New to this and feeling very stressed!

georgia1

Hi Mrs Bea

I've had a quick read through the excellent advice above and I don't think anyone has mentioned using coupons yet (although I might have missed it).

Tesco will take other stores' conditional spend vouchers (eg Morrisons, Sainsbury's, Asda, Waitrose but (in my Tesco anyway) not Farmfoods or Lidl). This has helped me enormously to reduce my shopping bill. For example the Sun newspaper recently had several £5 off when you spend £30 at Morrison which will have saved me about £25 by the time I used them all and in the Daily Mail (I think) the other weekend there was a £5 Tesco voucher. It's worth checking out the Newspaper voucher thread to see what vouchers are available - weekend papers have been especially good sources of vouchers in the past.

Also, just a small tip - have you discovered the purple top milk in Tesco? It's sort of in between skimmed and semi-skimmed because it's 0.75% fat. I've switched my family from semi-skimmed to this and no-one has complained. It was 75p for around 6 pints last week (was previously £1.35 which is still excellent value). Might not be suitable if you have very young children perhaps but could be used to supplement other milk and fine for cooking eg making a white sauce. I buy several and pop them in the freezer.

HTH

meritaten

hi Mrs Bea - please dont cry! I know how you feel as I at one time (many moons ago during the miners strike of '83 had to drop from £60 a week housekeeping to £14 a week and that was with me, my oh, a six year old, a three year old (who was the fussiest eater on the planet and a baby) I really had to learn frugality!
I am not saying this to play 'I was worse off than you'! but because I want to reassure you that it can be done! it aint easy hun and you will prob miss the happy go lucky approach to shopping! I know I did!
you must have some quiet time to work out your menu for the week - if you are serving chicken one night then you buy a larger chicken and use half. tip - roast dinners are not as economical as casseroles and stews because people expect more meat with them. so I used to avoid those! a nice chicken can be roasted then used this way - half tonight with a casserole of veg - save some slices from both breasts for sarnies - tomorow night it can become stir fried chicken with mushrooms and onions and home made egg fried rice or curry with rice and/or chips.
as others have said - if you buy the premium brands then go a level lower! you may be pleasantly surprised. personally I rarely shop at Tesco or Asda as I love our local Aldi! I am used to the way it works and find that the quality is very high. I dislike Tesco and Asda value brands finding them low on quality compared to Aldi.
my monthly shop comes to around £220 pounds for OH and me, thats a lot compared to some but our budget allows it and my Oh prefers to spend on food as we dont spend a lot on going out or eating out - so he likes to eat well at home! I think if i tried i could get it down by at least half if not more.
your goal is achievable hun, even if you just look for bargains and reduce the amount of meat and bulk with veg or grains you will be surprised at how much you can save.

EstherH

Have a look at Approved Foods. There is a thread for them on the shopping board but just put the name into google. They sell near to and beyond best before date food, this is fine to eat and you wouldn't notice the difference. It's not passed it's use by date which is the important date - best before just means that loads of people are throwing away loads of perfectly good food.
There may not be anything on there that you like, it tends to be a lot of cakes, biscuits and crisps etc., but I have got some really good bargains. Worth a look.

EstherH

Will your kids eat bolognaise, chilli, shepherds pie? All these are easy to bulk out with extra veg and as I have learned on here - oats and lentils. Try adding a handful of one or the other, just remember to add extra liquid to soak it up. You really can't tell once it is well cooked.

Try reducing the amount of meat you serve with a meal and adding more potatoes and veg.

Do you have a freezer shop in your town. We have one where they sell well known brands repackaged. The prices are really good. You may have one at the market if you have a local market. Sometimes, if you just do all your shopping at one supermarket, you don't tend to know what else is available.

Do your kids like pies? Pastry is pennies to make and quite quick and easy and can turn a little meat with maybe some added veg/potato into a main meal.

