Is this possible?

oliviarosejackson

Is it possible to live off £100 each week for food/petrol/work?

I know this will probably be a silly question to a lot of you. You will say of course it is possible.

Our household 2 adults 8 yr old DD and 8 month old DS. We are trying to cut right back and start saving, we waste a lot of money on nothing.

The budget would also need to include nappies/wipes/formula (LO only has one formula feed a day. I BF rest of the time). Also cleaning products.

Can any of you give me any tips on how to make everything stretch that little bit further? As I am not good at this.

Thanks in advance.

chanie

I know some of the posters on here will say definitely. But, I think it depends on what you will be including in the costs. The one that sticks out the most for me is the petrol. Whilst you may be able to shop around the cheapest place, there isn't always much difference in the prices.

In terms of baby stuff, well, stock up whilst they are on offer. I buy my nappies in Costco. Yesterday, I bought nearly 300 nappies for £32, plus 18 packs of Pampers sensitive wipes (they were on offer) for £10. The wipes are for the nursery, I normally either use a reusable muslin cloth (they come with my skincare range, so I have loads of them, but a couple of cheap flannels will do), if its a 'messy' nappy, I normally dunk DS in the sink. Saves me loads on buying wipes.

Meal planning - I'm still getting to grips with this, but it does work. I also cook extra and take it for lunch the next day, meaning I don't have to spend money on lunch.

CLeaning products - people on here rave about stardrops. I use them in my bathroom only and its fine. In the kitchen, I use dettol (well, the Poundland version). I get 2 for £1 and I make up a bucketfull, wipe the surfaces and white goods and then mop the floor. Last for ages.

Laundry - again, I buy in bulk from Costcos. I bought their own brand softner and it lasted me 7 months (and I have a one year old so lots of washing!!!). Even if it isn't Costco's, i do recommend buying in bulk as its so much cheaper in the long run.

nuttybabe

Hiya

I think its doable! How much is your petrol a week? How much do you currently spend on food a week? What sort of food do you make?

There is a load of cheap receipes on the shopping budget thread. And not forgetting Weezl's feed a family of 4 for £100 a month http://www.cheap-family-recipes.org.uk/

Do you have time to shop for offers in different supermarkets? Do you have rubber chicken? I cooked a roast chicken today and it will do for 3 more meals (and some pizza toppings for home made pizza). I bulk out spag bol and cottage pie with veg and lentils. And oats in spag bol makes it go a bit creamy - my kids love it.

i make my own cleaning products, all from what i have found on here. washing gloop, kitchen cleaner and bathroom cleaner. Cost very little and lasts for ages.

i am sure someone will be along in a bit who knows more than me.

beemuzed

First off, see what you have right now, in your larder, fridge, freezer,etc. Next make a menu plan for the week - making sure you are using up anything which you already have which may be about to go "off". There are loads of threads on here which will haelp with menu-planning. If you then shop with a list and stick to it you will save money. Therer are alternatives on here to most expensive cleaners, too - but make sure you use up what you already have first.
As to the petrol... you have my sympathy - don't think we have any cheap alternatives to that here!
You can cut back, and you may enjoy the challenge as well. Good luck!
There'll be plenty more advice coming your way, I'm sure.

chanie

Forgot to add:

Markets are often cheaper than supermarkets for fruit and veg. Ditto for butchers, sometimes. I think what you should do is check out hte price per KG in the supermarket and then ask the butchers. In Lidl, I saw chicken breaks as £7.99/kg but in my local butcher it was £5.99/kg.

Eat loads of pasta/rice/couscous which are dirt cheap and bulk out with veg.

A handful of porridge oats in mincemeat bulks it out too.

