Redundancy - groceries reduction help needed!

newlywed

Goodness boodle, you have a good memory!!
Yes I used to have river cobbler - but haven't shopped in Tescos for a long while (see above about doing weekly shop in 5 different supermarkets) and that's the only place I've seen it. OH says trout is the one fish he doesn't like. Will go look at going back to the basics salmon again though now I can go through the packs and check them (can't do that online).

I have had a bit of a thing for roasted ratatouille recently which does work out expensive so will have to kick that habit. Will do what you say and stick to carrots, frozen sweetcorn and cheaper veg. Got some mixed frozen veg in Aldi which we'll be having tonight.

OH feels very neglected if given a completely veggie meal so will think on whether I can serve veggie meal with a bit of meat for just him or not.

I'll look at other tinned fish and see if there's a way to make any changes there for OH.

Biscuits - will go back to making them - but if I make twinks they only last a day unless I hide some and freeze some!! But other than that I'll be looking at boring biscuits more as they stay in the tin longer

And I always go shopping alone - OH hates it and I learned a while back not to take the step kids (what with the moaning and can we have magnums questions)

---
Ok so lunchtime will pop to Tesco, check out experimental value teabags, value biccies, river cobbler, yellow stickers, and then go to Aldi to check fruit (got their carrots, and sprouts at home already).

Then at the weekend will be doing mysupermarket to see whether sainsbug prices have crept up more than elsewhere.

mummysaver

Good luck to both of you in your hunt for new jobs xx

I find menu planning is the one thing that has really saved me ! Perhaps if you posted a sample week's menu plan then people could suggest ways of cutting the costs down or alternatives - the ideas on here never cease to amaze me!

For fruit and veg I try to buy from Aldi and Lidl as much as poss, their offers/super 6 can make a big difference to my budget. Meals are then served with whatever I've brought! And if I buy other veg I do try to buy whatever is in season, as obviously then the price is a whole lot cheaper. Don't forget frozen veg either, it can be really good value especially for things like peppers. Whoopsies can be really handy so long as you remember to build them into subsequent meal plans!

I don't know if you like shortbread, but Tesco do shortbread fingers as part of their value range for 9p a pack! Even better the ingredients are just flour, butter, sugar, egg and salt (just had a quick look, I'm not quite such a nerd that I can remember ingredient lists lol!)

As others have suggested, keep all receipts, it can be amazing to actually see where the money goes, and sometimes easy to see what could be substituted to save pennies.

For the kids' breakfast cereals you could either buy on offer or explain that you need to save money - my lot pretty much accept anything now as they appreciate that we do need to watch the pennies!

Anyway good luck again xx

ps just seen new post above - for veggie meals, how about being a little bit sneaky and trying things like veg protein substitutes, like vege mince (the realeat stuff in green packs from the freezer really does grow to about four times the amount in the pack when water is added and is great for lasagne and chilli), the dried soya protein (from sainsbugs usually with the pulses) is great for bulking out meat dishes too.

Another useful thing is to make a big batch of soup every few days, it is great for filling up kids when they moan half an hour before or after dinner that they're hungry! And you can freeze portions in marg tubs as quick lunches.

Boodle

newlywed wrote: »

Goodness boodle, you have a good memory!!
Yes I used to have river cobbler - but haven't shopped in Tescos for a long while (see above about doing weekly shop in 5 different supermarkets) and that's the only place I've seen it. OH says trout is the one fish he doesn't like. Will go look at going back to the basics salmon again though now I can go through the packs and check them (can't do that online).

I have had a bit of a thing for roasted ratatouille recently which does work out expensive so will have to kick that habit. Will do what you say and stick to carrots, frozen sweetcorn and cheaper veg. Got some mixed frozen veg in Aldi which we'll be having tonight.

OH feels very neglected if given a completely veggie meal so will think on whether I can serve veggie meal with a bit of meat for just him or not.

I'll look at other tinned fish and see if there's a way to make any changes there for OH.

Biscuits - will go back to making them - but if I make twinks they only last a day unless I hide some and freeze some!! But other than that I'll be looking at boring biscuits more as they stay in the tin longer

And I always go shopping alone - OH hates it and I learned a while back not to take the step kids (what with the moaning and can we have magnums questions)

---
Ok so lunchtime will pop to Tesco, check out experimental value teabags, value biccies, river cobbler, yellow stickers, and then go to Aldi to check fruit (got their carrots, and sprouts at home already).

