newbie advice

mrsspendalot

nodwah wrote: »

The thing that sang out to me was the toilet wipes, I know they're very handy and you might occasionally find a pack lurking round the back of my loo, but boy are they expensive. Why not have a look at the stardrops thread. Personally i find there's almost nothing that you can't clean with washing up liquid, bleach or a hoover.
Likewise the baby wipes, my mum used to bang on about be baby lotion and cotton wool, and I tried it for my babes with success. Iwould add that wipes are pretty essential for going out or particularly unpleasant nappies!

Sorry the toilet wipes were not for cleaning the loo with, they are for my son to use on the potty. he is just toilet training now and cannot flush baby wipes, but can use the toilet wipes to sort himself out and flush down with potty. they are a temporary expense until he learns how to clean himself properly with proper toilet roll (which without going into detail he can't manage at the moment). I never use wipes for actually cleaning to loo - agree they are a waste of cash.

I also use the baby wipes for taking off my makeup etc rather than buying products. They are very multi-purpose

mrsspendalot

Thanks everyone for your comments. I won't reply to every single post individually as they contain similar advice.

Yes this was a top up shop, as we were concentrating on emptying the freezer in prep for an Iceland shop to stock it up.

We do go through lots of fromage frais yogs as baby has them for puddings instead of baby tinned puddings. normally buy value brands, but the petit filous ones were on BOGOF and the supermarket had no value ones in stock that day.

Ham, yes it is expensive & pre-packed but I won't buy any cheap ham. I know cheese works out cheaper but I am on a diet and cheese is vry fattening. Will look into deli ham or cooking a ham joint instead

toilet wipes were not for cleaning loo - they were supermarket versions of kandoo bum wipes, lol, as my middle child is toilet training and doesn't get on well with loo roll.

the loo roll was value brand 12 rolls for £1.32 so I thought that was a good price?

salad cream - could downgrade a brand yes.

eggs - were free range hence price, will look in butchers for eggs in future and see if cheaper

bread, yes its warburtons. I used to buy own brand bread but it goes stale so quickly. haven't any room for a breadmaker as my kitchen barely fits a fridge in it. I don't even have a breadbin to keep loaves in it is so small - just one double unit with worktop on

I have been shopping today and spent just over £43 in tesco. I will post down what I bought this week.

mrsspendalot

milk £1.68
milk 66p
value stuffing mix 12p
pasta (3Kg bag) £1
marg £1.62
value ketchup 29p
fabric softener £1
bread £1.03
bread £1.03
tomato soup (huge tin) 99p
tomato soup (huge tin) 99p
value tinned toms 19p x 6 tins
value beans 17p
value rice pudding 21p
soup 59p
soup 59p
value tuna 29p
value tuna 29p
gravy granules 49p
rice 49p
loo brush 48p
garlic puree 79p
cheese £1.97
value yogs 8p x 3
eggs £1.09
chicken drumsticks £2.14
pizzas £2.29 (BOGOF)
lasage sheets 74p
chickens 2 for £5
value chicken stock cubes 19p
pure orange 98p
jam £1.09
weetos £2.42
deodorant £1.19
handwash 79p
baby bath 77p
bubble bath 48p
shower gel 75p
broccoli 89p
cauli 59p
bananas 99p
carrots 97p
spuds £1.19
courgette 26p
mushrooms 23p

total £43.17

Meals planned are veg lasagne, chicken sunday dinner, chicken and rice, and then hubby is on lates all week so we have simple meals hence the soup, pasta, beans etc.

WW3 nearly erupted in our house today when I said I wasn't buying any crisps or biscuits this week :eek:

I am hoping that I can do even better next week with the shopping.

liney

Own brand cereal! Owch. lol.

nodwah

Pink-winged wrote: »

I'll have a look now and edit them into this post.


Edit:

Ok, here are the ones I can find tonight, I'm sure there are more. I'll have another look in the next day or two and add any others in that I find.

Heeelpp! Having problems menu planning due to fussy kids!

Meals wanted for picky kids?

Meals for kids, same as rest or differant?

What can i feed the fussiest eater in the world? '

Veggies .........or not ?

Help, I have a fussy teenager


Pink

That was more than a bit cheeky! I'm sorry I'll just say it was very late and I do always find that my searches on MSE throw up a lot of rubbish - it's probably me
Thanks a lot anyway!!

kscour

Your kids will enjoy this! Make your own pizzas!
http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/3083/pick-n-mix-pizza.jsp
that's the recipe I use except I don't use a bread machine - I throw the mix for dough into a bowl, mix it into a dough, knead it for a while say approx 10 mins and then leave to rise for about an hour (until roughly doubled in size)
It will easily make 4 pizza bases (& they are very filling) but I would suggest stretching it to 5 bases. They will freeze no problem and then just pull them out of freezer & pile on toppings. Tomato sauce topping the same - I get 5 batches out of what the recipe suggests (each batch does 2 pizzas)
After the first couple of times of doing this I found it got much easier and now I always have bases & tomato sauce in freezer ready for emergency quick meals (although I always tell DD's its a special treat for being so good:o )
I don't know what it would cost out at but it has to be quite cheap

dlb

Oh sundays we have started to cut out a meal as such, we eat a a large breakfast, own brand cereal, cheese on toast,fruit juice. Then at around 3 oclock have a huge sunday roast with a pudding ( i only do puddings about 2-3 times a week) Then we all get ready for bed early around 6ish and then have homemade soup and homemade bread, followed by thick chunks of toast with jam with hot choc. Then if the kids want anything else they have another bowl of own brand cereal.
Sort of having tea/supper together, this still means they have had enough food throughout the day and enough fruit and veg due to having fruit juice at breaky and 4 veg at dinner time and the pudding is always a fruit based one.

rosh12

Dear Mrsspendalot,

I just wanted to say I think you are doing a fantastic job, and hope that the advice on here helps! I am currently pregnant with our first child and can't quite see how we can afford it! So, you have my total respect, and admiration for tackling your debts and making these changes! It takes time to change habits / expectations, so I just hope that you have all the support you need and dont get downhearted if some of the changes aren't appreciated!! x

mrsspendalot

Well we had chicken yesterday for dinner and only used half of it, so the other half is going in a meal tonight with rice & homemade tomatoey sauce. I want to then use the remains to make chicken soup so a recipe for that would be fab

Hubby has just been to sainsburys and spent £15 buying ham, sweets, tea bags and a top for little 'un so he is going to take a little bit of training!!!!!! although the top is for his birthday next week so could technically come out of the birthday budget and not the shopping budget. That was £6. He also forgot to take my nectar card. Oh well, last time I send him alone!!!

overlykeensaver

Hope thjings are going well mrsspendalot. I have a couple of suggestions on the baby front.

Instead of the baby rice cakes, have a look at the normal thin rice cakes you can get down the cracker and biscuit aisles. As long as they din't have any salt in these wuill be fine. I use them for my baby because I broke up her baby cake into little pieces anyway.

On the yog/fromage frais front - I buy a large pot of full fat plain yog (yeo valley is about 98p) and then give this to my 9 month old baby with some pureed or chopped fruitmixed in. I think this is much more economical than buying individual pots as you can them give as much or little as they want.

Hope these ideas help - it is all the little ideas and suggestions that suddenly add up to savings!