Shopping too much?

Eenymeeny

Thanks for the dried milk feed back. I also realised that basics seem to disappear to make room for luxury items in the lead up to Christmas. I've stocked up on Morrisons own brand. (which is in a bag, not a tub like Marvel.) I found that the Tesco's Everyday Value milk didin't work well in yogurt but their Instant Dried milk in the red tub is ok if anyone uses it for that purpose. Sorry to hijack your thread OP:o

patchwork_cat

If you don't use a whole pint before it goes off either buy filtered (slightly more expensive, but less waste) or freeze in half pint portions. Or use the off milk to make scones or use the other half to make something http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2014/jul/08/14-recipe-ideas-for-leftover-milk

cloey

Thank you for all your help, i really appreciate it.
Finally used up everything in the freezer and most of the cupboards, and went to aldi, my meal combinations were getting a tad odd to say the least.
First time i've went shopping without husband in tow, and stuck to my meal plan and spent £34 on two weeks shopping, toiletries and cleaning stuff. Despite having to bring it all back home on my own, i think ill be sticking to doing the shopping on my own from now on.

Frugalsod

Deleted_User wrote: »

If you can get hold of one, get a bread maker, as long as you have bread flower butter salt sugar and yeast you will never have to nip out for a loaf of bread and you will save on freezer space. Our bread maker does a quick loaf in 2 hours. I would also suggest having emergency milk in (long life cartons).

I seriously looked into the idea of a bread maker. Though decided the far greater flexibility of a kenwood mixer was more useful. There are a couple that could make bread without getting much else.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Kenwood-Stand-Mixer-KM240-900/dp/B00WWPTS90/



and

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Kenwood-KM330-Stand-Mixer-Litre/dp/B008FN62A6



These are both around £120 which while more than a lot of bread makers and about the same price as good bread makers can be expanded to do so much more by adding accessories like liquidisers and mincers. With a proper food mixer the only other thing you need are bread tins.

In the end I was not restrained by budget and so bought a top of the range version with lots of accessories but I reckon that it has paid for itself in about 18 months. For me it saved about a £1 a loaf so once you have made 120 loaves you would have paid for the machine, and this is without using it for anything else I suspect that once you have a few accessories you will start to use it for a lot more. In my case with all the other savings it has really paid for itself.

chirpycheap

cloey wrote: »

I've been loitering around these pages for the past few days, after loosing my job and a mix up with benefits i've had no money for nearly a month.

We had a little in savings that i was going to dip into to buy food, once what we had, had ran out but weeks later and I still have food! Normally by now I would have done a couple of fortnightly shops, but all i've done was one shop to buy bread and some basics.

I know that we've always bought more food than we need, as in the past we've been skint before and not had anything so now do this out of habit to ensure we won't go hungry but i didn't realise I was buying so much!

Well done on tackling the cash shortfall head on. Many people would bury their heads in their hands and wait until the festive season is over before looking at a sensible budget. I hope your money problems are resolved very soon.:)

cloey

chirpycheap wrote: »

Well done on tackling the cash shortfall head on. Many people would bury their heads in their hands and wait until the festive season is over before looking at a sensible budget. I hope your money problems are resolved very soon.:)

Thank you. By next month everything will be fine, finally starting another job. I'm so excited to be able to support myself properly again!

Maitane

cloey wrote: »

Thank you. By next month everything will be fine, finally starting another job. I'm so excited to be able to support myself properly again!

Well done and good luck! :T

maman

cloey wrote: »

Thank you. By next month everything will be fine, finally starting another job. I'm so excited to be able to support myself properly again!

Good for you! I'd suggest you stick to your frugal ways even when you've got more cash coming in and then you'll be able to build your savings back up again.

cloey

chirpycheap wrote: »

Well done on tackling the cash shortfall head on. Many people would bury their heads in their hands and wait until the festive season is over before looking at a sensible budget. I hope your money problems are resolved very soon.:)

maman wrote: »

Good for you! I'd suggest you stick to your frugal ways even when you've got more cash coming in and then you'll be able to build your savings back up again.

Thank you so much. Definitely staying frugal, still won't have much money when i'm working but it'll be so good to leave the house haha.

IndigoGirl

pipkin71 wrote: »

I've been trying to empty the two freezers for weeks now, ready for Christmas shopping but still can't turn one of them off. We definitely buy too much food

Same here Pipkin. For months. All I know is when the OH goes shopping is he replaces favourite items and we just eat those. I'm a woman on a mission now and I don't care if we have to eat weird combinations. It's happening!