Then at the weekend will be doing mysupermarket to see whether sainsbug prices have crept up more than elsewhere.

LOL...! If only it worked for useful information :rotfl:

Good luck with the shopping x

newlywed

Thanks,
Here's my meal plan for next week just posted - it's fairly typical
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showpost.html?p=29107231&postcount=19

I love shortbread so will be looking for those at lunchtime!

I've just sent off the Nestle voucher offer that was on the cereal pack as they mostly prefer nestle stuff and will be getting another set of them later too as have another code (and a second email address). The kids are pretty good but breakfast is important so I don't want them to start skipping it at all and starting at school hungry

Reverbe

newlywed wrote: »

I posted asking about cheaper alternatives for protein for OH, but that was a while back. There's been a few other weight training OH threads on here by others

My mistake sorry. I seem to recall a particularly contentious thread where they spent an absolute fortune on chicken breats due to weight training,,,:cool:

newlywed

Reverbe wrote: »

My mistake sorry. I seem to recall a particularly contentious thread where they spent an absolute fortune on chicken breats due to weight training,,,:cool:

Yeah that wasn't me - I did read it and was thankful that wasn't my OH No worries on the mix up - I rarely remember who actually posts what threads.

carriebradshaw

newlywed wrote: »

Thanks,
Here's my meal plan for next week just posted - it's fairly typical
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showpost.html?p=29107231&postcount=19

I love shortbread so will be looking for those at lunchtime!

I've just sent off the Nestle voucher offer that was on the cereal pack as they mostly prefer nestle stuff and will be getting another set of them later too as have another code (and a second email address). The kids are pretty good but breakfast is important so I don't want them to start skipping it at all and starting at school hungry

if that's value shortbread, it's really good, 9p a pack and you could always melt some value chocolate over it to dress it it up a little if nobody likes it as is All the value biccies are pretty good by the way particularly the custard creams which are only 30p for a double pack :T

newlywed

carriebradshaw wrote: »

if that's value shortbread, it's really good, 9p a pack and you could always melt some value chocolate over it to dress it it up a little if nobody likes it as is All the value biccies are pretty good by the way particularly the custard creams which are only 30p for a double pack :T

They didn't have any value shortbread, just a sad sorry gap on the shelf

However, I got pg 2 x 160 for £5 so that was £2.70 saved, plus my deodorant was on offer so saved £2.34 and Gala apples were 2 packs for £2 so saved £1.14.

In addition I got value teabags to test (with the PG for backup), a new kellogs cereal the boys will eat for £1, the tortilla wraps we have on offer for £1, value choc spread and value choc hazlenut spread as we've had the value choc spread before and it was fine. Got value rich tea and digestives and the choc sandwich biscuits that are the kids favourite (£1).

No smoked river cobbler there though.

But it was a very valid reminder of how somethings are cheaper in each different supermarket. Been over 6 months since I went to Tesco last (it's only a metro tesco).

Perhaps not shopping around to get the best offers has been costing me more money than I thought, even though its been saving me time.

phizzimum

Hi newlywed, it looks like you're on the right track and you have a good attitude so I think you'll be fine, but here are a couple of tips I've picked up.

I like porridge for brekkie and recently I've been making it with water rather than milk - I thought it would be grey and yukky but actually I've found I prefer it that way - and uses a lot less milk! It's worth trying once just to see if you like it.

if you have bread that needs using up but no room in freezer - try whizzing it up into breadcrumbs - still needs freezing but takes up less room. or make bread pudding or bread and butter pudding. well done for using up the black bananas in cakes, but don't forget that you can do that with wrinkly apples too - apple cake, muffins, crumble, pie etc.

all the best x

newlywed

phizzimum wrote: »

if you have bread that needs using up but no room in freezer - try whizzing it up into breadcrumbs - still needs freezing but takes up less room. or make bread pudding or bread and butter pudding. well done for using up the black bananas in cakes, but don't forget that you can do that with wrinkly apples too - apple cake, muffins, crumble, pie etc.

Thanks, good idea about the bread - there's usually not much space in the freezer so will go back to doing bread pud again or breadcrumbs

I have my porridge made with water (when I have porridge) but OH likes milk - probably the protein thing He doesn't eat that much dairy so I won't argue on that one till times are really tough. The kids have the sainsbug 1% milk as its £1 for 4 pints that and 4-6 pints skimmed for OH is all the milk we really use each week.