Worried about family getting enough calories

[Tatoumorse]

We've been very poor lately, paying back debts, I have researched all of our entitlements where we live (abroad).

I'm constantly cold now it's winter as per last year, and my teenage boy and younger one are always hungry. Today googling other things I think we may be undernourished, never crossed my mind before.
I thought we have a healthy diet, porridge/yoghurt breakfast, boiled egg/peanut butter toast for lunch, with a small cereal bar each, then pasta/rice-based veggie dish or chicken for tea, occasional burgers and occasional cake.
But today I added up the calories and we get approx 500 max per day if I calculated correctly. I'm really worried this is way off what we should be getting and may be a source of several health problems now that I'm joining the dots.
I am not a bad parent but I had a poor upbringing, not to blame that, but I never learnt about nutrition, I was actuallly more worried about overfeeding my kids (unhealthy snacks, etc.) Now I feel awful.

On a VERY limited income, how can I boost our calorie intake in a healthy way quickly? I wonder about protein shakes, or noodle snacks? Any advice please, but not on the debt issue as that is in hand, I had expert advice on it etc. and am just having to do my best and pay back over a 2 year period

Do your boys eat at school? Normally they should be getting a decent, hot main meal there at least four days a week and the cost is means-tested, so should be good value.

Also, look out for the "gaspillage" counters at supermarkets where they sell produce that is just about to come to its best before date - Netto and Casino also do lots of good value food deals. Eat local and seasonal to get the best value on cheese and vegetables. You will pay a premium to eat things like porridge, which until recently are very hard to find.

Myfitnesspal works very well in France

Also make kids (and yourself) crepes. Just flour, egg and milk and one pan needed. Nutella ( local cheaper version) and they can have as desert or snack some days

I think you’ve added those up incorrectly, i calorie count daily to maintain my 5 stone weight loss and people WILDLY underestimate or overestimate calories. I’ve seen people assume 100 for a bowl of pasta and that’s not possible unless it’s a baby sized portion. To lose 1lb a week you need 500 cals deficit a day (roughly) so you’d have seen a 3lb weight loss per week, your kids would be very very very underweight quickly at 500 cals a day.

pasta and rice also is more dependant on dry /cooked weights.

easy swaps - 15% fat mince; it’s cheaper too
blue milk - same price
sausages - cheap ones have huge calories in
Supermarket own Chocolate spreads on toast
Lots of cheese
full fat yoghurt
hummus which is healthy in small portions but is actually high in cals

Gosh, so sorry to hear this and it makes me sad because I have 2 teen boys, and they eat loads.

All I can suggest is that you try and source a cheaper way to shop for better ingredients. Also, don't throw anything away. Even though I am not broke, I use everything.

Not sure if this helps but these are some of the cost savings/ lower waste things I have done.

I NEVER buy sliced meat. I always buy the largest chicken I can find (at a good price so Aldi/ Lidl) and I cook it, and strip it bare for meals, and sandwiches. I then boil the carcass in water with a carrot and onion for stock.

Some fruit and veg is cheap, although not sure about France. Carrots are cheap, bananas are and they are a great piece of fruit. If you are making a meal, don't plate up, but let them take what they want. If there is anything left freeze it. I take all left over veg (plus the carrot and onion from the stock) and make soup. I'll bung in bits off the chicken I stripped. This with bread, is another meal.

I think you need to swap anything like a cereal bar out for fruit and nuts. If you want to improve their nutrition, you need to make sure you are spending your money wisely, and don't buy processed bars like this, as they are expensive and generally nutritionally redundant.

I think we Brits bin stuff unnecessarily. If I am not using something, I freeze it. Someone from overseas once couldn't believe I cut the stem off broccoli and binned it. She cleaned it and cut it into long small strips and then sautéed them. Apparently they are the most nutritional bit of the broccoli.

You can learn about nutrition. Looks around the shops, markets, and other places and see how much the meat, fruit and veg is. Make a chart, compare them. Look to see what fruit and veg is ££ and what is more bang for your buck. You can come back here and ask and we will help you.

As said though, you need to be more savvy and you can learn as you go. That's what we all have done. No one gets nutrition ed at school.

