Fiscal Fast – 7 days no spending (at all)

Ches

No shopping done today but opened the second of a BOGOF cheese bought 30 March and its green so it Mr S tomorrow and luckily I still have the receipt.

Nothing much else to report, OH treated us to fish and chips tonight so I didn't even have to cook.

calicocat

i think the c*-*p is more expensive to be honest but like to think i am paying for better food delivered to us in a more ethical way.

However reguarding labels and what we are really eating.nipped in en-route to work to get reduced items for snack,got a box which apparently contained a small chicken slice (20p)

Ingredients seemed fine.a bit put off by a seemingly large amount of chicken fat,and will look up maltodextrin.
BUT..allergy advice is ,may contain.........nuts,sesame seeds,wheat,gluten,barley,celery,egg,fish,lupin,milk,oats,rye,soya,sulphites,mustard,crustaceans and molluscs ??????? !!!!!!

i get that stuff ends up being made on the same machine as something else.........but prawn,octopus,snails in the same run as something chicken?? i dont want to eat a snail,or part of.

Thank god i hardly ever eat anything like this as usually cook from scratch.

So does this mean said shop are good and are very honest about anything that could be in foods??

Anyhow,rant over,also got reduced rocket and tomatoes to go with HM rice,chick ,and veg dish,i can see what these foods are!

Pay day today,but at work and havent had inclination to do a list and go shopping for a propper shop,so will prob go monday when wake up to do this to discourage unnessesary spending.

CATZNINE.................lol..have we all been getting carried away and trying to do it for too long :rotfl:
You are probably right...but it has made a difference to my purse.

keep it up everyone.


Walk away from the purse:T

Have i just eaten a snail ??:eek:

lessonlearned

Well I didn't manage 7 days this time.

I did a mini shop on Day 3 - neutral spends when already in town selling some bits and bobs to a dealer.

Day 5 I went to Aldi and spent £21. I was visiting my parents and pass Aldi on my route.

Rather than make a special journey I have made a real effort to synchronise my shopping trips for the times when I'm already using the car anyway so as to save on petrol. It also saves time too,

I have also made a conscious effort not to use the Big 4 this month and I really do think it's made a huge difference.

I get my eggs and some veg from a nearby farm shop, have been using the market for f&v, Home Bargains, Aldi & Farm Foods. My local co-op for extra milk. Our local co-op seems to be very reasonably priced these days and has a good range of offers.

Grey Queen I have avoided Tesco for years - I just don't want to give them my money.:rotfl:

I think these 7 Day Fasts have been a fantastic idea. Whilst it might not be possible to do them all the time - just doing attempting three of them this month has really made me rethink my spending.

I've not done a final tally yet for this month but I know I've spent a lot less than I did last month. I've even stopped mooching round charity shops and picking up "bargains" that I don't need.

shoe_string

Hello All,

Ive been reading this thread for days now and have decided I want to join in if I may? Money is going to be tight for the next couple of months as I have 3 children's birthdays and a car repair bill of almost £800 to pay.

I have 2 freezers full of stuff (dont know whats lurking in there until I start to dig it out so meals could well be hotpotch but alot of it is meat, bread, milk and veg and hm ready meals which havent been labelled hummm. I also have approx half a sack of potatoes, 30 eggs, 10 onions, 18 carrots and quite abit of fruit.

I have £21 left in my purse and I am determined to make this last till the 9th May. This is for food items and luxuries only. All other essentials like kids spends, fuel and direct debits have been accounted for.

So here goes!!!

Forgot to say there are 5 of us......3 adults and 2 teenagers!

shoe_string

Its my grans 90th Birthday next week so instead of buying her cards I have made them instead. Found stamps when I was clearing out my purse so a free birthday I suppose!

Dinner last night was shepherds pie and I have managed to portion up another 3 servings to go in the freezer.... i will remember to label them!

Roast chicken dinner tonight with veggies, stuffing, roasties and gravy then I dont know what to do with the left over chicken as I can never stretch it like other people do.

Tomorrows meal will consist of something created with lo chicken lol this could be interesting and fun!

catznine

Welcome aboard the fast Shoestring!

Has anyone else here done the avoiding the supermarket challenge? It runs for a month, I did it once and it was very educational - I also saved money :eek::) not a lot but it was a saving. Buying from the farm shop, market etc., wasn't too hard, just a case of breaking old habits. I do shop at the c#o# now and often come home with yellow sticker bargains, especially on their meat and produce, maybe we are just lucky with our stores.

We are very lucky to have a good butchers on our market and a lovely cheese stall.

Right still tipping it down here and dh has just sploshed in with little (very wet) dog. Off to find that pile of old towels!

Puddleglum

I haven't managed the seven day fast this time. We have a lodger coming tomorrow and so the purse has had to be levered open to buy dishwasher salt, rinse aid and gin. Must explain that the gin is so that DH can use up the stash of sloes that were blocking up the freezer. I am trying to create plenty of fridge and freezer space. On the other hand. A quick slug of gin might just make the mountain of work that needs doing bearable!

lessonlearned

shoe_string wrote: »

Tomorrows meal will consist of something created with lo chicken lol this could be interesting and fun!

Chicken and mushroom pie, paella, coronation chicken salad, chicken curry ???

Went shopping today managed to keep it to £20 - should have enough now for next week - maybe just some milk mid-week.

GreyQueen

catznine wrote: »

Welcome aboard the fast Shoestring!

Has anyone else here done the avoiding the supermarket challenge? It runs for a month, I did it once and it was very educational - I also saved money :eek::) not a lot but it was a saving. Buying from the farm shop, market etc., wasn't too hard, just a case of breaking old habits. I do shop at the c#o# now and often come home with yellow sticker bargains, especially on their meat and produce, maybe we are just lucky with our stores.

Afternoon all.

Is there an MSE thread for this avoiding the supermarkets challenge, catznine? I have been hither and yon this morning. Went into a Lidl and got a few bits, some for me and some for a friend who can't get out at the mo (her request). Went into an Iceland for one item, an indy greengrocer and an indy market butchers. Got some locally-made sausages. Winced a bit at the price (£6.25/ kilo) but told myself I was keeping money in the local economy and reducing foodmiles.

Still got plenty of food by me and not needing to buy much. I made a point of not even nipping into Tesco to buy the paper also requested by the same friend, but went into the corner newsagent. Am going to check out the Co-op in the next few days. Tesco is my local store and I have to walk past it twice a day so that was why I was using it but now I figure they can do without as much of my money as possible and I'll try to spread what's left as much as I can amongst the independant traders as a way of sticking it to the clone town mentality.

I feel as if I am on the verge of a lifestyle change which has been building for sometime but the lastest stripping of manned-tills from my Tesco was enough to get me off my aspidistra and into action........I'm seriously p'd off with the greedy bu88ers.

Stepping away from the purse............

shoe_string

Can successfully say that today has been a NSD!!! Woop woop
Only used the breast off the chickens so later I will pick off whats left and freeze it and will boil the carcus with the veggi peelings and make some soup that I will have for lunch afew days.
Going to have a glass of wine from the wine box that has been sat in the fridge since before Christmas. Not over keen on it but rather than chuck it away I may as well drink it!

Have a good evening everyone im off to do some jobs before I settle down in front of the tv.