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Home / organic food on a budget

organic food on a budget

food budgeting | Recipes + Food Budgeting

Budget-Friendly Family Meals: How We Feed a Family of 5 on £500 a Month

Hi there!

I'm Kezia

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Mum, wife, bee keeper and 5am coffee drinker based in West Sussex, England. I'm also a blogger who doesn't really love the internet. But I love the power of community for bringing change, and I'm here to help you make sustainable choices feel easier and more manageable. From reducing food waste to embracing second-hand treasures, I want to navigate this journey together. Join me for budget-friendly food tips, ethical fashion, and building a whole home that loves people, planet, and personal health. Step by step, with no judgement along the way! Read more...

KEZIA NEUSCH • lower footprint living, on a budget!

the.whole.home
Second hand gifts do NOT have to mean thoughtless Second hand gifts do NOT have to mean thoughtless and second best… even if you don’t sew extra bits! We love searching out little treasures for the kids’ friends parties and it’s a great way to be thoughtful, sustainable, and more ethical on a budget! Sometimes we’ll pair a charity shop item with sole fairtrade chocolate, sometimes with a book from B corp @worldofbooksofficial, or with some coins stuck to a kid-made card. . Sometimes we know the recipient will understand our values, and sometimes we add a little note explaining why we shop this way and how we chose it with so much love. . This time at the last minute (while my kids ate dinner that night before!) I decided to make a little bag from a second hand duvet cover and I added on the “h” while we watched a date night movie! Metal health creativity meets sustainable gifting… win win. 😂
Bigger and cheekier by the day. 😅 . They’re 4 Bigger and cheekier by the day. 😅 . They’re 4 weeks old now, and they LOVE being outside foraging for bugs and eating all the cherry blossom. 🌸 They still need a heat lamp so they have a kennel with a heat lamp 24/7 but they spend a lot of (supervised) time running around the garden. We loved the days of having them in the house but once they started waking me up at 4 wanting to play… it was over. They’re outside friends now. 😉. . They can’t be in with the big ducks yet (the adult ones want to unalive them, we had an oops run in 🤪) but when they’re fully grown we’ll slowly integrate them.
My kids didn’t expect that dinner. 😂 . Resc My kids didn’t expect that dinner. 😂 . Rescued KFC fried chicken 😂 but hey, saving it from landfill right? 👍 Honestly it’s a mix of health and saving food when it comes to waste food. I’m more chill about where food came from, or fair trade chocolate, or bananas from far away, or things like that if it’s waste food. Because the sustainability is in not letting it rot in landfill. But, there’s still the health aspect and we’re in the privileged position where we can turn down the processed food, and still afford to eat. So we do try to make healthier choices across all of what we ate, reduced food or not… and then some finger lickin good other bits. 🙈 . That stat* always makes me question… 1/3 of the food produced globally CANNOT be wasted?! But it is. Hurting the planet (what food waste does) while people go hungry. 😭 But I LOVE seeing the ways people are fighting that stat in different ways. In our own kitchen we have leftovers meals, we meal plan to make sure we don’t wants anything, we eat weird things, and we compost any food scraps so nothing ends up in landfill. . But it needs more than individual kitchens. Supermarkets are a HUGE issue in this problem. We need more change than just handing on waste food, but it’s still part of the solution. We’ve used @toogoodtogo.uk for years to pick up waste food, and today we tried @ukharvest. . . We arrived late (8 minutes till the end, life!) and most of the food was gone but look at what we still got! The staff/volunteers were so kind and walked us through, loaded us up, and told us all about how it works. . . If you’re in Sussex, have a look at what’s local to you - and wherever you are, explore food waste solutions close to you or start in your own kitchen and life! *2011 study for the @fao. .
🌎 Every Earth day I feel a little panic… it’s silly but I think ‘What can I say to grab people’s attention in 0.3 seconds that’ll make them go, “Ooh yeah I want to go on that sustainability journey?!”’ 🤪 . Right now I’m thinking a lot about how it’s been made out to be an expensive journey and how wrong that is. People have forever been sustainable with next to nothing. I actually think the more options we have in life, the harder it is to be sustainable rather than the opposite. . It’s not being sustainable that’s difficult, it’s changing our mindset on what we want and what we need life to look like. That’s the tough part. . And I’ve also been thinking about how much joy this journey brings! It’s not about deprivation. It’s about detaching ourselves from the expectations and norms of society around consuming - and the freedom that can bring is a journey, but so big. . There’s no one thing we can say, but I’m here for the journey. If you want to see what it looks like on a budget, in real life, every day of the year (that I come online!) then hit follow. @the.whole.home
