Fiscal Fast – 7 days no spending (at all)

trueblondeknot68

back from work with milk, freezer bags and some storage tubs for making meals and freezing.All for a small amount of £2.32(after my staff discount)
OH cooking a large joint of beef that was a whoopsie from easter , should last us at least 3 meals. DD gone out with BF so just for two tonight.
had lots of time to think about food plan today as the rain must of put people off shopping .
Thanks for all the welcomes, after reading the whole thread i feel like i know you all already.
going to look at that link too catznine , more late night reading.

ScarlettOHara_2

I'm going to do this challenge next week too. I've spent a bloomin' fortune since getting paid and now only have a little bit left to last until payday almost a month away if I am to stay on budget :eek:

All I should need (hopefully) is some cat food next week and a few ebay parcels to post off.

There is loads in the fridge, freezer and cupboards (too much really) so it will be good to get the stash down a bit too.

Good luck everybody!

shoe_string

GreyQueen wrote: »

Wasn't online this morning as I was doing some homebaking of bread and then visiting the local Co-op. It's only about 10 mins walk away but down a road where I have no other purpose to go down, so thus don't tend to go. But I have noticed some interesting indy traders nearby so may poke around in there when I am next back at the Co-op.

Well, ladies, I have to say that I have been pleasantly surprised. It's a smallish city store, spotless, and very quiet on a Sunday. I found my way straight to the discount shelf and came away with a couple of yellow label bargains, which is very gratifying. I am also road-testing their £1 key-lime cheesecake, purely as an investigative measure, nothing to do with pigginess, y'unnerstand?

There milk is £1.18 for 4 pints, which is the same to the penny as every other supermarket in town bar Lidl and Iceland where it is £1. Forgot to look at bread as I am homebaking it at the mo. Wandered around and everything seemed very reasonable compared with T*sco and the added advantage of higher ethical standards. I have brought back the application leaflet to join my region's Co-Op society and am tickled pink to think of "divvy" instead of "ClubCard". Yayyy, sticking it to the big boys. I have finished Tescopoly the book and am sickened by them. I told the woman on the Co-op's till that I've a T*sco defector, too.:p

They seem to be very good, and I much prefer a small store to a big one. I'm still traumatised by visiting an A$DA last July. It was the size of an aircraft hanger and was packed with fraught families with harrassed women squabbling with their OHs and the children kicking off. I could almost feel my blood-pressure rising by the second. And there was nowhere outside to chain a pushbike, it was all very oriented to the family-sized shopper who was aiming to fill a car.

GQ I shop at my local co -op and decided to do a shopping list online at tesco. I printed my shopping list off and went and did my shop. Co-op was LESS than tesco.

I bought the exact same brands and same package size/weights etc

tesco was £52.09 Co-op was £51.83

I know its not a fantastic saving but my nearest tesco/big supermarket is 15 miles away but co op is 1/2 a mile away. so by the time ive factored in fuel or delivery costs im on a winner by shopping locally.

shoe_string

another NSD woop woop im on a roll.

trueblondeknot68

:j:j:j:j:j:j:j:j:j:j:j:j:j:j:j:j

not starting officially till tomorrow but really pleased with myself.The left over beef has been split into 4 more portions and put in the freezer for another day. couple of spoons of mash and veg made into potato cakes and also in freezer(not sure what they will be like ) Usually the veg and pots would end up in the bin.
Had a look at the thread about not using supermarkets, just going to take on this challenge for a week at the mo

7_week_wonder

Hello people,
Although I'm not fasting at the moment I thought I'd drop in and say hello to all the newbies and well done to everyone who is managing to keep their purse firmly shut.

I know I've mentioned this on other boards: but as well as "The co-op" this might be useful to help folk stay out of the supermarkets. It lets you search and see if there are any food co-operatives locally. I've used it to track down a wonderful place that does fruit and veg (plus a few other staples like eggs, pulsese etc) at the same price as the supermarkets. You don't have to place a regular order, but as long as you order by 11 am they will deliver the next day (free as long as you spend more that £5):T

I'm also dead chuffed: we had a puncture last weekend and my initial reation was just to go and buy a new tyre. But our friend suggested we see if the tyre could be repaired. OH took it to our local garage who said it was a problem with the valve, sorted it, and didn't charge a penny. It's currently being used as a spare - just to be on the safe side we've put it up to pressure and will check it again next week - but with any luck we've saved ourselves a fair chunk of money.

Have a frugal fasting week all.

catznine

Just had a baking marathon today, now have a carrot cake iced with orange butter icing, going to freeze that in portion sized slices for later treats, a container of mincemeat tray bake slices, a tub of peanut butter cookies and an apple cobbler. So no excuse or need to go shopping for "sweet" treats some of it will come on holiday with us and the rest will go into the freezer, so no waste.

I was too tired to go shopping after that! :rotfl:

ScarlettOHara_2

The breadmaker will be going on overnight so I have something for lunch at work tomorrow. Tomorrow night's tea will be easy then as well. A very salubrious egg or chips or similar.

I might have a bit of a pamper evening too as I was going to book the salon for certain essentials but the cost is quite high. Not sure I'll be able to replicate the full salon encounter :eek: but can sort out my monobrow at least :rotfl:

kittendothroar

I so wanted today to be day one but my fob watch for work broke so have ordered a new one on ebay so am £2.05 down already! Meal plan is all done though (roughly!) and have no need to buy anything I hope now!

calicocat

7 Week wonder......have just had a look at .....'this'...and there is one in my village!! so thanks for the link,will be looking into it.

Christ my world is going upside down since being on this thread ! it feels like loads of things are changing,and for the better i have to say.

G.Queen..........i was laughing for ages this afternoon at your Asba trauma and description of said shop,kinda had a vision of miss marples turning up to shop there.............cant say i have EVER seen ANYONE turn up to asba on a bike (i've assumed you mean push bike with a basket and bells on the front).it did make me chuckle 4 ages.
And you are right ,they are traumatic places,i have been odd times at say 3am to avoid screaming people and 4000 trolleys,to find the added trauma of the dreaded self serve till :eek: ,last time i was in months ago i walked out as vile woman 'helping' shoppers to use stupid till was rude (so much for the 'happy to help' badges),the bloke next to me did the same after we had been laughing for around 10mins utterly ignoring the machine bleeping and screaming 'you must place item in the bag'...........'you must place item in the bag'.
We decided we didnt need to put any items in the bag at all ,and think i have only ever been back once since then.


Well tomorrow or tuesday,deoending how much i sleep tomorrow is my get organised day to set a plan to save this month again,not sure i'll manage to lessen food budget this time,but will be planning all spends if i can so can at least do 7 days as it's amazing the difference it makes.

Good luck all.

Walk away from the purse:T

Not planning on buying anything with snail in again !....talk about trauma!