Hope you're feeling more encouraged now, with all the advice that is on here. At least you know your not on your own.

radiohelen

Please don't fret about doing it all in one go. Baby steps are by far the best....

Here's one to help - I just learned how to make Scottish Stovies today - it is genius....and soooo cheap (partly because we have an allotment I'll admit but even without one it's not expensive). It's super flexible too, use whatever you have.

1 onion
2 Carrots/swede
4/5 big potatoes
250g mince/square sausage/sausage/haggis
Oil/drippings from the roast
water/stock
Salt and pepper

Chop up your onions and carrots. Peel your potatoes and chop them up. Fry the carrots and onions off in your oil/drippings. Add your meat and brown it a bit. Add your potatoes and stir it all up. Season and add water to come two thirds up the ingredients - don't cover them. Stir it and stick the lid on and leave to cook. Go back and stir it around a bit every so often. When it's all soft it's ready - if you are lucky it might catch a bit and go crusty on the bottom - them's the best bits. Serve it up with ketchup and bread and butter... yum!

CupOfChai

Hello and welcome Mrs Bea! Oh please don't fret, I think the main thing is you've seen a problem and are doing something about it. Like some other people said, just take it slowly, a few baby steps at a time. Don't get disheartened if anything goes wrong or if you don't spend loads less straight away, just keep nibbling away at it.

And don't be shy or intimidated, stick your neb all over this board (it won't be 'not wanted' anywhere) as there is loads of good advice and tips about. I also try to think that even the people who seem to have been born doing this and seem to know everything, actually don't! Who knows, you could well have a bit of knowledge to share with some of us at some point too.

lovetopaint

I painstakingly price check everything I buy from my supermarket, gram for gram on the internet. It is time consuming. I have kids, we have had to

make changes. The family kicks up a bit from time to time but hey, they don't go hungry, and they get homemade chocolate cake to boot...and as I

put so much time into planning, shopping and cooking, we have more money than we used to. You can do it, give yourself time, babysteps is

right, Rome wasn't built in a day.

CouponWoman

Hi Mrs Bea

I understand how hard it can be if you are feeling the pinch financially. I had a really well paid job till early last year. I could buy anything I wanted even though I never was the type to waste money.

Anyway I got made redundant and suddenly money matters, when you haven't got it you can't spend it.

Someone pointed me in the direction of MSE and I found the coupon thread
Updated Printable Money off Coupons & Policies Thread 13 (and chat)

was the best bit of advice I have ever been given. They are a really friendly bunch and give loads of tips on whats on offer and where. The printable coupons have saved my bacon to put it mildly.
My food cupboard is full of a wide mixture of things, thanks to the coupons I printed and if somethings on offer you will usually hear it first.

Have a look as there are coupons for a wide range of things, from cat food, nappies, soups and toiletries.

Good luck

CWxx

Mrs_Bea

Thank you so much for all the replies and support.
I have done a list of all the food that I have (loads!) and planned my meals for the rest of the month. (I LOVED the idea of the children choosing one meal a week).
In terms of shopping the biggest problem that I am going to have is that we live in a very small rural market town and Tesco is the only supermarket! Have decided to utilise the market more and stop popping for little things (the problem is Tesco is right next to the kids school so waaaay too convenient!).

I feel better already

Thanks again for all the help, I'm really touched!

x

purpleheather2810

Mrs_Bea wrote: »

Thank you so much for all the replies and support.
I have done a list of all the food that I have (loads!) and planned my meals for the rest of the month. (I LOVED the idea of the children choosing one meal a week).
In terms of shopping the biggest problem that I am going to have is that we live in a very small rural market town and Tesco is the only supermarket! Have decided to utilise the market more and stop popping for little things (the problem is Tesco is right next to the kids school so waaaay too convenient!).

I feel better already

Thanks again for all the help, I'm really touched!

x

Glad you're feeling more positive today

Fair enough, it makes sense to use Tescos if it's the only supermarket nearby, but definitely plan your visits and MAKE A LIST before you go