Jumping on board

mae

Could you open another account just for your grocery money? Or have a kitty purse with the £200 pound in it if you are very disciplined not to dip into it for other things?
The reason for this is once you have done your weekly shop or monthly, how ever you choose to do it, then once the money has gone you can't buy anymore food until the next £200 goes in so then you will have to become more disciplined, controlled and inventive to make something out of the food you have left in the cupboards etc..Hope that makes sense its just that if you know you can go over because there is money in the ordinary account then the temptation is to say oh well I need this so I will have it.
Although I would like to say I don't think you are doing too badly at the moment for £300 but if you want to reduce it maybe restricting the money is the way to go.
It helps me to shop on line at Tescos, I always find a code. For example last week I spent £104 and with the £15 off £100 spend and with the other reductions(BOGOF etc) my shopping came to £77 and as it was £104 worth of food it will last us 2 weeks. I am also more controlled when I shop online, there a fewer temptations and when I have finished the shop I then look at the full basket and delete any items I think we either won't end up using quick enough and it will go off or any items that I think do we really need that and what could I better spend that amount of money on etc.
HTH

lynzpower

gah just did a massive reply, and lost it :wall:

another tip is
a) check out when your local supermarkets do thier reductions and go and fill your freezer then. I have it down to a fine art now. and get loads of meat/ dairy stuff cheap. Wack in the freezer and plan into meals later. dinner tongiht is chicken fillets, on a bed of chorizo and mushroom pasta with a flatbread. All yellow labelled, and will come in at under 2.00

b) plan your menu including drinks, snacks, puddings. I tend to draw a grid out with brek/ lunch /tea for the week, and so if i have everything in for a chilli but no K beans, i write in K beans and 13p next to them so i can see how much ( isH) it will cost me. If you have anything lurking at the back of your cupbard you dnot know what to do with, ask away someone will think of something yum you can make.

check your recipets, tescos has a star next to any vatted items. you can reduce how often you buy these.

Also some things will spend week in week out. I spend 2.00 on dog food every week. I buy 5 pints a week of milk. this is about right for the 2 of us.

I try not to go into any shops or supermarkets through the week, for anything Ive "forgotten" - ill do without for 5 days. pretty much everything can be frozen, so I stick in milk, crumpets stuff like that in the freezer. We make bread at home, so we never have to buy bread either.

ellas9602

Hi BAUK :hello:
I feel like we have the same life!
I work FT, 2 kids, 2 dogs and a OH who works at home. It's OH's job to wash up the breakfast things, walk the dogs, post letters etc. I spend 5 mins in each room when I get home (with a timer:o !!!), quick make of beds and throw any clothes in the laundry. If kids rooms are a real mess they have to do it themselves. then 10 mins in Living room, plumping cushions, quick polish and a quick vac. Again OH washes the teatime pots. We dont spend any more than 30-40 mins each evening cleaning up but I do feel in control. I used to spend ALL weekend cleaning but I don't have to any more, I'll vac upstairs on a weekend and clean the bathroom, change bedding but I'm no longer a slave to it. I no longer iron either.
I shop online (from work!) and find this really helps to keep the cost down and save precious time. like someone else said you can edit the list until the night before delivery and it really helps to go over the list and think 'do I really need this? and delete. I use my slow cooker a lot, braising steak is a cheap fave and is ready when I get home. On sundays I cook a huge sunday lunch and then we have exactly the same on monday, we call this monday lunch! :rotfl: nobody minds having it twice cos it's delicious!
My OH loves to pop to sainsburys around 8.30pm and fill the freezer with the reduced stuff.
Also because he's at home I can give him instructions too like 'turn the oven on to number 6 and put 4 potatoes in' he can manage this :rolleyes: and tea is almost reday when I'm home!
sorry for waffling!
I very often feel like things are out of control but I think I've come to accept my limitations now and feel quite proud of how we muddle on through!!! good luck to you!!xxxx:T

blackangeluk

THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!

Lots of lovely advice I will try and follow. I have had a day off today as DS's birthday, when he was having a nap I negotiated with DD financial reward for helping. We have therefore spent the last 2 hours blitzing - mopping, scrubbing, polishing, hoovering, all for the hourly rate of £1.25 (she is only 7).

So I now feel I have a base to start the flylady on, I've had a look at her site and I'm going to sign up and do a little something everyday of the things that seem too much to do during a blitz.

We do menu plan as DH does the cooking but sometimes he will just change his mind at the last minute, I really need to work on this one with him. Am in the process of defrosting the freezer so I have more room to stock bulk cooking. I want to get a slow cooker but DH is adamant we don't need one as he does the cooking, but I could contribute to it if we had a slow cooker and could prepare some food before I go to work.

DH is working away for two weeks from Monday and so I have got to manage full time job and a 3yr and 7yr old :eek: I think my only option is to bulk cook and meticulously menu plan. It will be slightly easier when DH is away as he is a pickie veggie and I struggle to find ideas that he and the kids like and refuse to cook two meals!

I have also just discovered the tesco discount codes and have decided to stick to the online shopping as there is less temptation to buy what isn't on my list. I have cut out buying sweet stuff (following your lead Hypno) and we are making cakes and biscuits instead.

We are off on holiday in 2 and a bit weeks so I want to try and use what we have, to cut back on food we waste. I may post what I have in cupboards for some meal ideas.

So I will hopefully start August with a slightly cleaner house and do it the flylady way

Hello to a few familiar names here, you will be pleased to know I have purchased my stardrops this morning as well and so we are stardrop clean!

And I do agree that there are limitations and maybe I need to just accept them.

