Updated October Shopping, Whoopsies & Meal Planning For £100 Per Month For 3&Visitors

Missus_Aka

Long story short....im 23 and want to move away next year to another part of england before my ds starts school so we can be in a safer neighboorhood but to do this i need to buy a car and have money saved for rent.

So i am challenging myself to stay within £100 a month for all food and household stuff for me, oh, ds3, my little sister who i have for 9 days a month and my niece who stays a few days a month as well, down from my normal £135-£150 budget which was quite good considering this used to be around £400 about a year ago. But it has to be sustainable for months not just a quick fix for one month.

I love the whoopsied section im mr A which was a new discovery for me with my latest finds being:
Breast chicken 2pcs x 3 for £1.50 (was nearly £12)
Corn on the cob 4pcs x 2 for 80p (was £4)
Clementines x10 for 40p (was £2.00)

I have meal planned already for the whole of August and have all my shopping list priced up at full store price though some of it i will probably find in the whoopsied sections especially fruit, veg and meat and it comes to £94.18 so the rest will go to any whoopsied fruit and veg that they have as i will probably go down to mr A a couple times a week for these.

I do have a lot in the freezer and cupboards but im not going to use them just yet as i keep them for those dire emergency months (its a comfort thing because i remember times when i had to take my last £2 out of my bank so i could buy some food as my cupboards were bare)

I cook mainly from scratch as i only work 2-3 days a week with the exceptions to this being bread, chicken dippers, dolmio sauce and yorkshire puddings. Though i would like to try making bread

Any tips anyone could give me would be appreciated......i guess if people follow this thread i will feel accountable to you and it will keep me in check.

And therefore i pledge

• i will not go shopping whilst hungry
• i will not give in to takeaway even if someone calls in work and i have to do a 12hr shift and 3 hours traveling :mad:
• i will follow my shopping list to the letter and not get distracted by special offers and biscuits and those yummy cadbury chocolate trifles......oh no its already started
• take lunch to work with me EVERY day
• whoopsy hunt for fresh fruit and veg to fit in our 5 a day (or close to it)

Cheap recipes you have tried and liked would be greatly appreciated, the only thing we dont eat is pork...and i have a phobia of chicken/meat on the bone for myself though everyone else in the family eats it

Wow thats a long post thanks for just reading if you got to the bottom!!

haycorns

Wow - I have great admiration for you already! To juggle money and those family arrangements takes some doing - and I hope its not patronising, but I don't think I could have done it at your age. I hope you get some contribution for the extra mouths you feed.

I would recommend cooking in bulk and freezing, although with varying family sizes you might want to freeze in one and two person portions so you can take out the right amount for the number of mouths. I like my slow cooker for cooking for the masses and freezing. If you haven't got a freezer its worth the investment. You can then stock up on those whoopsies whenever they are there.
I'd recommend Aldi or Lidl for veg if you can if you can't get whoopsies as they are good prices

You could try making a batch of pasta sauce and freezing ,as dolmio can be quite expensive for what it is. Or if you have the room to store, only buy when it is on special offer. Or try a few alternatives to see if there is a cheaper one you like.

i look forward to hearing how you get on - I think you will cope very well .

Missus_Aka

Haycorns - Thankyou for your advice, and i dont find it patronising at all, im an old soul, a bit of homebody really....i dont get any contributions for my niece as her dad (my bil) has his hands full dealing with her mother (his ex) but i love to have her here as she is the same age as my son and she really enjoy spending time with someone who actually pays attention to her, as for my sister my son loves having her here for sleepovers and my mum and my stepdad have my son for the day once during the week while me and oh work but i quite like doing it myself as a young mum my family and most people thought stereotypically i would depend on the family and benefits etc. I moved out 4 years ago with my oh (sons dad) and have liked being independent though at times it is a struggle i guess you cant appreciate when you have it good unless you have struggled in the past.

I am planning to try cheaper alternatives....mr t value plain flour, potatoes, value spaghetti are already on my list and am thinking about a cheaper sauce like you suggested and value sweetcorn, they arent very expensive anyway i guess so even if it s not great i havent lost a lot and if it works i have saved a lot

Thanks for reading

ixia

good luck with your challenge sorry I haven't really got any advice I think you are doing amazingly well. I spend more than that in a week although there are 5 of us.

I am desperate to get it down so I will keep an eye on how you are doing and maybe pick up some tips off you along the way.

jaredava

I think your doing amazing and you may be young but you are really going to reap the rewards as you get older.
I dont have much to add as you seem to be pretty well organised the only thing that I do is that whenever I see cheap tomatoes on whoopsies I buy them all, loads of them to make pasta sauce which I freeze. It is cheap, is some of your 5 a day and tastes much better than dolmio. I freeze the sauce in washed out marg tubs of different sizes so that I can pull out a little container whenever we need it.
All you need to do to make it is heat some oil in a big saucepan add a chopped onion, let simmer for a minute, dont let onion brown then add toms, turn heat right down and let it simmer for as long as you can , the slower the sauce cooks the better it tastes. It should just occassionally bubble, one hour minimum tho I have been known to have mine on lowest heat for 4 hours. Liquidise, put into little containers and freeze. Healthy and easy and cheap.;)
HTH. And well done ,

