Introduction & Help with budgeting
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| Sat, 01-15-2005 - 8:34pm |
First let me introduce myself. My name is Jenn, I will be 24 in February. I currently weigh about 227 lbs, as you can see from my ticker. I don't have a 100 lbs to lose, but close to it, and when I am a member of a general dieting/weight loss board, I always feel left out. I was 130 lbs in 1999, then I got married, and you know how it goes! It took me 3 years to gain the first 50 lbs, then only a year to gain the rest. My eating habits are horrible, and i hate exercising :) But i am trying to change all that.
Now, my question is about grocery shopping on a budget. Dh doesn't want to diet with me, so not only do I have to try to buy myself healthy foods, but buy different foods for him, and on a tight budget. I am used to buying all processed foods, because I work full time and go to school part time. I was looking for a way to make healthy dishes that dont require a lot of ingredients. I will be eating about half of my dinners with healthy choice/lean cuisines but because of the sodium, i dont want to eat only those. Can anyone help? I was thinking something in bulk possibly, like crock pot recipes or something i can eat more than just the 1 meal. Thanks so much! Oh - I wanted to add that making meals for DH and I just dont work when im dieting. He is a very picker eater! He doesnt like fish or chicken, so only beef. He likes hot dogs, hamburgers, pizza, hot pockets..that knd of thing! Stuff I shouldnt be eating! (i do eat fat-free hot dogs though)


Hello Jenn :)
Welcome.
I was looking at your signiture as well and was thinking I had seen it before. How funny. By the way the first thing I noticed was your picture. It is really great.
I usually give my Dh and children what I am eating and then cook a side or two for them like garlic bread etc. That makes them happy. If I am doing something I know the kids won't like I will do something for them like hot dogs or mac and cheese. I am at a loss for the budgeting. My grocery bill has been outrages since I started eating healthier. I think shawna had a great idea with freezing the meals. That will save money since it usually only costs a little more to make a larger dish.
Not much help, but I wanted to welcome you. sharla
Hey Jenn! And welcome to our boards...
My 2 cents is that my family doesn't want to diet either, however, in the begginning I fixed some tofu breakfast shakes and they happened to see what I was drinking and how much I was enjoying them that they asked for a sip...BIG MISTAKE...now I can't keep them out of any kind of my stuff for my diet. They know now that they like almost all of what I eat. Now they all don't like the same things...the DH won't eat some stuff which is fine with me...
But what I am leading up to is...don't tell him what your fixing...start out with something that really doesn't look like diet food... serve with what the other person said (garlic bread and veggies) and such and before he knows it, he IS eating what you are eating and none will be the wiser...
I eat pizza I just scrape the topping off. Don't get me wrong I am a carboholic and I love my bread products...
Now to answer your question check around and look for the cheapest grocery store to shop at. Ask around someone knows where that store is. Cut coupons and shop on double coupon days. Get a group of people together there might already be one in your area and trade coupons...I will give you two napkin coupons for that Lean Cusine! And so on.
Good Luck and remember....
There is power in words...I am going to lose a total of 10 pounds by the end of the month.
Sussie_Q
Hi and welcome here, Jenn (: Congrats on taking the first steps to a new you, and I don't have 100+ to lose either and I'm a cl here, so don't worry about it! (Of course, at the rate I'm going I'll be at that 100+ mark any day now (; )
As for the budgeting, cut out the hot pockets and pizza and other frozen crap. *shrug* Harsh but true. Sounds like your husband has expensive tastes. In any case, he won't know that what you're making is "diet food" unless you're going low carb (doesn't sound like it) and then some of those tastes just take a little getting used to. I'm assuming you're going low fat, though, so no problem. TONS of recipes out there that taste just like the fat kind (: You can make soups and stews to freeze, casseroles, etc. And your husband can still get his red meat, just the leaner kind! Pork is good too, as long as it's lean. For the times when YOU want to cook chicken or fish, maybe then he can have a treat of hot pockets :P
Is there a particular reason you want recipes with few ingredients? Is it the cost issue?
Here's a list of a few cookbooks that you could invest in or check your library for:
Weight Watchers Make it in Minutes; Rachael Ray's 30 Minute Meals; Cooking Light 5-Ingredient 15-Minute Meals; Cooking Light Low-fat Low-cal Quick & Easy Cookbook
I've made a lot of the recipes from those books and they're keepers (:
Welcome again, and I look forward to hearing more from you!
- cl-Yavie, sig in still in progress :D
I am just a young girl in need of some
Thanks so much to everyone!
For those of you who saw my siggy before, I had posted the "loose skin" issue :) I kind of go backwards on boards sometimes, lol. I ask questions before even introducing myself! Im a CL - I should know better!
Anyways, thank you so much for all your kind words and advice. I will definitely pick up some cookbooks and look through them. I am just not used to cooking a lot, so this is all very new to me!
Hi Jenn,
I personally crockpot everything. My husband, who would eat pizza every meal if I didn't intervene, loves most of the crockpot meals. I cook up a new recipe every few days and serve a meal, then put the rest in tupperware in the fridge. This works out great, because we always have a few different meals on hand, and we have variety. I get frozen Red Barron's pizza for him once a week at Wal-Mart for $3. It usually takes him a couple of meals to eat it, so it's fairly budget conscious. I, too, am on a very strict budget and the crockpot thing works wonders. My monthly food budget is $250, and we do fine with it, I even buy cases of Dr. Pepper for myself. With crockpotting, you can cook less healthy, beefy stuff for your husband and just leave that batch for him...hope this helps.
304.5/296.5/296 (by 1/30)
Andrea