Well it has come time that the anuall leave that I have been getting paid has come to end and I still have 3 months till I am returning back to work part time (dont want to work at all but thats a different storey!!) and we will be attempting to live off one wage for a while (paying the mortgage out of the baby bonus) as well as pay off a car loan and pay bills so I am really looking for ways to tighten the belt!
So I am going to start doing a full gorcery shop each week for the f/night (DH gets paid f/n'ly) so I am looking for meals that I can make that are cheap and easy (hard to cook elaborate meals with a bub I find!!)
And also any good money saving tips that you may have come accross...
Also if anyone knows of any at home jobs/services that I could consider as I would much prefer staying at home full time...
Theres a whole heap of recipie ideas in the cooking/food section of BB - you will be amazed and overwhelmed (in a good way) with the info in there. I think there is a budget meal thread actually.
My advice is MINCE....its cheap and there are a zillion things you can do with mince. Take a squiz......
Mix canned tuna, a little chopped onion & small cubes of cheese & mayo together. Cut a pastry sheet into 4 put the tuna mix on top then make into parcels. Do as many pastry sheets as you need to go with the amount of tuna you have. I use a tiny can for one sheet & that serves 1 or could serve 2 if you had it with salad.
Cook in a hot oven.
They are yum & cheap.
The only other things I can think of have already been mentioned.
i do HEAPS of mince and mix it up with those continental packet mixes
eg meatloaf u just get mince, egg and a continental meatloaf mix
rissoles is mince egg tomatosauce and cont. rissoles mix
tuna potato pie with tuna mash potato and the mix
etc
masterfoods also do a great mexican nachos mix u just add the nacho chips mince and kidney beans yummm
the packet mixes r cheap they sometimes have specials like 3 packets for $3 and they are sooo easy usually cook mince/meat/whatever, mix in packet and oven bake or serve
then jus serve with vegies or packet pasta haha im so lazy
but its yum yum for budgeting mums hehe and soo easy
i agree with the mince,i go crazy when its on special for $4.95pk!!
pasta/lasagne - (dp have i make our own 'sauces'- he like all sorts of veggies in his, i prefer my bolognaise to be quite plain, so i usually buy 1kg each for pasta!)
meatballs/hamburgers
tacos
Lentil soup - onion, canned tomatoes, lentils, stock, any soup vegies you have. Serve with toast
Dhal - onion, garlic, curry spice, lentils/split peas. Serve with rice. Comes out around 80c per serve.
Soup and casseroles are great in winter as they stretch a long way, and there are so many variations!
Casseroles are great, especially if you have a slow cooker, as you can use chuck steak which is best slow cooked to make it nice and tender (not chewy and grissly!), and other cheap cuts like chicken drumsticks/wings.
Pasta dishes are good, sausages & vegies (although boring sausages are reasonably cheap to buy in large quantities, could also make curried sausages/sausage casserole/devilled sausages/sausages & gravy for something a bit different).
Substitute canned beans/chickpeas/lentils etc if you can stand them, instead of having meat, even if it's only one night a week. Make as much as you can from scratch! If you have the time that is, even things like pizza dough you can make yourself and is cheaper than buying takeaway pizza or plain pizza bases.
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Cheap & easy meals?? Budget Tips??
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