I am struggling to cope with budgeting

Desperate_Housewife_2-2

Its an art that takes practice like everything else and you can do it!


A few tips are as follows...


- bulk buy whenever you can if you have storage space, under the bed is ideal to store tins in an old suitcase.


- make your own bread


- packed lunches


- portion control, plan to use leftovers too


-rubber chicken, soup, curry etc


- don't throw anything away check out www.lovefoodhatewaste.com


- meal plan


- soup and home made bread is nice for an evening meal


- porridge for breakfast is cheap and good for you made with water and a bit of milk top with dried fruit


- drink water at mealtimes instead of fizzy drinks


good luck and let us know how you get on

BMG

The evening meal has to be a cooked dinner. We do have sandwiches for lunch. Toast or cereal for breakfast.


I do use leftovers but they are never as nice as first time round.


The meal planning is what is getting me in a tiss as well. I normally just look in the freezer the night before I decide that we are having the next day.

BMG

I can't bulk buy as I do not have the money or space to do that unfortunately

maman

BMG wrote: »

I have never worked to a budget before. I have always spend whatever I wanted on my credit card.
Now I am having to budget and I can't cope with it.
Anyone any tips of where to start?? I don't know whether my budgets listed below are too low? We haven't much spare cash but all out meals are so boring and I am not really eating much of each meal.


Sorry for moaning, I am feeling very down at the moment due to things that have happened in the past 24hrs

It certainly won't help your budget if you're wasting food!:rotfl:

Seriously though, you can do this with a bit of practice.

If the £40 of cleaning is having someone in as you're unwell then that's not something you can save on. If it's for cleaning materials then it's way too high. I'd be hard pressed to spend £40 on toiletries either (and I am clean, honest;)).

I shop for two of us and can easily do it for £200 a month and that's includes cleaning materials, laundry and everyday toiletries (so not treats from a cosmetics counter). All I buy on top of that is alcohol. Take-aways are great as is eating out but perhaps something you should save up for.

Where do you shop? What's wrong with the food you're having? How is it different from what you had before? What do you like to eat?

I'm sure we can help.:)

Pickle29

Have you got a slow cooker? You can use cheap cuts of meat. I recently bought some chicken thighs and wings for £1.50 and they made a lovely chicken stew which we had ford dinner then lunch next day! stews, casseroles, bolognese, chilli or joints of meat can do you 2 or 3 days. Always as good on day 2 as day 1. Just add a bit more stock/water. You can vary it with herbs and spices, tin tomatoes etc.

we are now on a tight budget and really finding it interesting shopping around and being creative with cheaper food items!

Good luck and stick with it, this forum is great with help and advice on loads of things x

determined_new_ms

there are 2 of us in our house and we spend between £140-£180 a month - depending on what our joint finances are looking like. You can definitely do it on £160. I find alcohol is what bumps my grocery spends up. I have been known to do it for £120. I don't think our meals are boring, we had steak & a home made mexican rice thing last night, today is leftover rice with some leftover chicken from a roast on Friday. I try to have one or two cheap easy meals a week - Jackets 7 bean & cheese/Tuna, tuna pasta/spicy tomato & bacon pasta/soup & roll & a desert. There is loads of inspiration online either here or other places online. It doesn't have to be boring

Do you shop in Aldi/Lidl? Definitely give it a go if you don't already.

Soworried

BMG wrote: »

I have never worked to a budget before. I have always spend whatever I wanted on my credit card.
Now I am having to budget and I can't cope with it.
Anyone any tips of where to start?? I don't know whether my budgets listed below are too low? We haven't much spare cash but all out meals are so boring and I am not really eating much of each meal.


Sorry for moaning, I am feeling very down at the moment due to things that have happened in the past 24hrs

It sucks doesn't it?

It will get easier though, as you learn to cook/bake and learn how to enjoy budgeting (That does happen honest ) When you eat what you thought was rubbish and it tastes amazing, when your husband/partner says "That was lovely" when it was just rehashed left overs you wished you could bin :A

You aren't alone and you will get up days and down days, I've seen times where I have posted my full kitchen contents on here as I sat in tears as I had no energy to think of what to make.
Then there are days that you post what you have came up with

It's a roller coaster and it takes time to learn how to ride it, maybe a good starting point would be to tell us what foods you like and we can try to make it cheaper? Or post what it is that is getting you down the most and we can try to help you through it?

sonastin

First place to start is in understanding what you actually spend and where the money goes. Make a note of everything you spend. It'll help you to visualise where you can economise if you understand where the money is already going. The debt-free wannabe board is full of all sorts of suggestions for where you can make savings - if you post your SOA (statement of affairs) over there, they'll give you loads of advice on how to minimise your commitments and make the most of your income.

