Immoral_angel's Debt Diary

Spendless

IA- Have you told tax credits about your new baby? Cos you get an additional £545p.a for the first year of babys life. It's called the baby element of tax credits. If you haven't told them yet do so ASAP because they will only backdate 3 months.

Taking the nappy off may turn out to be a blessing in disguise if she becomes interested in using the potty, then you'll only have one lot of nappies to buy.:T

earwig-have you looked on the o/s board to reduce your shopping bill. Re swimming does your local pools give free admission to your youngest. Our council run one does till they are 5 and the private one till they are 2. Invest in a couple of drinks bottles and take a drink and snack with you. Look at a weekly/monthly bus pass if that'll work out cheaper. Libraries often have free sessions, toddler groups can be cheap. (I pay £1.20 for my 3yo and includes drink and biscuits for both of us).

immoral_angeluk

earwig wrote:

hi ia i hope you dont mind me asking but what do buy in the way of food i notice that your food bill is quite low and you are a young famley of four we to are a famley of four dd age 8 ds 2and half and i cant get my food bill down from 80 /90 per week so i wondering if you could give me some tip what sort of things you buy dinner lunchs ect and do you buy value stuff or branded name i hope you dont mind it just if i could get my food bill down to 50 per week then that 40 per week of my debt

and (also not asking much am i) what sort of things do you do to keep you all entertaned what ever i do seems cost money ie we go swimming it 5 pounds in busfare then sixpounds for the swimming and two pounds for a drink afterwoods so nearly fifteen quid gone just for a few hours and if we dont go then everyone is fed up so any ideas would be good thanks

Hi earwig, we normally spend about £180 on food and toiletries including nappies and formula. We do 2 big shops a month normally where we spend about £30 in iceland and about £40 in tesco, which leaves around £40 for bread/milk/nappies and formula as needed throughout the month. From tesco we buy value things mainly and tesco brand nappies, as well as getting all our frozen stuff from iceland and buying the best deals where we can. We've also shopped around for the best deals and for example we can get 18 decent toilet rolls from home bargains for £2.99, and the rest of our shop is split between iceland, tesco and our local fruit and veg shop. What I will do is do our normal shop on tesco.com and post it up so you can see exactly what we manage on. We don't buy anything we don't need though and buy with meals in mind (but not strictly) and if we're running low we'll use our imaginations rather than running out to buy more food and will use what we've got in already. As for Steve's lunches we don't budget for that in the food budget, it comes out of his daily spend.

As for entertainment we don't go 'out' out often and if we do it's normally a treat at the end of the month if we've done well with our budgeting to be able to afford it. I take Ashli to a toddler group every week which costs £1.50 a time, and we go for walks to a park which is 5 mins walk away. Also my friend (The one who told me about the job) takes Ashli places when she gets time as Ash loves to spend time with her. We looked at what we could do locally which didn't mean wasting money on petrol etc that she'll still enjoy. Other than that we play in the house and do things together like sitting down drawing etc when K lets me! Luckily Ashli's still young and will go along with anything but the key is to research things you can do for little money and/or travel. That's how we found the toddler group and she absolutely loves it! Whatever we do we also take our own snacks and drinks.

Will post again in a bit with our normal tesco shop.

