Food bill nightmare!

themaccas

Thanks for your posts everyone, firstly our older 2 children go to boarding school because DH is in the Forces and they pay 90% of the fees. I have dragged out last weeks shopping bill (69.76) and had a look, the guilty culprits are:

Alpro 4 x 1.29 - will definately try Asda's
Pizza Express pizza 3.85
Razor blades 3.99
Olive oil 2.39
Clover marg 1.44
dishwasher tablets 2.69
blu bolt(cheap red bull) x2 1.99
dowe egburts coffee 1.99
WOW that's nearly £25 just there!

we bought the following 'basics' ranges -
apples
bananas
crisps
sweetcorn
cheese
crumpets
veg soup
tomato soup
biscuits
jaffa cakes
milk chocolate (for baking)
garlic bread

the rest was mostly own brand stuff, we don't buy magazines or papers, flowers just sometimes a bottle of cheap wine costing no more than 3.50 though we didn't buy any last weekend.

I think we really need a complete mind change in how we go about our weekly shop, will have a look at the recipe posts now

freda

Ideas on your list:

Whats Alpro?

Pizza - make your own. Costs pennies, and you can use up all sorts of stuff thats in the fridge as well. Make your own tom sauce as a base as well, or just smear tom paste over your (home made) dough base and sprinkle mixed herbs on top.

Olive oil - Also buy sunflower/veg oil for cooking. Only use the olive oil when you'll actually taste the difference, i.e. making salad dressing, couscous dressing, drizzling etc.

Clover marg - I buy Tesco label olive spread, which is great for cooking, spreading etc.

Dishwasher tablets - buy the loose powder, way, way, way cheaper. Look at the price per kg on the label if you want to see how much!

Crisps - cut back (healthier) but also, make your own (There will be recipes here somewhere. Look for the microwave one, its dead easy and you can do it with potatoes, carrots, sweded, sweet potatoe etc - yummy yummy)

Cheese - buy cheap own brand/value for all cooking and sandwiches. Only buy the 'nice' stuff for when you eat it with biscuits.

Veg and tom soup - make your own for PENNIES. Freezes absolutely brilliantly in portion sizes as well, takes seconds in a microwave to reheat.

Bicuits - make home made cakes and biscuits.

Garlic bread - again, make your own. I like garlic pizza bread. I make 1 load of pizza dough in the machine (dead easy by hand as well), use 2/3 for a pizza and 1/3 for a cheesy garlic pizza bread. Goes down a storm. (Just mix butter, strong grated chedder, loads and loads of garlic and a splash of worcestershire sauce together and spread on pizza base).

Try https://www.lbym.co.uk for more ideas. Hope this helps.

Rachie_B

themaccas wrote:

Thanks for your posts everyone, firstly our older 2 children go to boarding school because DH is in the Forces and they pay 90% of the fees. I have dragged out last weeks shopping bill (69.76) and had a look, the guilty culprits are:

Alpro 4 x 1.29 - will definately try Asda's
Pizza Express pizza 3.85
Razor blades 3.99
Olive oil 2.39
Clover marg 1.44
dishwasher tablets 2.69
blu bolt(cheap red bull) x2 1.99
dowe egburts coffee 1.99
WOW that's nearly £25 just there!we bought the following 'basics' ranges -
apples
bananas
crisps
sweetcorn
cheese
crumpets
veg soup
tomato soup
biscuits
jaffa cakes
milk chocolate (for baking)
garlic bread

the rest was mostly own brand stuff, we don't buy magazines or papers, flowers just sometimes a bottle of cheap wine costing no more than 3.50 though we didn't buy any last weekend.

