Hi I'm new here :wave:

ViolaLass

I don't know whether I've missed where this was discussed but I think you could cut your food budget a bit. £610 + 96 (school lunches) = £706 = just over £100 per person per month. I think you should be able to knock £20 per person off that, which would save you £140.

Do you cook from scratch? Have you managed to knock the top-up shops on the head?

thriftyandfabulous

[Deleted User] wrote:

Hi,



I'm not usually on this forum, so apologies if I've misunderstood and got it all wrong.

I just don't see how you can pay off MM in a year.

You owe £2853 your interest per month (97% p.a.?), is about £230 and you pay about £238, so only £8 coming off the debt?

Maybe I've got it wrong, hope so.

Hi, sorry should have been more clear - the MM figure includes the interest, I think the amount borrowed was around 1,500. The other debts don't include interest though, this is the only one. Thanks

thriftyandfabulous

Hi,

I do cook from scratch - this weeks meal plan is as follows:

Monday: meatballs and spaghetti
Tuesday: party tea for ds birthday (mini buffet)
Wednesday: nando's chicken (I buy the marinade) with either peri peri fries or rice and salad
Thursday: lasagne
Friday: bangers and mash
Saturday: cottage pie
Sunday: roast chicken dinner

However, I buy a lot of treats and probably do top up shops every other day for sandwich stuff, milk, sugar, treats, etc. This is where I'm going wrong I think, I need to include absolutely everything in my shopping list and cut out some treats then just go to Aldi once a week. I also seem to cook too much so will look at this. I estimate that I currently spend approx. 200 per week on groceries :eek: and I totally agree this needs to stop.

lambda

thriftyandfabulous wrote: »

Hi,

I do cook from scratch - this weeks meal plan is as follows:

Monday: meatballs and spaghetti
Tuesday: party tea for ds birthday (mini buffet)
Wednesday: nando's chicken (I buy the marinade) with either peri peri fries or rice and salad
Thursday: lasagne
Friday: bangers and mash
Saturday: cottage pie
Sunday: roast chicken dinner

However, I buy a lot of treats and probably do top up shops every other day for sandwich stuff, milk, sugar, treats, etc. This is where I'm going wrong I think, I need to include absolutely everything in my shopping list and cut out some treats then just go to Aldi once a week. I also seem to cook too much so will look at this. I estimate that I currently spend approx. 200 per week on groceries :eek: and I totally agree this needs to stop.

This week we spent £30.71 on groceries for the whole week for two people. So you can definitely cut it down. Do you all make your lunches at home and take them into work?

It's great that you meal plan. We find that really works for us and we've saved loads doing it.

lambda

Sorry, me again.

Was also going to mention that it's OK to do one big shop and then a 'top up' shop mid week to get in the milk and a few items you may have missed.

What we do is plan our meals for the week, then make a list of all the ingredients we need, then go out and buy them in one shop, sticking strictly to the list. I will then usually do a top up shop to get the milk in and maybe one or items that we couldn't get on the big shop. But only keeping it those things we needed and originally planned for.

We also plan meals around what leftovers we have in the cupboards/fridge. So if you have left over potatoes from that bangers 'n' mash, you could make something with them, like a potato soup, or a fish pie or something next week, so you are not wasting food.

Also wanted to say that if you sometimes cook too much (for example the lasagne), just freeze the portion. That way when someone is hungry or they need a meal one night, you have one in the freezer ready. We have a portion of beef stew in our freezer from when we made too much last week. Will do when the OH is at work one night and I need to have dinner.

thriftyandfabulous

lambda wrote: »

This week we spent £30.71 on groceries for the whole week for two people. So you can definitely cut it down. Do you all make your lunches at home and take them into work?

It's great that you meal plan. We find that really works for us and we've saved loads doing it.

I work from home and oh takes a pack up so we do try to save money. I tend to be quite good in some ways, e.g. The meal planning, but then I'll decide on a whim that we're having movie night and go all out spending £20 on popcorn and treats

lambda

thriftyandfabulous wrote: »

I work from home and oh takes a pack up so we do try to save money. I tend to be quite good in some ways, e.g. The meal planning, but then I'll decide on a whim that we're having movie night and go all out spending £20 on popcorn and treats

Ah yeah, I understand where you are coming from.

The way to deal with that is to prepare for it. If you know you like going to the movies, set aside the £20 in advance (this is where your budgeting really works well). But you could go to the movies and buy the popcorn from ASDA instead... :T

Oh, and yeah. a packed lunch saves a FORTUNE. I take in one every day. My office worker goes into town *every day* and spends about £6 on his lunch. That's at least £120 a month just on his lunch. Insane. That's enough for me to buy groceries with for the whole month.

thriftyandfabulous

I'm definitely going to plan better and I think it's good that I'm looking at my normal spending habits and thinking 'wow that's crazy' rather than seeing it as being okay. I'm actually looking forward to the challenge of budgeting for food and beating what's in my budget so I can pay it off my cc.

lambda

thriftyandfabulous wrote: »

I'm definitely going to plan better and I think it's good that I'm looking at my normal spending habits and thinking 'wow that's crazy' rather than seeing it as being okay. I'm actually looking forward to the challenge of budgeting for food and beating what's in my budget so I can pay it off my cc.

Record every single expense you make in a month against a category (whether food, going out, whatever). Don't miss a single expense, no matter how small it is. I bet you will be very surprised at what you find and where all your money goes. This is the first step to making a good budget and taking control of your money. :beer:

Catslovelycats

Hi Thrifty
You mention keeping a spending diary earlier in the thread and I just wanted to encourage you how useful that will be. I don't have a problem with debt but wanted to get a handle on where my money was going so I could start to actually save. Keeping a diary transformed me almost overnight. It showed up where I was wasting money and really shocked me. I haven't looked back since. I'm sure it will be useful for you too. All the best.