Quids in for a Limited Time

Skint_yet_Again

Hi Maiden Mum thanks for posting on my diary I thought I'd pop over and return the favour and see how you are doing.


How exciting a lovely holiday to look forward to and well done on the savings & using cashback sites


I think reducing your food spend gradually is a good idea rather than going cold turkey. I find meal planning and making a shopping list helps but even I have gone over budget this month. Its a lot of work isn't it and sometimes I just think sod it I'm fed up and just chuck anything in the trolley.

Maiden_Mum

Feeling a little stressed! I have been to six supermarkets in the last 2 days and have already spent a whopping £292! This was because it can get so manically busy when I am at work so took advantage of it being half term and also stocked up on bulk purchases. Makro spends for example were £93.22 but this did include chicken breasts at £19.99, chicken drumsticks £11.49, kitchen towels £10.69 diced turkey meat £8.26, 3 Dettols cleaning sprays for £3.75, a big bag of pasta for £3.99 and low fat mince at £9.44. A few days ago I had this vague idea that I would join the Grocery challenge on the Old Style board and try6 to reduce the monthly spends to £500 or lower with also a weekly limit and there doesn't seem any point doing that now!
I did manage to cook the turkey yesterday and that made a curry for last night and tonight and half put away in the freezer plus off to make lasagnes for the freezer now with the mince although not sure if I can actually freeze the made up lasagne if it has the uncooked pasta sheets with it?
I also spent about £70 on clothes yesterday and £90 on new bed sheets (which were desperately needed) so all in all a very spendy few days, After this weekend, time to reign in the spending big time!

Thisgirlcan_2

Hi Maiden Mum! I've just read through your thread and I think you can definitely save where the shopping is concerned.

We have a similar income to you but outgoings are balanced differently (our mortgage is £1200) and have 3 children (though young, I appreciate teenagers eat a lot more!) but we are still buying nappies & formula and although he is small he easily eats a small much as the other two haha.

I think a good exercise for you to do would be to list everything you have - your last freezer list would get at least 22 meals for example - and see if you can avoid supermarkets (sounds hard but hear me out lol). I know that when I step into a supermarket I spend money - I buy things we don't need, that look nice, I just fancy this and that and various non food items!

So now I do a freezer shop, usually in the Sainsbury's yellow sticker reductions for meat, fish, bread etc. And then I do a store cupboard shop at Aldi, pasta rice tins etc. I crazy meal plan. I have my fruit and veg delivered twice a week ish from a local place and I buy my milk at the corner shop.
I know it's a bit different with your son's dietary requirements but I really think if you can sit and get organised with this you'll free up a lot of pennies! I probably step into a supermarket twice a month unless I need something specific and then I am really strict.

Have a bit of a challenge, see how long you can go just eating what you've got in the house and I bet you'll be really surprised!

Oh and I've not frozen uncooked pasta sheets but I make mine up in the foil containers, cook cool and freeze. Although I have got a lot better recently at freezing left overs instead of them sitting in the fridge for a week and being thrown away haha.

Maiden_Mum

Quick update - food spends are now at £429 so far for the month and will probably be going to Tesco in the next few days to stock up as I have a £7 off £50 voucher to use Life continues to be a bit manic and I would so love to have a day of calm and peace and quiet!
Thank you Thisgirlcan for posting, that was kind of you. Do you have a diary yourself? You certainly have a big mortgage payment. Well done you for managing such a large payment every month on a similar income to me. Mine will be dropping soon which I am dreading.

Maiden_Mum

A bit of a gap but a quick update will be given. Life is still rather manic and basically no progress has been made on the attempt to reduce grocery shopping at all. I am bored to be even writing this myself but for the sake of at least keeping a record for myself I will do so. July grocery spends were £607, eating out costs were £57, clothes were £6 (underwear for me) and petrol was at least £82 but quite possibly more as I may have missed one spend right at the end of the month.

Freezer check not yet done but cupboard stock check shows these items;
Tinned new potatoes
Tinned Sardines
Salmon paste
Pineapple chunks
Kidney beans
Butter beans
Cannellini beans
Black Eyed Beans - 2
Mixed Beans
Coconut milk
Small tin of Chickpeas
Passata carton
Tomato puree - 3
Green Pesto
Custard - 2
Pack of Brazil nuts - BB 09/2017
Free from oats
1/2 bag of normal oats
Garlic & coriander naan breads
Bread Sauce - 2
Packet of meatballs in tomato sauce
BBQ pulled pork mix for slow cooker - BB 04/2018
Oyster & spring onion Blue Dragon sauce for stir fries - 2
Sweet Chiili & garlic Blue Dragon Stir Fry sauce
Packet of red lentils
Tamari soya sauce
G/f Worcester sauce
Schwartz Fajita Sauce mix
Loyd Grossman tomato & chilli sauce - 2
Bag of long grain rice
Bag of Basmati rice
Tins of tuna - 26!!!
Tins of sweetcorn - 10
Tins of chopped tomatoes - 9
Tins of baked beans - 4
Jars of Hotdog sausages - 2
Jar of salsa
Rogan Josh sauce
Butter chicken sauce - 2
Balti sauce - 2
Cheese and Bacon sauce
Xmas pudding
Tins of tomato sauce - 3
Spagetti pasta
G/F spaghetti pasta

There we go. There is obviously cereal, plus biscuits, crisps, drinks, crackers, fruit etc.

