Lightbulb moment after big drop in income....

monetxchange

Do you really only spend £60 on entertainment a month? I only ask because you're big spenders in other areas.

As for the food shopping, have a big think about if you're really getting any better quality just by spending more. Nobody needs things like organic vegetables when in debt. Normal are fine. Stop buying the prepackaged specialist foods. Cooking yourself from scratch is the best way to ensure all dietary requirements are met. If it's meat you're spending high on to ensure you get top quality, that's an easy fix. Cook vegetarian more instead if you're funny about cheap meat. Lentils and bean based meals are cheap and healthy and not a usual allergy. Can be made child friendly by sticking them in usual family meals like chili, Bologneses etc. I often do a half mince half lentil Bolognese, half the price and half the fat.

Willing2Learn

Lol...lentils in a Bolognese sauce...someone born and bred in Bologna would probably have kittens after reading that statement...    A genuine Bolognese sauce only has tomatoes, a few stalks of celery, a few carrots, a large onion, fresh crushed garlic, oregano, fresh parsley, fresh thyme and fresh basil, all sautéed and then steamed.  My mouth is actually watering just thinking about it...my pasta sauce is legendary...he said with a great degree of modesty...

Ooh I love cooking...


Sorry OP - Didn't mean to turn your thread into a culinary mouth-watering festival...

theoretica

If you want to keep as much of your food organic as possible you may need to look to changing and reducing the kinds of food you eat.  Basic foods in season and much smaller quantities of the more expensive items bulked out with more carrots.  Needless to say, ensure food waste is practically zero. 

monetxchange

Willing2Learn said:

Lol...lentils in a Bolognese sauce...someone born and bred in Bologna would probably have kittens after reading that statement...    A genuine Bolognese sauce only has tomatoes, a few stalks of celery, a few carrots, a large onion, fresh crushed garlic, oregano, fresh parsley, fresh thyme and fresh basil, all sautéed and then steamed.  My mouth is actually watering just thinking about it...my pasta sauce is legendary...he said with a great degree of modesty...

Ooh I love cooking...


Sorry OP - Didn't mean to turn your thread into a culinary mouth-watering festival...

Haha, it's very much an English version of what most Italians would shudder at the thought of! Bolognese style tomato sauce with tinned chopped tomatoes and dried herbs may be a better description 😂

ryanm8655

Willing2Learn said:

Lol...lentils in a Bolognese sauce...someone born and bred in Bologna would probably have kittens after reading that statement...    A genuine Bolognese sauce only has tomatoes, a few stalks of celery, a few carrots, a large onion, fresh crushed garlic, oregano, fresh parsley, fresh thyme and fresh basil, all sautéed and then steamed.  My mouth is actually watering just thinking about it...my pasta sauce is legendary...he said with a great degree of modesty...

Ooh I love cooking...


Sorry OP - Didn't mean to turn your thread into a culinary mouth-watering festival...

Funnily enough, Bolognese isn’t actually from Bologna. The closest thing they have is a tagliatelle al ragu. Which is slow cooked meat, tomatoes, lots of wine and some carrot, celery and onions. No herbs or garlic.

Do love spaghetti bolognese and yours sounds delicious.

OP: well done for coming on here and you seem to be taking on board the great advice so far. What are your daughters dietary requirements? My much younger cousin had issues for years and ate different foods etc. Used to have some really bad intolerances and would come out in rashes etc. She had slightly different versions of meals and her own milk etc. Fortunately she just seemed to grow out of it and relatively recently my auntie realised she was fine on normal milk/food etc. She’s now 9 and eats the same as everyone else. Was a gradual and slow process getting to that point though.

Mrs_F_2017

Re the food - we buy pretty much everything organic and locally where ever possible & both love cooking (and eating!) - but manage to keep our grocery spend between £280-£350 monthly depending on wine consumption! Meal planning is a must as i know our spend would escalate massively if we didn't do this - I'm sure you could bring your spend down by half & still eat organic.

Look at veg box schemes - we love ours and then plan our meals around the contents meaning no food waste.

tallyhoh

If you have been paying income protection, are you not able to make a claim as your income has been reduced?. If not I would go through the policy with a fine toothcomb & see if it is worth the money.

Fireflyaway

I agree that your grocery bill is huge. Even if you are buying organic produce that still seems a very high amount. Do you ever waste food? Does this include alcohol or ready meals etc? Have a good look at what you are actually buying. Id suggest trying own brand on staples such as toilet roll, bleach, tuna, water, sauces, pickles, anything tinned! Some things you can bulk buy. I recently bought 6 bottles of fabric conditioner from Amazon for £10.50. Basically don't buy everything from the same place out of convenience. 
I'd also not consolidate debts. It makes you think you have taken action but the debt is still there. The balance then looks bigger which can be demotivating. I'd suggest tackling them in turn, smaller to largest. From someone who has tried both methods, the second definitely worked better. 

bloomfelt

Fireflyaway said:

I agree that your grocery bill is huge. Even if you are buying organic produce that still seems a very high amount. Do you ever waste food? Does this include alcohol or ready meals etc? Have a good look at what you are actually buying. Id suggest trying own brand on staples such as toilet roll, bleach, tuna, water, sauces, pickles, anything tinned! Some things you can bulk buy. I recently bought 6 bottles of fabric conditioner from Amazon for £10.50. Basically don't buy everything from the same place out of convenience. 

Like Fireflyaway said have you looked at the alternative?  My husband is a complete brand snob but doesnt notice that the laundry detergent and fabric conditioner are aldi that have been decanted into the old branded bottles.  Likewise he hasn't noticed that the loo roll has been switched to aldi as it was taken out of the plastic wrapper and stacked neatly in the cupboard before he got home................... I could go on but my point is that a lot of the cheaper alternatives can be just as good these days.