To consolidate or not?

kcmatt79

Hi,What do you mean by the asda/tesco coupon thing? Sorry, didn't understand that.Had a look at the contact lenses threads. Definitely looks like I could get those cheaper - just trying to figure out where I can get the cash from to buy a year's supply! I'm going to check out the pet/car insurance, although they don't come up for renewal just yet.As for shopping, I just realised that everyone probably thought that the £160 a month was for two people. That's actually just my HALF! So, our food bill is actually £320 a month. We've decided to do a weekly shop at the greengrocers and butchers to cut that down. We do take shopping ethically very important, so we only buy free range meat, for example. Does anyone have any recommendations on how to buy such products cheaper? This seems to be our biggest expense when it comes to shopping, as we pay about £5 for 2 chicken breasts, for example. I already take lunches to work, or if I don't one day, it's only £1.70 for a hot meal and dessert at school!

firesidemaid

if you are ever looking for something such as ideas for cheaper free-range meat, i would post/start a thread on the old-style board and you will be amazed at the help and info that rolls in.

have you thought about local farms or meat boxes? i only know that asda do free-range whole chickens for about a fiver - but this would be better value as you would get several meals out of it.

i'm veggie so i'm not the best help on meat advice! i make cottage pie out of the packet soya mince very cheaply (50p-ish in asda). others use lentils, oats, grated carrots, allsorts!

re: asda + tescos. there are threads for both stores on here. i shop in asda and they will allow up to 10% of your total bill to be used in coupons. so if i spend £30 i can hand over up to £3 in any coupons - cut out from mags/newspapers etc. as long as they sell that item in store you can use them, you don't have to buy the item on the voucher! it's great. (the only time you can't do that is if the coupon is specific for asda stores, then you have to buy the product).

i get money off my shopping every week this way. i find the work tea-room a great source. i get a buzz if i come back from my break £1.00 the richer! you can even use coupons for magazines - they can be quite lucrative. look out also on giveaways at supermarkets and customer service desks.

that's great news about the food in theory, as there will be more money to be saved! you really cannot beat this site x

kcmatt79

Thanks for that. The coupon thing sounds great!! I never knew you could do that!! I'm going over to the old style board to see what people say about the meat thing!

I was also veggie for 11 years, so we tend to eat a lot of veggie meals every week. We found we couldn't afford meat all that often anyway! We are used to a lot of lentil dishes etc. so it won't be a problem creating cheap meals!

Thanks again.