Missus_Aka

Good start to my shopping as i managed to get a code for £15 of a £50 spend @ mr T (thanks mse)

So my first shop came to £36.67 minus the discount and i got in a couple of treats for myself (fish fingers & cadbury trifles)

For this i got:

Lean Steak Mince 800g (this will be divided into 3 portions)
Chicken Wings 0.98kg (3 portions for oh)
Breast Chicken 515g x5 (will make 12 meal portions)
Onions 1kg
Chicken Dippers 24pk x2
Red Onions x3
Potatoes 5kg
Carrots
Milk 4pints x 3
Value Medium Cheese
Value Tesco Medium Sliced Bread
Tortilla Wraps
Eazy Fried Onions
Value Spaghetti 500g x2
Tesco Plain Flour 1.5kg
Tesco Large King Prawns 250g
Tesco Value Prawns 300g
Mushrooms 1kg
Sugar 1kg
Cadbury Trifle x2
Fish Fingers 10pk x2

Delivery had to be 29th so my grocery will run from 29th -31st, i am feeling really optimistic and will try as i had a £15 discount to get in easily under the £100 mark

I will have a few bits and pieces leftover from this month that i will be using including a few clementines, a few plums, a few apples, philadelphia cheese, dolmio sauce, 1/4 block of cheese, 18 eggs and 3 peppers

Jaredeva Thanks i will try your suggestion of making the sauce myself, hopefully i dont muck it up as spaghetti bol is oh's favourite meal

CheekyLittleMonkey

If you stock up on the tomatoes like jaredava stated below and if you have the following spices to hand tumeric/ground coriander/ground cumin/garam masala/chilli - you can make your own 'tarka' - the base for all (well the majority) of curries, you can then freeze these in portions to use as and when needed. I would also suggest buying some pulses like red lentils, black eyed peas, urid beans to make dhals which go a long long way are are cheap and nutritious. With the above spices also you can make your own spicy wedges in the oven to have with dips etc. (If you need further advice or any help with recipies just ask, we are an indian family). Also, with your order from Tesco - run it through the tescopricechecker (once your order has been delivered) OR check out the thread on here first (you could go back and amend your order) you could save some money if asda are cheaper than tesco on the produce you have ordered. Don't forget you can bulk buy at your local asian stores too, these can often work out cheap for flour/spices/veg. good luck

CheekyLittleMonkey

Missus_Aka wrote: »

I will have a few bits and pieces leftover from this month that i will be using including a few clementines, a few plums, a few apples, philadelphia cheese, dolmio sauce, 1/4 block of cheese, 18 eggs and 3 peppers
l

So you could make a clementine cheesecake with the philly, an apple and plum crumble, omelettes and even add some diced chicken to the dolmio sauce & peppers (plus spices) to make hot pepper chicken curry. We also regularly have egg curry. x (hard boiled eggs, onions, spices, 1 diced potato) you would be surprised how far you can stretch things with forward planning.

You are doing brilliantly regardless. Don't forget to check out the thread on here 'oldtimers moneysaving' (or something similar), its packed with just what you need and are asking on here. x

ikkleosu

Wow well done I am so impressed with it all.

I don't have much experience to add to this, but I just want to say you seem a whizz and wonderful in the kitchen, so you should tell Mr Dolmio to take a hike! A smaller jar is around £2 - for £2 you can buy 4 tins of plum tomatoes. For an extra 50p you can buy garlic and tomato puree. 1 tin of tomatoes, some puree and garlic is enough to turn mince into very nice bolognese, for an 8th of the price.

Also a great cheap pasta sauce is, fry onion and garlic, add a tin of tomatoes, some puree. If you like it smooth whizz it up, I sometimes just use potato masher on it for chunky. At last minute add a spoonful or 2 of cream cheese (Tesco's value cream cheese is as good and around 47p) and it is just like the expensive tomato and mascarpone sauces. If it needs bulking up you can add peppers, or a few bits of bacon and a bit of grated cheese.

haycorns

Another thought - do you have a garden or balcony? Maybe next spring you could plant some veg in pots. You could even do herbs on your windowsill now. If you move they can go with you.

Missus_Aka

Haycorns Im afraid i dont have any outside space for anything if i did i would def have grown some bits and pieces as my mil does so she would have been able to help me, i am also from an indian family (goa) on my mums side and have learnt a few things from my gran like chickpea curry, sprats, pilau bit i do need to learn much more though, when i moved out of my mums house i didnt know how to cook anything so most of the food i make now was learnt from watching my mil and they are turkish so i can make quite a bit of turkish food now.
I love dhal curry but whenever i seem to have them at restaurants instead of homemade by my gran they seem really bland and dont taste like much....would you mind giving me your recipe i would love to try it.
The cheesecake seems like a lovely idea but luckily for my purse we dont have much of a sweet tooth so it would probably get a quarter eaten out of it and the rest would get wasted

ikkleosu i will be trying to make my own sauce in a few days time and i will let you all know how i get on with it