immoral_angeluk

1 Tesco Value Orange Juice 1 Litre Carton 0.58
2 Tesco Value Tomato Soup 400g 0.46
1 Tesco Value Curry Flavour Instant Noodles 65g 0.08
1 Tesco Value Bacon Flavour Instant Noddles 65g 0.08
1 Tesco Value Ready To Serve Custard 396g 0.21
1 Tesco Value Rice Pudding 425g 0.19
1 Tesco Value Fruit Cocktail In Syrup 410g 0.22
1 Tesco Value Gravy Granules 170g 0.38
2 Seriously Oaty Golden Honey 5x40g 0.98
1 Tesco Value Sunflower Spread500g 0.38
2 Tesco Value Cooked Ham 125g 0.70
1 Tesco Ultra Softcarry Pack Mini 46 3.85
1 Tesco Super Fit Economy Pack Extra Large 44 6.97
1 Sma Gold Baby Milk 900g 5.98
1 Tesco Macaroni Cheese 410g 0.46
2 Don Mario Ravioli 400g 0.54
4 Tesco Value Baked Beans In Tomt/Sauce 420g 0.68
2 Tesco Value New Potatoes 567g 0.52
1 Colmans Casserole Mix Chilli Con Carne 50g 0.64
1 Tesco Premium 160 Teabags 500g 1.49
1 Tesco Value Rich Tea 300g 0.23
1 Tesco Value Custard Cream Biscuits 400g 0.27
1 Tesco Value Bourbon Creams 400g 0.34
1 Tesco Value Milk Chocolate Digestives 300g 0.27
1 Tesco Value Digestive Biscuits 400g 0.22
2 Tesco Value Fromage Frais 6 Pack 360g 0.88
1 Miscellaneous Granulated Sugar2kg Parcels 1.43
1 Uncle Bens Bib Long Grain Rice 250g 1.05
1 Hellmanns Real Mayonnaise 400g 1.38
4 Tesco Value Sweetcorn 325g 0.68
1 Tesco Tuna Chunks In S/Flwroil 4x185g 1.97
1 Value Potatoes 5kg 1.49
1 Warburtons Medium Sliced White Bread 800g 0.96
1 Tesco Frosted Flakes 750g 1.29
1 Dolmio Pasta Bake Creamy Tomato 500g 1.30
1 Tesco Conchiglie Pastashells 3kg 1.00
1 Tesco Value Spaghetti 500g 0.16


Guide price £40.31


I'll have to estimate iceland as they don't do online shopping but here goes..

Eggs - £1 for big pack
Frozen veg, 2 bags - £2
Milk (semi skimmed and whole) £2
Cheese (big block) - £2
Frozen chips - £1.25
Curcly fries - £1
Steak pies (6 pack) - £2
40 sausages - £2
Burgers - £1
Pork steaks - £2
6 Chicken breaststeaks - £2
Mince (big bag) - £2
Chicken sticks - £1
Bacon - £1.25
Crumpets - £0.50
2 x Syrup/Raisin pancakes - £1

Total - £24 (Unless I've forgotten something but that's most of it!

Fruit shopping from local fruit and veg shop normally comes to about £2 for apples, oranges and bananas bought as needed throughout the month (never in one go so we'll have apples one week, oranges the next etc.).

baby wipes, kitchen and toilet roll from home bargains (£4, 0.89 and 2.99) = £7.88


Total shop £74.19 twice a month = £148.38 leaving £31.62 for bread/milk/formula and nappies as needed. Sometimes we do go over budget but it's never by more than £10. Sometimes we don't need everything on the above lists so we often don't spend that much on each shop.

Here an idea of the main meals we have,

sausage casserole, spaghetti bolognaise, chili con carne, cheese and tomato pasta pake, tuna mayo and sweetcorn pasta, cheese and potato pie with beans, meat with potatoes and veg, etc.

for lunches/snacks Ashli has fruit, yoghurts, sandwiches, crumpets, macaroni cheese, beans on toast, etc. For her main meals we make an extra portion of our evening meal for her and either freeze it or put it in the fridge if it's going to be eaten the next day and just reheat them thoroughly.



Hope that all makes sense! Things like bin bags, cleaning stuff etc we buy as needed but always buy the cheapest. For our spray cleaners I buy a big tesco value multi purpose cleaner for 81p and dilute it into spray bottles we already have. A bottle usually last a good month or 2 cleans and just as good as the expensive cleaners with the advantage that you can use one bottle on everything instead of different kinds of cleaners, plus you can use the multi purpose cleaner on the floors as well when mopping.

immoral_angeluk

Spendless wrote:

IA- Have you told tax credits about your new baby? Cos you get an additional £545p.a for the first year of babys life. It's called the baby element of tax credits. If you haven't told them yet do so ASAP because they will only backdate 3 months.

Taking the nappy off may turn out to be a blessing in disguise if she becomes interested in using the potty, then you'll only have one lot of nappies to buy.:T

earwig-have you looked on the o/s board to reduce your shopping bill. Re swimming does your local pools give free admission to your youngest. Our council run one does till they are 5 and the private one till they are 2. Invest in a couple of drinks bottles and take a drink and snack with you. Look at a weekly/monthly bus pass if that'll work out cheaper. Libraries often have free sessions, toddler groups can be cheap. (I pay £1.20 for my 3yo and includes drink and biscuits for both of us).

