Help! £40 to feed family for the month

Phatmouse

I love it when I prevoke an angry red face :T

HariboJunkie

Phatmouse wrote: »

I am always 'forgetting' to pay for things on my buggy, and i reckon lots of people do, they call it shrinkage, its not classed as theft as mothers have their hands full.

It was probably me who caused the price of food to shoot through the roof

As you have put the word forgetting in inverted commas, it sounds as though you are indicating that you haven't , in fact, forgotten anything.
That's shoplifting. And a mother can and will be prosecuted for it.

And rightly so, in my opinion, as not only is it bad enough to be a thief, but to hide the crime behind an innocent child in a buggy would be abhorrent.

I managed to push twins in a buggy and never forgot to pay for anything.

Of course. I am sure you were joking.

Skint_Lynne

Phatmouse wrote: »

I love it when I prevoke an angry red face :T

Maybe I shouldn't have stuck up for you at all, with a comment like that, you must be totally aware of what you are doing, so in fact you are nothing more than a common thief who is spoiling things for everyone else. With prices shooting up, the likes of you makes it difficult for people with low incomes who would never resort to stealing.

You should be ashamed of yourself. What an example you are setting your kids by wheeling stolen goods out in their buggy.

Emmy you are totally right about this one, you should always listen to your friends.

CherryPie

Guys, this thread is about saving money on feeding your family. Not the moral highground. Would be nice to keep it that way!

oystercatcher

They are saving money...by nicking stuff !

Don't think Martin approves of that though!

OC

zippychick

Leila , let us know how you are getting on?

leiela

zippychick wrote: »

Leila , let us know how you are getting on?

hehe well i've spent hours reading though this thread for hours great stuff btw

It's nice to see im not alone, when things go horridly wrong and you end up trying to survive on little more than fresh air.

I made a nice chicken and chick pea tomatoy... stew type thing last night, which was pretty nice if i do say so myself, using the leftovers of the chicken we had on friday, and manage to pad it out with enough chickpea's that i've stuck another 2 portions in the freezer!!! woot.

Erm i've just turned the celeriac and leeks etc into a nice soup 3 single portions for the freezer we can use for lunch's, used up the wraps i had before they went green and fuzzy hehe so they are frozen for the kids lunches next week.

I re-organaised my freezer trying to squeeze things in, basically i tipped everything out of it's tubs now it's frozen solid and put them in bags, so i have a stack of little frozen labeled building brick's in the freezer haha which saved tons of space. but the best bit is that i found a few extra bits that i'd missed on my first inventory of the freezer, just some yogurts, liver and a couple of small steaks but it was like finding buried treasure haha.. so yay for freezer treasure. :T

I've got a stew in the slow cooker now using the freezer treasure steak and the odds and ends of veg i had thats for tea tonight.

Im doing ok i guess ... trying to plan but im not very good at it... 27 days till get money and counting, I know i still NEED to plan out my meals winging it isn't gonna cut it further down the line.. ugh.. but i just don't know where to start.

But having read this thread i figure if a family of 4 can be fed on £20 with alot LESS in the cuboards to start with than i had, then i can manage with my £33, even with the addition of pets.

Penelope_Penguin

Phatmouse wrote: »

I am always 'forgetting' to pay for things on my buggy, and i reckon lots of people do, they call it shrinkage, its not classed as theft as mothers have their hands full.

It was probably me who caused the price of food to shoot through the roof

I'm not taking the "moral high ground" but as shoplifting is classed as theft, I've reported this post, and will ask the team for their verdict.

Penny. x

leiela

I remember taking my two sons out in the buggy when they were little, the eldest was in the front seat while i had the baby in the back. it must have been the winter because we had the foot warmer muff type thing on the eldest to keep him warm.

I wandered around the shop no bother, shoping away ... it wasn't till i got home i found the cheeky little so-and-so had been grabbing things off the shelves and shoving it into the muff without me noticing.

It was terrible i felt awful... there must have been about £10's worth of food in there (some of it partially eaten) it was at a time when we where REALLY REALLY struggling financially.. its bad now but it was awful back then we where pretty damn close to starving, seriously i'd been the the social services the week before begging them to take my kids because i couldn't afford to feed them, my 3 month old had gone 3 days without milk "eeek" and i was super desprate.

I remember it because my mum had lent me £5 to get some basic food in, so finding £10 worth in the muff was devestating, especially as much of it i couldn't take back because he'd been eating it, and i couldn't afford to pay for it.

I have to admit i kept it, but i was mortified i couldn't face going back into that shop for about 6 months i felt so ashamed. I really wouldn't have done it on purpose and if it happened now i would almost certainly return and pay for the items, but times where tough and i was so desperate i had no choice, because i can't imagine the shop would have been very sympathetic i've id returned and said my son stole £10's worth of stuff but sorry i can't give it back because it's partially eaten it, and i can't pay for it sorry!!!

MrsBartolozzi

I remember when my DS1 was very young, I had to check the buggy every time we left M&S or BHS as he loved the feeling of silky things and would grab knickers or lingerie to cuddle as I walked past. The first time I didn't even notice until the alarm went off as we tried to leave:eek: !!
Luckily for me the security guard saw the funny side of my son trying to smuggle out a size 22 pair of pants - they were too big for me, and he could see it wasn't my fault as DS cried when they were removed:o ! I was mortified and was so scared it would happen again (He did do it again but I would check the buggy before we left the shop).