Help! £40 to feed family for the month

donnajt

I got those fab Mr T bargains at about 1pm today, don't plan on visiting at this time often as ready meals aren't really my thing - but i must admit it was so easy and tasted good

mbaz - how was the first day at work?? what did they give you for lunch

next month's menu looks great - i have been busy creating a lovely grocery challenge for myself - page 1 is budget plus menu breakdown for 5 weeks/spends and total, page 2/3 is my store cupboard inventory, page 4 is a list of our favourite dinners and a column for new ideas/recipes to try, page 5 is for notes, i am hoping this will give me a true picture of how much i really am spending/wasting in supermarkets

have noticed that you haven't got washing powder/cleaning stuff on your list, also only shampoo - are you using stuff you already have or do you have a separate budget?

can't believe your challenge is almost over...feel a bit emotional lol!

donnajt

just done my online Mr T order and with a £3.50 discount code and £3.12 in multibuys....drumroll please...£29.65!

mbaz - see how you have inspired me!!

DianneB

Well done Donnajt!!!

jembie

It's my turn to utilise mbaz's menu and take on board all the tips from this thread.
We go on holiday in 4 weeks time and I have no money saved at all so If I do this menu for a month I can put aside all the rest of the money I would otherwise spend on food.

Thanks for such an awe inspiring thread

mbaz

donnajt wrote: »

I got those fab Mr T bargains at about 1pm today, don't plan on visiting at this time often as ready meals aren't really my thing - but i must admit it was so easy and tasted good

mbaz - how was the first day at work?? what did they give you for lunch

!

I absolutely LOVE my new job but my god the food was AWFUL!!! It's a really swish hotel (£400 a night - once I've bene there 6 months I can get rooms for £65 a night! Think I'll treat hubbie for 30th next year, anyway...) but they gave the staff wrinkly, old, cold, soft jacket spuds with mushy beans!!! I know I shouldnt turn down free food when I'm trying to clear my debts but I'll have to take a pack-up next week! :rotfl:

White_Boots

mbaz I'm glad you like your new job. It makes so much difference if you like a job - makes it much easier to get out of bed in the morning! Maybe yesterday was just a bad food day for them? It's probably worth trying for a few days if it's free! Or you could have their food and just take a couple of extra bits to supplement it maybe.

wendy+5

donnajt wrote: »

next month's menu looks great - i have been busy creating a lovely grocery challenge for myself - page 1 is budget plus menu breakdown for 5 weeks/spends and total, page 2/3 is my store cupboard inventory, page 4 is a list of our favourite dinners and a column for new ideas/recipes to try, page 5 is for notes, i am hoping this will give me a true picture of how much i really am spending/wasting in supermarkets

Donna I'm really interested in this. Any chance you could show us some pics?! It looks great.

mummysaver

donna - thanks for the recipes, just trying to menu plan for this week, so will def give the chilladas a go this week and the loaf next week I think, will let you know what the troops all think!

mbaz - glad you enjoyed the job and thanks for posting the next meal plan - cheese is always worth shopping around for, often on offer at Asda, though not this week! Yeo Valley cheese is on special offer at Mr T's, about £2.50 I think, and Sainsbugs have one of their Taste the Diff cheeses for about £2.50, no idea about Morrisons, but sure mysupermarket would tell you! Every little helps lol!

For all those peeps who've asked about price reductions, Mr T generally do their's at 12, 3, 6 and final ones at about 9pm. Obviously not all stores do this, but these are the usual guide times that the stores are given. Sundays are a pretty good time to get reductions, found lots of ys stuff in Sainsbugs yesterday, and it was actually stuff that we eat, so need to meal plan around it - yes I know that's the wrong way round!

evie451

i have had a look at my budget for next month and I am gonna need to take a leaf out of your book mbaz! I am going to do the lentil trick to eek out the spag bol but i have just got through half a bag between a soup and the casserole :eek: Am i better to get the lentils from health food shops? or does Mr T do a big cheap bag cos Morrisons certainly doesn't....:o

donnajt

mbaz - how disappointing for lunch I imagined foie gras (sp?), lobster, caviar etc - i would have turned my nose up esp at mushy peas (pet hate parents used to force feed them to me yuk!) but really glad you love it - and that is an amazing staff discount - perhaps you could take your menu plans in to inspire the chef in the kitchen lol!

mummysaver glad you like the recipes - i also have the Jocasta Innes book which also has a load of lentil recipes, i'll dig it out and post the lentil recipe index for you, looking forward to your feedback

wendy+5 (and anybody else who might be interested), my Grocery Challenge is a word document - i don't think i can take pics or attach but if you PM me your email address I will happily email it to you

dinner today is chicken curry (am cutting down from using 4 breasts to 2) and making bombay pots to bulk dinner out (instead of throwing leftovers, I am going to only serve 1/2 the pots and freeze the other half), made a chutney a few weeks ago so have defrosted a portion of that and also using 3 small naans (from Mr T pack of 6) which before this thread I would have heated them all and thrown the uneaten ones, so that is another step in the right direction

after all my saintly work on this week's Mr T's order, I have spoilt it by going into Sommerfield and spending £20! but did get loads of BOGOF and 15x diet coke cans for £3 (YS) and more sausages (YS) which I am going to cook up today and use for lunches tomorrow and jambayla later this week...

I MUST TRY HARDER!