Any advice welcome - need to cut weekly shop costs

Broomstick

I echo what was said about your water bill seeming high. Do you know another single parent with a young child in your area who is on a meter and who could give you some idea of their metered costs?

We are a 3 adult household (myself and two sons) and are on a meter. We do a ridiculous amount of clothes washing because we run a kit-heavy sports club which can add an extra 6 washes a week throughout the year on top our our own laundry. Our monthly water bill payments are a fiver a month less than yours. We have, however, banned baths and only ever have showers (without lingering in there for hours!) We don't water the garden and don't wash the cars.

B x

Nikkiclaire

Thankyou for all your comments and suggestions - I think I turned to this site as don't have another adult I can bounce ideas off so this really helped. I am off work now until the 6th jan so going to set a plan in place, do batch cooking and develop strategies for not spending in those days when I feel like I need a pick me up. So I sat down with a pen and paper and costed things out which is what I am going to do - here where I have got so far- feel free to comment/ suggest. I have just made our lunch and it went down very well with my son.
Lunch today.
Pitta bread 8p each
Quorn southern burger 43p
Carrot 6p
Tomato 10p
Dressing 7p ( out of garlic and herb low fat dressing £1 )

Total for both of us £1.30

Dinner tonight
Chicken was £4 will use about £ 1.50s worth
Potatoes ( from my allotment)
Curley kale ( from my allotment )
Gravy from cupboard but would be about 10p
1/2 sage and opinion stuffing (basic brand) 8p
Pudding for son choc ice from asda basic 8p

Total for dinner for both of us £1.76

Snacks Apple (18p ) satsuma (7p)

Will also batch cook this tea time with the chicken

Chicken curry using about £1.50 chicken
Courgette 20p
Onion 5p
Garlic from allotment and stored
Chill jam ( lovely homemade with allotment produce at end of summer )
Lentils 20p
Tin of bean 20p
Tin tomatoes 20p
Curry powder ( about 10ps worth )
This will make 4 portions and works out at 60p per portion


Chicken soup
Chicken £1
Onion 10p
Carrot 12p
Potato from allotment ( but if bought about 30p )
Lentils 20p
Stock cube 10p
Herbs from garden which I froze

Will do 4 portions and works out at 45p a portion.

I have decided that if I cost everything out I am more likely to stick to it and not through left overs away ( which I have done in the past ) Afterall I would not through £1 away, but in the past I may not have bothered to make anything with last bit of chicken for example. Figures crossed anyway- think I might set myself up with a blog to help me track my progress and make me think about things more and to get people's input- feeling very positive at the minute:)

WartimeScrapingofMarmite

mandragora wrote: »

Breakfast club - is there a local mum who would have your son for that 15 mins - give her a box of his favourite cereal a week and a carton of milk - that'd cost a sight less than £20. It needs to be someone you'd be happy with, and cost you less than the amount you're paying now for it to be worth bothering with, but my son's friend's mum had my lads for twenty mins a morning when they were at primary - they loved to be together anyway, my two didn't make much of a difference, and she was very grateful for the bit of extra cash it brought in. I was lucky that she was so lovely, and they were very happy there.

I was going to suggest this too - I used to have a friend's daughter (my friend is also a teacher) for 15 minutes in the morning, 5 days a week and take her to school - my friend paid me £15 a week for this (which I didn't want to take really, but was grateful for the extra cash as I wasn't working at the time)

I would also recommend going onto a water meter - we are a family of four and we pay £10 per month and are usually in credit. Our water rates were similar to yours before going onto the meter. We only have a bath (no shower fitted), a dishwasher which I run once a day and I run the washing machine 4-5 times a week, if this gives you an idea of our water consumption for £10 a month.

Good luck, I am sure you will find lots of help and tips on here:)

Nikkiclaire

Think its a blog I mean anyway so I can write and track my progress- may make me far focussed, without another adult to discuss finances with I would easy go off track without something like that - its great online as you can ask for advice and get support without anyone judging you ( if they do judge its easier to ignore and brush off lol )

TheDoolallyDilly

You've had brilliant advice so far. Would just say though that we are a family of three, with a water meter (it was here when we moved in) and our water bills are £37 a month. We only have showers, don't use a hosepipe, have a dishwasher that's run once a day, and do about 7 loads of washing a week (one DC is disabled, so we have a lot of washing!). I think it very much depends on your water company, which of course you can't change....

