newbie advice

sharronloves2spend

mrsspendalot wrote: »

milk £1.68
milk 66p
value stuffing mix 12p
pasta (3Kg bag) £1
marg £1.62 how long will this last you?
value ketchup 29p
fabric softener £1
bread £1.03
bread £1.03
tomato soup (huge tin) 99p Could you not try and make ur own?
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 can you use ordinary garlic about 20p lasts ages
cheese £1.97
value yogs 8p x 3
eggs £1.09
chicken drumsticks £2.14
pizzas £2.29 (BOGOF)
lasage sheets 74p are these tesco value? there really is no difference!
chickens 2 for £5
value chicken stock cubes 19p
pure orange 98p
jam £1.09
weetos £2.42 OUCH! try own brand cereal!
deodorant £1.19
handwash 79p
baby bath 77p
bubble bath 48p
shower gel 75p try value
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.

Well done you managed to get it down have you done a meal plan? if so post here. One thing i wanted to say is that in the begining of our budjet we found it really hard to cut certain things out, things that were deemed nescessary but really not at all. Do it slowly and subtly, Like for instance switch cereals one week, make soup the next instaed of buying it, then all of a sudden you will find your all eating really well and nobody is missing their "necesitys". We took about six months to adopt our oser ways! and now were financially better off i'd still not go back to our old ways(but i know that should we fall on hard times again it would not be a struggle to eat well) Keep going your really doin well!

Clive_Woody

Not sure if this would be any help, but a couple of small apple trees in the garden would require minimal maintenance yet would provide a decent crop of apples and would entertain the kids watching them grow then picking them. Raspberry canes need very little care (and grow back every year) and the ones we had used to produce loads of fruit for a good couple of months. You can't beat wandering out into your own garden to pick your pudding.

mrsspendalot

we have a yard - no garden. we live in a small town terrace

mrsspendalot

garlic puree - yep, could use proper garlic, just buy that because I don't have a garlic press thing.

marg lasts about 2 and half weeks

tomato soup - never made my own, wouldn't know where to start

lasagne sheets were just tesco - there were no value ones in

shower gel - have tried value before and didn't like it

weetos - yep, expensive, but they are the only cereal my kids will eat. that box will last a month though on the amount they eat. Me and hubby get cornflakes & branflakes but didn't need them this week.

mrsspendalot

I took on board some advice today about greengrocers for fruit & veg, and this is how I got on:

8 bananas
7 granny smiths
3 pears
red onion
cucumber
3 tomatoes
lettuce

£4.72

Is that quite reasonable? I have no idea what that would cost in Tescos.

sianb84

mrsspendalot wrote: »

8 bananas
7 granny smiths
3 pears assuming you got conference
red onion for just 1
cucumber
3 tomatoes assuming you just got standard
lettuce assuming you got iceberg
£4.72

QUOTE]

Using tesco online and the notes I added above it would have some to £5.61 at tesco. However this is if you bought everything individually at tesco - also I used the tesco current offer price for the red onion

sharronloves2spend

juat a quick question what will you do with the courgette? i bought a bag of them at reduced price but didnt know what to do with them, roasted them but kids hated them, they went in the bin.

Beanietdc

Can I just say that this thread shows what I love most about this site. The image of someone going off to count their bananas so that someone else knows how many 5lb is... fab!

mrsspendalot

sharronloves2spend wrote: »

juat a quick question what will you do with the courgette? i bought a bag of them at reduced price but didnt know what to do with them, roasted them but kids hated them, they went in the bin.

It is going in my homemade tomato pasta sauce as its the only way I can get veg down my kids. I throw two tins of chopped toms, onion, courgette, mushrooms and carrots into a pan and boil it up, and then blitz it all with a hand held blender and then all the veg just disappears into the sauce. They have never ever noticed

mrsspendalot

Beanietdc wrote: »

Can I just say that this thread shows what I love most about this site. The image of someone going off to count their bananas so that someone else knows how many 5lb is... fab!

Yep, I am very impressed with the whole site :T