Being Broke.. I do not like!

Well, Mum is home from the hospital, and Dad had numerous times of me needing to take him to hospital(different one to Mum) as his heart was playing up. So in a space of 3 days I think I worked out between Mum and Dad and the kids and dinners, I did something like 180kms. I was very tired..But Mum is settled back home now..and pottering round, and Dad is in the throes of specialists again for his heart. I cooked quite a few meals for them, did washing, tidied up, kids school lunches etc etc...all the crap that needs to be done in a house on a day to day basis. So I am back basically doing my own thing in my own home.....
And this past week has opened my eyes up to something..we had this pay month, Rego, 2 kids b/days at $200 a pop, and an electricity bill extra to the normal bills, so that was roughly $1600 down in monies...oh and it was a 5 week month as far as the rent was concerned, but I didnt pay the 5th month as I had no spare orifice to pull that money from.
So this week (payday next week) I have run out of bread, milk, tissues, loo paper, margerine, cordial, and I am down to maybe 3 lots of meat, and I have very little fuel. I did borrow $100 from Mum which I absolutely positively hate doing. The week I must say has been very long. Out of the $100, I gave hubs $50 for work (lunch and fuel, NO he doesnt take lunch, but his lunch consists of 2 rolls and some meat and tomato, and costs him about $4 a day) so that left me $50 to buy bread, milk, and a few things to cover the 16 yr olds dinner for her b/day. I also pinched(borrowed) a tub of margerine from Mum.
The Lesson learnt was....I can make meals from nothing...and so can you!
I have done it before but that was ages ago when Hubs was unemployed..
I had a small packet of pork and veal mince that I made a meal from, I had cheese and a bottle of passata..I made rissoles with a chunk of cheese in the middle and the ordinary things in the rissole mix like egg and breadcrumbs and herbs..I then threw them into a baking pan with the sauce on top and some mozzarella that was in the freezer on top of the passata, baked it till cooked and I had a frozen packet of baked potatos in the freezer as well as beans and peas...
Dinner done!
I freeze everything... egg whites, left over mozzarella, capsicum, strawberries, blueberries, bananas in the skin, passionfruit pulp, garlic, breadcrumbs(fresh ones) onion, wine, stock, even flour...I do have a very full cupboard store. The one thing about monthly pay thats an upside is the fact I can buy in bulk. Especially when things are on special. So I can pull out almost anything to cook or bake. But my problem with meals is that Hubs likes certain things...he wont eat vegetarian, he wont eat most vegetables, and he wont eat pasta meals. He will eat pasta as a side dish. So I had to accomodate him with that, and he does work very hard and sometimes misses out on lunch so needs to eat well at dinner.
Hubs did say the rissoles were the nicest he had ever eaten, which was good, especially since the last time I cooked them was probably in the year dot. There are certain meals I never cook, as do most families.
Tonights meal will consist of some small peices of steak, covered in a mixture of tomato paste, worcestshire sauce, tomato sauce, and water. layered in a baking tray and baked in the oven as I am being lazy today, I have also peeled some potatos and sliced them thickish, and will throw them into another baking tray with some stock and shallots and not only does the oven cook our dinner it keeps the house warm, and being its gas the usage on my bill isnt much. I have some lebanese bread I picked up at the fruit shop for 89c a packet I will smear a little margerine onto them and slice into a few peices and throw some parmesan( I like real, Hubs likes fake) and grill. The kids will have some veges from the freezer, which I always have as I every year buy a couple of frozen hampers from chrisco and hamper king etc. I do hope that changes tho...I want my vegetable garden to provide most of what we need.
So I only have Monday and Tuesday to brain storm for meals as I can shop on Wednesday!
I must say tho I do like Catch and Kill nights. (These are get ya own nights) I dont care what they eat as long as it fills their belly's thats the main thing) I dont really have junk food in the house so I dont mind if they want porridge, or a toasted cheese sandwich or mac and cheese.
I have the mind set of looking out for the reduced stickers everytime I shop, so I can essentially buy more food stuffs to cover the month for the meals I need to cover. If I do buy some meat that is only enuff for 1 or 2 then I make sure I give the kids meals like pasta and sauce (no meat) or gnocchi, or chicken legs. They are a fussy bunch, but I cope. I do bake a lot, not so much lately tho as they are on school holidays. But I will get back into it. I hate my kids under my feet, even if they are teens.
My kitchen and my knitting are my quite times for me!
Oh and my kids love going to friends places as they do...but my middle kid loves to swap recipes of ours with her friends mums. and she bought this one home. I am useless with pancakes unless it is a packet mix...her recipe was 1 cup SR flour/1 cup milk/1 egg. I also added a little sugar. Now whether it was my expensive new fry pan or the mix or both...the pancakes were lovely. I would double the mixture tho next time! so another cheap brekkie/snack etc.
Today's lesson....there is always someone worse off than yourself!
A site you may want to check out too, which I have subscribed to and think is a good place to visit Simple Savings, I have added the link in my sites I visit section! You can subscribe to a newsletter or to the site itself.