Where to start cutting back on food bill?

W.Ford

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MrsBartolozzi

Firstly, welcome to Old Style, and I'm sorry to hear you have lost your job.
You don't say how often you spend the £60 - if this is for a month then you are already doing well. If it's for a week then there is plenty of scope for improvement - you are in the right place!
Could you post a list of what you have in your cupboards right now? Oh and a list of the kinds of food you like to eat. Do you have access to a freezer as you can make a big batch of something eg spag bol and freeze portions for later.
Don't despair, others will be along shortly with more ideas.

HTH,
MrsB.

MrsBartolozzi

There are several threads that can give you ideas for cheap meals. While many of these seem to be for a family of 4 don't discount them - you can freeze 2 or 3 portions, and one will be fine in the fridge for a couple of days.

You could have a look at the grocery challenge HERE everyone on there is keeping to a budget and there's lots of ideas to be had.
Weezl's 50p a day thread is worth a look HERE


Just a couple of ideas for you to be getting on with. i will add more when I can find them.
MrsB.

W.Ford

Deleted

W.Ford

Right I hope you're ready for this, I may have gone into too much detail...

Jars/tins

4 value pasta sauce, 4 chopped tomatoes, 4 baked beans, 3 mushy peas, 3 chicken soup, 1 mushroom soup, 1 sweetcorn, 5 tuna, 1 sardines, 1 spam, 2 pineapple rings, 2 mandarin oranges.

Other cupboard stuffs

basmati rice, wholeweat pasta, white pasta, spaghetti, orange juice, drinking chocolate, tea bags, 6 packets of biscuits, old el paso fajita mix, garlic clove, tomato sauce, gravy granules, jam (x3?), duck pate in a jar, sultanas, 4 creamed coconut sachets, marmalade, onion chutney, plain flour, cornflour, italian herb bredcrumbs packet, garlick mushroom sauce packet, vanilla extract x2 and vanilla flavouring x1, some toffees, salt, pepper, olive oil, tomato puree, chilli powder, mustard, sweet chilli sauce, sweet & sour sauce, balsamic vinegar, ground cumin, ground cinnamon, dried parsley, instant coffee, instant custard, fruit & fibre cereal, orange & pineapple juice. 3 baking potatoes

Fridge

butter, a little bacon, 2 carrots, 3 peppers, 5 tomatoes, 4 eggs, 1 onion, milk, mayonaise, mild curry sauce, bbq sauce and a little mature cheddar.

freezer
peas, cauliflower and broccoli. oven chips, little bit of mince, 4 sausages, bread buns, 2 loaves or brown bread, 2 beef burgers, ice cream and some bolognaise sauce that i made in bulk and froze 3/4's of.


aside from that ive got about 10 cans of lager, 10 cans of bitter and 2 bottles of white wine.

I have to admit that I dont use hardly end of the herbs & sauces etc, most of them were given to me by my sister when she moved abroad.

Thanks

Butterfly_Brain

Get a pen and paper and see how many meals you could make from what you have first.
I would change supermarket to Asda or Morrisons, Aldi is good for some things but the range is limited and some of their items are a bit pricey.
Farmfoods has good deals too.
Go for value lines where you can (believe it or not Sainsbury have the biggest range of value lines)
Try meal planning, make a list and stick to it.
Have a good look on this site there are lots of really good cheap meal ideas.
Good luck x

umami

Hi
Would you like these vouchers expiry date 31/03/09?
Please pm me.
I have 2 of those from flyers through my door and also £5 off a £50 shop.
Not of any use to me.
Shame to throw it away.

W.Ford

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maman

Definitely buy your milk at Farmfoods, cheapest place I know.

At the moment you seem to have plenty in and you won't starve. When you need to shop I would steer clear of frozen ready meals and keep your freezer space for frozen meals that you make yourself and perhaps frozen veg so you don't get any waste. You have the time to become a canny shopper. I'd suggest pricing your shopping list on say the Asda website and then when you go to Farmstores or Iceland or Lidl or Aldi you'll know what's a bargain and what's not.

By the way, sorry to hear you lost your job. Do try and get something else if you can.