Thank you - off to make homemade birthday biscuits now - Twinks of course

mossstar

oooh, good luck with it all.

some BRILLIANT advice and ideas here - this place rocks! :rotfl:

Just to say that I used to suffer as you are too, i used to be desperate to get some 'me' time to do art or sewing, but i ALWAYS had to spend any significant chunks of time I found doing the house instead... so now I do what these clever chaps on here do and do 30mins/45mins a DAY (! whodathunkit?) and it works! it's like the holy grail secret of life or something

I only other tip is to chuck out/ebay/donate ANYTHING in your house that isn't totally loved/necessary - this really, really helps. I've also been slowly building up a stash of plastic tubs with lids and nice baskets for everything - even say the kid's clothes in the boy's wardrobe that ds1 has grown out of but that ds2 is still too small for.

It's got to the stage where we don't have something come into the house (say, some toys, or more fabrics/paints for me) that I don't budget in a plastic tub with lid/basket (depending on whether it'll be seen or not - plastic tubs ain't pretty!) to go with it! It adds $8 on to the cost of whatever i'm getting, but since we don't buy much anyway, and I've realised that if something has a home i get more TIME, it's WELL worth it -

Hope it all goes well for you!

Steph x

moanymoany

newlywed wrote: »

I too am struggling to get my grocery budget down to £200. I know it should be possible but .... never seems to happen.

I've joined grocery challenge this month as we have a holiday at the end of the month so I really need the extra cash.

Our grocery spend usually works out about £250-£300. This weekend I chopped a big bag of value onions, split into portions, bagged and froze them, peeled chopped and cooked carrots and did the same. And baked 8 potatoes and froze, ready for our lunches. So it was a busy weekend but during the week I gain a bit of extra time

So far I have spent £100 of the budget but have meals planned for nearly 3 weeks and only need fruit veg, loo rolls, and the occasional bit of meat so I'm hoping to deal with the rest of the month at £25 a week, debating going for cash this time so I have to meet the budget

Newleywed, do you blanch the onions before freezing? Also, how do the frozen spuds thaw out?

These are great ideas, it is often the chopping and peeling that takes the time!

moanymoany

A few years ago - pre OS - we did a lot of work on the house with the intention of selling it. We changed our minds, but were left with debts incurred doing it up! We put the debt onto a 0% and planned to pay it off in the 6 months limit.

We did it, but we lived on value food. I got it down to £17 a week. We had value spaghetti (I always measure pasta, rice, beans, cheese etc., it makes them go further) 100gs each, cooked, with a heated tin of tomatoes on top sprinkled with 80gs of grated and frozen value cheese and browned under the grill.

Value potatoes made into wedgies by boiling for 5 mins, draining them and putting 3 tablespoons cheap oil in pan and shaking, oven cook or fry. 1 fried egg and tin of value baked beans.

Baked beans with mashed potato on top so it looked like shepherds pie, with value carrots.Toad in the hole with no toad! Value flour and milk, potaotes, carrots and gravy.

Layer sliced potatoes, onions and carrots in a dish. Cover with either stock, a thin cheese sauce or white sauce and cook. Serve with a veg. I made it thin in a big dish because you get lots of crunchy top.

This was the sort of stuff. We did it, paid off the debt. What I discovered was, if we paid off the max we could at the start of the month, I HAD to stick to what was left. It sharpened the mind. :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl:

ceridwen

Hi to moany moany

Glad I gave you a good laugh t'other day - sounds like you needed it with your mother to cope with.

I'm trying to be very good and not waste any food - picking up all sorts of tips from this forum - I'm onto buying full-fat milk and diluting it, using bits of bread for breadcrumbs, etc. Kicking myself yesterday for letting most of carton of passata go past date - thats how OS I'm getting. I'll never be able to get the food bill down that much - as everything poss is bought organic (apart from the coffee - which I cant quite bring myself to spend about a £1 extra per packet to get!). Am able to shave all sorts of odd little bits off though - bought 2 bits of Boots Natural Collection makeup yesterday - congratulating myself on spending £s less than normal on the already cheap ones I normally get, offered to buy a ready-made up fan in DIY shop to take it off their hands (as shop-soiled) - so got that at £13, rather than £15 (I wanted it readymade anyway!) and so on. All these tiny savings - all adding up. God knows what my visitors must have thought yesterday - seeing freezer bags drying out on the line ready for re-use (and supermarket plastic bags as well - so I can be "good" and resist taking anymore at the supermarket).

newlywed

moanymoany wrote: »

Newleywed, do you blanch the onions before freezing? Also, how do the frozen spuds thaw out?

These are great ideas, it is often the chopping and peeling that takes the time!

No I don't bother blanching the onions. They are always cooked from frozen when I use them and I haven't noticed any difference. I use the food processor to chop them, but do divide them up into bags though as I got fed up of trying to break bits of onion off a huge lump!!! Also if you double bag them then the freezer tends to smell a bit less oniony

The frozen spuds I just take out of the freezer in the evening and put in the fridge to thaw overnight and then they are defrosted by lunchtime, ready for a 2 minute zap.

I also sometimes peel chop and par-boil potatoes ready to make roasties.

I do par boil the carrots as I tend to underestimate how long these take to cook from raw and we end up with crunchy ones!

moanymoany

Yesterday I took my dog to his hairdresser and I took advantage of the hour it takes to go to the local charity shop.

The charity shops in town are expensive. They charge as much for some items (Primark and Asda) as new! The Relate shop in Broadfield is much more reasonable, the clothes can be about half the price.

Well, I got a lovely M&S shirt blouse for £2. It is smashing, lavender, pink stripey check. Washed up a treat and is in the wardrobe ready to wear.