Help! £40 to feed family for the month

Welshwoofs

maman wrote: »

Welshwoofs, this looks great but it wouldn't give me a basket (bit like Aldi!) just a wish list. The book I wanted was in stock. What am I doing wrong?

Ooo I think you may need to sign up for an account before you can buy.

Greenmetropolis is a second hand book exchange, which operates on the basis of a paperback in decent condition selling for £3.75 including the postage. If someone buys your book, rather like Ebay you then package it up and send it (you generally make £2 per book after postage). I get my cheap reading by a constant stream of selling/buying on there.

donnajt

I am such a hoarder...I have really fallen from OS heaven, yesterday I went to town to buy some birthday cards, needed to pop into Iceland for some chicken and thought I would pop into Asda for some of their £1/400g mince - I ended up spending £20 in Iceland and £47 in Asda - what is wrong with me??? my cupboards are so laden with food that I have had to store it on top of the kitchen units/fridge and hide it under the stairs????? I bought 24 packs of suppernoodles for goodness sake - so i have seriously overspent again - on the positive note - I have no idea how much i spend on groceries so having noted everything i now know where i am going wrong - the answer is simple - no more going to town - hooray! no xmas shopping lol!

cuca

I am also a bit of a hoarder and I think it is because I am really not very imaginative (well I have great tips now :T ) but i fear running out of things.... But then again that is a whole new topic :rolleyes:

I have read through the whole post, yep I should have been dressed and out the house by now :eek: . I was feeling rather sorry for myself as I dont live in UK and there is just no way that can get foodstuffs as cheap as you can (omg I cant believe curry sauce for 4p!!)

But as I was thinking about it, I can get things really cheap, but just not the same sort of things that you can - we can get fruit and veg for next to nothing ( I live in South Africa) and the staple food that the Africans eat are really cheap and fill you up. These staples are things like mielie meal (which is maize meal) and samp (but I wouldnt know how to explain this mix up with beans & soak overnight and make delicious stew type meal).

Oh and we get black lentils.......... do you get those there and what is the difference from your red ones??

So I am off to do a menu plan but I just wanted to add that I have had such inspiration from this thread. Thank you :A

WEEZE210_2

HI ALL, have read this post from start to finish and it has took me from friday evening till now, you are such an inspriation MBAZ I just wish I was that organized and disiplined. I never meal plan, come tea time I just look in the freezer and the kids end up with pizza, fishfingers, turkey shapes or something equally unhealthy or unimagianitive! I do make lasagne from scratch but thats it. I've got to go shopping today so am going to check cupboards freezer etc first and really try and meal plan. I normally buy loads of salad, fruit and a bit of veg but the rest is just junk.
A question that no-one has asked "Have you lost any weight?" was just wondering?
Again well done and enjoy your "huge" new shopping budget for october.

mbaz

Hiya Weeze - yes I have lost weight (about 1/2 stone) but am also training for a 10k too so that helped!! I'll probably put it all back on again now!

donnajt

I am ashamed to admit this but...i spent £140.50 on groceries this week - could shoot myself in the foot or should i say hands for it!!! but at least i know now that I really have been spending - I would say that probably £95.50 was unnecessary spending - and i've been thinking i only spend £60-70 - reality check or what

so i am slashing the shopping budget to £30 this week that's midweek top up and all, i am going to dig out a small purse and place 3 crisp £10'ers in it and that's it, i might even give my best friend my purse to look after just in case...

jinny

Well just spent a very pleasant sunday afternoon reading all of these great posts. I have some fab tips and recipes to follow. Thanks to you all, and well done to the lovely OP for sharing your journey with us. This has been in true MSE fashion and what this site is all about. :money: I hope you enjoyed your chocolate OP you certainly deserve it. (I now buy Morrisons value chocolate and it tastes great). Off now to meal plan for October with me lentils of course.:T

chelle333

Well done :j :j only just found this,and have been close to crying on times reading this, i have been in this position many times and somehow manage,like you we also work but bills have gone so high lately money doest seem to streach like it used too,i glad your thread has been a eye opener to some as some people dont realise what others have got to go through just to make ends meet,but i honestly think the hard times brings alot of families closer together,congrats once again for inspiring all off us and to look at what we are spending on food that is not really needed.
PS id like to thank everyone for all the ideas in this thread they are fantastic !!!

donnajt

i was up v early this morning so got a head start with tonights tea - shepherds pie - as you know OH hates carrots but as i got away with introducing them into stew i have thrown caution to the wind and added them to the shep pie, i used a 800g pack of mince, used up 2 sad little asda shep pie mixes (have been on the shelf so long they thought they would end up in the bin!), onion, 1 pint stock, a splash of Mr T value brown sauce, worcester sauce and loads of oats and i am in such a good mood, everytime i went to check of the pot it had doubled in size, i feel like i have found a magic pot that just produces food lol - i am in OS heaven

i now have two hhhhuuuugggeee shepherds pies - i probably could have stretched to 3 but i had run out of mash and i wasn't sure what to freeze them in? any ideas? does pyrex freeze?

donnajt

minus bogof and a £9 off voucher comes in at £29.31 (have shopped online so i am not tempted) also bagged 50 extra points

as a non-driver, i don't count the delivery charge as I would have to spend the same on taxi fare home

i am going to try and resist all shops but i may need a strawberry/bread/milk to-up at the weekend