How much do you live on per month?

Nottoobadyet

lauzt1987 wrote: »

Hi there. Just looking for a bit of advice as i'm a vegi too but find this costs more money! As fruit and veg is so expensive and so is quorn etc. Thank you!

As always, pray at the altar of the OS board! The ladies there have amazing tips for keeping your food budget low. Some of my cheapest regular meals are:

• Soups. Cost nearly nothing for lots of portions. Carrot and coriander soup, for example, can be made for about £1 for enough soup for four meals. Similar costs for butternut squash, lentil soups etc
• veggie chili with lots of different tinned beans- easy to batch cook, very healthy, can be eaten with just about any starch. When served with rice or jacket spuds, work out at less than £1 per serving.
• Spanish omelet, with sweet potato, spinach, tomato and cheese.
  Yummm!
• Curries made from scratch
• Pastas with veg and pesto

I dont like quorn much, but if you like the vegetarian mince it is about x4 cheaper to buy at Holland and Barnet in dehydrated form. I also find buying veg at a local stand is cheaper than the super markets - you can get a whole bowl of carrots, aubergines or courgettes for about £1 each. I dont live on nearly as little as many people here, so I do go for slightly more expensive meals a few times a week, but its good to have fall backs for skint months.

---

To add to the supermarket debate, anyone thinking that you can avoid stinky people by avoiding Lidl needs to visit my Sainsbury's in Camden Town! After 9pm you usually have to navigate the cheese isle between the homeless man in a dress and unfortunate high heels and the goths with 3 infected facial piercings and a clingfilm wrapped tattoo of a zombie. Seriously, you don't want food that some people are standing next to!

determined_new_ms

WASHER wrote: »

Have you checked you are getting everthing you are entitled too, check turn2us (use to be entitled.com) and see if you are getting everything you should. Are you servicing debts? If so, let us know and we can offer advice on how to repay them a lower amount.

Your health is really important, skipping meals isn't the way to go, I appreciate you only have a small amount of money left over, but why not pop over to the OS board, the ladies on there will come up with some meal planning ideas for you within your budget. They can almost work miracles over there.

Some really cheap meal ideas for you:

Jacket Potato with beans (1/2 tin) - day 1 (50P)
Pasta with tin of chopped tomatos stirred in (1/2 tin) - day 2 & day 7 - (approx 60P, if you use value pasta and tomatos)
Beans on toast (1/2 tin) - day 3 (30p)
HM carrot soup (really easy and very cheap) - day 5 and 6 (with bread) (60p)
Poached Egg on toast - day 4 (40p)

With the reminder of the bread you can make sandwiches for work, tesco value ham.

You could even buy a few pieces of fruit.

I have added this up to be £5.00 per week for you.

meal idea for you and your son: (is your son entitled to free school lunches?)

Beans on toast x 2 - day 1 (60p)
Sausages/mash/carrot x 2 - day 2/day 4 (80P each day) Tesco have cumberland sausages on half prices 8 for 98p, you could freeze half the pack, you can buy frozen sausages too even cheaper.
Egg and chips x 2- day 5 (60p)
fishfingers/chips/peas x 2 - day 3 (90p)
Fishfingers, mash and beans x 2 - day 6 (90p) - you can get quality fishcake half price.
Jacket Potato with Tuna x 2 (90p) If you use Tesco value Tuna

Factor in milk, Tesco value bread, a few pieces of fruit, Tesco value toliet rolls, Tesco value teabags,Daisy Kitchen Cleaner (47P), use it for the bathroom too!, Tesco Vlue Squash, you could do this for £10.60 per week, (I have just done it online with Tesco), you could get it cheaper at Lidl. The week after you could buy Tesco Value Soap powder and washing up liquid, as you have the frozen sausages , some eggs, some chips from the previous week, ( another meal for day 8). I'm not saying its easy or ideal, but at least you and your son has eaten.

Hope I have helped, my sister is a single mum who struggles too, I see it first hand what having very little money can do to your health and wellbeing, with careful planning my sister and her children can eat,not the healthiest of diets (in terms of little fruit and veg some weeks, when the bills are a little higher than she expected, but at least shes fed and watered, she will not take help from me either, Ive offered, but she is managing ok with charity shop finds for the children clothes, her clothes and her meal planning, I admire her really being able to do what she does with very little money, I have learnt alot.
WASHER.x.

wow thank you for being so kind and caring :A I was a single parent for yers (and in debt that's how I stumbled over here) and it was truely tough at times -there were many times when I went without food so that my kids could eat or god forbid they needed shoes :eek: i wish I had found this site years ago it would have made all the difference. I now reckon I can live cheaper than I ever have doen in the past. really mis (and anyone else strggling to make ends meet) spend some time over on the os board

Keepgoing_2

This is a great thread, but there's one thing that makes me pretty sad. This may not go down too well, and I do realise it's something people have to make their own minds up about, but ... does no-one out there give to charity, and budget regularly for that???

Obv some people may want to keep it quiet, and loads of people volunteer or donate time rather than money, but I'm a bit surprised that it doesn't seem to come up more in people's outgoings/expenditure. I don't mean the odd quid in a collecting jar, but regular donations. I fully understand that everyone's circumstances are different, and that in some ways we sometimes feel like we are the charity ourselves, lol! Can relate to that, as have had mental health issues for a long time, and quite literally have the bailiffs at the door at the moment myself.
BUT I have always believed in giving away even from what little I have, and doing so regularly. Whether you have religious beliefs, or believe in karma, or believe in humanity, or believe in nothing at all, what goes around tends to come around, and the one thing guaranteed in life is that there is ALWAYS someone out there worse off than you!

determined_new_ms

i guess people can only give to charity if they have money if they are in deficit (sp?) then they actually have no money full stop so no they can't give to charity

ani_26

Yup, what happens if you are a charity case yourself? Is'nt the thread called how much do YOU live on per month? but since we are on the charity theme?

