Shopping on a very tight budget

lynzpower

A few of the cheapie meals I do

Homemade chunky burgers with pototo wedges
homemade veg pizza
chinese strifry
sasaug, mash & veg,
enchiladas & spicy rice

And another tip from the lynzpower kitchen is when makig stirfry/ enchiladas, curries, fajitas, etc, buy turkey fillets/stirfry instead of chicken - WAY cheaper, and doenst have the shrinkage that chicken does, and has less fat!

[Deleted User]

taxiphil wrote:

One good trick

That is stealing, and I don't think that tango's kids want to see their mum get her collar felt.I think you must be joking taxiphil,at least I hope you are. :mad:

researcher

Another MSE suggested joining every Tescos club going - this I did and since then I've been sent vouchers off clothes from the clothes club, same for wine and food. Not only did I get extra money off certain products, clothes vouchers, but also double points on a normal shop, free 'for life' carrier etc etc - it's all for free - and if you can possibley save your vouchers for their 'deals' they're worth 4 x their value - you could use them to give the children a day out as a special treat for a birthday etc.

Another tip is to ask your local butcher for some bones for stock - they'll either give them for free or charge a few pence. The difference it makes cooking something in stock is incredible - you'll be doing it even when you no longer need to! (That's why good restaurant food tastes so good).

Start growing a few herbs now - buy a few packets - see if you can find some empty plastic pots and not only will you have loads for yourself throughout the summer - but you can sell them at car boots/ table top fairs. Just look what the supermarkets charge?

monkeylugs

researcher wrote:

One tip that helps stretch the the budget is to ring companies if you ever have a product which is not as good as you'd expect - or under performed.

Just to add to this, if you find a product you LIKE you could write to the manufacturers telling them WHY you liked it!

From memory Birdseye sent me £3 in vouchers, Hovis sent me vouchers for four free bread products of my choice. I wrote to some of the washing powder companies asking if they could send me any samples and they sent me a voucher for an entire box (the 0.9kg size). I make the letters humorous if it's a complaint rather than nasty. For example at Christmas I was given a tin of quality street with (gasp) no Strawberry dreams (my favourites), and they sent me a cheque for £3 even though I hadn't even paid for the tin! I'd written asking after the health of their strawberry dream putter-inner cos he'd been absent the day my tin was packed and they wrote back assuring me he wasn't absent, he'd probably just nipped to the loo LOL!

If you have some friends and family who are happy to let you use their name and address (for voucher letters) then you might get a few free vouchers.

Penny-Pincher!!

My cheapie but nutritous meals are:

Shepards Pie & Veg (I use frozen lamb and pad out with a tin of beans)
Curry & Rice (Left over meat, onion, paste, veggies that need usuing etc)
Egg & HM Chips (Served with bread and butter)
Fish Pie (Reduced fish, sauce, leeks topped with mash and veg)
Chilli (frozen lamb, kidney beans, onion, tinned toms, chilli powder,Rice or Spud)
Toad In Hole (Frozen sausages, batter mix, mash and veg)
HM PIe(Left over meat with a mushroom soup covered in pastry, mash and veg)

PP
xx

EagerLearner

Hi Tango,

Well done on all your saving so far - I am new to this site too but have learnt some great tips from the thread you posted. Apart from the great tips to date, I would say that watering down carton juice is a good one (healthier too) and also making something like Thai food is cheap and fun for the kids as has lots of veg (and is quick) - they can help you make it and it literally takes about 5-10 mins. For a delicious Pad Thai meal you will have lots already in your cupboard - you need just:

Soaked Rice noodles (15 mins before hand - real rice noodles are better and cheaper than the 'ready to fry' type)
Limes
Roasted peanuts, crushed up
Garlic
King prawn (try to get BOGOF & freeze 1 pack)
Spring onion / spinach / carrot sticks
Soy sauce and also Fish sauce (buy big bottles in a chinese store, will last ages)
A little sugar
2 Eggs
Bean sprouts
Chicken stock (half a cup)

Heat oil and fry some garlic till it's brown. Stir fry all veg and prawns, as you do this mix up some soy, fish sauce and sugar in a bowl. Once the veg/prawns are ready, stir in the rice noodles and after 2 mins, stir in the chicken stock until the noodles are soft. Then add the sauce mix. After 2 mins add the eggs and stir fry until they're cooked. Add half the peanuts and all bean sprouts. Serve with lime wedges to squeeze over and sprinkle some peanuts.

If you buy in bulk, you will mostly only need to buy prawns/chicken/ beef whenever you need to make this, with maybe some veg. It is really cheap and healthy and makes big portions plus gets kids involved.

I'd also say never have electric appliances on standby - always switch off when you're not in the room - don't give the money to electric companies!

Plus join the £2 club if you can - it's great fun & motivates to save ;o)

Sorry I've rambled on, my thoughts are with you & enjoy shopping with new found tips!

EagerLearner

del_boy_

my tip is use vouchers money off. cheap food tesco value, buy 1 get 1 free stock up with this. go late about 7.30 -8.00pm for reduced items i picked up sandwiches normally £1.50 - £3.50 each reduced to 15p

aliwatts

Hi there all,

If you get vouchers in the post for things u don't normally buy, Asda are really good and they will take them off your shopping anyway. So dont bin them just cos you don't buy the product. I gets lots for butter and softener for some reason!

Miss-spent_2

Don't forget to check out if your kids might be entitled to free meals at school, that will help and schools really do not make a thing of it so no other children will know.
Also, don't feel bad about not being able to buy your children lots of expensive things, they need you and your time more than anything else. Good Luck

mummysaver

Hi there, and good luck with your challenge. I have been trying to become more OS for a couple of months, and can certainly see a difference in the amount I spend already. Am currently trying to clear out my freezer so that I can defrost it, it will also mean that when I cook lasagne, cottage pies, fish pie etc and make double I will have more room to freeze the extra helpings, rather than making everyone eat it two nights running as I cannot fit any more into the freezer!

I have also got the children involved in meal planning, and cooking too - dd1 suggested that they each cook one meal a week, and it's working well so far. Also the children enjoy making cakes and biscuits, not sure that it's a lot cheaper than buying "treats", but means that dd3 and ds can have them (they aren't good with additives).

I also invested in a slow cooker, and this has been brilliant - throw all sorts into it and turn it into stew or soup. Also great for cooking bolognese, can then freeze portions of this, and turn into lasagne, spag bol, chilli, shepherds pie (bit tomatoey, but we like it that way!).

HM pies made from Sunday leftovers are great too, can make one big one with just a puff pastry (shop bought) lid, or individual ones. We also make individual pies with puff pasty, in the same way that you make vol au vents, cook filling and pastry sep and then fill the hole! Children particularly like tuna in white sauce as a filling, but their fave is definitely chicken and leek (and you only need a bit of leftover chicken to make loads of pies - bulk it out with chopped mushrooms, even my ds doesn't notice these if they're finely chopped and he hates cooked mushrooms - when he notices them!).

Just thought of something else as I'm just about to cook sausages now, I cook the whole lot and then make a toad in the hole with the extras whilst the oven is hot, it stops people taking the spares from the fridge and just munching them before I can use them in another meal. If you only have a couple of spare sausages left over these can be sliced and used in a hot tomato sauce with pasta, or left cold for a pasta salad.

Good luck with your challenge.

Not sure how to post a link, but Black Saturn put her meal planner on here with some great recipes, as did Penny Pincher - perhaps someone can put the link on for you, or you could do a search.