£20 a week OS challenge- you'll be seeing more of me I think!!

Hi there all Osers

Ive been hanging out on these boards for a while now, and after a new all motivating chat with OH last night, we have taken the step of deciding on trying to get our food and household budget down to 80pcm Between us (so that we can save to move)

Now over the years Ive been pretty damn wasteful ( chucking things away when theyve gone off unused, making way too much and binning it etc) but all that has gone. Now we have to save up to move, and times are tighter than ever).

So we are now in the position that we have £20 Pw for lunches to take to work, cleaning and all the food at home. theres only me & OH, no pets or kids!

We are already
taking lunches ( tin of soup etc)
using CC vouchers
eagling for the bogofs etc
looking for vouchers
shopping around
using markets where poss

Phew, essay there, but is anyone else on such a low budget? What else can I be doing ( apart from looking all over this bit of the site :T. anything obvious IM missing here?

Cheers
Lynz
x
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:beer: Well aint funny how its the little things in life that mean the most? Not where you live, the car you drive or the price tag on your clothes.
Theres no dollar sign on piece of mind
This Ive come to know...
So if you agree have a drink with me, raise your glasses for a toast :beer:
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Comments

  • comping_cat
    comping_cat Posts: 24,006
    First Anniversary Combo Breaker Mortgage-free Glee!
    Forumite
    You can always freeze extra portions of meals, to save throwing it away and some people find meal planning helpful in cutting costs.
  • beccatt
    beccatt Posts: 98 Forumite
    In the name of saving money OH and I have been trying to use up as much stuff from our kitchen cupboards as poss over the last week, rather than buying more new stuff. It has worked quite nicely - we've tried some different meals (fishcakes using mashed potato and tinned salmon were the most successful) and it's so nice that everything doesn't fall out when you open the doors!
    I went to our local market the other day for fruit, veg and meat and it was so great to buy things from people who actually wanted you to be their customer, as opposed to being snarled at by supermarket staff! I was even chuffed that the butcher knocked 40p off my bill to round it off to an even £7! You don't find Mr Tesco doing that!
    Only thing was I then had to walk home (about a mile) with very heavy shopping bags! Think I'll be spacing out my shopping over several lunchtimes in the future!
    Good luck with the budgeting lynzpower!
  • MushyPeas
    MushyPeas Posts: 3,104
    First Anniversary Combo Breaker First Post Debt-free and Proud!
    Forumite
    Hi beccatt

    After becoming addicted to this website over the past two weeks (how many hours lost...!!) I have also decided to cut back on shopping bills. I'm going to buy myself a shopping trolley so that I can carry more of those bargains back from the shops :)

    Have you seen the shopping trolley thread here? Aldis are selling them soon, I've put a note in my diary to buy one.

    Happy shopping :)

    P.S. My first inserted link :T
    Previous debt: £14K :embarasse Debt free: Sept '03 :DMFW#42 Mortgage OP savings £4271.18/£12000 2019 :)Started dating OH Mar '12, married Oct '12, Walnut born Dec ' 12 :A SPC 12: 99 £38.05/£500 Make money Jan: £412.34/£310 :T Feb: £88.79/£280 May: £215.52/£310 June: £18.98/£300
  • pavlovs_dog
    pavlovs_dog Posts: 10,195
    Name Dropper Combo Breaker First Post First Anniversary
    Forumite
    ummm...some student words with wisdom here :D

    *use starchy foods as part of every meal to help fill you up (potatoes, rice, pasta, bread)

    *include a few "cheap" meals in your meal plan each week (something on toast, jacket spud etc)

    *use bread at the end of a meal for mopping up

    *have a large glass of water with your meals - it takes the edge off your appetite, as people often mistake thirst for hunger.

    *make sure you always have breaksfast

    *dont be scared to include puds in your plan, as these can also help fill that tummy

    *meat - a portion should be approx the size of you palm. you are probably eating far more than a recommended portion - most people are. replace with more veg etc to bulk out the meal - it costs less and its better for you

    *go veggie where possible - meat is expensive

    *bulk out meals where poss with hidden ingredients - eg grated carrot, and some lentils will make a spag bog go much further and hardly anyone will realsie the carrot and lentils are even there
    know thyself
    Nid wy'n gofyn bywyd moethus...
  • lynzpower
    lynzpower Posts: 25,311
    Combo Breaker First Post
    Forumite
    thanks a lot for this

    Ive just been going through the cupbaords and freezer to see whats there and excluding the condiments and spices and so forth theres easily £100's worth.

