Help! £40 to feed family for the month

Lilycharlotte

elona wrote: »

A word of warning to anyone who wants to tell DH how much they have saved!

DON'T !
Instead of praising you for all the hard work, imagination and sheer slog! Which you would expect they would do -They will only think that you must have been "wasting" money before and will expect you to work miracles all the time, which with food costs going up all the time might not always be possible.

It might be safer to say you managed to get some really good offers at the supermarket and have been using these.

Please do not make a rod for your own back!

Haha! This sounds like something my OH would say. He would be pleased I had saved money, but expect me to do it all the time - even if we won the lottery!

I always tell him I got great bargains at our local cheapy shop (all brands and ex-supermarket stuff, 5 for £1 type things). Once he wanted to come with me, I said that maybe they didnt have much in that day

Money, cooking and shopping is my department! He just earns it :rotfl:

I'm really impressed that you can feed a family on such a tight budget. Anything is possible when you have to! It's really inspiring. I made a list of all the foods we have in at the moment and realised that, although we have 'no food', we actually have a lot for meals

So thank you all for your inspiration!

xXx

mbaz

a bit more switching but still going well. Not needed to buy anything else yes :T

Made some flapjacks today with my oats for kid's and OH's packups (boys at nursery tomorrow. My one childfree morning of the week and it's heaven!) and have even frozen some for later in month (if I left them all in the tin they'd just get eaten within a few days.....mainly by me )

Glad this thread is helping other people too. It's been a godsend to me and I'll be using the recipes and tips for years to come!

3 weeks and counting!!


1st - carbonara (just found a jar in back of cupboard)
2nd Lasagne (with added lentils )
3rd chicken and rice
4th jacket spuds with smartprice beans
5th defrost a curry
6th lentil soup
7th chicken dinner
8th chicken casserole with yorkshires (leftovers)
9th Defrost a curry
10th lasagne (hoping to bulk out sauce enough with lentils to s-t-r-e-t-c-h to two)
11th Bolognaise
12th shepherds pie (make 2 and freeze 1)
13th veggie sausages and mash
14th Beans on toast (gotta crop up somewhere)!!
15th chicken curry with 4p sauce
16th veggie burgers
17th pasta with cheese and tomatoe sauce
18th shepherds pie from 12th
19th risotto
20th Homemade soup
21th Chilli
22th Egg and chips
23th Shezza's sauce and pasta (I'll always call it that now!)
24th - Go to take away in middle of night when OH's salary goes in!!

kezia

I did my weekly shop on Wednesday... and I had to buy a bag of lentils too. Just off to try and make carrot and lentil soup

Bitsy_Beans

choccyface2006 wrote: »

Everyone seems to shop at Adsa, is this the favourite on the OS board? I only do occasional shopping there normally but I could change....maybe even do it online, as I have a code for free delivery

Good luck with the rest of the month!

Sarah x

From what I read I think most people use Aldi, Lidl or Tesco's. I personally use Sainsbury's as Asda are too far away and won't deliver. I prefer Sainsbury's Basics range to Tesco's Value. The majority of my shopping is Basics stuff. I've even converted my mum to the range, she even likes their toliet roll!!!

Lots of people mention cleaning products in their shopping bills. How much is everyone spending on their cleaning stuff? I buy bleach (not the Basics stuff though as it's only thin bleach) and stardrops. I don't need anything else so it's a minimal part of my budget, especially since Stardrops last soooooooooo long!

lynzpower

Just seen this thread, and at the beginning i thought god she'll never do it . But you are :T and the sick thing I could be doing it too, and im not. :wall: Im STAGGERED how much money im wasting on food again. And im trying to diet

Its fantastic that your whole menu plan is perfectly acceptable, not enough veg for something as a long term plan, but with a few tins and bags of frozen veg it would be nigh on perfect!

Thanks to all in this thread, i m inspired

Beki

Wow! You are doing FANTASTICALLY well! You have 100% inspired me!

Well done!!!!! :dance:

doraexplorer

well done , going to watch this thread with interest. i soooooo need to cut our shopping bill for the month. we are hitting 350 a month for a family of 2 adults and and dd3, and its getting higher every i seem to spend most of my time shopping. this has inspired me i need to get it under control and stop buying shopping! i tryed to get it down to 200 but failed terribly.

this thread is so what i need to do. think i need a good boot up the backside !

thanks again to all for this thread and keep it coming ..........

xx

choccyface2006

Bitsy beans - I always buy stardrops but only use them for cleaning my floors (with some bleach in) then I also buy thick bleach (have three loos so I have to buy often) same for loo rolls (always buy a decent brand) Washing powder (Ariel) washing conditoner (Lenor) Anti bac spray (Morrisons own) Multi task spray (for kitchen/bathroom) washing up liquid (anything decent on offer) and Vanish oxi action (tub) thats about it, I think I have some work to do before I can call myself an old styler! :S I do use vinegar for my windows though, and hate the small of polish so I use the anti bac spray and a microfibre cloth (see I am learning something!)

Sarah

victoriajj

get them from Aldi or Lidl and they're cheap too

victoriajj

Bitsy_Beans wrote: »

From what I read I think most people use Aldi, Lidl or Tesco's. I personally use Sainsbury's as Asda are too far away and won't deliver. I prefer Sainsbury's Basics range to Tesco's Value. The majority of my shopping is Basics stuff. I've even converted my mum to the range, she even likes their toliet roll!!!

Lots of people mention cleaning products in their shopping bills. How much is everyone spending on their cleaning stuff? I buy bleach (not the Basics stuff though as it's only thin bleach) and stardrops. I don't need anything else so it's a minimal part of my budget, especially since Stardrops last soooooooooo long!

I agree since discovering stardrops and white vinegar my cleaning products bill has dropped