my spending dairy

calleyw

If you wife is out and about why does she not take a bottle of water and something like a dried fruit or a hand full of nuts as they are good for you. Or at a push some of the chocolate biscuits that you bought earlier in the week with her. That would mean no trips for snacks to the supermarket for her self or the children.

I am not perfect by any means. But when we go out in the car I try and take a flask full of cold water so if I need a drink I have that rather than buying a drink out.

Also one big thing you need to remember is that is all baby steps and if someone spends 2p and feeds their family all week. It is because they have taken years to hone it to perfection.

Also you do seem to be eating a lot of red meat in the guise of either sausages and mince meat. You are eating it nearly everyday again that is not healthy. Do you not like pork or chicken?

Bread does not take that long to defrost. If you take it out the freezer and seperate in to individual slices and put it on the bread board with a tea towel over it will defrosted in about 10-15mins. Which I bet is shorter than the time it took to go to the supermarket.

You say you don't like fruit is that both of you or just one of you. Because your children will pick up the same habits as you. So if you don't eat it then neither will they. What about about veg you only seem to have once choice at every meal. When I cooked a a meal like spag bog I serve it with a salad and grate a fresh carrot in to the sauce to up the intake of veggies. When I cook something a sunday roast I serve it with green beans, carrots, peas, broccoli and fresh savoy cabbage.

This is a rather rude question but how do you pay for your shopping? Cash, debit card, credit card. If it is the last two. Then it might be a idea to stop doing it that way. And take out enough cash for a weeks worth of shopping. And once it is gone that is it no more spending.

All the best.

Yours

Calley

lynzpower

Some good tips there Calley,

I think the idea of taking snacks out with you is brilliant one, then you dont go near shops and end up "breaking into" notes, and the change vanishing as it does :rolleyes:

Lynz
x

angela110660

When you are a SAHM you do have days/weeks when the endless round of shopping and cooking gets you down. Maybe it would be worth you both sitting down and thinking about all the meals that you enjoy and making a list. The when you are planning a shopping list it is not so much of a chore.
You could look for new recipes online or borrow books from the library to extend your menu. If there are certain items you like to use regularly then try a site like Delia online where you can type in that food and find particular recipes using it or savingdinner (US site) which does weekly menus and which you can subscribe to if you so wish and gives you the shopping list as well.

dazzanator

hi thank you for your replys they realy do help my wife finds all cooking borring she not a bad cook and can cook most things but hates it she would rather tidy up than cook and i cant cook at all so we do end up eating quick foods in the winter she dose cook lots of roast dinners with carrots peas brocil and she dose make stews she dosnt mind these cause she can quote bung them in the oven and let it self cook it the stand there wacthing it cooking she cant stand so we do tend to eat quick dinners
the kids do eat fruit they have smothies a lot so our bad habits dont rub of on them nanny buys the fruite for them we pay our shopping in cash that way we cant go to mad in there as we dont carry more than 70 for the weekly shop
my wife is so disorganiced i have suggest that she takes water and snacks with her she has said she will try but it takes every thing to rember to take her cards and keys when she gose out i have had to come from work to let her in as she left the keys in the house so i dont hold out much hope for this

will try and sit down and meal plan and she has said at the end of the month she will look at this thread and see all the money thats been spent and work out from there what was wastefull but has told me that she is not giong to stop buying the things she thinks are not wastefull as she says she not living in a prison she says we have no debt and yes she agrees that we do waste money she is not giong to feel bad because she has brought the kids a sauage roll from the bakers but dose admit there was no need to buy the twixs
so hope fully at the end of this month we can sit down and work out how much money we could of spent on better things

june 1st

suppermarket
milk 120
tobbcca 534
filter tips 60
veg oil 89
soup chicken 60
soup tom 60
deodorant 179

market
book for son 499

post office
5 pound coin for daughters collection 500

total 2101

Quincifer

Hey, its such a good idea having a spending diary, i might start one myself...

