Clueless at budgeting for food, help please?

Charlton_King

How about this thread from some time back?

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/326929

The 50p is now probably closer to a pound but there are lots of great ideas.

Emmala

My three all had Hipp Organic formula, and we used to buy it direct from their website.....if I remember rightly, we'd pay about £18 for four boxes, instead of £6+ a box in the shops, so check if this is an option for the formula you use. Don't forget you can go to normal milk from a year which is a lot cheaper!

Nappies - try the Tesco value ones! I did this for DS2 after the first potty training attempt drew a blank....and they were fab! Not the prettiest to look at admittedly, a bit 'plastic-y' but SO much cheaper, I wish I'd tried them sooner, and they didn't leak. Lidl ones are meant to be good too.

Try Lidl again, I go there first with my list, then anything I can't get I pop to Sains/Tesco for.

As someone else has said, def take the time to meal plan, this helps target your list. When you shop, make sure you're meals are written down on the back of the list so you don't forget.

I'm not an expert, and it does take some time and planning, but it's worth it. Oh, and cats....we have two (one of which is an 18 pounder tom cat who eats for Britain) and I buy them Iams as they eat less of it and it seems to keep them both full and healthy. I think cheap biscuits are a false economy and the Iams are always on offer somewhere.

One last tip......if you like Baileys, buy the Lidl version!! £4.29 a bottle and having bought one today and decided to quality control it, I can declare it's as good as the real thing......best have another glass to double check though!!! xxx

missty25

Thanks everyone for your tips.

So far so good, no money spent on food shopping since Thursday and if anything will only need to get bread and possibly milk befit shopping day again.

Typical though that the washing machine has given up the ghost, every Christmas we end up with some kind of unexpected bill, grrr. Although it's been on the blink for months so can't really complain.

mummygems

Oh no sorry to hear about the washing machine. We usually have something go wrong at Christmas time too (fridge/freezer, washing machine and tumble dryer the past few years!).

Maybe take a quick look on your local gumtree, freecycle etc and see if anyone is selling/giving away a second hand one you could make do with for the moment. I couldn't be without my washing machine with 3 little ones!

I hope you manage to get something sorted.

RAS

misty

Have you checked your local www.freegle.org.uk or freecycle; you may just be lucky.

missty25

I tried freecycle and gumtree but no joy, someone was selling a 3 yo machine for £150 and it's full price new is £250, tbh though I don't think that's a good deal but perhaps I am wrong. Anyway had to order a new machine and it's getting delivered today.

Panicking a bit about Christmas shopping, I'm normally organised and this year I don't have a single thing bought. As long as my children get a few bits and pieces to open I'll be happy but as for everyone else they can go to fluff as we just really can't afford it this year and I refuse to out things on my credit card like every other year. It's not been used for about 4 months and I'm not wanting to go back into to old habits.

Anyways that was a bit off my original post but I feel better for writing it out.

SmlSave

Thanks for starting the discussion missty25 I've found it really helpful.

ostrichnomore_2

I know it's too late this time but for appliances, see if there's a local selling page on Facebook. I've got loads of stuff off mine. Just moved and got a 3 month Zanussi washing machine for £80, and I've just got a 6 month old condensor tumble drier for £60. Both perfect. You've got to jump in there quickly but lots of bargains.

mummygems

With regards to christmas me and my OH dont buy for one another or our siblings but we buy for nieces and nephews, parents and grandparents and have a budget (£5 each for nieces and nephews or we just buy selection boxes for each others kids). We dont buy for friends children. I've looked on the Grabbit forum quite a bit lately and managed to get some really good deals which I am going to split for various presents.

missty25

So after all our direct debits are paid between pay days( we both get paid weekly on Thursdays), we have the grand total of £20 for shopping, so no petrol for car this week.

Typical when nappies and baby's milk are needed. I will dip into my emergency fund and top this up to £30 and I'm going to sit down later and do another meal plan. We have stuck to our meal plan this week, bar last night when we got a chippy tea, another lesson learned when money is tight no take always as that could have been an extra £12 towards the shopping for this week and would have saved dipping into emergency fund this week. So from now on take always are banned until we are a bit better off.