Sams shopping saga....... (very long post!)

twink

any chance of being able to get to a supermarket on the 24th in the run up to closing, bound to be bargains if they are closed for two days, anyone know the best time of afternoon to go?

lynzpower

I have to say, I wenrt to tescos yesterday and far from being empty the place was overflowing with gear and everything was yellow labelled.
Loads of sausages, chicken, meat joints, and fridges FULL of thosepicky snacky bits for Xmas the bacon & sausage rolls, mini pizzas/eclairs blah blah. Not very old style but certainly very cheap.

I got as much meat as I could carry

Samy have you done a MENU PLAN with the things you are buying?

culpepper

That seems like a lot of cereal even for 3 weeks if there are only 2 adults and a littley.
We buy oats for 43p.Can be mixed with raisins for a muesli style brek or made into porridge and second as flapjack ingredients or quick crumble topping.
The raisins seem pricey too. We pay 41p in Asda for 500g.Mixed dried fruit is 41p for 500g in sainsburys.
IF you use milk for cooking, powder milk is fine and very useful if you run out of fresh too when made up and refridgerated.

**purplemoon**

Don't know what size/breed dog you have so don't know how long that food would last him but agree with other posters about changing to dry food. Gusto is a good food and is what we use for our dog.

Agree about waiting till Jan to buy wormers too but I wouldn't get them from supermarket (expensive and don't work) and the proper ones from vet (or online) are only a couple quid each.

black-saturn

Prioritise things and make sure you pay money out on whats most important like the electric and gas. Don't spend too much on christmas presents. Sit by candlight in the evenings and put on lots of layers instead of the heating.

sammy_kaye18

Hi all

thanks for the tips

The dog food - he is a rescue dog , needs to add weight to him and suffered a really severe bout of worms when in the shelter so he needs the extra food to help get his 'fat supplies' for winter up - if you get what i mean - hes literally bones and a bit of skin. The wormers i could do without but i was advised by vet to give him another tablet as he is still not gainign any weight and its been weeks now. The bag of dog food i have now is a third full so the other dry stuff i mix in with it - and he has a tin so that will alst me about 2 and a half weeks. he gets a few carefully chosen odd scraps of chicken if we have a roast dinner etc too. I cant warrant putting him on gusto yet as its for working dogs and because he is fairly frail and he gets cold really easily (hes only 3 years poor pooch) hes not active enough to burn it off - he'd just end up obese.

At ngiht we do use candles - bf is a candle maker - so handy!! and we do sit wiht the lights off etc in the evening - bf even has his bath by candle light too as he finds it soothing

I am planning to raid the reduced section when i go into tescos too. I always do. i find i get alot of veg in that so i can batch make soup in the slow cooker. - plus my littel one loves brocolli and cauliflower cheese and is a huge veggie fan so hes well fed!!

I do do alot of baking - fairy cakes, scones, victoria sponges, biscuits, cookies, so that is goign to cover most of our treats this winter. So i think i will leave the jaffa cakes out after all.

As for bread i work in a local coop so i get alot of discounted bread there which is good too

On the subject of food shopping though - tomorrow i am going to the local big coop (mine is a small outlet) with my mother and as i am an employee we have been given double discount which means i get 20% off my shopping so i will be using that tomorrow and my mum is kindly lending £20.

I got a large chicken today (£3.99 - 25%(reduced as the date on it is the 21st) = £2.99 - 20% (discount) = £2.39) so ive put that in the freezer as our christmas dinner which should be good - and plenty of meat left for soup, curry, sandwiches etc (its going to be a giant rubber chicken - it weighs 1.8kg - alot for 2 adults and a 2 year old) and ill raid their reduced section too - my freezer is only small but practically empty so ill fill it tomorrow with meat and the fridge with reduced veg tomorrow i think as they are always handy to have.

will let you know how i do tomorrow

**purplemoon**

sammy_kaye18 wrote:

Hi all

thanks for the tips

The dog food - he is a rescue dog , needs to add weight to him and suffered a really severe bout of worms when in the shelter so he needs the extra food to help get his 'fat supplies' for winter up - if you get what i mean - hes literally bones and a bit of skin. The wormers i could do without but i was advised by vet to give him another tablet as he is still not gainign any weight and its been weeks now. The bag of dog food i have now is a third full so the other dry stuff i mix in with it - and he has a tin so that will alst me about 2 and a half weeks. he gets a few carefully chosen odd scraps of chicken if we have a roast dinner etc too. I cant warrant putting him on gusto yet as its for working dogs and because he is fairly frail and he gets cold really easily (hes only 3 years poor pooch) hes not active enough to burn it off - he'd just end up obese.

If that's the case I really would'nt be feeding him Tesco Value food then as this is basically !!!!!! and really isn't going to help him put on much needed weight and condition. No amount of worming pills will make him put on wieght either if he isn't eating a decent quality diet. I don't mean to sound harsh but I have to wonder why you've taken on a rescue dog if you really can't aford to rehabilitate him, these dogs need the very best of care in both time and money, as they have often been badly neglected by previous owners. I think you need to discuss this with the people you adopted him from and/or your vet to get himn on a proper rehab programme.