Its good to see you roll your own cigarettes because thats already saving you money.
Totally agree with everyone on the more fruit and veg thing, but its harder than it sounds to change your diet, especially when you have kids!!
I was thinking about your takeaway night and maybe you could get in some microwave meals instead of having takeaway. Its the easiest way to eat, you don't have to wait up to an hour for the food and it still gives your wife a day off from cooking.
I shop at sainsburys too and their own brand microwave stuff is pretty good and always on offer (something like 3 or 4 for £5) and they have special kids stuff aswell as your usual spag bol/curry/etc.
99p for bread is sooo expensive, i buy the sainsburys basic white bread and its only 25p a loaf but just as good! 4 pints of milk in our sainsburys is £1 so i hope yours has gone down in price since!
I would just generally say not to look past the sainsburys basics range, especially the noodles (8p a pack), chocolate (25p a bar) and biscuits (20-30p a pack) because then at least you don't have to make huge changes to your diet but you can still save money.
I hope you have a nectar card too, at the rate you're going you'll have loads of points and can get some free shopping!!
Good luck!
x

Kevicho

I think what we need is a thread done by someone who can feed themselves for a month a lot cheaper, then we can compare

lynzpower

incidentally you dont happen to know anyone going abroad who could get some rolling tobacco for you do you? My mate buys it and its less than half price. Whoevers going overseas picks some up for her, saves her a fortune.

I have started to get into the habit of buying cigarettes ( yes, not rollies) weekly, at 100 a week. Yes its 25 quid outlay :eek: but Id be spending that anyway, just so I dont have to go near the shops. and break a tenner and waste the change. Sometmes I know what its like "oh I nee fags and while im there I might as well get...."

Heth_2

You seem to be buying 4 pints of milk almost every day? Can't you buy two/three lots at once, or buy it in larger quantities. An easy way to save money would be to shop less, and try and plan your meals more, so you/your wife aren't going back to the shops every day to get more milk/tobacco/sweets and things you've forgotton in the main shop. I don't know what your wife does all day obviously, but maybe she goes to the shops every day because she is bored and doesn't know what else to do? You could maybe aim for a few spend free days a week, or days when you only spend money on doing something, like going swimming or whatever, and not on food.

lynzpower

Dazzanataor

Heres a bit of my menu planning for this week, just ot give you some idea of what you can get for 25 a week! ( inc overspend)

Ok, as many of you know I fell off the menu planning wagon last week, and spent £43 about. The meals we had this week gone were pretty pants ( chaotic frame of mind i think I burned a lot of stuff, never mind) this is a new week so Ive turned out my cupboards & freezer to see whats what. We are away this weekend, so menu planngin as of today

Im not at work,and not really eating much, but if I do, Ill have beans on toast, or a toasted sandwich or something for lunch. Along with loads of crisps (need to buy )

Fri lunch OH took sandwiches as he always does
Fri tea - Chicken Enchiladas, rice, beans & sour cream
Chicken reduced defrosting now, pepper that needs using, passata in, wraps I have in & need using chilli poder, bit of BBQ powder, bit cumin,
*NEED TO BUY sour cream/ mushrooms/ value butter & cream for the cake filling ( cost £2)

Sat/ sun/ mon away, but for Monday tea we are having sausages, gravy mash & peas from freezer, need potatoes (£1) & carrots-organic ( 60p)

Tues PM Vegetable lattices IN ( from farmfoods for a quid for 2) , jacket & salad bits ( using other potatoes, so need to buy lettuce as mine havent grown enough yet!) lettuce 40p, onions we have, carrot, dont like tomoatoes!

Weds tea, Chilli, using passata in, rice in, veggie mince for me in, meat mince for oh in freezer, need bake at home french sticks (35p) got butter & garlic, mushrooms, onions, pepper got in.

Thurs tea thai Fishes in the freezer ( tesco R&R) with lemon thai rice ( got creamed coconut, that'll do! Might do some chinese style veg with it, beansprouts onions, carrots etc with 5 spice & honey.

Fri tea, Chinese. Turkey from freezer with chinese veg from freezer, oyster sauce ( in) fry some P crackers (in) mini spring rolls ( in) Maybe if theres any reduced duck we will have that with pancakes ( got the pancakes) If not we wont bother lol .

this is an unusual week obv as we are eating from the cupbards, But I reckon this week we will be looking at spending no more than a tenner, as we'll also need oil, crisps, tuna & cheese & bread & milk on top of whats already listed which adds up to 4.35. Unless theres duck legs which are about £2 if reduced, or 3 if not reduced - stuff it, were having them

Hope this helps you Annie!

Imelda

Hi Dazzanator,

Just wanted to offer you some support in your challenge! I live on my own and was spending anything upwards of £150 per month just on food, I have almost halved this now with advice from this site.

One question I have is, do you take the children to the supermarket with you? Do they pester you for things? Would it be possible for one of you to do the supermarket run on their own? You might have more control over what ends up in the trolley that way.