How do you manage to spend so little?!

Hime

[
The other tip I would give is read the instructions!! I was a devil for just sloshing a generous glug of bleach/disinfectant/cleaning product into a bucket and adding a bit of water to do the cleaning...I am ashamed to say that when I eventually got round to reading the instructions and diluting these to the correct amounts and using 'Basics' products - I realised how much money had been chucking down the sink everyday :mad:... the cleaning power is just as good but I use a fraction of what I did before.[/QUOTE]


I agree, all cleaning products have a suggested ideal amount, but even this can seem too much at times. Soap powder for instance is so strong that for clothes hardly worn, I use less. For grotty work clothes, a soak in a little Vanish and then a regular wash with a reduced amount of powder still gets them clean.
I always half fill my sink when washing dishes too, less water, less heat and less liquid detergent needed....

SusanC_2

clutterydrawer wrote: »

Re: yogurt....I like to get a big tub of plain yogurt and put a little brown sugar into it and some fruit if I have any...delicious! and it would work out cheaper than buying flavoured yogurts if i didn't end up scoffing half the pot at once *face of shame*

Or make your own yoghurt (in the slow cooker). (If you make your own, you can also use some of it to make cream cheese.)

You can do lentils and rice instead of mince (or do half and half).

Make stock from the chicken carcasse (using the slow cooker) and then use it to make soup or stew.

Use chicken thighs and/or legs for chicken casserole.

The slow cooker is your friend - I use mine all the time.

Freeze surplus from the slowcooker and use it next time you don't have time/energy to cook for whatever reason.

Stock up on things when they are on special offer.

Compare prices on the stuff which has a longer shelf life (i.e. tins, anything you can freeze, jars, dried foods etc) on mysupermarket and stock up from the supermarket which is the cheapest by going to different ones each week.

Is that £40 all that you will spend for the week or will you have top up shops for bits and pieces? I've averaged £36.29 since the beginning of March for 2 adults and a 2yo (spend is very variable as I often stock up on things and also occasionally buy massive packs of things from SUMA with a group of friends so actual spend each week would be meaningless for me) so I don't think £40 is that bad really.

clairelg88

Mitzymycat wrote: »

This is cheap, filling and goes a long way.

You need
2 Leeks
2 Large Potatoes
2 Chicken Cubes
Knob of butter
Pepper
Single cream ( optional)
Cut the leeks down the middle and slice and then fly gently in the butter

Chop the potatoes into small cubes put them into 2 pints of water with 2 chicken cubes. Cook until soft.

Add the leeks to the potatoes and simmerf or 15 minutes adding the pepper, ( a good 1/2 teaspoon).

As you serve you can add a small amount of cream, to make cream of leek and potatoe soup) But this is optional

This is delicious with a bread roll and it freezes well.

thankyou for this, I will certainly try this out as I love leek and potato soup!

I managed to get 3 meals from the chicken, a roast, a stew and sandwiches. I even did my own stock, which was surprizingly really good!

I have taken on board the advice about furthering the dried fruits ~ made apricot fairy cakes today and they turned out really well.

We have an aldi, i must go there more! I usually go to morrisons when i don't shop online for the convienience as its in the town.

thankyou all for your advise, hopefully will do much better this weekend when i do the weekly shop

mrs_moneyspinner

Your budget is already admirable but my tips may help:
I do no weekly shop, shop daily in more than 1 supermarket so I can be flexible with reduced items - I know what time items get reduced. I use a breadmaker for bread/pizza pitta with meals = home made lentil soup for a starter to fill up. Lucky I have an alloment, you could get on a waiting list. My potatos cost £7 to grow, will have enough in store until late winter. Cat food - found cheaper to buy big bag dry food £32 odd for 85 days food (5kg).

Zazen999

Mitzymycat wrote: »

This is cheap, filling and goes a long way.

You need
2 Leeks
2 Large Potatoes
2 Chicken Cubes
Knob of butter
Pepper
Single cream ( optional)
Cut the leeks down the middle and slice and then fly gently in the butter

Chop the potatoes into small cubes put them into 2 pints of water with 2 chicken cubes. Cook until soft.

Add the leeks to the potatoes and simmerf or 15 minutes adding the pepper, ( a good 1/2 teaspoon).

As you serve you can add a small amount of cream, to make cream of leek and potatoe soup) But this is optional

This is delicious with a bread roll and it freezes well.

I'm a hard ar3e veggie; and this simple soup made with veggie stock cubes works with any 2 veg.....without the butter or cream. Make sure it is well seasoned, and add some cayenne or a home grown chilli if you have any [which I have loads] and whizz down.

