Countdown to Freedom

Tilly_MFW_in_6_YRS

Morning TYO, I've had a lovely hour catching up on here

Wish me luck as Mr T is fairly competitive so it could be interesting.

Have a good day today and enjoy the shred or run. I am also looking at Parkrun thanks to Elantan's diary. Feeling slight worried about it but will go.

Best wishes Tilly

unhappy_shopper

Good Morning Tilly,

I'm going to pinch/borrow some of your :money:ideas to tide me over this Frugal January. I have started with a Tillyesque OP of 17p (money found from the back of a recliner sofa we got sometime back for free). I have had 2 NSDs so far this month. To avoid buying milk every week, I always have a big stock of UHT milk. So only have to spend on fruit and vegetables, but I find it very difficult to keep away from YS items.

I was a bit tardy with CP (missed out on most weeks and entered only 3 items ) and other surveys last few months, so have decided to devote some time to doing them regularly. BTW, last week I paid for most of my BnQ purchases with vouchers/giftcards (about £180) collected by doing surveys, hoping to do the same in future too. Not to forget, planning to use grocery coupons (atleast those sent by MrT) and watch ads on Nect@r.

ajmoney

Tilly_MFW_in_6_YRS wrote: »

Hi, after much experimentation I've found that monthly planning gives me the best £result.

I use a spreadsheet with dates, activities, what to take up of freezer and when, menu plan and any relevant cookbooks. It's not complicated but clear and helpful.

I bulk buy meat from costc@, have a day a month batch cooking, use both ovens, slow cooker and wok, so it is a busy day, but this saves me literally hours each week.

Managing the meals in this way has saved us between £40-50 per week. I do bulk buy cat/dog food and now loo rolls and washing powder etc. Everything else is included in weekly shop.

My personal view, is that we get into a habit of buying set patterns of products each week and have full fridges and freezers but don't work through them systematically. I know we used to do this and those days have gone. During 2012 we cut our food bill and make everything from scratch, which if you batch cook is as quick as a ready made meal. Overall, I don't go into a supermarket apart from once a week, otherwise the budget would go out of the window.

Currently I am aiming to only buy fruit and milk until last Saturday in January, on day 12 of no food shopping spends. I have £10 in my purse but reckon £5 is enough.

Mr T makes loads of bread and rolls, cakes etc so the kids lunch boxes are always fairly interesting.

I hope that helps and good luck with your plans.

Tilly

I have already used your idea of sitting with cookbooks, I may look into co$tco too

Tilly_MFW_in_6_YRS

Hi AJ, hope your menu plans save you money - I love the time it saves me each evening when I get home from work :)

Best wishes Tilly

BookWorm

Tilly_MFW_in_6_YRS wrote: »

Crikey we could have been joint big winners :rotfl:

Now did you OP it?

Tilly x

Oooh it's a shame we weren't! LOL

I did indeed OP it at the same time as a TCB payment that also came through . Things are def rubbing off after being around here....

ajmoney

Tilly_MFW_in_6_YRS wrote: »

Hi AJ, hope your menu plans save you money - I love the time it saves me each evening when I get home from work :)

Best wishes Tilly

Would you be able to email me your spreadsheet for your meal planning please? I think it might help give me the kick I need to do this properly. Mr AJM has enjoyed us cooking something new this afternoon and it was nice to do it together as we don't have time through the week. I have suggested getting round to batch cooking and I would like to see the things you do. I will pm you my email address x

skint_spice

This is so educational - for ages I'd wondered what Bruno Mars sang in the line before "meet a really nice girl have some really nice sex" I assumed it was something to do with xbox but no he's buffing up first with some P90x:D! you live and learn...

Tilly_MFW_in_6_YRS

Hi AJ, I've mailed it over to you

It's definitely saved me time and money.

Best wishes Tilly x

elantan

ATT the hassle I had with Halifax was something to do with my profiles not being merged and needing identity proven, whilst although we could take it into the bank we live in Scotland where there are no branches of Halifax and the BOS which is part of the same group run a different computer system, we're still not fully fixed with it all but I think we are slowly making progress

ajmoney

Tilly_MFW_in_6_YRS wrote: »

Hi AJ, I've mailed it over to you

It's definitely saved me time and money.

Best wishes Tilly x

Thanks. We now have meals planned for 2 weeks, I only have to buy the main part of 2 meals and then veg etc. Just need to plan 9 meals and that will be January done and I have a couple of bits to use in the freezer, updating that inventory on Monday. Going shopping again on Monday and am hoping to get most of the bits then. If we can stick to it then we will only be eating out once a week too so we shall see how it goes.