I cant stop buying food (it is getting ridiculous)

elly2

I really need to start getting this food shopping thing under control so i am hoping you lovely ladies and gents will give me some ideas. I have a budget of £50 per week for me and my children aged 14 13 4 and 2 (and every other week my boyfriend is here for 3 days), i need for this to cover everything from food to nappies(one pack a month as my lo uses them at night only)to cleaning stuff and toiletries, i never seem to be able to keep to budget and sometimes even manage to double spend on some weeks I impulse buy and also shop when i am bored (i have 8 loafs of bread in my freezer)but still buy another 2 loafs each week .I have 12 tins of toms(my kids wont really eat them so i dont know what to do with them). My cupboards and freezer are full to the brim but still i buy more, i did try and do a stocktake of what food i have in the house but the list is now at 3 pages and i lost hope by thinking i have all this food and still i am thinking about what i can buy for tea can anyone help me try and keep to my budget please.

Seakay

You could try getting your budget money out in cash at the start of the week, and then only using cash to shop with - at least that way you couldn't spend more than you have. If you think that your will power is likely to give way then do you have a good friend who will keep your cards so that you cannot use them except to get your shopping allowance out once a week?

Next time you get a shopping craving get yourself to the local library instead. Trawl the cookery books for ideas to use up some of the stockpile that you have - some could be used for batch cooking eg tomato sauce from some of those tins of tomatoes, freeze up in family sized portions ready for an almost instant meal next time you get stuck.
You might also start getting new ideas for meals which are a new twist on ingredients that you have.
Away from the books see Council run classes which you might want to have a go at (many provide a creche).
I suppose that I am saying, remove the ability to spend without thinking and try new things to combat the boredom - easy to say I know but I'm sure that others on the board will come up with better ideas to help you

Skint_Catt

make it an extreme challenge to yourself not to buy a single item for the next days meals. It focuses the mind and you're so busy asking questions on hee or trawling through cookery books you won't have time to shop!

minimacka

When I need to do my weekly shop I have a look in the fridge and freezer at what Ive got left and design my meals around that. I make a list of what I have to buy not what I want to buy. Making meal plans and doing this makes me not have loads of food in the house going to waste. Its also saved me loads of money, before coming on here i used to spend at least £100+ every week on food, now its between £40-£60 depending on what food we have got left in the freezer. At this time of year with Christmas coming up im sure that the money you have earmarked for food if its not needed on food would go towards some of your childrens christmas wish list. Why not try to use up all that you have in the house and whatever you have left out of the £50 either spend it on christmas or you could use it for a treat for yourself. Im sure that if you make a list of meals that you can make using up your food it will last quite a while.

elly2

Would it be ok if i posted a list here just to get some ideas, there is a whole lot of stuff though so the list would go on for a bit, i think part of the problem is there is just too much of it if that makes sense i open the freezer and think where do i start i went through a small phase of making soup in the slow cooker and then lost interest in it when the kids wouldn't eat it so i gave it away to a mate who really enjoyed it, but i think she became a bit sick of soup tbh lol.

minimacka

Im sure that if you posted your ingredients on here then people will have lots of ideas for you. You will be able to convert your food into meals for a good fews days/weeks im sure.
You can also maybe instead of food shopping go window shopping for ideas to treat yourself or the kids with the money that you save.
I have got an idea for the tins of tomatoes that you have, you could reduce them down and make a lovely tomatoe based pasta dish, we put onions, peppers mushrooms into the tomatoe and serve it with home made meatballs that are delish. You could also use them to make spag bol/lasagne? or even a salsa to use with fahitas? or enchiladas?

newlywed

I'm similar. Trying extra hard this month to only buy what is on my list - but just failed by buying stir fry pack :rolleyes: I am getting really good at not throwing food out though.

I try to write a meal plan for the month (payday to payday). A few meals will have a ?? next to them and I will change them depending on special offers. Then if I overspend a little, if it's for a meal later in the month then I let myself be ok with that.

I have also this month started writing my shopping lists ahead eg I have the next four weeks shopping lists with bits I NEED to get for the mealplan and then I can add extra things as we run out.

The other thing I try and do is take a basket, not a trolley, if you know you only need 4 or 5 things. By the time you fit in the loo rolls etc, there isn't a lot of room to overbuy

Every time I get a trolley I seem to feel obliged to fill it up :rolleyes:

Horasio

I have saved heaps since joining this site but I did have a big spree on good deals in September. I guess now I can start to use them and spend less now. I am being strong about buying Christmas stuff now.

bedshaped

Have you tried this site? You put in the ingredients you have and it tells you recipes you could make. You could challenge yourself to make something for tea every day for a week using whats already in your cupboard, fridge and freezer.
http://www.cookingbynumbers.com/frames.html

newlywed

Go on, post a list.... or list things like all your meat/fish and pasta/pulses or something

Buffy_the_Vampire_Bat

Go on elly2, post the list and we'll see what we can do - I love things like this, it's like Ready Steady Cook