One income family of four - can we get ahead even after pay cuts?

Bluegreen143

Forgot to actually paste the link above 😂 https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/beetroot-falafel%3famp

Meals today:

B - chocolate banana milkshakes with toast

L - celery & potato soup with HM sourdough, apple muffins my mum brought

S - peanut butter & chocolate chip muffins for the kids, pear & grapes 

D - mac & cheese bake with bacon and cauli in, tomato & cucumber, then peach pie and custard

Due to my lack of butter I made oil pastry again for the pie but safe to say you cannot get away with the olive taste in a sweet dish 😂 not entirely successful. Was edible smothered in custard though. And I actually found an unopened butter in the fridge too after I’d made the pie so that was a bit annoying as I now have plenty (I also found crumble mix in the freezer so could have used that instead!) 😂 anyway the pie looked pretty and the peach bit was lovely so I’ll make again with a butter pastry next time.

Got blackcurrants in the jelly bag just now for making jelly tonight. Boiled up the pulp again with more water to increase the yield - recommended in my preserves book but I’ve never actually done it before.

Baileys_Babe

Thanks for the link @Bluegreen143 they look tasty.

Butter is the one thing I like to have a good stock of. If we only had 1 block in the fridge I'm sure OH would be seeking medical assistance for me. We bake a lot, have it on bread, add it to mash plus lots of other things. We use either butter or oil, no spread or margarine.

Bluegreen143

@Baileys_Babe we are the same re not using spread. I think I’ll buy an extra butter this week then try to keep one in the fridge at all times (as opposed to just buying what we need each week and then having very little left before doing the shop).

Looks like a lovely morning today thank goodness, there was very very heavy rain all day yesterday here so we didn’t get out at all. My mum did come to visit though as she had a day off work, so that was lovely. I’ll take the kids out for a good walk this morning as that’s a couple of days we’ve not managed out now and I’ve definitely got cabin fever... at least it’s saved money as no doubt pre lockdown I’d have taken the kids to softplay. 

MagicCat

Thanks for all the baking tips! I've never tried oil in pastry, but quite often use it in cakes (rapeseed rather than oliveoil!) to make th a bit healthier, I must give pastry a go.

thriftyish

We use oil in cakes too, especially muffins which taste incredible with oil! @MagicCat Thanks @Bluegreen143 for the recipe - I will definitely give the falafel a go!

Bluegreen143

Well we have a day and a half left til payday... not 100% successful this month and have gone over a bit. However child benefit came in last week so it means I’ve dipped into that a bit instead of leaving it all for the August budget. So not a disaster - no extra debt or dipping into savings.

1. I put £20 of petrol into the car today. I was trying to eke it out to payday so I would’ve done the whole month on one tank (£45ish). However when I was driving home from our walk today the red light came on (after the yellow warning light has already been on a while) and I realised at one point the fuel gauge said 4 miles left and the sat nav was saying just under 3 to get home... cutting it too fine by far so I stopped & filled up half the tank. Hoping it lasts til mid August but we’ll see. I’d love to get back into better habits of walking more anyway, not least because I need to lose a few lbs, but it’s tricky with small kids at times. And we love to meet friends in different parks and green spaces across the city rather than just walking to the local park all the time. But equally one of the benefits of city living is meant to be that you don’t need to drive as much! When I think back to my pre-kid days, when I couldn’t drive, I thought nothing of walking all over the place.

2. Red has had it confirmed that he does need to go away all week for training next week. Slightly terrified 😂 it’s meant this week’s grocery shop has been more spendy as he got some treats to take away and also bought extra food as he wants to batch cook for the full week so I don’t need to do much cooking while he’s away. So hoping the food lasts 10 days instead of 7. I will probably still get an order next Wed but hopefully a reduced one.

3. Red bought some chalk paint today as he’s been touching up the kitchen cupboards (the wax we put on is no good - we need to varnish it all as it’s getting stained easily) and he ran out of paint. He thought he had enough leftover when he started. Well, it’s a job that needs done and hopefully cleaning the kitchen will be much easier once it’s varnished.

Bluegreen143

Tesco order came. I’m going to start listing what we are getting and break down categories at the end of the month and try to analyse where we are overspending exactly.

TOTAL: £101.90
Delivery: £2.00
Alcohol for Red: £25.12
Household goods: £20.83
Shower gel £1
Cat litter x2 £3.78
Food bags £1.90
Deodorant £1
Multivitamins £1.50
Baking paper £2.40
Kitchen roll x2 £1.82
Bin bags £2.20
Scourers 40p
Antibac spray 80p
Nappies £2.99
Wipes x2 £1.04
Food £54.17
Red wine £5 (this is for cooking with)
Butter x4 £5.96
Milk x4 £4.36
Sausage rolls £1.65
Mince 750g £3.74
Cooking bacon 75p
Cheddar £2.30
Feta 89p
Frozen peas 66p
Frozen chicken breasts £3.50
Wheat biscuits cereal £1.06
Lemons x2 60p
Limes x2 60p
Frazzles crisps 99p
Granulated sugar 65p
Snappy finger biscuits x2 £1.78
Sensations crisps 99p
Pesto 90p
Instant coffee £2.49
Cola zero x2 £1
Soy sauce 500ml £2
EV rapeseed oil £2.10
Fresh coriander 70p
Rich tea biscuits 30p
Peppers x3 95p
Cocoa powder £2
Part baked baguettes 42p
Chopped tomatoes x3 84p
Cola x3 £1.17
Onion ring crisps 99p
Plain chocolate x2 60p
Wraps 95p
Sliced bread 59p
Carrots 1kg 47p

Hmm. Quite a lot of treaty bits. Red wanted crisps etc to take down south next week. I bought wraps so I don’t need to make them while he’s away - we have so much flour it feels a bit wrong though 😆 we bought a fair bit of meat as he wants to batch cook for the freezer to help me out while he’s away so I can’t really complain about that.

It’s standing out to me how much more we are spending on toiletries, cleaning products, bin bags etc than I’d thought. Need to try to bring that down. 

WelshKitty85

I do most grocery shopping at Mr T but find their household items really expensive. I go to Home bargains about once a month to stock up on loo roll, foil, greaseproof paper etc as they are much cheaper there.

Bluegreen143

@WelshKitty85 I tried to do that this month at Lidl (I like their own brand toiletries) and somehow totally underestimated what we need. Lidl is next door to home bargains so think I need a monthly trip between them both and get the full amount I’ll need. As when I’ve been running out mid month I’ve just been adding it to the Tesco order and you’re right that it isn’t cheap. 

Bluegreen143

I know I’d save money getting the food shop at Lidl too - I started Tesco deliveries when pregnant & with a small baby and was going to switch back to Lidl and then the pandemic hit. Red is quite cautious and prefers to minimise going to the shops in person so wants us to continue to online shop for the main part for now. 

I’ve just renewed the delivery saver for 6 months using mainly club card vouchers (only need to pay £1.99 each month on top). And when that ends in January I think we will go back to Lidl shopping hoping things are more normal by then.