I’m so happy with how this turned out! This (ori I’m so happy with how this turned out! This (originally @everlane ) fleece was a secret Santa gift in 2018 and I’ve worn it so so much since that it’s a little worse for wear. 😭 But not beyond saving! This weekend I decided it was time to fix it… . I had some black and floral fabric from a clothing piece that never sold at a charity clothing sale, and used it to patch it up. I made a “biased binding” (which I learned how to do making a jacket at Christmas!) - I had no idea what those words meant 6 months ago but I life slowly learning and used that skill to sew these pieces on and lend the fleece. To tie it all together I added the same edging on the pockets and a tab on the zipper. THIS is why I started sewing last year, to be able to take things and keep/make them wearable in real life! What do you think about this one?!
I’m not gonna lie I’m not a car person at all I’m not gonna lie I’m not a car person at all 🙈 but we all LOVED this day out at @fullychargedshow’s Everything Electric in London. Thanks for having us. ❤️ . The kids spent the entire day on every driving game and simulator and looking at the cars… aside from the 30 minutes they had to stop and listen to their mum speak. 😉 . Then we walked around the gorgeous Docklands area and I took the kids and Jared to see the Thames Barrier which they’d never been to before! . We stayed so much later than we planned and grabbed a @coopuk “yellow sticker” dinner on the way home which is the kids favourite way to finish up a London day! 😂 . Perfect start to a long weekend!
I do a lot of outfit repeating… and I’m beyond I do a lot of outfit repeating… and I’m beyond ok with it! Here’s what I wore today for a day in London and to speak at @fullychargedshow’s Everything Electric event! . ➡️ A 7 year old jumpsuit from a small sustainable brand that doesn’t exist anymore. ➡️ A 7 year old (to me) silk blouse @eileenfisherny that a friend thrifted and gave me - cos second hand gifts are cool. 🥳 ➡️ @veja via @vinted (£12) ➡️ Charity shop earrings (£2) ➡️ The @able jacket is from a few years back and was gifted to me by a few wonderful gals I got to work with for a while. It’s one of my favourite ethical brands, but I don’t talk about them much cos… no new clothes. . I spoke on “Lower Footprint Living on a Budget” and I loved doing it! It’s been a while since I’ve done a speaking event and I don’t really care about just speaking, but communicating a message I really believe in? I’m very all in for that. I talked a bit about my journey and our family’s journey and what we’ve learned, I looked at how at its core and roots sustainability isn’t expensive, and we dived into some of the mindsets that really are pivotal to us on the journey as well as just practical money saving tips!
Every outfit will include a shower and makeup and Every outfit will include a shower and makeup and some bright lips. 😂 . I’m speaking tomorrow at Everything Electric (which looks like such a fun event - my kids and hoping they get to sit in on dad test driving an electric Porsche!) and these are my clothes options! What would you wear?! . . After selling most of what we owned 5 years ago, then being pregnant, post partum, and minimal with clothes before then quitting buying new clothes in 2023… my wardrobe is smaller. I’m still re-finding myself and my style post baby years and without the cyclical fast fashion industry, but that’s ok and this is where we’re at! . So, help me get dressed 😂
I’m gonna say this trend is the AI equivalent of I’m gonna say this trend is the AI equivalent of fast fashion. Seeing something you didn’t need, suddenly thinking you “need” it, buying it despite the detrimental impact to people and planet, wearing it and normalising it to the world. . AI is fun and genuinely useful… but at what cost? And what’s responsible use? I actually don’t know. But I know it’s a question we need to each personally ask. And I think it’s not using it frivolously. There is power use, and huge water use, mining for minerals (which is often not an ethical trade) and a ton of e-waste that are all real real problems. ChatGTP and AI isn’t just free fun, there’s a cost, it just isn’t to us so it’s a little easier to ignore. . I’d say let’s at least avoid it unless it’s truly essential, or part of our jobs maybe? Personally I’ve also switched to an Ecosia default browser to avoid the Google AI that you ache pot out of.. but that’s another reel for another time! . What’s your take? ❤️.
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KEZIA NEUSCH • lower footprint living, on a budget!

