Needing Help.

Quenastoise

marking for reading later ..

gtanny

janb5 wrote: »

Btw I am still puzzling over ` helping my husband with his BR`.......

Hi, im the other half of the marriage and im about to go bankrupt ((BR) im currently living in another area of this forum) so ive asked my wife to see if she can save some cash on our monthly shops as we are going to be living on a tight budget for the next 1-3 years

thanks for all the advice and we have decided to try the home brand mature chedder and im going to try a small jar of the tesco home brand "gold blend" but the nescafe gold is quite a regular thing in the company shop also - which is a good thing. the only other luxery i dont want to drop is my illy coffee as it helps me survive after my night shifts but i have had to cut down on the number i have.

im off sick presently and when i go back i will be explaining im not doing the overtime i have been doing so we should hopefully have more time for a weekly shop.

unfortunatly online shopping isnt an option as parking is very tight where we live and we had to go collect an iceland home delivery as the only parking option was on double yellow lines across the street :mad:

lovethymini

Hiya Mr & Mrs Tanny :wave:, stumbled in, looking for the same kind of advice, fell off the MFW wagon a few months back thanks to DH buying a motorbike, so need to clear a heavy credit card by reducing monthly spend...

Couple of ideas if I can help...
If I need to buy one of the more expensive items, I check online to see which supermarket is selling it the cheapest then go there.
I used to buy expensive laundry products but now I make laundry gloop, use a minimum amount of own-brand fabric conditioner, and splash of white vinegar for towels wash. Saves me a lot of money, as I do a wash a day.
Using my Boots points for redeeming against everyday basics.
I now make my own bread as we used to buy 1 - 2 loaves per week at £1.20 or more each.
I chop up and freeze veggies like onions and leeks, buy bags of kidney beans and soak and cook then batch up for the freezer - much cheaper than buying canned.
I have stopped buying fancy expensive cereal for fickle eater 3 year old, if he doesn't want weetabix or readybrek, tough!

My grocery bill is at it's lowest ever this month but as I'm not a very good cook I've a long way to go yet!

ETanny

Thanks for the welcome!

Lovethymini - Luckily our 3 year old is pretty good when it comes to eating breakfast (We buy the tesco own brand choco snaps and malt wheats) - its just the other meals shes not very good with, especially her evening meal.
In regards to the 'gloop' what does the vinegar do?
How often do you make your own bread? Do you use your oven or do you have a bread maker?

As GT said online is unfortunately out of the question for us because if they cant get parked - they wont deliver! And believe me parking around our way is pretty much impossible - even during the day it can be hard to park.

Nickitree30

I've stopped using fabric conditioner altogether and use a couple of tablespoons of white vinegar with about ten drops of essential oil (current favourite is lemon that I buy online from a place called Summer Naturals). Has the added bonus of keeping the little drawer in the washing machine clean as a whistle. You can use vinegar instead of loads of cleaning products, I'm fairly certain there is a thread on here somewhere. Lemons, bicarbonate of soda and salt are also good as well as being more environmentally friendly and cheaper! Good luck. Ps try grating your cheese before putting it in the fridge, should make it go further.

Barros

when i got a job and started working i thought i was a good shopper. WRONG!

this past year or so i have become very careful about what i buy. why? because i realised (my lb moment!) that alot of the time im going with a brand because ive been bought by the advertising. i.e, drinking a starbucks take out coffee when shopping as i thought it made me look cool. It doesnt, it makes me look like a mug!

so when i got over this, i suddenly started saving. i downgraded on everything. Nothing I buy is branded these days, and i am picky in my food etc. downgrading in a way also makes my meals less of an issue. what i mean is, before i used to live to eat, now i eat to live. its crazy how changing my food shopping habits has changed my outlook and diet so much.