My soup method;

fry an onion
add any veg and fry off for 30 seconds or so
add stock cube and water
cook for 20+ mins and whizz down
season to taste

whilst you are frying the onion, you can add anything else spice wise for flavour - chillis, garlic, turmeric yada yada yada.

toolittletime

Sounds to me like you're doing brilliantly. One thing I do is do my weekly shop and then try to make it last 8 or 9 days. Sometimes means on the last day or two we might be eating different leftovers but I like the fact that even in a 31 day month I don't need to go shopping more than 4 times!

debbym

Don't be so down on yourself you are doing great! Being OS is an art and takes time to learn.
Some simple things to do are:
Find the best deal possible for the stuff you use regularly for example I used to buy bread flour at Lidl as it was cheaper than my next nearest supermarket (Morrisons) and saved me 40p per 1.5 kg bag so when I went I bought several to put in store to justify the longer journey BUT I didn't buy things that I knew are cheaper at Morrisons just because I happened to be in Lidl and it would be a faff going shopping another day. Keep a price book if you can't remember the favourites you buy most weeks and update it every month or so. Cherry picking bargins like this can save you money but remember to factor in extra money for travelling to a different supermarket or more shopping trips over the month. These little extras can eat up any savings you have made and don't appear in the threads here usually!
Freeze leftovers - what may be a small portion could be defrosted and padded out for lunch another day. You can get freezer bags quite cheaply and they can be rinsed and reused if they are the thick ones. Alternatively use leftover containers from margarine/icecream/takeaways etc. You can even use carrier bags to freeze stuff in if you are desperate!
When you do make anything from scratch work out how much it has cost you to the penny. That way when you make any changes to the recipe you can easily see how much it has saved you. It is tempting to round up and down but makes it harder to see if you are making a difference.
Keep a track of how much you have saved compared to your original budget, I have graph on the wall in my kitchen which shows me how much I have saved and how much this has reduced the amount I pay on my mortgage - because OH and I can see our goal (no mortgage) getting closer we are less likely to fall off the wagon (although that does happen to everyone now and then;) )
Your budget is just that yours and only you can say for sure what you are prepared to compromise in order to get your bills down.

Nitha

Buy a whole chicken and just use every last bit. We slow cook our chicken whole, have a roast dinner, chicken curry, chicken pasta bake, chicken stir fry (bulk out with veg and lentils), then we cover the carcuss with water in the slow cooker and this makes two batches of stock. One batch is used for slow cooker soup (just add a bag of frozen veg and blend) the other to make a rissotto with.

hope6804

I think Sainsbury basics are fab I just wish they delivered here - they do to my mums 5 mins away but not here:mad: I had it delivered to mums & went to pick it up but as I have no road outside my house it's a pain & why I shop on line in the first place (well there are 4 other reasons & 2 of them are fighting at the moment!!):rotfl::rotfl:
I too quite like Aldi but when I've bought the 49/29p fruit and veg its been really hard & sour and never altered so had to throw it coz it was awful!

illtryitforfree

I'm not sure exactly how much my partner and I spend a week as I'm new to the MSE forum and my very kind, lovely parents have been helping us out with paying for the few week to week odds that we need (being jobless sucks ) but we fill the freezer once every 6 weeks or so at iceland which costs no more than £50. We get bags of frozen veg as they keep so much longer and the quality is still very good. You can get a bag of sliced mixed peppers for £1 - SO much cheaper than buying fresh peppers and the hard work is done for you. The bag lasts ages too! Plus with most things being £1 or £2 you can have the odd treat without it costing too much.

Aldi is where we get most of our 'fill-in' shop (milk etc or if we forget something) and also some of our fruit and veg, they have mango's, advocado's, whole cucumbers, tomatoes and little gem lettuces for a 29p this month - BARGAIN! half a cucumber is 35p in asda and you get a whole one for less, I don't know how they do it.
Local market's are brilliant for fruit and veg (one bonus of having no job-you can get down the market!) and ours has scoops for £1 of so many different things, bananas, apples, peppers, aubergines etc.

One thing my mum taught me was that to bulk out Spag bol or cottage pie etc, anything with a mince sauce base, is to add some porridge oats. They have the benefit of absorbing any oil so you don't end up with greasy food and the texture is not noticable in the sauce. My partner is very fussy and he can't tell when I've used this trick in our food, though he does notice the veggies I've snuck in.
We also use our left overs well. As it's only two of us I will make spag bol using 500g of mince (£1 from asda) and we will eat half of this or less in that meal. The next day I add a tin of kidney beans, handful of frozen peppers and chilli spice (I make my own using paprika, cumin, chilli and whatever else I feel like) the have chilli the next day. We often even have some left for him to take to work!

I hope this is of use to you, I've got more thrifty recipes so if you need more please feel free to ask.