cooking on a budget

Well after all the debates regarding Jamie Olivers new book and program i thought right lets watch it and see what happens. 

Now i can cook, well kind of, no ones died yet! I have myself how cook from scratch and its hard at first but its get easier the more you do it.

I used to be a big fan of his and i would regularly watch his programs, especially the grow your own one.  Some really good ideas about growing fruit and veg and using them straight from garden.

This program in it self is not really for people on a low grocery budget. Personally i think its more for the higher spenders. For instance mu budget is  £200 a month, so very low. My sister phoned me up and said i've just watched that jamie program and thought it was rubbish. Her words were " where the hell am i going to buy a blender like that, just looked in the catalogue and it costs £150 quid!"  This coming from someone who spends over £100+ a week on food, and more if she buys a takeaway.
My sister can cook sunday dinners, but nothing much else. So this program is supposed to be for her.
 then she says "Oh and those pans where do i get them from? " My advice to her just use a rectangle roasting tin or cake tin. She said oh that not what he said. 

A few year ago there  was a program called Economy Gastronomy, it was really good, had better ideas and really took the time to tell you how to make things from scratch. Not the cheapest ideas but they took the time to tell you have chicken stock from the bones.


But what really annoyed  me about the whole program was the pizza and bean thing.

A supposed heating engineer sat in the background with a bottle of beer, glass and a fake cockney accent. No pizza costs £12 from a takeaway, i know, i served my time in five different ones! 
A 16" pizza costs about £9.50 and that's a full blown meat feast. So its a load of nonsense. In Hackney,London its even cheaper! again i know because when we visited family there we got a takeaway for £20 came back with a 16" pizza, chips, and 2 extra large kebabs, sauces and drinks for us all.

My partner is also a gas heating engineer and he wouldn't dare go on telly with a beer in his hand! Its just something no self respecting person would do. If he really meant to make to a pizza he should have been there making it with Jamie.

Or having beans with his fish pie, yeah right, you could tell it was fake by the look in his eyes. We are big bean eaters. I thought what a toss pot trying to appeal to the "poor" people. 

I'm not great at budgeting but i'm getting better, i do need help with ideas. We all do.
But this program just isn't for me or anyone struggling on a low budget. Lots of the recipes he's done in this program he's done in past on his other shows.  Best thing thing is they less preachy.

So for me, the program is a let a down, bring back allega and paul!

Scroogy September

Well as the titles suggests September is going to be more than scroogy, i am determined to try and spend as little as possible. The bank is way past the black and in the red. CC's are maxed out and can't be used.

Part of the deal is  the bills  will be paid as well as transport costs etc but general spending will be a big no no. Can't stop the transport costs. My eldest needs £15 a week, youngest  £10  and me a whopping £20, so £45 a week just for that. School meals are £20 a week for two children, so youngest is straight on pack lunches no choice in the matter. Eldest well, we'll see how it goes.
My partner and me pack lunches, and the business pays for the vans fuel.

Decided our grocery budget for the month will be £200 for a family of four, three cats and guests. 

Whilst at the same time keeping the store cupboard filled to a reasonable level.
the idea is that hopefully by the end of the month i will have been able to save up some holiday money for our first family holiday with my dad in October. As well as fingers crossed save up enough money to buy a new freezer. Ours went kaput about a month ago, its really hard adjusting to life without one. I've just realised how much we rely on one item. but also how much we waste :(

The fridge is bare and the veg is past its best but lets see how far the fresh stuff goes.

Wish me luck and lets see how it goes

kez xx




Grocery Spends £2.26

Items:  £2.26 on 2 x thick loaves of bread, 2 x tins of garden peas, single cream, 4 large onions and 10 satsuma's.

General: 0

very tough month

As stated a very tough month for us financially, don't know how were going to get through it. Tobe honest its happened before, December is a tough month and this timed we more than over spent. So i'm paid the bare minimum on credit cards. Not good considering i'm trying to pay debt off.

Today my partner and i went shopping, to be honest i thought i had an £300 spare this month till i checked and paid cc's today and i nearly cried. My partner doesn't quite know how bad it is, but i'm going to have to be blunt with him. Its so horrible though as the past few months have been horrendous healthwise . Anyway we spent £58.68 and that was £6.50 worth of coupons, yellow sticked reduced food and lots of deals. In the end with came out with hardly any food. I'm being serious 6 filled carrier bags and we will have to go shopping for more food.

I know i was to post a budget but to be honest my mind is so boggled and my hormones are all the place i simply can't.

So instead i will post when i can with ideas and how were coping day to day.

Sorry for the negative post i'm just being honest and upfront.We earn less than £10k a year including working tax credit, child tax credit and child benefit. So effectively were living on less than a person on Jobseekers Allowance, yet the government are cutting on benefits and people on very low incomes. So the poverty line is widening.