Yep, called them the day after she was born! lol! (I've got my priorities right..:rotfl: ) They upped our payments from 35.44 a week to £82.43

earwig

hi ia
thankyou for your help i can see where i go wrong i buy mainly braned names and lots of meat we have lamb chops beef joints and steak at least once a week and i can see that would use alot of my shoping money up on that also i buy loads more junk than you a typcial week is
kit kat two finger ten in a pack 129.00
snickers 5pack 120
marsbars 5pack 120
ripples 5 pack 129
choc digestives 119
digestive 59
bourben creams 53
pengiuns 99
fruit shorties 69
12pa crisps 149
and 30 yes 30 cans of coke 1107
choc sponge 149
jam sponge 149
total 2451
oh dear i can see what my problems is out of my 80 per week shoping only 55 is on food we do buy a lot of junk but its for oh pack lunchs dd pack up and mine the ripples i eat i dont know why but for years i have woken up at 4 in the morning eat a ripple and have a can of coke and go back to bed i will have to rethink the lunchs thing as that is to much junk i didnt think that it would be that much it would be cheeper to have school dinner for dd

also i will have to have a look at having some cheeper dinners the problem is my oh is old fashion with food he is your meat and two veg man i have given him noodle in the past and he will eat them but will still expect his dinner and if dosnt have one he will just go of and have a takeaway but i could look at buying cheeper cuts of meat instead mybe that will be cheeper the sauage casrole do you have a reipce for that as thats somthing he would eat and enjoy the chilli i wouldnt eat dont like spicy food but i will do a speg boll as we all like that and its somthing i keep forgeting about

the problem is where i live there is nothing to do apart from shop i live in suppermarket city we have a tesco saisburry coop netto and asda all in about a mile of each other there is a small shopping center with not much there a bakers and butchers paper shop and chemist and a pound streachers but that is it every thing else is a bus ride away and as for our park i would only go there if i had a bodygruard with me as it to rough and abit of the beaten track with fields all around it but i will try and do more indoor stuff dd likes making cakes so instead of buying the cakes this week she can make one in stead kill two birds with one stone that way thankyou so much for taking the time to write all your stuff down for me it must of been hard with two little ones in two so much apricated i will relook at our food bill now and try and talk to oh about the dinners over the weekend so when we go shopping on sunday i should be able to get it right down i will let you know how i get on thanks again earwig

themaccas

IA and Earwig you are making me hungry!! Our 'sweet' budget is as follows:
2 packs value chocolate digestives 0.54p
2 packs value museli bars £1.58p
1 pack tesco choc biscuits 0.80p
4 pack tesco value crisps £2.04

Total snacks for family of 5 per week - £4.96! And when it's gone it's gone! We got a great 'Cheap Eats' cookbook from Waterstones, it is a selection of cheap meals from the BBC Good Food magazine, it only cost £4.99 and it is really good, many of the meals are very cheap and quick to make, I think you can get it from Sainsburys and Amazon too. They do other ones 'Low fat meals', 'quick suppers' and a few others.

Edit: here is the amazon link: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Good-Food-Cheap-Eats-Magazine/dp/0563488417/ref=pd_ka_4/203-0745952-0047952?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1172847819&sr=8-4

immoral_angeluk

The sausage casserole literally costs pennies. We buy one of the colemans packet saus casserole mixes which are 65p, then we use about 10 sausages which is 1 for Ashli, 4 for me and 5 for steve (so 50p based on our bag of sausages costs £2 for 40), then 1/4 of a bag of froz veg whic equates to 25p, and then a tin of new potatoes which are about 21p if I remember right? So
total meal cost is £1.61 unless you want to add the electric cost to cook it LOL.
Basically brown off the sausages, boil up the potatoes and veg, add it all to a casserole dish and pour over the casserole mix, cover in foil and lob in the oven for an hour. It's gorgeous and is the only meal where Ash will eat all her veg! lol!

immoral_angeluk

OH and the tesco biscuits etc taste just as good as the expensive ones but are a fraction of the price!!!

pk2007_2

hello IA
just wanted to say that your thread is very inspiring. Good luck on your DFW journey.

Spendless

IA-Have you asked your HV if you can buy formula at any baby clinics. You could when I had my 2. SMA was £1 a tin less with DS (7yo) by time I had DD (nearly 4) there was pennies in price difference, but there was bigger savings on other brands. Don't know if they still do this or not.

If you are interested in getting your food bill down a bit further, look into making your own sauces, eg using chilli powder with a tin of tomatoes to make chilli-con- carne. Rice pudding can also be made with a little bit of pudding rice, but it takes a long time to cook, unless you have a slow cooker