I think we really need a complete mind change in how we go about our weekly shop, will have a look at the recipe posts now

we used to buy frozen pizzas

but HM ones are much cheaper,fun and healthier !! even if you buy the bases ready made and just add your own toppings

dishwasher tablets - snap in half instead of using a full one each time

razor blades,they arent a weekly purchase are they? so wouldnt really worry about those

the coffee ,have you tried other cheaper brands ? same goes for the clover?

the red bull,bad bad bad lol


do you just want to cut your budget or try and eat healthier too?

because in doing one you usually end up doing the other ,and your body AND wallet will thank you for it you need the back up of the kids / OH to make it work though really

themaccas

Coffee - I have 1-2 cups per day and drink tap water the rest of the day. Dh likes the red bull I hate it but he won't be having that this month. Believe it or not we eat a lot healthier nowadays - always make our meals from scratch except Saturdays-pizza night and in doing so I have lost 2 stone and DH has lost 1stone. The clover was a bad buy as I normally only buy shop brand sunflower spread. I think we'll try the HM pizzas this weekend - good idea. I also loved the breakfast thread. Lunchtimes we have sandwiches with cheese or marmite, a piece of fruit and a yoghurt and a packet of crisps! In the evening we cook a meal usually either chicken, fish or pork. Tonight we are having 'Penne with chicken tomato and basil' from Anabel Karmels family cookbook.

Rachie_B

themaccas wrote:

Coffee - I have 1-2 cups per day and drink tap water the rest of the day. Dh likes the red bull I hate it but he won't be having that this month. Believe it or not we eat a lot healthier nowadays - always make our meals from scratch except Saturdays-pizza night and in doing so I have lost 2 stone and DH has lost 1stone. The clover was a bad buy as I normally only buy shop brand sunflower spread. I think we'll try the HM pizzas this weekend - good idea. I also loved the breakfast thread. Lunchtimes we have sandwiches with cheese or marmite, a piece of fruit and a yoghurt and a packet of crisps! In the evening we cook a meal usually either chicken, fish or pork. Tonight we are having 'Penne with chicken tomato and basil' from Anabel Karmels family cookbook.

well done both of you :j :T

yum ive got that book,some lovely recipes

Wizwoo

Hello themaccas - looks as if you're going along the right lines. We try to buy the expensive items in bulk when on offer. Expensive at the time but one month it'll washing tablets and the next coffee! Do you have a Homebargins near you? They've had a lot of fresh ground coffee on offer there lately (especially Lyons) - worth checking out.

Or Sainsburys do some good promos on their ground coffee sometimes - so buy it up when it's on offer!

...and who mentioned pizza? Anyone got a good easy / no messin' recipe? (I've put Pizza in the search but didn't come up with anything - advice on searching much appreciated.)

Best of luck themaccas!

tina68

we now use value toilet rolls (instead of tesco own)and tesco own washing powder (instead of 2 in 1 bold etc)mixed with soda crystals which makes quite a saving !
Like that idea Rachie B..Never thought about cheaper soap powder and soda crystals
gr8 stuff
Tina x :beer: :j :T

miaxmia

Rachel85 wrote:

Try planning meals over two weeks, that way you can take advantage of BOGOF offers and larger packs which can (but not always) work out cheaper and then put things in the freezer.

Be careful about thinking that larger packs are cheaper, last week in Tesco's a 750g box of bran flakes was about £1.94 whilst the 500g box (same brand) was only £1 - got an extra 250g for only 6p more by buying to smaller packs! You tend to think it is cheaper to buy bigger and the majority of time it is, but occasionally I think the shops are sneaky and hope nobody will notice.

taurusgb

freda wrote:

I

Crisps - cut back (healthier) but also, make your own (There will be recipes here somewhere. Look for the microwave one, its dead easy and you can do it with potatoes, carrots, sweded, sweet potatoe etc - yummy yummy)

Ooooohhhh...can someone please point me in the direction of a microwave recipe for crisps? I've searched high and low and can't find it - but I'd love to have a go at these! :j

Rachel021967

A few days ago somebody recommmended using cheap and as unscented as you can get biological powder for the dishwasher. I use Sainsburys basics 1kg bio washing powder at 50p a box (again it works out cheaper than the 3 kg box at £1.60 something). I use about 2 tsps in the tablet dispenser as I live in a hard water area. It works a treat but I must admit I haven't tried it on my polished glass blender. I also use Sainsburys 17p basic vinegar as a rinse aid. Also if I'm using a lemon I put the lemon shell in the dishwasher. Makes it smell nice and is supposed to make things sparkle (not so sure about that).