with or without herbs)add onions and pastrami and some rocket or any salad of your choice. Only 252 calories per serving too!

Buckets - my DS's eye contact seems to be okay he interacts and speaks well just his behaviour really and he is very very picky. Did you have something in mind? I actually thought about autism for a bit because he sems to like routine an awful lot but probably me just being paranoid as I worked with kids with SN and I think I am just on the look for something to explain hi behaviour, that makes me sound awful doesn't it? YKWIM.

Make thick, wholesome soup that are cheap, easy to make, nutritious, and you'll het loads of dishes out of it, including so e to freeze. EG:
lentil and bacon soup. Use ham shank for the stock (really cheap) OR
vegetable soup. Use cheap chicken wings for the stock. OR
broccoli and stilton soup from Nigella Express book. Takes abot 15 mins to cook - SO easy and YUMMY.

I get an organic veg box for 3 - 4 people for £13.95/ week , and a meat box to feed 4 people for £66.95 per fortnight. Both are delivered to my door by riverford.co.uk

This is all really excellent quality stuff, locally sourced.

Then stock up on pulses, rice, pasta and essentials from a low cost supermarket. If you have the odd day not eating meat, then you can cancel your meatbox every so often, and use that week's money to stock up on other essentials from the market or supermarket.

You will find that if you stock up well on certain things, then you only need visit the supermarket very infrequently, no no unnecessary purchases, or evil empire dealings.

We eat extremely well for relatively little...and for us it is a matter of choice - we are both relatively well paid, but find that we are not left hungry at all at the end of the week!