I have no money, how am I going to feed the kids next week?

[coventgarden]

The kids are getting very fussy and are constantly eating. much more than normal. I ran out of money last week and have no idea what we will eat next week. The kids are driving me mad with the waste and now dc1 has just come in with ketchup on his face saying My face is bleeding, my face is bleeding. dc3 has just fallen and bust his lip so blood everywhere so I am sure he thinks he is funny, but with dc3 hurt, the food wastage and no money, I am not finding it funny.

I don't think it will do your kids any harm to eat odd food for a few days if they are old enough to understand that you live on a limited budget.

I have

rice
tinned beans
tin of lentils
frozen veg
fish fingers
flour
butter
eggs
very little cereal
carrots
parsnips

Agree about pancakes, the kids think they are a huge luxury but i tend to make them only towards the end of the month as funds get low.
Think of it as a challenge and try to involve them in cooking as they are more likely to eat it then.

Lentil soup really cheap to make and tasty - children tend to prefer it liquidised rather than lumpy.

Bags of the cheapest apples and oranges for when they say they are hungry in between meals.

Make bread? Is cheap, gives you something to do with the children - and filling!

Bulk buy a large bag of pasta and some cheap tins of tomatoes and a large slab of the cheapest cheddar you can get.

You can make a basic pasta (boil pasta, chuck in a tin of tomatoes, season and sprinkle cheese on top), pasta bake (same sort of thing but put the pasta in a baking pan and sprinkle the cheese on top before sticking it in the oven.

If you get some beans (dry, baked, tinned) then you can add them and have a pasta-bean bake.

Get a large sack of potatoes and you can have cheesy jacket potatoes.

Fill them up on the carbs.

Meat is expensive, lentils and other proteins are cheap.

You'll be ok with £25. You really will. And you can eat healthily (if not hugely excitingly) on that.

Plenty of herbs and spices and I make my own bread. Soup isn't something I feed the kids. Will do no though.

The lentils, carrots, parsnips could make a soup. I would make some bread to go with it, homemade bread is another cheap luxury in this house.

You could also have fishfingers sandwiches on homemade bread.

Eggs can become omlettes.

Reduced at the supermarket is a good call, you can get away with potato and pasta based meals for a while, but for a whole week you'll want to break it up with some protein based meals - if you don't know when the best time is to get the knocked down stuff then you could swall your pride and ask a friendly-looking woman at the customer service desk.

Chicken thigh multi-packs (the ones that still have skin and bone) are your friends. Or you could get a really cheap whole chicken and do a roast one day, then a stirfry the next (large packs of pre-prepared stir-fry veg are often knocked down and they really fill you up for very little waste) then stock for a soup bulked out with carrots and barley the next. Sorry to be so sanctimonious and domestic goddess-y - hope it helps.

If you want to fill the kids up with snacks on the cheap and reasonably healthy then home-made popcorn costs pennies - a bag should be less than a pound and will last all week.

DD won't eat pasta, eats it at school . I could just make it and say tough but then she will leave it and then ask for toast at bed time. She used to eat spaghetti but has gone off it now.
The boys will mostly eat anything I give them .

We eat too much meat and I feed them too well. I need to think of different meals.

have you a good friend nearby?

Myself and my friend double dishes up and either fetch them round or freeze them for times like these.

I had made too much bolognese for our lasagne today so i gave her the rest of it for her dcs tea, she is making a curry and sending me some over.

Tuna mayo for jacket spuds? Egg mayo, cheese and beans/ham etc same for toasties.

have you a good friend nearby?

Myself and my friend double dishes up and either fetch them round or freeze them for times like these.

I had made too much bolognese for our lasagne today so i gave her the rest of it for her dcs tea, she is making a curry and sending me some over.

Tuna mayo for jacket spuds? Egg mayo, cheese and beans/ham etc same for toasties.

Whatever kind of soup you make, bulk it out with potatoes. eg parsnip soup made only of parsnips is a bit too parsnippy and is more expensive per bowl.

I think you are spoiling your children, unless they are medically fussy eaters they need to eat what they are given. Can you get the kids to help you cook food, it will encourage them to eat and keep them occupied,

This is going to sound twee but do you have herbs or veg in the garden. DD loves jacket potatop with sour cream and chives from the garden for example.

Meat is expensive, we only eat it once or twice a week.

Maybe I should worry less about variety all the time?

What do they really need to eat most days? they are 5, 6 and 9.

I wouldn't eat pasta as a child, so I can sympathise.

You've actually got a decent stock there. Rice stir fries (any veg you have chuck it in, use some soy sauce or other flavourings you have), you could break and egg in too to bulk it out.

Have a look online for some bean casserole recipes.

My dd loves a bean cassarole which I sometimes flesh out with a little beef.

I basically put in tinned beans of all vareties, I sometimes add in one of bean mixes in a tomato and chilli sauce. I add tinned tomatoes, paprika and chilli. It goes in the slow cooker in the morning along with bread in the breadmaker.

We come home to bean stew and fresh bread. We often eat it for two days.

Mine are the same, maybe eating from boredom, they tend to snack in front of the TV, fruit thank goodness.
But I'm getting through £40 a week in fruit alone during the holiday's no real advice OP but you're not alone finding it hard.

I have always been keen to feed my children well and to never let them go hungry but I think I have been too generous. TBH all the money I have, well most of it, goes on the food bill.

My kids are 5 and 8 and I had £15 this week to feed them until 28th. I had to explain to them the situation and fortunately they're old enough to understand, I bought porridge for breakfast and flour and eggs and basic vegetables like potatoes, carrots and some milk.

I do porridge for breakfast, they've had baked potatoes and beans for tea and French onion soup for lunch, all with home made bread to fill them up.

A cheap chicken can do a roast one day, chicken pie the next day and the carcass can make stock for soup the day after.

I plan on making a Spanish omelette one day too, filling and a bit different.

I know it's a real struggle and not having snacks for my kids is breaking my heart, but they actually have understood our situation really well and are happy to eat bread and butter if they feel the need to snack.

My DC2 is very fussy too, but I've told them straight if you don't eat what's on the table then that's it to the next meal, you're going to have a hungry tummy - seems to be working and I'm getting clean plates every time.

Good luck to you, it's a struggle I know, but I found I had quite a good stock of lentils, pasta etc in the cupboard and some fish and meat in the freezer so I know we're not going to starve. It's difficult though.

I've got a massive headache though because I've run out of coffee and won't be able to buy some more till pay day - caffeine withdrawal is not good.

Really stupid question coming.

Oh, I can't.

ask on freecycle to see if anyone has surplus fruit / veg that you can collect.