Good luck

PS having re-read what you wrote I have to wonder if it's the food you're giving him that's stopping him gaining weight, opposed to worms which ifyou've treated him already with the stuff from the vets then he should be clear from that, and sayingyou can't warrant putting him on Gusto cos he can't burn it off and will get obese??? - he can't burn anything off right now if he's underweight and doesn't need to, he needs to gain weight from what you say. He needs a high protein food to enable him to do that so Gusto would be far better than what he's on right now, but as i said you need to discuss this with his adopters/your vet as they can advise you what's best for him.

Penny-Pincher!!

sammy_kaye18 wrote:

Ok Christmas has rolled around again and even though ive been really good with the gift buying and come in under budget im still struggling and have £10 to make it through to friday with.

* My electric has just gone onto emergency which means i have £4.
* My gas meter has £5 on it still and £2 emergency luckily
* My washing machine blew up this morning (near enough literally!)
* My bf has done no Xmas shopping - our son is sorted by me , his other son
has one gift and he hasnt brought me anything yet

The money i have coming in on friday is £226 (child tax and child benefit) and this has to cover the food shop, presents, gas and electric (until pay day on the 7th January)

So am planning
* to budget bfs money for his son to £60 (he already has a PS2 game - cars
from us) and will get him a few more bits in the sales (his birthday is
January 16th) and £20 for me - ive told him exactly what i want!
* Gas and electric are having £20 each
* Food - £50 max

also must add that luckily i work in the coop and as a Christmas present they are giving us things in the shop of our choice to the value of £12 - although we arent sure if we will get these before or after Xmas - ive chosen £3.99 large whole chicken and a £8 top side beef roast - totalling £11.99!!!!! so hopefully i shouldnt need to include meat in the xmas shopping! (might get a chicken just in case it doesnt appear until after Xmas though!)

anyway im using this page to sort of plan the shopping i need to do - bearing in mind im venturing to tescos on 22nd december!!!! i think ill be lucky if i get most if any of it. Please feel free to leave comments suggestions though

In my store cupboard i have a few things (left form the sotre cupboard challenge)

cupboard
plain flour
self raising flour
icing sugar
bicarb of soda
rice - 3kg
pasta - 2kg
beans x 3
spaghetti x 3
lemon curd
milkshake mix (one banana, one strawberry)
gravy granuales
1 tin of tomatoes
custard powder
potatoes
jelly granuales

fruit bowl
1 clementine
2 apples

christmas cupboard
box of after eight mints
cake mixes
trifle mix
marshmallows
choccie biscuit selection box

fridge
bit of cheese
milk
2 eggs
raspberry jam
butter
about 4 rashers of bacon
swede
carrots
mushrooms- all looking past their best i must say so need using asap - im thinking soup

freezer
frozen whole chicken - needs using soon!taking out tomorrow for wednesdays tea3 turkey steaks
smilie faces
half bag of frozen peas
20 sausages
2 frozen garlic breads

Other stuff
35 nappies
1 pack of wipes
bottle of baby shampoo barely used
bottle of musle soak radox
5 tins of dog food
half a bag of dried dog food


So i figure i shouldnt need too much really with what ive got but heres my shopping list

cupboard
granulated sugar - 72p
tea bags - 29p
coffee - 78p
malt loaf - 69p (BOGOF)
sultanas - 59p
squash - 2 for £2.50-GO FOR CHEAPER ALTERNATIVE
jaffa cakes - 2 for £2.00 (48 bickies!) - can always leave these off
rice crispies - £1.09
frosted flakes - £1
cornflakes - £1

fruit bowl
clementines - 99p (coop)
bananas - £1.09
apples - £1.37
pears - £1.28

fridge
12 eggs - £1-15 FOR £1 AT ASDA/TESCO
cheese - 97p
yoghurts - 10 (5 for £2) = £4
milk - £2 - ICELAND - 12pints
butter - 91p-VALUE BUTTER 52P TASTES EXACTLY THE SAME
carrots - 68p 1kg
swede - 49p
onions - 28p
potatoes - 89p - 2.5kg-I WOULD BUY 2 BAGS AND FREEZE EXCESS ONCE COOKED
bacon - 1.77

freezer
mince - 800g - £1.48
chicken - £2.69 (incase coop stuff isnt here yet)-2 FOR £4 IN ICELAND ATM
pizza - 3 for £3 - ICELAND


other
12 tins of dog food - £3.68
bag of tesco value dog food - £1.40
toilet roll - £1.13
washing powder - £3.74 for 3kg
dog wormer £3.58

TOTAL 48.16

Hope it all goes ok for you. You will be fine, might be abit tight but it can be done!

Hugs

PP
xx

V.Lucky

I notice you don't have many nappies to last 29 days at just 35 in stock. Is this enough or will you have to buy some more of those too. Instead of wetwipes it you run out, use cotton wool and water - bit messy but will save you money, if you already have cotton wool in the house.

Best of luck, hope it all works out for you.

What are you doing about the broken washer?

Penny-Pincher!!

Do you have any advantage card points for nappies/wet wipes etc?

Also, are you on any mean tested benefits If you are also receiving HB or CTB you can get free care from the PDSA...well you make a donation. They can provide tablets and even food in certain circumstances.

HTH

PP
xx