We need to cut back and I’m not sure how to do it

DVOM

Tue, Jan 30 2018, 4:31 pm

amother wrote:

The other day I took carrot, butternut squash, potato, peels, yes all peels that I’ve been saving in the freezer.
I also had some cabbage cores that I’ve been saving in the freezer.
I boiled these in chicken broth. Very well.
Then I added leftover challah pieces to the “soup”.
A little bit of consume soup for flavour.

I blended the whole thing with my stick blender.

Free soup- from things that ppl would usually throw away.

Very cool peach! I like your frugal spirit! This post really has me thinking...

Are you the amother from the rice thread who suggested bone broth? I made a bone broth this week based on a post from that thread. Your posts on this one are inspiring me! Maybe I'll try making a 'peel soup' next!

amother

Peach

Tue, Jan 30 2018, 4:48 pm

DVOM wrote:

That’s me
I don’t do this all the time.
Cabbage cores are delicious.
Start collecting usable scraps in a bag in the freezer.

When you blend the soup ppl don’t know the difference, and there’s a lot of nutrition in the peel.

If the kids will only eat peeled apples I save the apple peel as well.

I also collect the fatty juices when I bake chicken. There’s so much wasted flavor in that “juice” Why should it go down the drain.

When I have extra fruit ppl just won’t eat because it’s starting to mush, I freeze it for smoothies, icees, sorbets

The whole idea is not to throw out useable items

For example I make stuffed zucchini (makshi)
I will peel the zucchini and make a side dish out of the green peels, or add it to kugel or an omelette.
For kugel I grind the peels with inards add egg, season and bake.

Raisin

Tue, Jan 30 2018, 6:02 pm

Start every meal with soup, that will fill the family up and they will eat less chicken or meat. Put lentils, barley , beans etc in the soup to make it extra filling.

I mix ground chicken with ground beef. Still tastes like beef but a lot healthier. (And might be cheaper for you - I think where I am ground chicken and beef are the same price or beef is even cheaper)

amother

Orchid

Wed, Jan 31 2018, 2:10 am

Thank you for all the replies. I don’t have an immersion blender so the only soup I know how to make is a hearty vegetable and a tomato soup.

Part of me is worried about them getting proper vitamins and nutrition. How do I make each meal complete for them when not making chicken or ground meat? Eggs I understand is a protein itself. They don’t like beans. I’ve never tried lentils bec honestly I don’t know how to make them or use them.

LisaS

Wed, Jan 31 2018, 2:55 am

First of all, I echo what others above said about involving the kids in the cooking and menu-setting. Someone had a great idea about meal contests. Maybe I'll try that.

Here's what we do:

Eggs can be served more than once a week. A chavita with toast and israeli salad is so satisfying. My kids of all ages like taking pita+chavita for aruchat eser.

Try gvina levana - it's cheaper than cottage cheese and gives a nice dairy flavor to many dishes. My kids learned to it from the neighbors who ate it as a treat with biskvitim.

Homemade pizza once a week - you make the dough and the kids do the rest. Even if you use WW flour it's still a very budget-friendly dinner.

Homemade bagels with homemade cream cheese. Homemade tortillas are so easy and feel treaty.

You said you aren't used to cooking lentils - I'd say the easiest to start with is lentil soup. Saute onion/pepper/celery add in lentils + water and cook for half hour. We like it seasoned with salt, pepper and cumin.

Which reminds me, vege soup at least once a week. It's not just that veges are cheap and healthy, but also that the veges round out the meal and make it more satisfying. Nothing like ending a long day at school with a hot pot of vege soup + cous cous.

My kids love finely grated carrot with grated apples and cinnamon as a salad.

Our usual Friday lunch is pita + israeli salad and homemade fries. So filling, and happens to be cheap.

Finally, anything a little bit special should be saved lichvod Shabbat Kodesh. So you don't have to say, no we can't have X because we can't afford it. Just that we save X for Shabbat. For example, in our family we would save a special fruit like kiwi for Shabbat. Look at your usual menu and see if any of your regular weekday foods belong on the Shabbat menu instead.

It already sounds like you are doing a great job. You won't majorly change your budget in the kitchen, but small changes will make a difference over time.

salt

Wed, Jan 31 2018, 7:16 am

I know you say your DH is in charge of bills, but you know you must call your telephone providers about once a year to try and get cheaper packages. Sometimes a package you get is for a certain price, and it's for 1 or 2 years, and after that period is up, they up the cost, and they don't tell you.
My husband's mobile phone bill used to be about 75-120 NIS per month - I called Golan to ask what packages they have, and now his bill is 24 NIS per month, unlimited calls.
You have to keep calling and getting new deals - Bezeq, internet provider, cell phones, etc.
Even the gas companies give reductions if you ask what special offers they have.

salt

Wed, Jan 31 2018, 7:21 am

Another suggestion is to turn to the organization Paamonim. They help regular people who are not deep in debt, but are just struggling a little, to keep track of their income/outcome balance and help them decide where they can cut back.
I've heard that they've really helped people.
Are you careful not to waste electricity and water? Bath kids together when you can. Don't leave water running while you wash up. Don't use a dryer.
Cars are very expensive to run. Maybe you could find a cheaper insurance.

heidi

Wed, Jan 31 2018, 7:56 am

amother wrote:

Wow Peach! We try to finish leftovers but don’t always. Sometimes I can be creative but most times I just make fresh.

We don’t spend on clothes because we get a lot of hand me downs from relatives and then I keep from child to child of my own whatever is still in very good condition. Toys we reserve for gifts or special occasions and the ones they have are most from grandparents.