Ah yes nuts! Good shout, loads of cals and good oils.
dried fruit too, very calorific

Hey OP. I’m so sorry times are tough for you and your family. I hope things will get/be better soon.

I also think it comes to more than 500 Cals - not to diminish what you’re going through atm of course.

It sounds like you’ve already thought about filling, inexpensive meals but I’d try to add more fruit and veg if possible. These are my favourites (some overlap with yours!):

• Porridge for breakfast with full fat milk and a banana or berries - big bags of frozen ones last ages and aren’t as expensive as fresh ones
• Egg or PB and banana or beans on toast for breakfast or lunch
• Snack on fruit and protein like yoghurt and nuts.

Whenever we tried cutting back, we found it helpful if we had dinner leftovers for lunch the next day - batch cooking obviously saves on energy too:

• Soups, dhals and stews packed with veg and served with granary bread
• Jambalaya-style dishes with rice, inexpensive fish or chicken and whatever veg you can get for cheap
• pasta bakes with things like cheese and broccoli, spinach, kale, peppers, onion, peas… Depending on which bake you make obviously.
• chilli con carne with lots of beans and added lentils - serve with a big sweet potato or jacket potato for more minerals than rice and a change from rice
• bolognese with added lentils
• Cottage pie or fish pie if you can get some white fish on offer (bought in bulk in the freezer aisle?) and make a basic cheese sauce. Do the mash with sweet potato for extra fruit and veg. Add peas to the pie. Serve with broccoli, carrots or cheapest greens you can find.

Your maths is definitely off, but the overall diet doesn't sound very nutritious so buy a big tub of multivitamins and minerals to make up for the deficiencies.

How are you toasting your bread without a grill or toaster?

Haven’t read the whole thread, sorry. Can you increase with eggs and beans. Either baked beans or other beans. I made a black bean soup and added poached eggs.

https://www.calories.info/

OP you are eating way more than 500kcals a day.

You seem to have a pretty healthy diet and perhaps it’s the portion sizes that are the issue

If you are struggling for money I suggest buying oats for breakfast - these are good for you, very filling, easy to make and very cheap.
You can also experiment with different toppings or just add some sugar.
This can also be given before bed or as a snack if still hungry.

Also potatoes.
I’d base your main meals around potatoes as like oats they are really good for you, very filling, versatile and cheap.
(mash, chips, roasties, jacket potatoes etc)
Some farmer places let you buy huge sacks of them which work out even cheaper.

Rice and pasta is also filling and cheap.
Flour is also good because it’s cheap and you can make bread and pancakes etc out of it.

You can then add any extras like meat and frozen veg to the dishes, depending on your budget that week.

I would also look into getting some vitamin tablets.
You can buy them for cheap at places like B&M.
I don’t know if these are as good as expensive brands but my thinking is they’re better than nothing.

If you’ve got gas then I’d check for carbon monoxide but I have to be honest that I have felt like crap for a couple of years now.
I used to be very active and have loads of energy and now I’m the opposite and I’m cold, tired and achy. I have had a couple of really bad years so I don’t know if that’s taken a toll on me but it seemed to have started when I got covid, so i’m wondering whether I have long covid.

Apologies if it has already been mentioned but Frugal Queen in France on YouTube is a good resource for cheap nutritious meals.

You can actually do baked potatoes in a slow cooker. Topped with baked beans, cheap and filling.

Can you add some cheap fruit, maybe apples and bananas?
what about making pancakes as a dessert, that’s very cheap to do and add some syrup/jam or sugar on top. Rice pudding is another good option.
The meals look good but I’d look to add snacks - biscuits, fruit mentioned above, cheap home baking, toast, crackers and cheese

That’s true about cheap oats being hard to buy in France. We brought* over some big bags of oats over from the UK only for the bags to become infected by flour moth grubs “les mites alimentaires”

*this was before Brexit stopped you bringing in certain foodstuffs!

If you are struggling for money I suggest buying oats for breakfast -

What do you think she is making the porridge out of, that she mentions in her first post?

OP - protein is most important. Cheap protein is things like tinned tuna, baked beans (any beans), etc. Expensive protein is things like chicken breast, steak. In between is white fish, pork. Pork belly is usually fairly good value. Protein fills you up more and takes longer to digest than carbs like rice and pasta (you need those too, try to go for whole grain versions, and leave skins on spuds etc).