It's pretty rubbish but it is what it is. At least I am keeping a record of what I am spending & I have lots of friends who have absolutely no idea what they spend & at least I have done a store cupboard stock check. DD's 18th birthday weekend away trip has been done & mostly paid for, her driving lessons have started and our family holiday in October has been fully paid for. Hey ho, lots & lots of room for improvement & onwards & upwards I hope.

Maiden_Mum

Another big gap but for the sake of keeping a record for myself, food spends etc were as follows;

August: £780.45 food, £14,28 eating out, £108.77 clothes for me, £180 clothes for DH's birthday present & £95.25 clothes for DS's birthday. Petrol I don't know.

September: £548.01 food, £28.00 eating out, £45 clothes for me, petrol I don't know.

October: £609.28 food ( & we were away for a week), eating out & petrol I don't know, clothes for me £18.00.

November: £304.69 so far up to today.

So food spends still horrendous! Only keeping track, no actual budgeting going on I know.

Received my annual mortgage statement last month & was disappointed how little it had gone down so I have decided I am going to make an effort to at least pay something every month off it. Just waiting a week or so to see what's left at the end of this month. I haven't really done any xmas shopping yet & really can't be bothered with it tbh. It just seems like an unnecessary big spend just for the sake of it. Bah humbug I know!

enjoyyourshoes

Why not do a daily reconciliation of your main bank account ?

Excel or pen and paper.

List all monthly bills and annotate a month before they are due for renewal. (allows time to renegotiate and investigate better deals)

Identify all annual (car insurance etc), 1/2 yearly (Oil fuel etc) and 1/4ly bills. Produce a cash flow to identify what monthly accrual you need to account for to pay these off when due, then add this into your bank reconciliation.

Daily calculate new reconciled balance as a result of what you have spent (don't forget, switch, CC, Pay @ pump, all cheques, contactless etc) This will sow what has been spent and ensure you do not go into OD. Allows you to plan better (savings, holidays etc).

Once the statements arrive check off everything and continue for the subsequent months.

Have a monthly 'pow wow' to beat long term and medium strategies and put these into financial terms and then act upon the results (start high interest bank account, do a regular savings account, get kids into work to start saving for Uni, start own SIPP etc etc )

Silence101

One thing that helped us when we had to keep food costs down was to meal plan for a whole month. I wrote down 30 meals that I knew we enjoyed /were easy to cook. The kids could help with the list.
Then I divided the meals into 4 weeks, and wrote all the ingredients down needed for each recipe. But it was in a table format so a column per meal, and each row was a specific ingredient (for example 3 meals needed potatoes, 2 needed onions etc) and then I collated each week in a list. It made it much easier to cross reference what we already had and how much we needed to buy.
So I had 4 master shopping lists, and we kept following them for about 6 months, just alternating which weekly meals we were eating. It takes a while to set up, but it act saves a lot of time in the long run, as it could last 6 month or so, and it saved us lots of money.
The hardest bit was coming up with the meals but your children are older so they could be responsible for a week each or something.

Maiden_Mum

Enjoyyourshoes - I have to confess I had to read your comments twice & it still blew my mind a bit!
I find it so difficult to do anything like what you have suggested partly because there seems to be so many outgoing and partly because some of the incomings are weekly and some of the monthly ones come in on different days every month.
Silence101 - I think I'd be lucky if I could come up with three meals that everyone actually enjoys and am not sure that I could come up with thirty meals that even some of us liked! And therein might be part of the problem! Tonight I made a chicken & sweetcorn pie with shop-bought gluten-free pastry. We all hated the pastry even DS who has to have gluten-free. Yesterday we had chilli con carne which I guess the kids do tolerate although DS didn't actually have any as he was at work for a lot of the day.

I'm trying to think of the meals I make: Cottage pie we do all eat although DD doesn't particularly like it. Same again for Spag Bol.
Fish pie, DD does but DS doesn't.
Fajitas yes we all do.
Roast chicken or roast beef - yes sort of although DS doesn't really like roast potatoes or Yorkshire puddings ( g/free ones)
Jacket potatoes - yes sort of although DS does get fed up with them as this seems to be all he is ever able to get if he eats in a cafe etc.
Chicken & rice type dishes - yes sort of although both DD & DS say they bored of them.
Quiche, new potatoes & salad - DD & DS both tolerate the quiche but neither are very keen on new potatoes or salad.
Bacon & pasta - yes sort of although DS will often ask for bacon, eggs & waffles instead.
Burgers, chips etc - not really as both DD & DS work at a burger place & eat more than enough burgers & chips there, even for them.
Meatballs & pasta - no DS is not very keen.
Sausage, mash & beans - yes sort of although DD doesn't really like mash.

Mmm, I will try asking them again but I know from asking them before they never actually come up with ideas of what they do like. I have told them that when they are older and living in their own houses, I will relish the day they invite me for dinner so that I can arrive at the dinner table ten minutes after they gave said its ready, pick at it like they do before declaring that I'm not very keen and leave half of it!

Silence101

What happens when they don’t fancy eating what you’ made? Do they eat something else? I think maybe they should be responsible for coming up with meals if they are that fussy. Then at least it’s their responsibility whether or not they like the food. Maybe you need to sit them down and explain that the food spend is ridiculous and that you need to find ways of cutting it down.
Maybe set them a challenge of coming up with a meal plan for a whole week and keep it under £100?
You could use a comparison website to try and get the best deals? And online shopping does help with avoiding impulse buys.

And I’ve noticed your clothes shopping, could you try and not buy any for 2/3 months?