My kids aren’t in tzaharon so lunch is on me too.

Breakfast is always cereal and I don’t buy the sweet sugary/ more expensive ones. For shabbos I’ll buy one box of a sweet cereal. They love yogurts and cheese, pasta, chicken on the bone or schnitzel/grilled, chopped meat into burgers or meat sauce that I fill with veggies. Tonight we did falafel and everyone ate accept one kid who had a cow and ate his pita with plain salad. I also sometimes make a hearty vegetable soup with or without chicken/or chicken necks. They’ll eat hotdogs but I prefer not to give them so it’s maybe once a month. They like eggs all different ways so I like doing that once a week for a lunch and a dinner.

That’s all I can think of for now. I also always make sure every meal has a protein carb and vegetable. So vegetable can be plain cut up or an Israeli salad or broccoli/string beans.

We also obviously go through a lot of bread.

First of all, cereal, even Israeli cereal is crazy expensive. And I hardly ever see it on sale.
Breakfast can be fruit, yogurt, oatmeal. Pancakes (with some cottage cheese mixed in) are way cheaper than cereal.
Blowing almost 10 dollars a week on a Shabbat sugar cereal seems excessive.
I don't know what your kashrut standards are, but it might be worth asking a shaila. Badatz chicken is 3 times the price of rabbanut chicken.
Mix equal amounts ground meat and chicken for burgers etc. Kids will never know the difference.
Just made a great recipe. Mashed potato top and bottom with leftover shabbat chicken with sauteed onions and bbq sauce as the middle. Bake and serve. Kids loved it.
B'hatzlacha!

Raisin

Wed, Jan 31 2018, 8:05 am

homemade tortillas - https://www.tasteofhome.com/re.....illas

I made these the other day with leftover chicken from shabbos cut up and fried with some spices, guacamale, lettuce, tomato. You can also make refried beans if you don't have chicken, and then serve with cheese as well.

lentils - I love this recipe. If you don't like curry, use other spices to your taste. http://allrecipes.com/recipe/1.....rint/

amother

Orchid

Wed, Jan 31 2018, 10:58 am

I want to try pancakes for breakfast and see how that goes. How do I add cottage cheese to a recipe? Just add in? I never priced out oatmeal but it’ll come out cheaper than cereal?
I was just talking to my husband about all the really great suggestions and he’s begging me to dump the cereal. Yesterday the children were all in a panic because we were out of cereal and literally went under buying a box. That pushed him over the edge a bit because it’s not the first time. So today he gave them a whole speech how they have to eat other things for breakfast too. So I have to get a move on that to keep the flow because they took it well.

lavenderchimes

Wed, Jan 31 2018, 11:11 am

Try awitching your kids to homeade breakfast -- oatmeal, breakfast bars, homeade granola. Try to frame it as more healthy rather than a money issue! A LOT of money can be saved by making thjbgs from scratch rather than store buying. Maybe you could save some on snacks this way, too.

But I am guessing that the real work that needs to be done is on your husbands end. You don't need to take over for him, but you need to do it with hin, especially as you are better at it. What good is his ego if he can't pay the bills? Have him track his purchases, and you yours, and figure out where the money is going,

shevi82

Wed, Jan 31 2018, 11:27 am

Where are you buying your chicken, meat? it can make a major diffrence. Sometimes Osher ad have sales and sometimes Rami Levy. Private Butchers are more expensive.
I make stir fry with veggies like squash , onions and carrots, peppers and then pieces of chicken. You do not need alot of chicken.
Ground turkey for hamburgers add grated onion and squash to strech, make yummy hamburgers.
Check what fish is on sale, sometimes there are good deals.
Homemade pizza is filling and sometimes hard cheese is on sale.
Yogurts are expensive, would the kids go for Leben? they have vanilla and strawberry, way cheaper.

amother

Orchid

Wed, Jan 31 2018, 11:35 am

I’m going to start writing down these ideas so that I have them handy and be able to start.

As for the bills - my husband made a list today (on his own without me mentioning it!) of all our bills and amounts and due dates. And tonight we’re going to sit and figure things out and where we can cut down.

I do a lot of laundry and I think it’s possible to cut some there too. More often than not, I find clean clothes in the laundry because it was tried on and not put back. I’m not sure how to dry all the clothes as I find it takes so long to hang dry. Not to mention hanging every single item when we are k”h a large family. Hanging also means it’ll be in a central location and bound to get knocked over or sticky from little hands.

tichellady

Wed, Jan 31 2018, 11:37 am

shevi82 wrote:

Leben is not healthy. I would sooner make my own yogurt then replace it with leben

tichellady

Wed, Jan 31 2018, 11:39 am

amother wrote:

Thank you for the great suggestions. What type of lentils? I saw green and orange in the store, what’s the difference?

Also, can you tell me how to make homemade cream cheese and tortillas?

Both lentils are good. Green hold up more and can be used for lentil salad, taco filling etc , red are good for falling apart in a soup. You can make lentil soup with either one ( they just need different recipes- google red or green when you look for the recipe).

amother

Orchid

Wed, Jan 31 2018, 12:09 pm

Thank you all for recipes and ideas!
My kids don’t like leben, I’ve tried.
I buy chicken and meat from the regular store not by a butcher.
I noticed a lot that I think about what to make and then shop rather than working with what I have. So as I’m planning shabbos I just went through the pantry to see what can I make that I have and don’t need to purchase new. Especially since I didn’t realize today was Wednesday!