the.whole.home
Second hand gifts do NOT have to mean thoughtless Second hand gifts do NOT have to mean thoughtless and second best… even if you don’t sew extra bits! We love searching out little treasures for the kids’ friends parties and it’s a great way to be thoughtful, sustainable, and more ethical on a budget! Sometimes we’ll pair a charity shop item with sole fairtrade chocolate, sometimes with a book from B corp @worldofbooksofficial, or with some coins stuck to a kid-made card. . Sometimes we know the recipient will understand our values, and sometimes we add a little note explaining why we shop this way and how we chose it with so much love. . This time at the last minute (while my kids ate dinner that night before!) I decided to make a little bag from a second hand duvet cover and I added on the “h” while we watched a date night movie! Metal health creativity meets sustainable gifting… win win. 😂
Bigger and cheekier by the day. 😅 . They’re 4 Bigger and cheekier by the day. 😅 . They’re 4 weeks old now, and they LOVE being outside foraging for bugs and eating all the cherry blossom. 🌸 They still need a heat lamp so they have a kennel with a heat lamp 24/7 but they spend a lot of (supervised) time running around the garden. We loved the days of having them in the house but once they started waking me up at 4 wanting to play… it was over. They’re outside friends now. 😉. . They can’t be in with the big ducks yet (the adult ones want to unalive them, we had an oops run in 🤪) but when they’re fully grown we’ll slowly integrate them.
My kids didn’t expect that dinner. 😂 . Resc My kids didn’t expect that dinner. 😂 . Rescued KFC fried chicken 😂 but hey, saving it from landfill right? 👍 Honestly it’s a mix of health and saving food when it comes to waste food. I’m more chill about where food came from, or fair trade chocolate, or bananas from far away, or things like that if it’s waste food. Because the sustainability is in not letting it rot in landfill. But, there’s still the health aspect and we’re in the privileged position where we can turn down the processed food, and still afford to eat. So we do try to make healthier choices across all of what we ate, reduced food or not… and then some finger lickin good other bits. 🙈 . That stat* always makes me question… 1/3 of the food produced globally CANNOT be wasted?! But it is. Hurting the planet (what food waste does) while people go hungry. 😭 But I LOVE seeing the ways people are fighting that stat in different ways. In our own kitchen we have leftovers meals, we meal plan to make sure we don’t wants anything, we eat weird things, and we compost any food scraps so nothing ends up in landfill. . But it needs more than individual kitchens. Supermarkets are a HUGE issue in this problem. We need more change than just handing on waste food, but it’s still part of the solution. We’ve used @toogoodtogo.uk for years to pick up waste food, and today we tried @ukharvest. . . We arrived late (8 minutes till the end, life!) and most of the food was gone but look at what we still got! The staff/volunteers were so kind and walked us through, loaded us up, and told us all about how it works. . . If you’re in Sussex, have a look at what’s local to you - and wherever you are, explore food waste solutions close to you or start in your own kitchen and life! *2011 study for the @fao. .
🌎 Every Earth day I feel a little panic… it’s silly but I think ‘What can I say to grab people’s attention in 0.3 seconds that’ll make them go, “Ooh yeah I want to go on that sustainability journey?!”’ 🤪 . Right now I’m thinking a lot about how it’s been made out to be an expensive journey and how wrong that is. People have forever been sustainable with next to nothing. I actually think the more options we have in life, the harder it is to be sustainable rather than the opposite. . It’s not being sustainable that’s difficult, it’s changing our mindset on what we want and what we need life to look like. That’s the tough part. . And I’ve also been thinking about how much joy this journey brings! It’s not about deprivation. It’s about detaching ourselves from the expectations and norms of society around consuming - and the freedom that can bring is a journey, but so big. . There’s no one thing we can say, but I’m here for the journey. If you want to see what it looks like on a budget, in real life, every day of the year (that I come online!) then hit follow. @the.whole.home
