What to do when your budget runs out?

tattoed_bum

i have been helping my neighbour with this as she was in the same position last month ,so this month when she got paid we divided up her shopping money ,
£20 for tins
£40 for meat
£20 for veg fresh and frozen
£20 for toiletries

there is her ,dh ,ds15,ds12.

we listed what type of things they liked to eat and shopped from there
we went to the butcher and got a mix of chicken ,pork,beef ,mince we cheated and bought smartprice sausages 20 for 99p

we found that buying the value tinned things we had money left over so we put that towards a leg of lamb on offer .

we went to one of the farm shops and stocked up on cheap veg which we prepared and froze we also bought a sack of potatoes for £4,

we went to homebargains for a big pack of 18 loo rolls for £2.99 and then bought a load of smartprice soap 18p for 3 bars and smart price shower gel 8p per bottle,bubble bath 21p per bottle ,2 boxes value soap powder £1.42 each and deodorant 48p per tin

we roasted the chicken stripped the carcas then boiled it from this we made chicken and sweetcorn soup ,also chicken and mushroom soup ,we used the meat and made a chicken and mushroom curry(with added peas and carrots)
a chicken and veg casarolle,chicken and leek pie filling .
most of these she froze .


sorry i could go on but the post would be huge ,but so far into the month and she hasnt had to buy anything else apart from some fresh fruit which she buy's whatever is on over in aldi or lidl and she has only spent a fiver a week on that ,
she can't believe that she has still got a full freezer and she normally budgets £300 a month for shopping so she has plenty of money left to top up with

DFWJane

tattoed_bum wrote: »

i have been helping my neighbour with this as she was in the same position last month ,so this month when she got paid we divided up her shopping money ,
£20 for tins
£40 for meat
£20 for veg fresh and frozen
£20 for toiletries

there is her ,dh ,ds15,ds12.

we listed what type of things they liked to eat and shopped from there
we went to the butcher and got a mix of chicken ,pork,beef ,mince we cheated and bought smartprice sausages 20 for 99p

we found that buying the value tinned things we had money left over so we put that towards a leg of lamb on offer .

we went to one of the farm shops and stocked up on cheap veg which we prepared and froze we also bought a sack of potatoes for £4,

we went to homebargains for a big pack of 18 loo rolls for £2.99 and then bought a load of smartprice soap 18p for 3 bars and smart price shower gel 8p per bottle,bubble bath 21p per bottle ,2 boxes value soap powder £1.42 each and deodorant 48p per tin

we roasted the chicken stripped the carcas then boiled it from this we made chicken and sweetcorn soup ,also chicken and mushroom soup ,we used the meat and made a chicken and mushroom curry(with added peas and carrots)
a chicken and veg casarolle,chicken and leek pie filling .
most of these she froze .


sorry i could go on but the post would be huge ,but so far into the month and she hasnt had to buy anything else apart from some fresh fruit which she buy's whatever is on over in aldi or lidl and she has only spent a fiver a week on that ,
she can't believe that she has still got a full freezer and she normally budgets £300 a month for shopping so she has plenty of money left to top up with

I would really appreciate some more info on what you have helped your neighbour do.

I'm on maternity leave and soon to go on unpaid leave. The cost of childcare for my 2, and fuel, would virtually wipe out my wages and I need to do something drastic to spend as little as possible NOW!
I did have some online work but was 'released' from that this week. I have found instead of getting miserable and dwelling on it it has given me a wake-up call and I have realised I have 2 beautiful children who I need to give more of my time to and although I do have to find a way of earning x amount each month, x would be a lot less if we weren't wasting money.

DH did the shopping yesterday as I was ill. We have cupboards full of crisps, biscuits and sweets now. He thought it would make me feel better! I had to go out shopping again this morning to buy meat, fruit and veg!!! We are both obese so he didn't really help much - I have managed to lose some weight but I am one of those who can't leave the goodies alone if I know they are there, so really they are baddies. I don't want our children to have the same issues with food and it would be nice to be a more normal size by the time they go to school so they don't get bullied because of us.

I get stuck trying to menu plan, DH always says 'I don't fancy that' or 'where's the meat' or the favourite one 'I fancy a kebab' (usually after we've had dinner!).

I'm not blaming DH, I really don't help things much but I need to do something to take charge and feed my family as cheaply and as healthily as possible and what you have done for your neighbour sounds fab.

shellnapier

well - im not as good as all those up there as i cant good that well.. what i do

1 - go to supermarket for reduced food, our local mace, evry night after 9 has bread , pancakes, sussage rolls, pies, baps, buttries, ham, sausages, etc all for like 20p - its great!!

2 - great filler meal - chicken soup and pasta mixed togther - no greatest tasting but fills you up,- bulk out with any veg if you ahve it

3 - i always have, tin spaggti in cupboard to feed little one and eggs n bread - as my man will have omelete and toast for tea - he would live on it if he could( i get free eggs from mums partner -farmer) - as long as there fed i can go withought

4- if really stuck my mum will make us something

shellnapier

ps - one butternut squash - one red pepper - half an onion and 3 pints of stock - all boiled and purred makes DELICOUS butternutsquash soup about 6 portions -can be dinner each day for a week - And it NO points on WW

N9eav

N9eav wrote: »

chicken pieces in ASDA frozen £1.35 for 3lbs
Don't impulse buy because you are hungry when you go shopping.

I went to ASDA and the chicken pieces had all sold out (Did you buy them all?)

Then I went while hungry and made impulse buys. Great

tattoed_bum

hi jane ,my neighbour and her kids arent fussy eaters so it was quite easy ,
we bought a 500g bag of mince from the butcher and we split this up ,
we browned the mince added loads of grated carrots ,peas ,onions some sneaky lentils we then used some to make a huge lasagne which made 8 portions when you start adding some passata sauce a tin of tomatoes and some garlic this then goes a long way with a value packet of lasagne sheets .
we split this for 2 meals .

the other half of the mince mixture we split again this then made a home made mince pie and the rest made a cottage pie ,

this gave us 2 lasagne meals for 4, a mince pie for 4 and a shepards pie for 4 ,

my neighbour is disabled so it worked best for her to bulk cook and then freeze the things so she can just take them out and either microwave or put in the oven .

with some of the sausages we made toad in the hole we only used 6 sausages we fried them off and chopped them up to put in the yorkshire mix as the sausage go further this way but no-one notices the lack of sausage when served with veg and gravy,

we used a couple more sausage to make sausage and egg pies a bit like quiche
we also added some broccoli to this ,
with this it can be eaten cold with salad for one meal and the other with some nice baked potaoes .so this was another 3 meals made with just 8 or 9 sausages,

we did buy some chicken breast ,normally she would have used 1 each for her and the boys and 2 for her dh ,
we cooked two chopped them up added some defrosted sweetcorn and some onion ,and raisins and mixed with some pasta and just some mayo and a touch of curry powder to make a cheats coronation chicken this was used with some baked spuds for one meal and some with a salad.
it sounds a lot of cooking but this was all cooked in just 2 days,
i hope some of this helps

DFWJane

Tattood Bum, thanks this does help me a lot.