Nikkiclaire

WartimeScrapingofMarmite wrote: »

I was going to suggest this too - I used to have a friend's daughter (my friend is also a teacher) for 15 minutes in the morning, 5 days a week and take her to school - my friend paid me £15 a week for this (which I didn't want to take really, but was grateful for the extra cash as I wasn't working at the time)

I would also recommend going onto a water meter - we are a family of four and we pay £10 per month and are usually in credit. Our water rates were similar to yours before going onto the meter. We only have a bath (no shower fitted), a dishwasher which I run once a day and I run the washing machine 4-5 times a week, if this gives you an idea of our water consumption for £10 a month.

Good luck, I am sure you will find lots of help and tips on here:)

Sadly I dont really know many parents to ask as we travel to the school from about 2 miles away so cant ask parents of neighbouring children. The ones I do kknow also work those days so use breakfast club or travel into the school from out of catchment. Think I am stuck with those cost. Ironically most other school in area have free breakfast clubs. But I can cut back on other things : )

Nikkiclaire

Already posted on here on another thread, but this is to formally set myself the challenge of feeding myself and my 6 year old son a healthy and nutritious diet for £20 a week. As someone said on here before to me - treat it as a game and enjoy the challenge- so that's what I am going to do:). The reason I am posting it in here is to keep me focused and perhaps get some encouragement from other adults to stay focused. As a single parent, with no other adult to discuss finances with, it can be so easy to go off track. Earlier today after reading other posts I set out planning and costing meals. The costing although breaking things down into item cost, is important as I tend to throw food away, but when I put an individual cost on it, it makes me think more. I have included a copy underneath of my update on the other thread. Please feel free to suggest low cost meals, and I will happily share ideas, recipes etc. please also feel free to join in a similar challenge especially if anyone is in similar situation as me as encouragement is what I need lol


( post from earlier- on a different thread )
Thankyou for all your comments and suggestions - I think I turned to this site as don't have another adult I can bounce ideas off so this really helped. I am off work now until the 6th jan so going to set a plan in place, do batch cooking and develop strategies for not spending in those days when I feel like I need a pick me up. So I sat down with a pen and paper and costed things out which is what I am going to do - here where I have got so far- feel free to comment/ suggest. I have just made our lunch and it went down very well with my son.
Lunch today.
Pitta bread 8p each
Quorn southern burger 43p
Carrot 6p
Tomato 10p
Dressing 7p ( out of garlic and herb low fat dressing £1 )

Total for both of us £1.30

Dinner tonight
Chicken was £4 will use about £ 1.50s worth
Potatoes ( from my allotment)
Curley kale ( from my allotment )
Gravy from cupboard but would be about 10p
1/2 sage and opinion stuffing (basic brand) 8p
Pudding for son choc ice from asda basic 8p

Total for dinner for both of us £1.76

Snacks Apple (18p ) satsuma (7p)

Will also batch cook this tea time with the chicken

Chicken curry using about £1.50 chicken
Courgette 20p
Onion 5p
Garlic from allotment and stored
Chill jam ( lovely homemade with allotment produce at end of summer )
Lentils 20p
Tin of bean 20p
Tin tomatoes 20p
Curry powder ( about 10ps worth )
This will make 4 portions and works out at 60p per portion


Chicken soup
Chicken £1
Onion 10p
Carrot 12p
Potato from allotment ( but if bought about 30p )
Lentils 20p
Stock cube 10p
Herbs from garden which I froze

Will do 4 portions and works out at 45p a portion.

I have decided that if I cost everything out I am more likely to stick to it and not through left overs away ( which I have done in the past ) Afterall I would not through £1 away, but in the past I may not have bothered to make anything with last bit of chicken for example. Figures crossed anyway- think I might set myself up with a blog to help me track my progress and make me think about things more and to get people's input- feeling very positive at the minute

TheThriftyScrumpers

Hi,
Good luck with your challenge. You may already be aware of this website but it has lots of great low cost recipes.

http://agirlcalledjack.com/category/recipes-food-etc/

Xx

Nikkiclaire

Fantastic - will check it out : )

cheerfulness4

Nikki - If you're not already aware of them then checking out Weezl74 threads could really help.
She was super frugal but did brilliant breakdowns of the nutritional side, too.

I think I might have some links. Will go look.

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/2256959

Above is the first of her threads and the rest all seem to lead on from links at the end. Takes masses of reading but extremely useful thoughts and recipes I found.