Mon 16th Aug - What small things will you do today?

Pippilongstocking

determined_new_ms wrote: »

Ok I posted this on the weekend thread for SJ1 but thought I'd put here in case she didn't see (I'm presumming ur a lady )



Hi SJ1 ok how I feeding a family of 4 on £60pw is as follows:

:T:T:T we do a family of 3 on £50 with it upto 4 OH here every two weeks and he tops up some 'treat' bits when he's here - so I'd say roughly we're about the same!! :T:T:T

I do an inventory of what I have in the fridge/freezer/cupboards this is the start to my meal planning. Then I shopped at Lidl as my main shop and got what was on offer there and planned my meals around that so for example aubergines were 50p each so we are having moussaka one day. Once I brought this home I worked out what I needed to get from Asda. Meal plan is as follows:

S: Roast chicken, roast pots, yorkshire puds, frozen brocolli, tinned sweatcorn & steam courgettes. Desert hm brownies
M: Eating at in laws/student/son leftover signapore noodles from Saturday
T: Moussaka - aubegines, mince (SP from asda - after browning drain off the fat to make it healthier) & cheese & veg from storecupboards
W: Toad in the hole (half a bag of suasages in the freezer from last week)
T: hm pizza & salad (when I made this the week before last I 3x the tom base & frooze it)
F: Steak (whopsied at lidl for £1.69), hm chips & salad
S: Garlic fried potatos, lamb steak burgers & salad (I will have a jacket pot & coleslaw & salad)
S: Chilli con carne

Lunches: leftovers/cheese/chicken roll/egg mayo/tuna sandwiches (all storecupboard other than the chicken roll)/lidl noodles for oh & ds, crisps/banana, oat & cinnimon muffins(always have brown bananas to use up at the end of the week!)/ a piece of fruit

1 bottle of wine/cider, I pack of fresh coffee {oddly ikea have great coffee for 99p a bag - when I'm there I stock up and buy 6 or 10 - or like you buy them when they are on offer - my coffee is my luxury so I always have a stash}, I jar of hot choc (I've decided to give up alcohol for a month :eek: so am drinking tea & hot choc like its going out of fashion!), natural greek yogurt for me, muller corners for ds & student (bogof in lidl), lidl had an offer on cheese 600grms for £3

We also raid the deli counter for reduced cheeses and freeze anything we find - it makes for some interesting cheeses we've never tried but they go into things like macaroni cheese - but there are usually some cheeses we can buy for <£1 - and we top this up like you with cheese when its on offer (have you seen the price of cheese??:eek:)

usually I make my own bread but with the student here atm we're getting through bread ridulously so I'm buying sp bread atm, which was reduced to 30p a loaf yesterday so I got 2 & froze one

Great that you've seen that another mouth is making you change your habits, sometimes a change of person can make a big change! We do this too - generally grabbing a few reduced loaves evreytime we see them - at the moment (kids have been away - but I've still been getting bread) the freezer now has 17 :rotfl:loaves of bread in it - its very rarely now we but full price bread (its a treat!! lol how sad is that!) with them back it will go down soon

a lot of things I grab while they're on offer or buy bigger amounts for example we always get generic frostys but its cheaper to get a massive box of cornflakes & add ur own sugar, buy a kilo butter when its on offer - there's usually one at one of the supermarkets (same goes with cheese - use mysupermarket.co.uk to find out what deals are on), I bulk out meals like chilli/spag/curry/shepperds pie with somke red lentils. I always boil up the carcass to make a soup stock & freeze if I'm not going to make that day - soups a great/cheap lunch for me or oh. Always have porridge oats for filling breakfast/make quick desert. I also buy longlife milk for when the fresh has run out...

We freeze milk, there's always a good few pints in the freezer - works brilliantly

for cleaning products I buy nettos washing powder (£1.99 for a box that last 3/4 weeks - it doesn't smell as lovely as the named brands but it cleans just as well) and about 2/3 weeks ago there was an offer 2x 2ltr fab con for £1.50 at nettos. I use star drops for cleaning & grab bleach when there's an offer on.

Same sort of without the netto

It took a long time to get here and there are weeks when its more expensive as I need to get storecupboard essentials but if I'm aware of what they are I can get them when they're on offer (for example boots has 6x johnsons babywipes at the moment for what works out at 62p, that's much cheaper than I can get the generic anywhere so that's what I'll be grabbing later, I get generic usually for 85p in lidl) {I'll be going to boots later - THANKS} I use the OS board for inspiration & have had the cheapest most delish meals off of there - for example the sausage casserole has got to be one of the cheapest & best meals I've ever eaten!

phew the mundane workings of my shopping excursions!

ps the wheatabix brownies are amazing! Make them but be aware they won't last long! :rotfl:

OK DNM - I wanted to say a massive thank you for this post - I read it and thought - OK we do that, oh we do that a bit differently, thats a good idea, we do that etc etc etc

What's lovely about your post is that we all are speaking the same languages at various stages of development and I love how much effort you're putting into things

Its harder sometimes doing things this way - but boy oh boy don't the savings add up

Thank you for the post - you've reminded me of so many of the small things we do (or are sometimes lazy and dont' do ) and some great tips in there - it made me think of the things we do and made me feel proud of us all (all you guys and us as well!!)

