Whats wrong with my Shopping List??

vivaladiva

Hi
Have you had a look at Black Saturn's menu planners? She does amazing things on a tight budget.
BTW from your list Tesco's value onions and flour are fine.:D

Zed42

Good luck, you'll sort it

Just a couple of observations (you did ask ).

1. Smiley faces, I wouldn't. Potatoes are back in season, locally a bag of 25kg costs us £5.50, now this is "only" a saving of £2.00, but it's still a saving.

2. Chicken - have you contemplated turkey? When we were strapped for cash, turkey proved to be a tasty, cheaper and lower fat alternative.

3. Baby wipes - I know you may be near the end of nappies for DS, hence why I won't suggest switching to cloth, but have you contemplated switching to cloth wipes (ie flannels). You could either buy a pack of flannels (£2 for 10 from Ikea) or chop up an old towel. I found these far kinder on DD's posterior and could be used safely on face / bottom / injuries (apparently the magic cure is a wet flannel !) and can just be lobbed in the wash. I still use flannels now DD is 3, I just lob them in an old ice cream container with soda crystals until I'm ready to put a load of washing on.

4. Pasta ... I couldn't live without some pasta in my cupboards!! Dirt cheap and can be jazzed up in a multitude of ways (tin chopped toms with herbs, cheese sauce, milk puddings)

katglasgow

Well done your second lists shows you are doing really well.

Can I add a few comments?

Instead of the 2 in 1 washing powder for £3.98, try the tesco value washing powder of liquid (I use Asda Smart price liquid at £1.50 a bottle for 2 adults and 1 x 3 yr old, it has always got our clothes clean, no has any allergies and lasts OK, smart price fabric conditioner is 40p a bottle). With the money you have saved maybe get a few more tins? e.g. chopped tomatoes, beans, value kidney beans for casserole.
Also if you are thinking about doing a bit of baking it might be worth getting a second cheaper tub or margerine to use just for baking as its a bit extravegant to user the nicer tasting butter spreads for this.
We also make a dirt cheap meal using smart price noodles in curry sauce (2 packets and 7p each) and a packet of smart price stir fry veg (40-50p) I am sure Tesco will do na similar the curry taste is lovely with it and it is a very fast meal with lots of veggies. obviously stiry fry veg doesnt keep best eaten of day it is bought or the next day.

HTH karyn

Lucie_2

Nope, I didn't think your first list was too bad either, but the second one is better in terms of store cupboard supplies. Things like the sugar, flour, custard powder & loo roll won't need to be replaced every time. The only thing I'd be including is a big bag of value pasta, which is really versatile.

You should be able to get 2 meals from the chicken, 3 meals from the mince, lots of sausage dinners (toad in hole, casserole, saus & mash), a corned beef dinner (pie, hash), a couple of egg based meals (ham & mushroom or cheese omelette), a couple of jacket potato based meals (with beans, cheese etc) and the pizza. It just about makes up to 14 meals if you have sausages 2-3 times a week.

Why not write down what you have for dinner every night for the next 2 weeks & then you'll have an instant meal plan for the following 2 weeks. By varying a few ingrdients in your shopping list it needn't be too repetitive.

sammy_kaye18

Ok have managed to find a few alternatives after reading a few more suggestions and re reading a few of the other ones.

Just having a browse about and found

Porridge Oats (not instant add milk stuff) in Tescos for 48p (1kg) which would obviously be a better buy.

Also figured out i could swap the tinned sweetcorn(17p) for 2 tins of plum tomatoes (23p for both) so i could do spaghetti bolognese, chilli, and alot more pasta dishes,

Also what money ive saved with the porridge oats i can afford to buy a jar of seedless raspberry jam and a jar of lemon curd. which can either be used for snadwiches or baking with.

i go over by 11p though which hopefully i will be able to save with (because just realised the site doesnt take off the offers utnil its delivered to you so hopefully id have saved 11p somewhere - the BOGOF with the butter)

so i now have a successful shopping list for the beginning of November which is when i will be going next.

Can i also ask any slow cooker -ers out there - any ideas on a nice soup i can make in it with the veg i have/intend to buy - i also know i have vegetable stock cubes in the cupboard that are stored away that i could use
.

elona

I just put a couple of stock cubes, water, chopped onions , carrot and onions, perhaps chopped potato and it turns out fine.

I make pea and ham soup with a ham shank,onions and potatoes ( I use a packet of dried peas soaked in water the night before - for 30 pence.)
DH raves about this!

katglasgow

If you wait until you have started using the chicken then you'll have the carcass to use as chicken stock (and a handfull of meat pickings - the really tiny bits that are hard to do anything else with). You can put carcas in SC overnight with 2 pints water to make chicken stock, then either freeze stock of make the soup.
Would be nice with onion/carrot and a potato, and maybe an extra veg stock cube but dont put any extra salt in the soup (if you have black pepper and a bay leaf or any dried herbs they are good but not essential).
If you have a bag og red lentils you can make lentil soup with onion/carrot/turnip and veg stock cubes. Might be worth getting a bag for your cupboard in the next shop, they last for ages as you hardly need any.

vivaladiva

If you want to make flapjack use Tesco's better oats (they're only about 10p more). IMHO makes much nicer flapjack - no idea why except that if you follow the directions for making porridge the cheaper ones take longer to cook.

lynzpower

One thing I would consider for a following shop when you possibly have a little more leeway is a bag of frozen sweetcorn. A handful in a chicken stock with some chopped potato makes a great chicken & sweetcorn soup you can break a bit of pasta in as well for a chicken noodle sweetcorn style soup.

Another thing you can do is make a thick batter as you would for pancakes with the SR flour with some defrosted sweetcorn in so its gloopy lightly fry on each side then grill they turn into little burgers/ patties/ fritters and are scrum for adults & kids alike. ( I acrually saw these called sweetcorn fingers in tescos veggie section 1.50 for 10- ridiculous!) I roguely have these with a roast dinner ( dont shout at me purists!) but they are great with fishfingers & mash and your LO can have in his hand as a snack. I also like them with sweet chilli dipping sauce. YUM

jackieb

If you don't already have a slow cooker, they're selling them in Tescos for £9.99 at the moment. They're excellent, especially for cheaper cuts of meat. You could make a double batch of casserole or soup and freeze one lot for another time.

I also get my milk from Farmfoods as another poster has suggested. £1.60 for 2x2litres of milk.