I want it all...and I want it now..

Suffolk_lass

What sort of snacks do you buy? - I ask because there are loads of HM options available - with lots of recipes at the start of the Old Style Grocery Challenge thread that can reduce your costs dramatically. My go-to naughty treats are malt loaf (with cheese!) and biscuits - I can make both (Twinks hob-nobs is the classic biscuit option - your children will love them!

teafor2

Morning BB Snacks are a killer aren't they. I have a hubby whose evening isn't complete without munching his way through lots of them Our spend also includes toiletries, cleaning products and pet food - does yours or do you spend extra on those things?

I've never made the Twinks hob-nobs but they're a legend on MSE

Have a great day. xx

Suffolk_lass

My budget for groceries is closer to £200 a month for two of us and it includes all toiletries and cosmetics except the face cream I use, and any cat things we buy in the SM (but not when I send DH to the Pets place for litter and wet food) - cat biscuits and the wall-bursting cat treats.

By the way, if you do look to make Twinks Hob-nobs - I suggest half recipe and 10 degrees cooler in a fan oven. If you make a full recipe you will eat them :rotfl:

BalanceBy50

Suffolk_lass wrote: »

What sort of snacks do you buy? - I ask because there are loads of HM options available - with lots of recipes at the start of the Old Style Grocery Challenge thread that can reduce your costs dramatically. My go-to naughty treats are malt loaf (with cheese!) and biscuits - I can make both (Twinks hob-nobs is the classic biscuit option - your children will love them!

How do I do multi quotes ?

Thanks Suffolk for taking time to reply. Snacks include (& can form part of a meal) fruit, yogurt, cheese strings, peperami, crisps, boxes of raisins, mini soreen loaves, breadsticks and then a treat out of the treat tin after tea. This is currently overflowing after Easter and will last several weeks. These are for the boys for DH I buy cottage cheese, dips, crackers, celery plus stuff like peanut butter and honey for the top of toast. They get well fed at meal times but it feels like a never ending request for food. Their drink of choice is water so that's not expensive (well DH likes beer but he limits that to weekends :rotfl:)

I try to keep things fairly healthy without making too much emphasis on it! My 4yr old is going through a growth spurt at the moment - he had two helpings of Mac n cheese for lunch yesterday at nursery and 4 toasted muffin halves with cheesr, hummus & carrot sticks for tea! They will be charging me extra for his food :rotfl: thankfully only I have a weight problem in the family xx

BalanceBy50

teafor2 wrote: »

Morning BB Snacks are a killer aren't they. I have a hubby whose evening isn't complete without munching his way through lots of them Our spend also includes toiletries, cleaning products and pet food - does yours or do you spend extra on those things?

I've never made the Twinks hob-nobs but they're a legend on MSE

Have a great day. xx

Morning Tea - snacks are a killer. DH tells me not to buy any for him but then he eats all the kids stuff :mad: His mum always says if you are more than two biscuits hungry have some toast! DH eats half there biscuit tin when he visits :rotfl:The boys have toast/crumpets/bagels or cereal for supper plus a jaffa cake - my 4yr won't go to bed without one!!

My grocery budget also includes toiletries and cleaning products too plus about £10 on beer so I suppose its not bad.

Hope you are having a great day! xx

BalanceBy50

Suffolk_lass wrote: »

My budget for groceries is closer to £200 a month for two of us and it includes all toiletries and cosmetics except the face cream I use, and any cat things we buy in the SM (but not when I send DH to the Pets place for litter and wet food) - cat biscuits and the wall-bursting cat treats.

By the way, if you do look to make Twinks Hob-nobs - I suggest half recipe and 10 degrees cooler in a fan oven. If you make a full recipe you will eat them :rotfl:

£200 is great Suffolk - not sure we will ever get close to that. Maybe I ought to aim for £500 and do a bulk buy on meat etc at the start of the month. We have two freezers so in theory plenty of space!

I used to bake all the time but rarely do these days maybe i need to start - i am a cake snob and will only eat home made so its easier not to make :rotfl:

xx

BalanceBy50

So i have checked all what I owe and added some stuff in that I hadn't thought of as debt (mainly small amounts to family and saving pots i want to pay back. My total is now £57271 with a very ambitious payback date of 31st December 2023 so just under 5 years. I will do this.

I am up to date on all my bills with my mortgage a priority. I am making a small over payment of £4.29 each month too.

Monthly Targets 20/4/19 - 19/5/19
Debt Repayment £234.26/£500
Make £305 for salary shortfall 0/£305
Emergency Savings 0/£200
Items listed on eBay 0/10
Survey earnings £2.60/£30
Weight loss 0/12lbs

Wish me luck!

teafor2

Yes you will do it BB50 and even if it doesn't go totally to plan (what does?) you'll get there eventually.