In terms of your budget, there's loads you can do and the grocery challenge thread is full of lots of tips and advice.
- try shopping in lidl / aldi / B&M / home bargains
- try down-shifting brands (branded goods to store's own, store's own to value, etc)
- meal plan as others have suggested. If you're uncomfortable with committing yourself to what you're going to eat 5 days from now, just make a list of 7 meals that you are going to eat this week and buy only what you need for those meals. Then choose which you're going to eat as you feel like it. OK so day 7 might mean you have to have something you aren't in the mood for but its only 1 day in 7.
- plan for using leftovers. We often have a roast dinner on a sunday so I always have an idea for something I can do with leftover meat on Monday and possibly Tuesday. Very often bubble&squeak and then pie or curry if the meat stretches that far
- make a point of checking the reduced cabinet in the supermarket (which is where I usually get the roasting joint!) Don't be fooled into buying things you wouldn't usually eat but you can often pick up meats and stuff for the freezer at a decent discount
- cook from scratch, and consider cooking extras of things that will keep for a day when you don't fancy cooking (bolognaise, chilli, curry)
- homemade pizza is stupidly cheap compared to buying them (particularly as takeaway or in a restaurant) and suprisingly easy to do too

Some days I find needing-to-budget so utterly dispiriting but other days, I actually enjoy it. It becomes surprisingly addictive to try to keep the costs down and make bigger and better savings. The biggest challenge isn't sticking to the budget, it's altering your mindset to see the opportunities that its going to bring for you. Just think, if you master this now while you have to, when you've got a bit more money coming in, you can use it for a special treat instead of throwing it away on the thoughtless-high-spend way that you used to shop (at least that is what I keep telling myself!)

bluebag

I will just go through what I usually do food wise and see if that helps.

I make all the sandwiches for the weeks lunch at once and freeze them, I just take them out of the freezer in the evening and put them in the fridge to defrost. Most meats and cheese will freeze fine.
This allows me to take advantage of the bigger value cooked meat packs and the multibuy savings on bread.

My meal plan is roughly rotated every three weeks, I shop on line once a week and go to the supermarket once a week for a top up of fresh stuff and to get the butty making stuff.

Meal plan goes a bit like this.
Mon. Curry/sweet and sour/ lemon chicken. I use frozen chicken breasts and a jar of sauce. I serve with rice and garlic bread.

Tues. Fish / pie /sausages with chips and mushy peas or beans. I do mash with the sausages.

Wed Spaghetti bolognaise/ stew/ chilli. I do the stew with dumplings and the chilli and bolognaise with garlic bread.

Thurs Homemade burgers in buns or hot dogs in rolls with wedges and veg. I sometimes make chilli dogs using up left over chilli.

Fri Lasagna/ shepherds pie/ with baked potato and veg.

Sat Kievs /chicken strips/fish pie with potato croquettes and veg.

Sun Roast dinner or pizza if I need something fast.

I use frozen veg except for carrots which I buy fresh but keep in the fridge.
I usually make a small side salad to have with the main meal.

You have made a good start and realised you need to make a change. You'll be OK!

Goldiegirl

I remember reading a post from you on the Frugal Living challenge thread a few days ago....you sounded rather down then.


Budgeting, and the related art of living on less is like any other skill, we have to learn it, and as we learn, it gets less painful and we get better at it.


My suggestion would be to master one step at a time.


For example, you might look at your cleaning budget - I'm sure there must be scope to reduce it from £40 per month, to something a lot less.


Then once you'd sorted that out, you might look at meal planning - don't do it for the whole week to start off, just do it for a few days until you feel comfortable with it.


Then, you might look at baking something - try something straightforward, and master that recipe, and then add something else to your repertoire.


It won't happen overnight, but you'll be moving in the right direction, and hopefully start to enjoy it, once you get the hang of it