Live on a tenner a week ???

zaxdog

I am lucky in that I work for a food wholesaler so the products that are coming close to or are on their use by dates are offered to the staff at very low prices.

Today I bought:

2 x 500g honey roast ham
2 x 200g smoked bacon
2 x 5 portion VERY posh kiln roast salmon

£5 :T

We also hit Tesco at 5pm on a Sunday and get a couple of 10p loaves for the week. I take a couple of slices to work for toast in the morning and work provides butter, tea, coffee, milk, sugar etc.

This will be a very tight month as Mr Zaxdog has lost his chef job due to a disability. On the plus side he is delivering for the local Indian takeaway and just brought me some yummy (and free) South Indian potato curry

Also the journey to work every day using Shank's pony rather than the bus will keep me fit and save me £2.40 a day..................

Lynplatinum

Evening All

Zaxdog - sounds like you are going to be ok food wise - my son does voluntary work for a recyling food kitchen which allows volunteers to take left overs home and then shops in A!di so has no food issues either despite a vastly reduced income.

However, there are other expenses to minimise (gas, electric, water, broadband, phone) and I wonder how folks on here do that?

I do things like: always fill the oven; sit with a blanket round my legs in the winter evenings to save fuel; only wash up once a day and always use a bowl etc

What tips would you all pass on? :A
Nite all

zaxdog

I use blankets to keep us a bit warmer in the winter. I crochet them from donated wool too so very MSE

Winter usually means a slightly lower electricity bill for us as we have an open fire with back boiler. Loads of scavenged wood provides warmth and hot water.

Instead of our big oven we use the wee combi and the slow cooker gets a lot of use.

The washing machine is used after 11pm and when I get up at 7am I boil the kettle for tea and fill two flasks for Mr Z for the day's coffee to take advantage of the cheap rate.

I also save the vouchers and freebies from work and have a small DD every month to cover our modest Christmas expenditure :A

[Deleted User]

I too only wash up once a day ,usually just before going to bed As I live alone this is not a problem as my washing up bowl doesn't get that full so often its every two days. I do try to save left over water for chucking on the small lawn in the summer or on the shrubs so I don't have to use the hose.

Living with a water meter certainly focuses on water savings .My metered water bill now is down to just over £15 per month I use my washing machine when its three quarters full.
Very few dark stuff, and what I have I save and do in one wash.

My CH goes on for an hour a day or as and when needed for an hour at a time I stopped having it switching on on a regular basis a couple of years ago and my gas/electric bill is now £41 per month for the two utilities combined.. I usually have a bit of cash sent back at the end of the year. It means the D/Debit has dropped yearly from £68 to £41.


I have several thick knitted blankets that go over my knees instead of turning on the heating.If I get in from DDs at around seven, often its just not worth turning it on as my house is a fairly warm one anyway and is extremely well insulated.

My son-in-law did a survey on it (its part of his normal job) and it came out as triple 'A' rated as I had implemented all of his suggestions for saving energy.
As white goods got replaced I had them with the best energy saving that I could.

I now only iron things that really need ironing (about half of what I used to do without thinking once upon a time:):) I have never owned a tumble dryer as I have a perfectly good washing line and washing gets done when I know it will dry

I have always been good about switching off lights etc and only use my big oven for doing a bake-up and then its always filled as much as possible.I have a Remoska that I use also a slow cooker which does save on electricity instead of using the oven just to cook one thing.

Very little is left on 'stand-by' and apart from my fridge.

I even changed my telephone when the old one packed up and went back to one that I had in the cupboard that wasn't a walk-around with a battery one. I use my minutes on my mobile to make outgoing calls and my landline for incoming only.I am paying for the 100 minutes a month anyway with my mobile contract (£11.33 per month ).Normally text more than phone anyway and I have unlimited texts.My phone is a small contract one and does exactly what I want which is make calls or texts I don't need an all-singing dancing fancy one as I would never have time to use it anyway :):) Far too busy enjoying life.

JackieO xxx

VfM4meplse

Gosh all this talk of blankets makes me want to snuggle under my two 15-tog duvets! 10pm and I'm thoroughly knackered on this chilly night, long day ahead tomorow.

NewShadow

I'm hoping to cut down by 'delaying' payday by a week.

I find myself being a bit silly sometimes - towards the end of the month I manage perfectly well on my store cupboards, but the instant my paycheque hits my account - I've just got to go food shopping!

Well, not this month.

I've a meal plan for next week that doesn't rely on buying anything, then a shopping list/mealplan (that can be changed) that only buys whats needed for the week ahead.

Need to stop spending to my means.

[Deleted User]

Only third small shop of the month done yesterday and I am very pleased that my £60.00 food budget has £20.80p left over to go into my holiday account tomorrow as I have more than enough for probably the next 10 days at least before I need anything at all, and then it will only be a small top-up shop :):)

Toonie

I've had a very painful foot for quite some time now and I've been trying to put off supermarket shopping as much as possible so I've been mostly using my local market and local Turkish shop which are only five minutes away rather than the 20 minute limp to the supermarket. It's actually saving me a lot of money so this will continue. The only downside is not being able to walk to my nearest Lidl (30 minutes) as I'm missing their mayonnaise and bakery. This week I spent £8.34 and got

2kg baby plum tomatoes
1.5kg bananas
700g black grapes
500g barley
500g red lentils
6 pitta bread
1 tin plum tomatoes
10 large oranges
6 eggs
2kg potaotes

I was very pleased with my haul and with freezer and stored supplies I should only need to get a little extra fruit next week.

zaxdog

7am breakfast: cold pakora :j from Mr Zaxdog's takeaway delivery job.

1pm lunch: YS baked tatties topped with spicy mince (tin of Goblin mince, dash of chilli sauce and squidge of tomato puree with leftover YS salad

Dinner when Mr Z and the mad lurcher come home freezing from gold panning :rotfl:: beef sausage casserole (beef sausages from work), spicy onions (freebie), herb & garlic stockpot (freebie) and a touch of spice.

All from existing stocks so a NSD :T

Will light the fire early on (scavanged kindling and firewood) which will heat the water for our baths. I LOVE my back boiler.

Going to spend today crocheting with a DS9 marathon......

VfM4meplse

zaxdog wrote: »

7am breakfast: cold pakora :j from Mr Zaxdog's takeaway delivery job.

Brilliant, made me smile :T