Going "old style"

Mrs_Thrify

Hiya and welcome. I too spend about £50 on food and toilet rolls but the size of our family does go up and down due to teenagers comming and going., etc. I am working on cutting it down, every one on here shares idea's. I have just bought a slow cooker and am in training as how to get the best out of it. It takes less electric that the oven for casseroles, etc... I find if I fill it and cook slowly over the day, tea does not need to be thought of later and there is some left to go in the freezer.Little things help like putting the washing on the line to dry instead of in the dryer.Walking around the house and turning electric powered things off that have been left on by other people, lights , tv. Keep reading MSE there is a lot of good advice and some things money saving you have not even considered.

nannyboo1

tillymama wrote: »

Hi all,

I'm new round these parts!

I'm on a mission to cut our costs, mainly on food. I'm currently on maternity leave having had our first baby in July, and October is the start of the dreaded SMP!!

My main aim is to be able to be able to become a SAHM, rather than return to work next year...but in order to do that, we're going to have to make some major changes as I was bringing in about £1200 a month.

DH earns £1400 p/m, and our bills come to just over £1000...so we think it will be more than doable for me to stay at home :j, but we'll need to be smart about it.

I've started meal planning, but we're still spending over £50 a week on groceries...which having read some of the threads on here, is still way above what it could be.

I have a few questions:

1) How much is realistic for our new grocery budget per week? I don't want to go totally veggie, but am happy for 2-3 veggie meals a week. I just need to feed me and DH (big appetites!), and get milk and nappies for DD.

Have you thought about veggie meals all week and meat at weekends which is what I think we will do

2) Is it worth (financially & time wise) making your own bread? And if so, is it easiest to get a bread maker? We get through a lot and I don't know if it's feasable or not.

Can't really help on this but on Economy Gastronomy last night they made bread which I think they said worked out at 32p a loaf

3) Am I best to meal plan for the month, or just for the week? I will be doing weekly shops. But is it easier to economise one way or the other?

I would think with this it is what works best for you personally I hate shopping so would gladly go once a month but unfortunately I have a small kitchen so have to shop weekly as no cupboard space for a big shop

4) Does anyone have any tips for money-saving Online? Neither me or DH drive, so we do all our shopping (except for emergencies!) on Tesco.com at the moment. I know a lot of the tips for saving money are to do with getting bargains at the supermarkets...but we just can't do that

5) Does everyone include housey bits (ie. loo roll, washing powder etc) in their budget, or do you have a seperate monthly(?) one for those items?

When I start to do mine I think it will be easier to just have one amount a week that will include everything

Sorry, this has turned into a bit of an essay!

Hope someone can help!

Helen x

I am new here as well and loving all these posts they are so helpful

Can't help on most of the things as still trying to work out what to do myself

ktpie

tillymama wrote: »

Thanks so much for all the advice so far guys, really helpful!

I think we're claiming all we can benefit-wise, just got our tax credits award through which is another £90 a month at the minute, which all helps. I've let them know my income is due to drop, so that may give us a bit extra...not sure.

I'll get reading some of these other threads I think.

So much to think about when your income drops isn't there!!

It sounds like you are financially fairly similar to us and we are only entitled to the working tax credits and the child benefit. We didn't get any extra when I stopped working as we were still in the same band for tax credits. Plus it dropped to about half when he got to one year.

I never do very well either with reduced stuff at the supermarket, at the times when I can get there it is barely reduced and can't go in the evening as busy with bed time.

Have you done your CTF voucher yet? There is a provider on Topcashback who will give you £50 cash. You are then free to move provider whenever you like but I would wait until the £50 is in the bank!

smartandshrewd

Hi tillymama,

Welcome to OS!!!

As well as the advice above, you can also save a lot of money by cooking your own baby food and learning to bake - biscuits, flans, pies etc. There's always plenty of recipes posted on here, twinks hobnobs are famous!

You'll probably also find that by shopping online you're saving money already by buying exactly what you need

Butterfly_Brain

Welcome
You don't necessarily need a bread maker it is just as easy using a heavy duty mixer. HM bread is tastier and a lot cheaper than shop bought.
Slow cookers save on fuel and time if you are busy with the baby.
Look on the grabbit board for some offers that are on now
eg Farmfoods - milk is £1 for 2L and Aldi have some good veg deals on at the moment.
Markets are usually best for fruit and veg though because it lasts longer than from the supermarket.
Find a friendly butcher if you can, he can help with cheaper cuts of meat and you only buy what you need.
Go to the library and get 'How to feed your whole family a healthy balanced diet with very little money....and hardly any time,even if you only have a tiny kitchen etc........' by Gill Holcombe - It is a very long title but a very good book for someone stretching a budget.
I picked up a copy in the Works if you have one nearby for £3.99

ktpie

Butterfly_Brain wrote: »

Slow cookers save on fuel and time if you are busy with the baby.

This reminds me I started making things that could be shoved in a stew pot in the oven for hours when DS was little, that way I could prepare it when he was having a nap during the day and then forget about it, I've now got a slow cooker and you could do the same thing with one of those. Trying to prepare things nearer dinner time was usually when he wanted lots of attention so didn't really work for me.

shopndrop

Welcome to OS. I absolutely love HM bread and my slow cooker. You can get a slow cooker quite cheaply if you don't already have one from Argos or the supermarkets.

Do you have anything like Home Bargains or BM nearby? They are great for cheap household cleaning stuff, toilet rolls, food in fact just about everything they sell.

23rdspiral

some really good tips there - thanks and also, asda have a 3.5 litre round slowcooker for 7quid at the moment if you havent got one already.

mambury

My main advice would be washable nappies, you might even be able to pick them up free on freecycle (seen some on mine a few times!) or even second hand at car boots or your local paper. My other money saving tip is........ BREAST FEEDING...... I'm not shouting its just that I feel it is very important for the baby and you if you can. Do give it a try, once you get the hang of it, its the easiest thing in the world, but please don;t beat yourself up if you can't or don't want to.

I hope I haven;t upset or offended anyone as breast feeding in quite an emotive issue.

I would also agree on trying to live on the one salary and saving your maternity pay for rainy days, when little one needs their first pair of shoes, has suddnly grown out of their car seat monthes before they should have ( mine did and it cost me over £100 as it was the only seat I could use for him!!) .

Take what you can second hand, especially clothes as babies grow like stink and can cost a fortune on clothes before you know it!

Take your time and plan what changes you are going to make. Even if you can';t shop around for your food, and lets be honest when baby arrives at first all you will want is quick and easy (the little bundles take up an amazing amount of time!) then make savings elswhere like downshifting from a brand to a supermarket own.

I hope that helps.....

Mambury

valk_scot

mambury wrote: »

My other money saving tip is........ BREAST FEEDING...... I'm not shouting its just that I feel it is very important for the baby and you if you can. Do give it a try, once you get the hang of it, its the easiest thing in the world, but please don;t beat yourself up if you can't or don't want to.

I do agree with you that breastfeeding is a great Old Style method of cutting costs...but the OP's baby was born in July and I can't help but feel it's a bit late to start breastfeeding her daughter now....;)