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Food On A Budget

K

kyrast

Newbie
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Hi can anyone help, I have just been diagnosed type 2 and only have a £150 food budget for 2 kids (age 4 and 2)and 2 adults for a month (inc all toiletries), how can i eat on this budget as everything i buy at the moment is store brand cheap stuff that can be thrown in an oven and cooked as my husband is disabled and cant cook and i work full time as we wont be able to pay our mortgage otherwise. My doctor sais i have to do the cooking myself, but with travel included i do 12 hour days, i dont have time to cook let alone the money to buy fresh food.
Any help would be great.
Many thanks
 
It is possible to eat on a budget, but I agree with your doc that it is easier and better if you cook. It is difficult to do this when working twelve hour days but not impossible, particularly if you prepare in advance. I don't know what your husbands disability is but could he not help with that preparation? Buy things in season, things on special offer, make double the amount and freeze half. Eat some vegetarian meals each week.
Here is a website that shows how you can cook on a budget ( you may have to adapt your portions a bit to accomodate the diabetes as some of the recipes are higher in carbs than others) http://www.howto.co.uk/wellbeing/quick-healthy-recipes/
part 12 has some costed weekly menus
 
Hi phoenix,
What a marvellous site you have suggested.
I am lucky in that I can cook but for people who have problems this is great. It is cheaper than buying fast food and ready meals and you know what you are eating. As you say, some of the recipes have to be adapted for diabetics but it is written with common sense and humour.
To kyrast, I agree that your budget is tight but fresh versus ready meals is probably cheaper.
Preparing in advance doesn't take long and you can have a dinner on the table in 30 minutes. A slow cooker has the advantage of dinner being ready when you want it and cooks cheaper cuts of meat so that they are tasty and tender.
Give it a try for a few weeks, arm yourself with a shopping list and stick to it. Include frozen vegetables, they are perfectly healthy. Some of the supermarket's own brand are fine as long as you look at the labels. I think supermarkets sprinkle magic dust on us when we walk through the door and it causes us to buy things we don't want or need. I have a friend who bought dog food because it was a good offer and she didn't even have a dog!!!
Hope you can improve your situation with the recipes and I am sure the whole family will feel better for it.
Catherine.
 
Hi kyrast

My goodness you really having a hard time there, a disabled husband, two young children, work and your own diabetes and a very tight budget, I dont know how you manage it all, it makes me feel very, very humble.

Have a look at this thread viewtopic.php?f=3&t=6012&p=49362&hilit=budget#p49362 also check out the recipes threads in this forum, obviously you dont have much time, so try to cook double quantities and freeze ahead for a couple of weeks or so, do you have a slow cooker? Check out Lidl, Aldi and Netto, meat is very cheap in there, and frozen is even cheaper.

Can you tell me where you live? Just the town, there may be some agencies that can help you some.

Is your husband claiming all the benefits that he is eligible for, maybe he needs review?

All the best

Karen x
 
thanks to everyone who replied, sorry i havent left a message sooner, its been a manic couple of weeks. Hubby is still waiting fo rall forms etc for diagnosis from specialist to be sent to doctor before he can claim everything he can get. Its a nightmare. to top it off my daughter has chicken pox!!!! Who did i kill in a previous life!!!!!!!!!!!!!
thanks to all and i have been looking at all sorts of recipies that hubby could try to do. Its tough for him to be on his feet for long, but He is willing to try. Bless him.
hope everyone is well. will let you all know how its going. by the way i am in peterborough
thanks :D

selena
 
Hi,
You do seen to be up against it.

This may sound like a stupid idear but when I was told i am T2 I had already changed my shopping from going to the store and being conned into buying things i didnt want to shopping on-line.
Now i use Tescos but a few do it now, and yes i know it costs arround £4-5 to deliver BUT when you shop on-line your told of all the two for one offers and just one or two of them, that you need, will pay for the delivery.You also save on bus fare and that thing called time, work out how long you spend shopping and waiting for a bus and that time you can use to cook good meals.

The one main point about doing your shopping on-line is you only buy what you want and nothing extra that you dont want. You can also see what is in everything like salt sugar and fat so not only making your shopping poss a little cheeper but also more healthy.

One more thing what about using redused price fresh food that is close to its use by date you can get from supermarkets late in the evening and making meals then frezzing them for the week that way you know whats in them as pre made meals are normaly full of all the bad stuff.

I work in a fruit and veg market and you would be suprised how many people come round with shopping bags on wheels for the dropsiys, thats what we drop and cant be botherd to pick up there is nothing wrong with it a quick wash wont cure and hubby could do that as well as pealing and chopping sitting down also get the kids to help, save you keep bending down to pick it up and give them some exersise and fresh air at the same time as getting fruit and veg for free.
All the best of luck.

Graham1441. :wink:
 
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