being organised

KittyBoo_2

buxtonrabbitgreen wrote: »

Not as bad as my dad, who once went out to buy a car radio and came back with a new car.

I went out in my lunch break for a cheese cob and bought a Subaru!!

exlibris

KittyBoo wrote: »

I went out in my lunch break for a cheese cob and bought a Subaru!!

Wow!! I have heard of impulse shopping but that takes the biscuit!!!

Nicki

I've just been researching the idea of Once a Month Cooking, which might suit OP. If you google it there are lots of good sites (eg frugal-moms.com and miserly.moms.com) Basically, you build up a stock of meals in your freezer (either by doing a big cook once a month, or by making 4 or 5 times the normal amount when you are doing your regular cooking) so that you always have something in your freezer for tea. Many (though not all) of the recipies can be reheated from frozen so its not fatal if you forget to take things out to defrost in the morning.

For the bread and milk thing, if I was working I would make all the sandwiches at the weekend and freeze them. In the morning lift out the frozen sandwich, and it will have defrosted by lunchtime (and kept your drink cool for you too). For milk, I would get it delivered. The price per pint may be more but once you factor in petrol and impulse buys you should save money.

Can bulk bake and freeze too. I've just done a trial of this today by making twice as much cookie dough as usual. Half I baked and put in the tin, the other half, I made into biscuits and open froze raw. When I run out of ones in the tin, I plan to take out as many frozen ones as I need and bake as needed. As each biscuit is small in size, I reckon if I take them out of the freezer at the same time as I put the oven on, they should be sufficiently thawed by the time it pre-heats (though may need to add a minute or two to baking time)

Hope this helps

strawberrypud

I hate it when being unprepared or disorganised costs me more than it should. I think it must be very OS to always have the right thing when you need it. For example I was at a shopping centre today to get the last of my Christmas shopping for those people I need to post presents to but I forgot to buy the packaging I'll need from poundland so I'll have to spend a fortune on jiffy bags from the post office tomorrow (with this weather I don't want to delay getting things posted).

This has made me wonder....what things should we all have in our homes to avoid having to buy last minute things?? Spare birthday cards etc....??

Does anyone use January as a month to get ready for the year ahead and stock up?

MrsRogers

Hi there

You should read this thread

Preparing for Winer... Ive been reading it since August and its fab:j

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/2714253

ceridwen

Yep..given...but its not just being prepared for winter....

Personally - I find that one of the advantages of "keeping a good store cupboard" is I dont go to use some vital ingredient for a recipe...find I've run out...have to pay whatever price is necessary to get that missing ingredient. I HAVE the ingredient in and dont have to pay over the odds to get it from a dearer place..

Theres all sorts of other reasons why being prepared helps - even just at a financial level - but thats the first one that came to mind..

jfdi

I'm sure there are other Threads around (this is where the Board Guides - bless 'em - will go off & post links etc!) but the sort of 'being prepared' stuff I always have in, non food / cleaning etc, is....

Brown Paper
Wrapping paper
sellotape / pretty strings etc / normal string
spare birthday cards & some blank generic ones
sewing kit
a non-colour shoe shine
plant food
general type bithday gifts (wine, smellies, notelets etc)
notepaper & envelopes
bulbs (for those hard to get things like my bedside lights, Xmas tree lights etc)
spare fuses (a selection)
Duck tape - or similar
pritt stick
batteries (ikea cheapies) for clocks & remotes
torch / cycle light
candles - to see by, not just 'pretties'
matches (coz your lighter will always run out of gas!)
screwdrivers to hand (eg - in kitchen drawer not down the cold, dark shed!)
Elastic

I'm sure others will add more....

A
xx

betterlife

hi could you not buy some bubble wrap and use some xmas wrapping paper inside out may be cheaper than jiffi bags

Desperate_Housewife_2-2

have you any old rolls of wallpaper that you could wrap them up in?

Penelope_Penguin

strawberrypud wrote: »

This has made me wonder....what things should we all have in our homes to avoid having to buy last minute things??

I suppose it depends on what hobbies and interests you have I should keep a couple of spare bike inner tubes, a puncture repair kit, spare walking socks, lots of wool and thread, and a well stocked kichen

I make lots of lists to ensure I don;t usually run out of things,and can often improvise if I do.

As this has fallen from the front page of OS, I'll add it to the existing thread to give you more ideas.