Your MIL sounds very wise - I also think if you need to eat your way through several snacks you'd be better getting toast, cereal or a small meal of some sort - but of course snacks are easy to grab and I refuse to go back in the kitchen in the evening so the troops have to fend for themselves. :rotfl:

Just want to add I'm really impressed with your budget Suffolk Lass.

xx

Suffolk_lass

It might help if I set out how we got to that spending total.

I joined the Grocery Challenge back in 2012 after two months where I spent over £800 and £700. There were three of us and two cats. I bought all my favourite brands and had a standing list of stuff (I still do, but I will get to that). My cupboards and freezers were stuffed with stuff I never touched. I thought nothing of buying our favourite fruits out of season and rarely took advantage of offers or coupons. I was a shopping snob and a brand victim.

I read the post at the beginning of the grocery challenge and adopted the list and some of the ideas and got it down to about £450 a month by the end of my first year. Then progress slowed for ages until I set up my use it up thing. I normally shop once a week and make at least one meal from what I have in (either RM meals from the freezer (often these are freezer surprise as the labelling has wiped off!) or just adapting stuff I have. I also started growing veg at home so we have become virtually self-sufficient in seasonal veg in the summer (I have two potatoes left from last year and three leeks still in the ground) and I often now cook without meat or make it stretch. I get a dozen eggs once a fortnight from my local farmer (they deliver them £2 for a dozen beautiful free range fresh as you ever get eggs.

I have a separate stores thing where I only buy certain things when they are on offer - coffee, tea bags, shower gel, shampoo, toothpaste, deodorant, laundry detergent and washing up liquid, - and my face cream from outside this budget. These are my brands. Enroute I did try others but saving is not about deprivation, it is about adapting. I prefer my laundry gloop (or the Italian one I buy there!) to wash-nuts or HM. I do use half what the pack says and use W-up liquid to remove greasy stains on clothes.

I clean using basic products like distilled vinegar with lemon juice, thin cheap bleach (28p versus £1.99 a bottle) and lots of bicarbonate of soda and the cheapest cola (for limescale). I use solid soap for pennies (Pears, Cussons IL), rarely liquid soap.

I buy wonky veg (unless the premium stuff is on offer and cheaper) always check offers against big packs to see what is cheaper, buy seasonal veg and two portions of meat, often YS - one to cook and use leftovers (500g mince in the summer for chilli, "lasagne" made with leeks instead of pasta, and stuffed peppers, for example) - a chicken cooked in a slow cooker makes me roast, cold, soup and either a curry or pie (depending on whether I am treating us to carbs in the form of pastry). I pad out mince with red lentils and chopped up sad veg that I freeze (often celery or carrots)

I do not buy crisps, salted nuts or sweet biscuits (other than plain SM ginger nuts and McV's Digestives on offer) unless I expect visitors, then I make shortbread or Twinks Hob-nobs!). I buy treats of basic Ryvita or the dark ones for a £1 a packet - not the lovely multi-grain or other premium ones for 50% more money and 10% fewer crackers, and a basic pack of SM cream crackers. Obviously this doesn't fit with my 8WBSD but DH struggles without snacks.

We eat lots of mixed unsalted nuts and seeds (bought in bulk), plain SM greek style yogurt, jumbo organic oats and frozen wonky berries (go-to breakfasts are a mixture of these and porridge) - occasionally bacon and eggs or an omelette at the weekend.

If I buy bread it is YS or Hovis wheatgerm for the freezer (79p or less!).

I eat lunch of eggs, salad or soup (50p lettuce, basics coleslaw, egg or cheese or avocado, cucumber, sweet pepper, my own chopped onions in a jar with distilled vinegar and half a teaspoonful of sugar, and no dressing unless it is egg - then I might have a little mayo). Fridge veg soup is great! DH has school dinners currently so supper can be light.

Dinner is normally simple meat and veg or spicy like chilli. Cheese and apple or celery or greek yogurt with frozen berries is good for desserts. Again I do a 500g pack of SM extra mature cheese or get the offers from the fresh counter.

DH gets paid tomorrow and I will do a stores shop of anything running short on my list and check MySM for offers on my premium products. My regular list is now "veg, meat, milk, butter, cheese, fruit and anything I use that is on offer - I have 2x9 packs of toilet rolls upstairs but only one spare kitchen paper as I am waiting for an offer. If the offer is there I will use my stores budget to buy six (this amount seems to match the interval between offers) - I pay myself back from my £200 whenI use them but do have a float to be able to buy "in bulk"

Sorry for the gargantuan post! I hope it is helpful.

BTW I used to read these sort of posts looking for things I could not or would not do, rather than what I could adopt and save from and it was this change in me that took another hundred off my monthly budget.

Sunshine_girl2

BB50 , Suffolk has given some great advice above. I am borrowing some tips from her as well.

You sound like you have a plan for this month , hope it works out for you.