ETanny

I am going to try and be very frugal about this months shopping list. I am even tempted to maybe even try and do it weekly. We really need to curb our spending habits. I want to pass on good advice to our daughter so she doesn't end up in the same predicament me and her dad are in.
I never thought I was a brand snob but I guess I am. I guess I am stuck in my ways - We're all creatures of habit! I just need to try and change!
Like it has been said before, I am not going to be able to do this overnight it is going to be a slow and steady process

lil_me

Ok with your little ones skin that's even more of a reason to use just a small amount of powder or liquid. Liquid rinses cleaner so you're better with that and the less you use the less irritation it causes. Rarely some brands have irritants in, the main factor is how much is left on clothing. Try halving what you use and work down from there. So much better for the skin, if you can reduce by 75% wonderful then you save that much too. Even with 2 mucky boys it does me fine, manky stuff I add a spoon of soda crystals.

Tesco own brand juice try value

Promise yourself never to add DVD/game to the trolley. To help this put any NON grocery/cleaning in a separate transaction. With the cleaning stuff if you want to work it out separate put it at one end of the bill and ask for a subtotal

List what you buy and what you've made, meal plans there is always a thread on here which can provide inspiration aswell as a record. Weighing your food out helps the diet and usage
List EVERYTHING you throw away and post a list in here once a week, people can tell you what you could have done with it buttttt it'll probably shame you into being more careful, it did with me

Look at offers VERY carefully. If Tesco won't deliver find out what you want online and the offers you want to pick up while you are there

I don't shop in supermarkets whenever possible but I did and these things worked

Oh and you're doing amazing on the weight loss, well done!

dollydaydream07

Hi

i can believe that you won't be able to get an online delivery, especially at the height of the season - even in winter the street parking is a nightmare!!!

erm, let me think, have you been to farmfoods near freeman street market?
they do hovis bread at 2 for £1.25 - by far the cheapest i've seen
milk is 8 pints for £1.50
if you eat bacon they do packs of bacon with 18 in a pack for £2.50 or 3 packs for £5(i used to get mine from the butchers on top town market which is 3 for £5 but you get more for your money with the farmfoods packs)
they also do pork steaks with 10 in a pack and they are 3 for £10
if you buy crisps for your DD then they also sell skips/quavers for less than £2 which saves about a £ on the tesco prices
while you are there, check out Netto next door as they often have some good stuff on offer
can you get to aldi near ramsdens as their super 6 can be a real moneysaver when it comes to fresh fruit and veg!
also check out Herons on st peters ave as they are quite cheap for frozen stuff


Coffee - i'm a fine blend girl but have found that Mellow birds is a very good substitute - can get this slightly cheaper than the supermarket from B&M

do some baking with your LO, she will love it and it will save you a fair bit on buying biscuits etc and you know whats gone into them

i'm also trying to lose weight - well done btw - so what i tend to do is, if i have planned for us to have spuds of some sort, i don 't throw the peel away but save it in some water and the next day drain them and bake them in the oven for 10 minutes and have them for my lunch!!

that's all i can think of for now but hope it's of some help

MrsRogers

Hi Mr & Mrs Tanny

Not seen anyone mention My Supermarket.co.uk I swear by this web site.

I understand you can not have online delivery but you could still use this site to make your shopping lists. That is what I do.

I have a browse over all the main offers of the 3 big supermarkets.. choose the one with the best and shop there that week. I meal plan weekly (while doing my list on the above site) ensuring I dont forget anything. It enables you to really compare prices of items that you may not have time to do while actually in the supermarket. It also has a swap and save function giving you alternatives to 'expensive' items you have put in your trolley.

It gives you a total for your trolley .. i then print it off and go to the supermarket with my list and often have a bill to the the penny of what I wanted to spend.

I HIGHLY recommend giving it a go... ive told everyone about it.. only wish I have shares in the company ..Id have made a fortune:rotfl::rotfl:

Biggest different to me for cutting my grocery bill is meal planning and buying what I need and ONLY buying store cupboard extras if there is room in my preset budget.

Good Luck