Our new weekly budget and plans!

So, as my mum is here long term we sat down and thought about a reasonable shopping budget. Obviously she wanted to contribute to her share being here this long. So we've come up with £60 a week. Sounds loads! That's £20 per adult well with bubba's portion shared in amongst that! It's including household stuff such as toilet roll etc that we all use too.

It's actually been quite easily to stay within budget. Some weeks we've spent the surplus stocking up on tins or teabags. Last week we decided to take a chunk off the next five week's budget and put it towards a big online shop to do a monthly shop of tins, UHT milk, cereals etc. We also took advantage of some items on special offer that keep well or have long dates and meat from the freezer. It's great for the bulky and heavy items that mum and I can't carry home from the shops. Also saves trying to battle the supermarkets etc at weekends when hubby is not working.

So our actual weekly amount to spend is £40 for the next four weeks, normally starts from a Monday. As mum and hubby were out yesterday with the car, we started this week then and did our little top up shop :) our biggest expenditure remains fruit and veg! Bubba just loves snacking on it, often pointing to the fruit bowl! If you sit down with any fruit, he'll steal it!

I tried to come up with a meal plan for this week, but it's a busy week so it's trying to think of ideas that won't take up too much cooking time as I've two days at the hospital and two days with visitors. Although I've always been a fan of my slow cooker, it's really been the most helpful thing. I can prepare dinner in the morning before fatigue and pain get me. It takes a lot longer than it did before. My mum is very good and will help do the chopping etc, although I'm adapting to only having one good hand ;)

I will try and finalise the week's plan later, probably whilst waiting at the hospital over a cuppa (and sneaky cake) and try and publish later. It's not the most exciting one due to the busy week!

Must try and get some sleep, busy day ahead!

Happy New Year!

Firstly hello, wishing everyone a happy new year!

It's been some time since my last post. I went back to work in August for three days a week. Then I had an accident back in September with a neck injury. Nothing broken or too serious. I have nerve damage to my hard and foot which doctors are positive will get better in time. Needless to say things have been a bit 'tricky' here with cooking and shopping. We did spend a lot of junk/ready made things/takeaways as well as not using food to its full potential when managing to cook. Was tricky for hubby after a long day at work to try and take care of me and the bubba. I also spent a further four weeks in hospital over November which messed any budget/healthier eating plans up! Being in hospital for so long costs a fortune! Not for me as such as luckily we have the wonderful NHS, but the extra petrol (not so local hospital due to cuts), car parking, grabbing food here and there as hubby was back so late from hospital to make tea and make lunches. But anyway back to here and now....

The bubba is getting a very big boy now, 17 months. He learned to walk whilst I was in hospital. He now runs about like a mad boy! He's very cheeky! He has a very healthy appetite too. Luckily he isn't fussy with his food, although he goes through his stages of favourites and where he doesn't want certain things.

We have been very lucky as my mum came to stay in November and is still here! She's has been a great blessing and helping me with lots in the house, especially cooking! I've been able to try and get back to home cooking (and cheaply). It's been hard to get out to the shops as I can no longer drive, but I now have an electric scooter meaning I can scoot to our local shop which happens to be a (very small) Sainsbugs for small amounts of weekly top ups. Def saves money no going on impulse trips to big supermarkets. Although the amount of great whoopsies is smaller :( still, I am just grateful to be able to get out and choose my own bananas.

Also, I'm now just over 36 weeks pregnant with our second boy! So we are awaiting his arrival too!

Since the new year we have come to a decision on our food/grocery budget. Hubby and mum are still following slimming world. I am their personal chef and advisor it seems ;) I'm loosely following it. Meals are all SW friendly really, I may just supplement with a few extra 'goodies'.

So now I am back, I hope to post a bit more on how we are getting on.

Bean and cumin burgers

Tried out a recipe from another blog for tonight's tea. Burgers which are made from kidney beans, onion, carrot and cumin (33p for 2 adult size and 1 bubba size) which I serves with Slimming Workd style wedges (40p) and a large salad (45p, including a whoopsied lettuce for 14p!). So total meal for three was £1.18 made totally from ingredients already in the house. Oh I added a fake cheese slice on top of the burger which adds 11p on so grand total of £1.29!

Ok so this is before they're fried, they don't look like anything special. Really I think if I'd had simmered the beans for longer the skins may have been made smoother. They actually tasted yummy. Definitely something we'd make again. 

This month's challenge.

I've been back at work now for three weeks. It's been tough settling into being a working mum and coming home and finding energy to cook. The bubba has been playing up at bedtime so it's been chaotic. However, due to an 'error' there was a big problem with my pay this month so I have set myself a mini challenge this month.

We are to love out of our freezer and cupboards for the month. I've said this previously, but now my stockpiling has really come into its own! Pennies are very tight now! My goal is to set a budget of £15 a week which will be milk (bubba is now on cow's milk), bread, fruit and veg. It's essential to select the reasonably priced fruit and vegetables, those in season.

I'm going to rummage in the freezers and then sit down with my pen and paper and plan our meals for this coming week! Wish me luck :)

A quick and easy (and cheap!) pasta dish

We had this last night for tea, well the bubba and I did hubby was out. 

It made a massive pan full, enough for two adult lunches and lunch for bubba today and three other lunches each for this week. 

Three tins of tomatoes 99p (I originally used two, but thought it needed a bit more) 

Fresh tomatoes 40p (lurking in the fridge)

1 x Aubergine 60

1x courgette 40p

Large onion 20p

Green lentils 100g 6p (from approved foods) 

Yellow, red, green peppers free

Pasta 500g 30p

Works out 32p per adult portion or 16p for the baby's portion :-) 

Homemade BBQ burgers

At hubby's request he made burgers for us all tonight. We did our weekly shop so grabbed some mince (unfortunately no suitable whoopsies :( ) so we paid £3.33 for a packet of lean mince. From that we made 4 large burgers and three small ones for bubs for tomorrow so equivalent of 5 I guess so tonight for the two adults the costings are. 

Three burgers (mince £1.99, egg 16p, onion 10p, garlic clove 8p) 

Rolls x 3 (30p)

Chips (60p)

Salad (60p) 

So £3.83 in total, not particularly a cheap meal, but was very yummy :-) 

Still one burger and three small ones for the bubba for lunch tomorrow :-) 

Oh! I forgot my fake cheese! One slice was 7p, can't have a burger without some fake cheese ;-) 

Pork steaks for tea tonight!

Tonight we enjoyed some pork steaks that were on offer in the supermarket this week. We pan fried them with BBQ frylight so they were delicious! We made some chips (slimming world friendly), served with sweetcorn and peas. Hubby decided that an egg was also needed.

So the costings, just for two adults.
Pork £1.42 (two generous sized steaks)
Potatoes 70p
Peas 21p
Sweetcorn 33p
Eggs 16p x2
Total 2.98