Sixty quid August??

calleyw

Last month I spent £71 on food for two adults. Granted I have some veggies growing in the graden but not a lot.

I found out when my local supermakets do the reduced to clear and buy bread etc for little money.

And I don't buy all value items either. I buy what is special offer if the price is about what the vlaue item would cost. I have also made simple changes like going over to value block butter. Butter is butter but I was spending over

£1.50 on the spreadable stuff :eek: now it costs me 53p for whole block of butter.

All the best you I am sure you will make it. Mind you if I lived alone I would live on pringles and OJ :rotfl:

Yours


Calley

jaja_3

brilliant thread, much needed for us this month too.

Some great ideas - and well done to you:T interested in where you buy the tinned onion from too.

jaja

Emmzi

ti1980 wrote:

I have really enjoyed reading this thread, £60 for the month is more than doable as long as its just for you and no one is helping themselves to your stuff cos thats when it gets hard!

Emmzi, where did you buy your fried onions from and how much did they cost? I love onions though I find it hard to use up a value bag and hate throwing anything away so I end up buying just one or two and feel ripped off by the prices they charge for them. The onions sound like just the thing for me as although I love the taste, I hate frying them myself. Is the taste much different to ones you fry yourself?

Gpot them in the veggie section at Tesco. 64p for a can, which is expensive compared to regular onions *but* that does 2 good size 4 person dishes, I find (eg a lasagne and veggie mince and dumplings, for example) AND your hands don't stink!!( I save on disposable rubber gloves for slicing onions.. yes, I know.. I'm freaky..)

And I don't burn anythig on thee pan. It's a real time saver for me.

Emmzi

Debtomaniak wrote:

My hubby and I have spent in July £268.00 on food and household maintenance (cleaning, shampoo, e.t.c.) and we have two lovely cats, so it is their food as well. Are we spending too much?

It doesn't seem wild to me, but you could certainly cut back on that. 'Too much' is relative - can you afford it? Probably not right now. You can *probably* do your family and cats fpr about £100 with some determination (my £60 includes b/f eating a lot at weekends!) and a lot of cooking from scrtach.

MinnieSpender

I don't know if this helps - I was planning on making a curry tonight so while I was at the market I bought two bunches of spinach (40p each) instead of one. I made the curry in my slow cooker and bingo! enough for three portions instead of two!

skintchick

I have been living on £60 for food/house/toiletries for months now - it is so doable!

Use veggies to pad everything out to make extra portions, and get inventive. It does help if you don;t mind cooking, but at Tesco you can get something like five ready meals for £4 on a permanent offer so you could pad those out with frozen veggies and stay within budget.

I haven;t been doing it recently cos I've been working in London, long hours, on good money, so I've been buying lunch *hangs head in shame* BUT mostly I haven;t been having a dinner - last week I ate once in the evening (I've lost loads of weight!! Hurrah!)

I found going shopping once a fortnight helped - I'd spend maybe £20 but then not go for two weeks, just froze milk/bread for the interim. I really did come in under budget quite often! I started to get upset if my bill was more than £7 a week!! Lol.

Good luck everyone!!

ti1980

The tinned onion is expensive compared to regular onions but its probably worth the extra cost as it is a time saver and my time is important to me so I'm definitely gonna have a look for some next time I go shopping.
Also I can't stand the way my hands still smell of onions after dicing them even after I have rubbed them and rubbed my hands over the tap as thats supposed to get rid of the smell.
Has anyone tried anything from the 'Very Lazy' range such as Lazy Garlic or Lazy Onion? I want to try that sometime soon too.

spinningtop_3

I've tried the Lazy Chillies - not bad. Not quite as good as fresh, but when I buy chillies they always seem to go off before I use the whole packet. Best tip for buying chillies is to go to a market or corner shop in an ethnic area - eg here in London, go to a Greek/Turkish Cypriot, Indian or West Indian area where you can buy just one or two as needed and they're as cheap as chips. :beer:

**purpleprincess**

MinnieSpender wrote:

Unfortunately, I only have the tiny freezer compartment in my fridge but am thinking about buying a tabletop freezer (I live in the smallest flat in the world and can't fit a proper one in). Any experiences of such freezers? I think it would be such a time, money and food saver.

I had this problem before, only had the bit in the top of the fridge until I got this beauty!!!

I bet I live in a smaller flat than you!!! I found it to be a massive time, money and food saver.

Definitely recommend it!

ti1980

I wouldn't expect any of those products to be as good as fresh but if they make half decent substitutes then I'm more than willing to give them a try.