I visited my SIL at the weekend who's been asking how to save money - they spend so much on shopping - and the first thing that struck me was all the 'branded goods' everywhere :eek::eek::eek: - to be fair even OH mentioned it - and said - lol look at how much money they are wasting, no wonder they never have any money!!!!!

Bless him, its even in his noggin a wee bit!

:j:j:jbrilliant post I've just rumbled in my comments were I could and then gave up cos I kept writing yup we do that, we do that, we do something like that!!! :j:j:j

PS washing powders - I buy the cheap ones too - sometimes 2-3 boxes of tesco value (I don't have a netto) and I buy one small box of something posh when its on offer (or a bogof) then dump the big boxes into a big box with a lid (curver box) and I mix the big cheap boxes with the little posh box - the posh stuff seems to be so potent that it makes the whole lot smell nice. We use value stuff conditioner as we alwasy air dry and normally inside - so it does help it alot as well

Alex_Richards

Good luck Cat. My small things for today:
Turn air conditioning off
Make lunch rather than buy it at work
Go to Lidl instead of Aldi
Go to Oxfam, pick up a bargain or two

Alex

Pippilongstocking

Good luck cat

Today

At home - kids just back

HC and on the line
Checking banks - all dd's out today - waiting to see how long it takes to get my WTFC back - my renewal wasn't processed and it took about 1 week to notice - as my payment had stopped
Meeting tonight at 6.30
charity shops
take dd to see what she needs from the local stationers - school is back tomorrow
feed hens
take some eggs to a pal
tidy up
do some recycling
sort out meals for the week
move some money to savings
do alot of post and change of address things
parcel up a few things
sparkle!

RIght that's me for now - good luck chaps!

determined_new_ms

awwwwwwwwwwwww fanks fay! I must also add I go without oh or I can't keep the costs as low! x

mcjordi

just waiting on some advice re a f+f settlement offer recieved from lowell.. im happy to pay this amount..

hopefully i will clear a debt today/this week..

regards jordan

OrangeFairy

Morning all!!!

I have a slightly unexpected day off Asked on friday if i could have today off instead of this friday as OH had to work today!

Also completely forgot until i checked my email -

My second year AAT results came out today and i PASSED!!! woop woop!

Just have to see if i can afford the £1000 to do the last year or not - i really don't want to put it off a year.

Today then

make cakes with the kids
carry on with christening book
maybe gather some things to ebay
check banking
one poll
surveys
clean the house
read out in the sun!
lunch and dinner from store

I hope everyone is having a great day

Cat - good luck with the new job. I hope it goes well. I hate change - hence why i have been in the same job for 8 years since i was 18

DNMS- I would love the receipe for chinese chicken soup! Thanks for the pea and ham recipe - i will give it a go!

Welcome - Notjustlaura! I hope you find a lot of helpful hints on here

off to stare at my energy monitor! I am getting obsessed with it!!! :rotfl:

elfen

Check bank
Check surveys
Check onepoll
Check TT for bill amount and date
Put onto calender
NSD
Meal plan for rest of the week with what I've got in (meat and veg will feature a LOT lol)
Make budget for the week
Shred
Jog

La_escocesa

Hi everyone :wave:

Working hard today…

Here's what I'm doing…
· Aiming for NSD#4
· HM lunch
· Enjoying free drinks x 4 @ work
· Asked boss to pre-pay my travel can't afford to pay out then claim expenses - still waiting on £82 back from last week and got another expense of £240 to put through :eek:
· Check cc balance - nowt changed yet. Shall check again tomorrow.
· Visit SiL and take her pressie - terramundi - secretly hoping I get one from her for Crimbo
· Bit more tidying and neverending washing up
· Little washing on quick wash @ 30
· Going to go out somewhere on my lunch break - sun is shining - but thinking of something free - might go read my book somewhere. (I want a kindle!!!)
· Check e bay stuff…

Catch up later everyone! I'm especially interested in these foody posts (thanks DNMS & Fayjmck) but best get off this t'internet…

PurpleFairy26

Afternoon all!

Hope day going well Cat

List for today:
Started 'account' for vouchers for DD childcare that I can get through salary sacrifice when I rtw
Walk to town with DD saving petrol and parking
Tea from freezer
Food shop on line ready for delivery on pay day
Check banking
Sort some stuff out tonight in spare room

Have a good day everyone enjoy the sunshine of you have it x

redsam

Afternoon All

hope all is well with everyone, jobs, new jobs etc....Its sunny in Brizzol

todays list...
-3.30am start take friends to airport - done
-lay in when return from airport - done
-currently painting walls in the garden - using the paint in the coal shed, so no purchasing needed
-visit allotment- chickens and greenhouse (okra is looking good!)
-severe prunning in front and rear garden
-wrap shoes to post (sold on ebay)
-book cat into vets for yearly jab and order special food - done
-put washing away
-mop, sweep and hoover
-make potato and courgette soup
-make more courgette and walnut cakes for freezer
-drop card into neighbout - they just had their baby (card from stash bough over a year ago)
-check bank account - not bad still in overdraft but that will disapear slowly
-transfer paypal funds into current account - done
-apartg from allotment dont go anywhere otherwise may be tempted to spend!
-feed friends cats whilse she is on holiday

lots to do hopefully i will get it all done.