Meal Planning

I thought I'd share my meal plans with you today....I've been meal planning for a while now so this isn't really a new thing I'm doing with the retro lifestyle, but I did work out ages ago that doing this does save us money. I meal plan for four weeks and I normally just rotate this on a monthly basis. I have an autumn/winter monthly meal plan and then a different one for spring/summer, as we normally want to be eating more meals like salads etc rather than the stews that we have in the colder months.

I have just made a new meal plan though as it's had to change to fit in with the war time rations that we are living off. There's lots of simple meals that are cheap to make but are yummy and nutritious. There's not loads of meat as obviously I have to feed my family from the meat rations. Every week my mum is so kind to make us a huge pot of bolognese when she makes it for herself and my dad, and so although I don't think that meals like spaghetti bolognese and such were popular back then, I'm not going to start to turn it down as it saves us money each week, and feeds my family of four for two evening meals per week! I dont think people back then would have looked a gift horse in the mouth as the saying goes, so I will still be using that.

So here's my autumn/winter meal plan ( I'll probably change to spring/summer meals from about april time).....

Week 1-

Sunday- Chicken roast dinner
Monday- Chicken hotpot with homemade yorkies (using the leftover chicken from day before)
Tuesday- Mum's spag bol and salad
Wednesday- Cottage pie and veg(using mince from mum's bolognese)
Thursday- Tuna fishcakes(homemade), homemade chips and mushy peas
Friday- Jacket potatoes, beans and cheese
Saturday- I'm going to play this by ear because we'll do something special on saturdays( maybe make a special meal if friends come over etc....this is where the rations might get tricky....although as long as i stick to it for the majority, I will be happy with that).

Week 2-
Sunday- Sausage casserole and yorkies
Monday- Sausage, mash potatoes and veg (will buy a big pack of sausages to do both evenings)
Tuesday- Mum's spag bol and salad
Wednesday- Bolognese and chips (using mum's bolognese)
Thursday- Macaroni cheese
Friday- Egg, chips and beans

Week 3-
Sunday- Pork roast dinner
Monday- Pork stew and mash potato(using leftover pork)
Tuesday- Mum's spag bol and salad
Wednesday- Pasta bake using bolognese sauce and roasted veg
Thursday- Turkey burgers, chips and peas
Friday- Tuna pasta bake

Week 4-
Sunday- Toad in the hole, mashed potato and veg
Monday- Minestrone soup with bread
Tuesday- Mum's spag bol and salad
Wednesday- Cottage pie and veg (using mum's bolognese)
Thursday- Spam fritters, egg, chips and peas ( very war time!)
Friday- Tuna pasta bake

I know alot of wartime menus included meals like corned beef hash and liver and bacon, but my hubby hates corned beef and i hate liver! Also tripe, yuck!!!! I've tried to keep it so that it's going to be easy to keep within the rations but also meals that i know the family will all enjoy. The children will have a piece of whatever cake i've made that week with custard after their evening meal.

So, hopefully over the next month this is going to keep my shopping down to £40 per week as it was this week....

Have a lovely evening:)
Retro Mummy x

Baking

So, yesterday i spent a couple of hours baking. I love baking! I never used to until about 6 months ago and now it brings me so much joy! I love just getting into the kitchen and making something so yummy out of a few basic ingredients and it does feel so retro to just bake a cake or have homemade cookies for my kids to enjoy with a glass of milk:) It fills the house with lovely smells and makes it feel so warm and comforting.....

I've decided to bake every Sunday to make the lovely sweet treats that we want to last us the week, as i won't be buying things like biscuits, cakes and chocolate bars from the supermarket anymore. This week i made chocolate cupcakes, jam tarts and chocolate chip cookies. They turned out really well, tasted lovely and cost so much less to make than they would to buy. Plus we spent some lovely family time making them; my little boy loves to help me in the kitchen:)

I did take a few photos so i could share the experience and results with you but I'm new to this blogging thing and i can't seem to get them on here, but i will keep trying!

So, now we have the cupcakes for my kids to have as dessert with some custard after their evening meal and they'll enjoy the cookies with some milk before bed. Think I'll have to treat myself too ;)

I can't say I'm missing anything so far on the rations. We had a roast dinner last night and then i made a stew with the leftover pork joint today which was so simple yet so tasty. I've done a meal planner on the rations for the next month so I'll share that on tomorrows post.

Retro Mummy :)

Living on rations.....

Yesterday i did the weekly shop on World War 2 rations and it was a real eye opener! I cannot believe how much money we saved!!!! Our normal weekly shop is round about £70 per week and this week that was down to £40! Fantastic.....i am very pleased with this saving and so is my husband!

These are the rations that i followed.....I hope they are accurate; i found them online after doing some research but i do find that the information seems to differ from one place to another and it's very confusing when it comes to the points system.....but it saved us money so i guess it's fine what i did anyway.....

Per adult(each week) :-

2oz butter
8oz sugar
2oz cheese
1lb jam (every 2 months)
4oz bacon and ham
Meat up to the value of £6
1 egg
4oz margarine
3 pints milk
2oz tea
12 oz sweets (every 4 weeks)

Plus 16 points per month for things like tinned foods, cereal etc.....

Children under 5 (per week, per child)

7 pints milk
3 eggs
Carton of orange juice
Cod liver oil
Plus half of everything above in the adult ration.

Bread, flour, vegetables and home grown fruit not rationed.

There are two adults in my house and two children under the age of 5. I stuck to this with the shopping although i did cheat a little and bought yogurts for my children as they love them and i think they need them so that they get lots of calcium.

I'll let you know during the week the kind of meals we have. Breakfast will be either toast and jam or porridge, or bacon and eggs as we had this morning( we have eggs given to us by my grandad from the chickens on his allotment so we may be able to have more eggs than we would have, but i think this should be ok as i know alot of people during the war did keep chickens so they could have the eggs). I didn't bother with dried eggs.
Lunches will be sandwiches and leftovers from the evening before, or maybe beans on toast.
I'm doing a meal planner for the month so i will share this on another post which will be the evening meals that we will be eating.

I already had things like flour and sugar in this week so didn't need those..... this was the £40 shopping list.....

Tomatoes
Onions
Apples
Carrots
Courgette
Potatoes
Parsnips
Swede
Oats
Mushy peas (points)
Butter
Margarine
Jam
Beans (points)
Cheese
Orange juice
Tea bags
Tinned fruit (points)
Bacon
Ham
Turkey mince
Joint of pork
Bar of chocolate
Children's yoghurts (explained above)
Chocolate chips
Pears
Matches (points)
Custard (points)
Blackcurrant squash ( not sure if this would have been allowed....will look it up)
Cat food (i know they didn't feel their cats cat food as such in the war, but i can't not feed our cats!)
Tomato ketchup (points)

I've been baking for a couple of hours this morning to make all of the sweet treats that we need for the week but this will be tomorrows post......

So, i hope that helps someone:)

Until tomorrow, guys and dolls!

RetroMummy x

Getting started.....

So......I never really got started with this blog before and now, as i have decided to really give this retro lifestyle a good go, i am back to blog my findings.

I will be living my life as a housewife of the 1950's would have(as much as i can), and with abit of 1940's chucked in there aswell, as i love that era so much aswell.

It starts tomorrow when i begin my first challenge of doing the weekly shop on WW11 rations, which will hopefully save us some money.

There will be posts of all aspects of my life and how i take inspiration from the past. So, i hope you all enjoy and i hope we can all save some money from my findings.....

Love your life and love yourself:)
Retro Mummy x