Hints Please

tryinghard40

Well like i have said in a previous post have started making cost cutting savings.

have just replaced most of my light bulbs for energy saving ones.

Am off to do a big shop later on this evening and if any of you have some tips that would be great. Am going to b going to icelands,tesco and lidl, i know its going to be a chore but i always think iceland are cheapest for frozen food and the other 2 are very close together so not going to waste fuel on that.

i am trying to buy a months worth of food apart for fruit and veg which i buy at a local farm shop as i need it. we have me and my partner and 3 children of 17 - 14 - and 4years.

freebiequennie

def buy some mince and a mega bag of potatoes and cook up some shepherds/cottages pies for freezer and also some bolgnese and chilli batches.

flour, caster sugar, icing sugar etc for baking cakes and making bread.

any reduced meat, bread etc than can fit in the freezer and obv you will use buy it.

check the price per 100ml/kg/etc as sometimes the bigger packs arent always the best value.

buy value ranges and try them, we do this try once and if like buy again if not obv we dont.

rachbc

make a meal plan and stick to it.

Don't take the kids or hubby - spent 3 times as much when mine are with me!

Maybe not buy one 'luxury' item and see if you live without it happily for a week or 2 - I did this with crisps and although there were complaints at first no one even nootices now - and the homemade bisuits are good compensation!

mineallmine

tryinghard40 - Good to see you using energy bulbs, every little helps.

Before you leave home today, check your cupboards/freezer etc, what is in there that can provide meals.

At the shops - top tip is shop with a list, there another thread on here with mealplans: http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=1489027
Just as freebiequennie says try value ranges (try something different each time you shop). Eg Lidl sells its own brand dishwasher tablets far cheaper than my local supermarket.

When you get home have a look at your receipts, see how many meals you've got for you money and really consider anything that crept into the basket that you could do differently next time.

Most all realise that it is an ongoing lesson, you will get better all the time. I got my weekly shop down to £40 odd quid for the first time this week (I was regularly £75, then about £60, then about £50 so am very pleased).

We've knocked a couple of things on the head to do this. No longer buy fizzy pop but have squash. Buy the cat food in bulk at a local pet shop, which works out much cheaper. Buy a sack of potatoes at a farm shop which last for weeks. Just get in the habit of looking at each purchase at a time and thinking how could I do this cheaper, but still enjoy it!

Best of luck

tryinghard40

some good tips thanks, already do buy a fair amount of own brands and am going to start baking more often so going to cut out the chocolate wafers this month and see how it goes as it seems the more i buy the more they eat on choc. wafers!

going to go to lidls first and then i can compare what i buy there to the prices in tesco so i can work out which is cheapest for each item.

have just marked my container for measuring out washing powder so i can easily see whare to fill too in the hope than i can get a few more washes out of my usual box.

thought about buyer some shout etc for those stubborn stains instead of adding a bit extra powder, not sure whether it is going to save me any money though?

which is the cheapest way to buy mince, fresh or frozen?

anguk

Buy a bag of soda crystals (about 60p, you can find it near the washing powders/stain removers in most supermarkets) and add a tablespoon to each wash, it'll help with stains but even better you can reduce the amount of washing powder you use by half!
http://www.dri-pak.co.uk/soda-crystals-for-laundry.html

It would probably work out cheaper to pre-treat stains on the clothes rather than use extra powder in the wash, a bar of Vanish or Fairy household soap costs less than £2 and would last you ages.

I think frozen mince costs less than fresh mince but personally I always buy fresh, I tried frozen once and it was awful!

mineallmine

Another vote for fresh mince - frozen is probably cheaper. I guess it depends what you plan to do with it. Maybe give both a go and see which the family prefer. Best of luck.

SunnyGirl

I prefer fresh mince too. I make a meal plan based on what's already in, then do a shopping list including evrything that we'll need for snacks, lunches, pet food, cleaning etc and what's on the menu plan & then I stick to the list rigidly! It's the only way to keep the budget down. I bake a lot as the kids (the boys especially) like to eat approx every 2 hours - I'm sure their stomachs think they're babies lol!! Just about to make some homemade hobnobs actually they're delicious! Good luck with shopping.

clarebelle

im also a beginner to OS. Some things i tried out in the first instance:

On the mince front i would definately go for fresh, i tried the frozen and it really was awful! i tend to buy value fresh pack and split them down when i get home.

I would recommend looking at the cleaning thread and cutting out all those unnecessary cleaning products and stock up on white vinegar/bicarb etc. I cleaned my kitchen throughly just using these 2 things yesterday and the results were amazing, i wont be buying any other specialist cleaning products again.

if you have pets it really does pay to buy bulk from a pet store

Think more about how you can make things go further, if there are bogofs dont buy them if you wont use them but can you make some meals and freeze them?

the other things i picked up straight away have already been mentioned, as for the rest, im still getting the hang of it too

Stephen_Leak

As above, the killer one is to shop from a list. It ensures that you only buy what you need - at the time of writing, my list shows that I need eggs, frozen oven chips and a jar of instant coffee for work. Obviously, I will snap up any bargains I find. The only problem is that you now have to keep the list up to date and remember to take it with you!

Butterfly_Brain

I agree with everything said - my little bit of advice is to make a budget and only take cash with you, that way you can see where it is going. I blame these debit cards for a lot of the debt that people are in because it is too easy to put it on the card.