Baking is supposed to be cheaper. I can't bake, but want to learn. HOwever, it is only cheaper if you do it regularly. Whenever I do it, I have to buy all the ingredients so it costs more than the cost of product if I bought it in the the shop. CHeck out the bakers thread, as I picked up a few tips from there. For example, I didn't know that self raising flour was just plain flour with baking powder added.

ceridwen

I think that is the big question though - first and foremost I think we need to know how much is spent on petrol. So - personally - I think it would be better to work with the amount of money you have left AFTER petrol costs. The petrol could be £2 a week, it could be £20 per week and - without knowing - then its not really possible to see whats what.

Also - I see you include nappies and wipes. Would it be possible to copy your grandma and not use them? - ie use cloth nappies and forget about buying "wipes".?

natlie

I use cheecky wipes www.cheekywipes.com they full set cost £30 and I bought spare wipes for £5 but they are worth every penny and you can use them forever. they say they save you £200 over 2.5 years.

I also use reusable nappies - even if you only use some it helps.

I think including petrol and baby stuff £100 is not enough - but I suppose it depepnds how much your petrol costs are - I live 30 miles return from work.

Nat
x

rachbc

Last week I would have said yes as we are generally doing, however my FIL is now in hospital 20 miles away an I have no idea how we are going to pay for the petrol for visits. He is likely to be in a long time and its a real worry for us. previously we were spending approx £200-240 a month on food, and around £160 on petrol. I have already spend £97 on petrol this month and its only the 4th!

quintwins

i do think this is doable we prob live off slightly less than that, however we put £30 of desil in on an average week, i bulk buy nappies,wipes and laundry liquid when on offer

what rachbc says is right aswell you need a buffer incase things go wrong, even simple things like my mums dog ran away last month 4 days before she got paid it cost her £60 to get him out which she didn't have, i lent it to her but if she'd have kept him in for another 4 days it would have cost her an extra £100:eek:

oliviarosejackson

Hi,

many thanks for all of your replies Lots of useful info to look into, so thank you very much.

Sorry I didn't explain our situation very well in my first post. Petrol costs are around £30 per week.


I am starting a meal plan as of today, we have a lot in our freezer and cupboards already, so I am going to plan everything around that. I like the idea bulking out meals so that everything will go further. OH currently takes left overs to work for his lunch, I am currently on mat leave, but shall be doing the same when I return to work in Sept.

Are reusable nappies very time consuming to clean? I have though about this before, but our little boy is very demanding and I struggle to getting much done in a day. How much to they cost to get started? I like the idea of reusable wipes too, we get through so many of them, so am going to look into them.

We currently spend around £80+ per week on shopping, which I feel is a lot for our small family and sometimes this does not include baby stuff/toiletries for some weeks. We eat a lot of meat during the week, which I feel we need to stop as it is sooo expensive. But I struggle to think of good veggie meals that will fill OH up, he has a big appetite.

How do you guys make a chicken last for 3+ meals? I struggle to get two meals out of one. What do you make for those meals? We had a chicken dinner last week and then I made a chicken curry with the left overs. Also managed to get a couple of sandwiches out of it.

I would love to learn how to bake, so I might have a search round for some threads on baking. As OH has a sweet tooth too.

We are currently growing our own fruit and veg. This is our first year of doing it, so we haven't got a lot, but its a start. We have got carrots, onions, potatoes, sweetcorn, runner beans, rhubarb. Next year we would like to do a lot more. We got some fruit plants last year blackcurrant, raspberry and blackberry. And we have so far had quite a few punnet's of blackcurrants and raspberries, so that has saved us a lot.

I am also going to start shopping around. We have an Aldi right by us and the fruit and veg from there is great and fridge stuff too. Am also going to go into Home Bargains to get bits from there too.

Do we sound like we are doing okay so far with the changes we are going to make? Some of you guys on here are great at it all, I don't know how you do it.

shelley_crow

I buy aldi nappies, £4.99 for 48, much cheaper than pampers. I was dubious at first but they do the job, wish I'd found out about them before. I bought the Aldi babywipes yesterday for 79p but haven't tried them yet.