Yes, i have been a charity case, this year, or so, so for all those people who say to me, why don't you do this, why don't you do that? its already been done. Thats shocking proof of how ' poor ' i am, in reality, despite the fact i drive around in a stupid car i can't afford, that gets looked after, better than me. So yes, a charity bought me £50 of food at xmas 2009, because i had no money for food. The same charity who paid for my bankruptcy, the charity who sent me £75 completely out of the blue and totally unexpected, this xmas. Its a shame i could'nt use it for a ' treat '. It went to pay an essential bill, as ever. The same charity who, i guess still regularly rings me up and asks how i'm doing, in fact, rang me last week. I said, i've no money, as ever, and i'm going back for another checkup. I would'nt dream of saying to them, i'm in dire straits again, can i have some money. I know they've declined many potential ' needy ' cases, so i guess i'm the lowest of the low. But one day i hope to call them with good news, and say, i've finally made it, and i'm finally debt free and up to date with all my living expenses, maybe this year?

Hmm, its thought provoking, that. Its set me off thinking about it, as i realise they've been in contact with me for almost two years , now, and i've just remembered i was looking on mse at xmas, to see if i could help out with a charity for xmas, and was genuinely shocked to realise i almost qualified myself, ( just a year out on age ).

Don't they say charity begins at home? I'm not an advocate of donating to charity, and it really annoys me when you see people on the street, trying to get you to sign up, to a charity, or people with buckets with no seals on, ( is'nt this illegal )? Or charity collectors with no id, ( which also is'nt allowed in town), so be very careful who you give your hard earned brass to. When i'm getting hassled by charity collectors, of course it goes through my head, i'm sorry, i don't have any spare change to give, ( sad but true, as i need every penny myself). I get abused for not giving. I'm a charity case myself. But you never know what is happening in someone else's life. I may walk down the street wearing my ' best ' suit from N*** , but it came via a charity shop and cost £1 or £2. I can't remember exactly, because its so long ago, since i bought it.


So with the thought that charity begins at home, and some ridiculous figure, i believe, that something like 98% of every donation goes to the admin, directors etc of these charities, and not to the person you think you are helping, i rarely give financially, to charity, ( not that i can). I believe the best way to help, is with your time and yourself as a person, and i don't mean standing in the street, holding a bucket. I'm sure some of you will come and shoot me down in flames now, for saying all this. I'm not saying it to be cynical or obnoxious. Just my thoughts.


Btw, of course i do have a charity i favour and would always donate to, even though theres been some bad press there too, the R***. Having grown up and watched them in action and the equipment they use, you've got to admire the unpaid jobs these guys do, with no thought to their own lives.

kittypimms

Keepgoing wrote: »

This is a great thread, but there's one thing that makes me pretty sad. This may not go down too well, and I do realise it's something people have to make their own minds up about, but ... does no-one out there give to charity, and budget regularly for that???
QUOTE]

*slightly OT alert!*
Ideally I think we would all give to those Charities which we believe in, but sadly we need to keep our own houses in order first.
I'm lucky in that I can afford to budget for a small monthly donation to sponsor a rescue dog (co-incidentally the one I also foster!) which goes towards saving poundies and vet bills for those not so lucky.

However, the organisations I work with appreciate volunteered time as much as they do financial donation - a Saturday morning spent at the kennels, or an afternoon doing a street collection, or even an evening spent camping out trying to catch strays, so though I haven't much cash to spare, I do have time, which I try to spend helping others.

As is said often, charity begins at home - it could be doing shopping for a neighbour, picking up a friends children, or offering stuff on Freecycle - I'm pretty sure we all help out in whichever way we can, and are appreciated all the more for it

Some great ideas on low cost meals above - thanks very much!

property.advert

Whilst shopping at one place over another can help, shopping from a list makes a far bigger saving as long as you don't buy stuff which is not on the list.

Sparklyfairy

Yup - for me - charity begins at home, too. I don't feel guilty at all about it as I regularly shop & donate to charity shops...surely that accounts for something!?

tallyhoh

schoolrunmum wrote: »

I spend around £170 per week at Tescos,almost £700 per month for 2 adults/2kids!! Must get this down.....oh and I love the comment re the old man smelling of pee in a new car-you are so right about "judging" people........we have many cars (OH just can't seem to sell one, just buys more) one is an old Land Rover,another is a Rolls Royce..you should see the way people speak to me depending on what they saw me get out of!

Just been compiling my shopping list for today-and thought I'd double check what I actually had in stock already...shampoo/conditioner-8 bottles, deodorant-also 8, shower gels-6,hmm,maybe I don't need more then....

WOWWWWW:eek: I only have £800 a month for everything!

7roland8

Re Charity -a lthough on a tight budget I used to sponsor an Indian girl from my DLA. However things ahve got so bad the last yr I have had to stop. I also used to do quizes for one offs like the tsunami etc bt now I think everyone cutting back so much don't like to ask. It seems everyone is wnating to be sponsored for something these days.
I do community stuff, free website, newsletters etc in our village, and give clothes and unwanted items to charity - but regarding money - sorry but there is none - not even for us!