OP you've had lots of good advice already. One thing though, you mentioned you have lactose intolerance. That's not something you can "put aside". If you eat dairy products you will end up very ill with inflamed and possibly ulcerated insides causing you to pass blood in the toilet. It may leave you unable to work, run your home or care for your family. It will be a false economy for you, don't do it.

Give the dairy products to your children, if they don't have the lactose intolerance. You don't need to waste money buying a new blender cup to mix banana and milk into smoothies. They can eat the banana and drink the milk.

Really, fruit and nut mix is not going to be as cheap per calorie as either biscuits or peanut butter.
Most of the suggestions here are, as I said before filling not calorific. Vegetables are important but since the recommendation to lose weight is fill half your plate with them - don't do that!

I think if you are saving for an appliance then an air fryer may be better than a microwave.

Get the biggest you can afford, but you can then cook pretty much anything you would cook in an oven in the air dryer. One of my DDs favourite snacks takes 7 mins and is super cheap, just chop up some bagels into little circles, coat in oil and seasoning and then fry till golden and crispy, so much better than crisps.

You can do jacket potato, roast a chicken, make brownies, honestly if it can be done in an oven int can be done quicker in an air fryer.

Can you add to your food shop a cheap loaf of bread, cous cous and bananas. You can have those with meals to bulk it out a bit and bananas as snacks ?

Is there something similar to Too good to go, in France? Maybe pick up from a bakery or cooked food from restaurants.

Poach 2 eggs in a pan of water on your hob, put them on toast for breakfasts. This is super easy, and really filling in the morning. This, with a glass of milk will be a really good start to the day for your DC.

I'm in France so will try and give some help.

First thing is to visit a GP. Do you have a médecin traitant ? If not then there may be a GP clinic at you nearest hospital or some pharmacies now have a cabin where you can connect with a DR. They should at the very least be able to get you some vitamin tablets and protein powder.

Are you getting all the benefits you are entitled to? Are you getting CAF and prime d'activité ?

If your DC are at lycée they may be entitled to a bourse, ask the secretary for a form.

I know you want to try without food banks but there is no point in being hungry, is there a restos du coeur in your area?

As others have said, sound like you have more calories than that, but kids always do need more as they tend to burn more energy. So upping portion sizes, especially the morning porridge as porridge is cheaper than buying branded cereals and much better for the family. Also seasonal vegetables & frozen vegetables are better value than anything super fancy and give you the nutrients you need. Bags of carrots, potatoes, frozen green peas, frozen sweetcorn, cabbage are all nutritious but reasonably priced. Also a cup of warm milk is quite filling and nutritious at any age, so while milk can be expensive, still cheaper to fresh milk that than buy protein shakes.

In this cost of living crisis I'm finding the ready meals, takeaway and eating out to be much more expensive and unaffordable than just buying fresh produce and cooking from scratch. The supermarkets have all hiked up prices of ready made foods much more than fresh produce, generally can get quite a lot of fresh fruit/veg/pasta/rice for £20.

Hi OP,
I'm curious about the debt situation. You are in France but the debts are in Ireland? If these are ordinary consumer debts such as loans and credit cards I can't imagine much international debt recovery.

In the UK you would write to your creditors enclosing a budget and stating your new reduced payment as you are in financial hardship. The budget would show it isn't worth taking you to court as the court would also only award what you can afford to pay.

Have you taken advice? Could you halve the debt repayments and pay back over a longer period so you are not in such financial hardship?

lentils, chickpeas any beans, I think the rule is two different types of vegetable beans with one complete cereal to have a complete meal. In the morning I would do a proper birscher. Add a banana in the porridge in the morning. add raisins aswell and if you can, a handful of nuts. Add barley or potatoes or pasta to your veggie dish/soup. Cabbage last long in the winter. Try to make a cabbage kimchi as a side dish. Stock on apples and bananas. 1 kilo of cheap peanuts goes a long way. Know at what time the shop discounts fruits and veg and stock at that time. The same for bread : it stays a month in the freezer. I would ditch the meat and go vegetarian. Potatoes and cheese work well to. Compare the price of frozen veggies (1kg casserole veggies for Asda makes a lot of meals). All the best op.