Super Scrimpers

PipneyJane

£140k salary? I'm having a serious case of salary envy.

But it was the £14,000 per year on food that blew me away. That's more than my DH's wages this year. We eat well (lots of fresh veg, lots of "quality" meat) but our annual housekeeping budget is £2,400 and that includes money set aside for the garden (plants, seeds, grow-bags, etc).

Thoughts on the family Christmas Dinner feature: they usually spend £400 for booze for the Christmas period. What were they drinking? As it was, they didn't have a booze cabinet to raid so where did it all go? For £200, I'd take the car to France, stock up on wine in Carrefour or SuperU and have plenty left over for the rest of the year. Oh and get a nice day out into the bargain.

I missed how much they spent on chocolates, but gather it was several tins at £5 a pop. For a fiver, you can easily make a ton of HM chocolates. I'm planning on making sloe chocolates based on a recipe from the forums at https://www.sloe.biz. Also Nigella Lawson's Christmas pudding truffles.

Butterfly_Brain

candygirl wrote: »

We said the same, and that Baileys she made worked out dearer than the Aldi one at £3.99 which is lovely :D

Hate to say it but it is £5.99 a bottle this year :eek:

jammy_dodger

Butterfly_Brain wrote: »

Hate to say it but it is £5.99 a bottle this year :eek:

dont they sell a "luxury " one for £5.99 and a regular one for £3.99 ?? thats what i read on an aldi thread on here

ihope so as going this week to get some in:D

La-Cara

KolaKube wrote: »

It's on! and the orange hat is back

I wish she'd swap the orange hat for a helmet when she's on her bike- getting a brain injury from falling off isn't very moneysaving!

*steps off soapbox*

gailey_2

does anyone think I could sucessfully substitute blackberry for plums?
As I have tonnes!

between scrimpers and jaimie have a few last min pressies to make!

liked the catchup and see how well they doing.
especially the young couple with twins.

learning how to budget so essential.

couldent beleive those women who said they binned half/1/3 of their leftover turkey!

Going to try the cheesy biscuits.

I think everyone can have a fantastic xmas on cheap if they prepared to make a lot from scratch.

On weekend im batch cooking mince pies
mini quiches
sausage rolls.

I was annoyed at that couple shopping in tesco would have done better in lidls.

I buy nostina tomatoes from lidls.
hate the value ones.

candygirl

jammy_dodger wrote: »

dont they sell a "luxury " one for £5.99 and a regular one for £3.99 ?? thats what i read on an aldi thread on here

ihope so as going this week to get some in:D

Yea that's right.Got the cheapo one for £3.99 today;)

maman

VfM4meplse wrote: »

The lady who was making the homemade Christmas cards made me laugh...her efforts looked like ransom notes :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

Oh I just loved that I'm all for HM stuff but how naff were they???

candygirl wrote: »

Mrs M really needs to ditch that bloody hat:eek::eek:

Definitely. I must admit some of the other 'presenters' could do with a bit of a makeover too. They give 'scrimpers' a really bad image. Is it the law that if you're mse you have to be a frump, a weirdo, overweight or all of those things?;)

chirpychick wrote: »

I do not understand why they dont have pigs in blankets or beef because i could certainly do those on a £50 budget.... not that id really bother with 2 different meats but i could do it. No need to go without!

I thought I heard her say she usually started buying her Christmas food in June. So why, this year when she's trying to be frugal, did she just go off to buy the lot in one go and in T*sco? of all places? Obviously not heard of shopping around. I'd love to have seen the receipt for the food she bought. And why she didn't do pigs in blankets when all she needed was a bit of streaky bacon, I've no idea.

The trouble is, you see her type every year. They're going round the supermarket with a couple of trolleys piled high with absolute junk. No shopping list, just throwing it all in.

It would be laughable but when you heard how much food gets thrown away in this country every Christmas:eek:, it was absolutely criminal.

VfM4meplse

PipneyJane wrote: »

Are you sitting comfortably? The last time I price checked (last week), the chopped tomatoes I buy in Costco are cheaper than the Mr T's Value ones. They're not Napolina, though, they're the other brand... << goes and checks >>... Valfrutta at £3.19 for a tray of 12, so just under 27p a can. I'm sure the T. Value ones were 31p.

gailey wrote: »

I buy nostina tomatoes from lidls.
hate the value ones.

I prefer the cartons of passata, but you do need to either cook in bulk or freeze what isn't used.

[Deleted User]

I too was wondering if the blackberries could be substituted for plums. I have massive tins of plum halves, also cherries and pineapple. Would It work with tinned fruit and would i put it in with the syrup its in, or drain and add sugar (prob a silly question). If anyone knows, i would really appreciate it. I got a good recipe for toffee vodka off mse, did a different version with value toffees and eclairs (it was lush), here is a link for similar for anyone interested http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xmKeNb_XXJE

PIGSMAYFLY

Check out your locol co-ops if you have one local, I have been lucky the past few days and had some right reduced bargains: Large chicken £3.25, mini gammon joint 99p, pigs in blankets (15) £1.35 then large bag of carrots 15p, cabbage 20p, large bag of sprouts 35p Then for pud two syrup sponges 55p. Thats most of are christmas food for under £7. With lots of leftovers as there are only the two of us to feed.

HTH someone. Money is very tight atm I was signed off of work for two weeks due to a mental breakdown, the doctor wont sign me off any longer and my manager refuses to let me go so the only money coming in is TC and this is JUST covering rent, bills ect as I have used my savings. I don't understand why a month later he wont let sack me...... Ho hum. Well thats my moan of the day over with. LO and I will get through it.