I’m so happy with how this turned out! This (ori I’m so happy with how this turned out! This (originally @everlane ) fleece was a secret Santa gift in 2018 and I’ve worn it so so much since that it’s a little worse for wear. 😭 But not beyond saving! This weekend I decided it was time to fix it… . I had some black and floral fabric from a clothing piece that never sold at a charity clothing sale, and used it to patch it up. I made a “biased binding” (which I learned how to do making a jacket at Christmas!) - I had no idea what those words meant 6 months ago but I life slowly learning and used that skill to sew these pieces on and lend the fleece. To tie it all together I added the same edging on the pockets and a tab on the zipper. THIS is why I started sewing last year, to be able to take things and keep/make them wearable in real life! What do you think about this one?!
I’m not gonna lie I’m not a car person at all I’m not gonna lie I’m not a car person at all 🙈 but we all LOVED this day out at @fullychargedshow’s Everything Electric in London. Thanks for having us. ❤️ . The kids spent the entire day on every driving game and simulator and looking at the cars… aside from the 30 minutes they had to stop and listen to their mum speak. 😉 . Then we walked around the gorgeous Docklands area and I took the kids and Jared to see the Thames Barrier which they’d never been to before! . We stayed so much later than we planned and grabbed a @coopuk “yellow sticker” dinner on the way home which is the kids favourite way to finish up a London day! 😂 . Perfect start to a long weekend!
I do a lot of outfit repeating… and I’m beyond I do a lot of outfit repeating… and I’m beyond ok with it! Here’s what I wore today for a day in London and to speak at @fullychargedshow’s Everything Electric event! . ➡️ A 7 year old jumpsuit from a small sustainable brand that doesn’t exist anymore. ➡️ A 7 year old (to me) silk blouse @eileenfisherny that a friend thrifted and gave me - cos second hand gifts are cool. 🥳 ➡️ @veja via @vinted (£12) ➡️ Charity shop earrings (£2) ➡️ The @able jacket is from a few years back and was gifted to me by a few wonderful gals I got to work with for a while. It’s one of my favourite ethical brands, but I don’t talk about them much cos… no new clothes. . I spoke on “Lower Footprint Living on a Budget” and I loved doing it! It’s been a while since I’ve done a speaking event and I don’t really care about just speaking, but communicating a message I really believe in? I’m very all in for that. I talked a bit about my journey and our family’s journey and what we’ve learned, I looked at how at its core and roots sustainability isn’t expensive, and we dived into some of the mindsets that really are pivotal to us on the journey as well as just practical money saving tips!
Every outfit will include a shower and makeup and Every outfit will include a shower and makeup and some bright lips. 😂 . I’m speaking tomorrow at Everything Electric (which looks like such a fun event - my kids and hoping they get to sit in on dad test driving an electric Porsche!) and these are my clothes options! What would you wear?! . . After selling most of what we owned 5 years ago, then being pregnant, post partum, and minimal with clothes before then quitting buying new clothes in 2023… my wardrobe is smaller. I’m still re-finding myself and my style post baby years and without the cyclical fast fashion industry, but that’s ok and this is where we’re at! . So, help me get dressed 😂
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