    All the basics are there, rice, pasta, couscous, pearl barley (?thats for soup isnt it?! ) risotto rice etc. Not a lot of meat or veg, but confident that I can make it stretch ( well I have to!! ) .My thinking cap is well and truly on for trying to be inventive, the great thing is that hopefully with this new budget we will get out of the regime of the same meals all the time which happens quite a bit!

    thanks a lot!

    Ps yes we started freezing a while ago, what a difference that makes too!
    :beer: Well aint funny how its the little things in life that mean the most? Not where you live, the car you drive or the price tag on your clothes.
    Theres no dollar sign on piece of mind
    This Ive come to know...
    So if you agree have a drink with me, raise your glasses for a toast :beer:
  • wigginsmum
    wigginsmum Posts: 4,150 Forumite
    We've found pasta sauce goes further if we toss the cooked pasta into some of it rather than dolloping spoonfuls onto pasta. I cook batches of spag bol sauce and freeze in tubs, and we eat roughly half per person of what we'd eat if I was cooking it fresh; we bulk up on the pasta and a bit of grated cheese. Risottos are also a good choice.

    Have you seen black-saturn's menu thread? Well worth a read; food certainly doesn't have to be boring on a tight budget.
    The ability of skinny old ladies to carry huge loads is phenomenal. An ant can carry one hundred times its own weight, but there is no known limit to the lifting power of the average tiny eighty-year-old Spanish peasant grandmother.
  • mgardner
    mgardner Posts: 388 Forumite
    lynzpower wrote:
    thanks a lot for this

    Ive just been going through the cupbaords and freezer to see whats there and excluding the condiments and spices and so forth theres easily £100's worth.

    All the basics are there, rice, pasta, couscous, pearl barley (?thats for soup isnt it?! ) risotto rice etc. Not a lot of meat or veg, but confident that I can make it stretch ( well I have to!! ) .My thinking cap is well and truly on for trying to be inventive, the great thing is that hopefully with this new budget we will get out of the regime of the same meals all the time which happens quite a bit!

    thanks a lot!

    Ps yes we started freezing a while ago, what a difference that makes too!

    I would like to pass on a tip I had some years ago now from a very old lady,
    she advised me to budget for an extra day a week, ie if you got your housekeeping on Friday make sure you had enough in for Saturday and draw you money then, the next week make it a day later, and the same again the next week, eventually you end up with an extra weeks housingkeeping every seven weeks So seven times a year you have a bonus. I found this invaluable during a very tight time. Come to think of it maybe I will start doing it again.

    Best wishes
    Sealed pot challenge 543
  • foreverskint
    foreverskint Posts: 1,009
    First Post
    Forumite
    One of the biggest household savings can be mad by mixing your washing powder with a sililar quantity of washing soda crystals and then using half of your usual amount.

    use vinegar as a cleaner (had to be said didn;t it) and dilute other products bubble bath washing up liquid etc to make them go further.

    can't think of anymore, but i know there will be loads on here that can

    good luck
  • lynzpower
    lynzpower Posts: 25,311
    Combo Breaker First Post
    Forumite
    thanks for these! Im getting loads of great ideas and I think ive saved a couple of quid off the weekly shop just by reading here already!! Cheers all, and all credit , a wealth of knowledge here xx
    :beer: Well aint funny how its the little things in life that mean the most? Not where you live, the car you drive or the price tag on your clothes.
    Theres no dollar sign on piece of mind
    This Ive come to know...
    So if you agree have a drink with me, raise your glasses for a toast :beer:
  • Snap dishwasher tablets in half, they last twice as long, its better for the environment and it costs you less, while still doing a great job!

    I thought I could never cut back, but I have gone from spending about £500 pm on shopping for 4 to £250, we are eating healthier now too, sometimes its a struggle with the kids, but they will come around eventually. I get such a buzz now too, I now know how much things cost, like a loaf of bread, before I didn't I would just stick the nicest packaging one in my trolly, hence my massive food bill.

    Good luck x
    February Grocery Challenge £250.00

    Spend so far £230!! (Ohhh my days HELP) still got almost 2 weeks left!!
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