Grocery shopping experts - how little do you spend

kunekune

Hmmmmm.

Oxford is a very expensive place. Stuff from the covered market costs, IIRC, as much as, say, Waitrose. As you say, it's a long drive to anywhere cheaper. Most of the people who can afford to live in Oxford would turn their finely-tuned noses up at Aldi and Netto!

What worries me is when I read this post together with your one about keeping warm. Sassamac, I don't think it's possible for you to all eat healthily and keep warm on that budget. If you are already wearing four jumpers each then there's no fat in there, and presumably you're on bare bones already. What is going to happen if the next mortgage is even more expensive?

Mad idea: one of you get a college job that comes with lunches and evening meals? (but check it's a college with decent food ... Trinity good, Worcester bad!)? More sensibly, I think that income needs to be upped some way. If the experts here don't think £60 a month is doable - heck, I can't do the same number of people on £100 a month yet - then perhaps they are right.

Yategirl

Sassamac wrote: »

the portion control is a nice theory but unfortunately it doesnt work for us. If I eat less dinner I eat more of something else to fill up. For e.g. tonight I didnt have a huge amount of dinner because it was the same ingredients as last night and I didnt fancy to much. But an hour later I raided the cheese and biscuits (from a Christmas hamper we got so effectively free on this occassion).
Likewise I cant bear to hear the kids whining for food so I make sure they are full after a meal. They're both growing like weeds at the mo so hopefully theyll slow down a bit soon.

another thought - some people serve bread and butter with every meal - cheap and filling and helps make a meal go further. Have a look at http://www.shirleygoode.com/ - go back to the begining, Shirley has posted loads of useful tips and great recipes. She did a challenge herself on making food go as far as possible and gives the results in her blog. Well worth a read. Also, pop to your library and have a look for a student cookbook - they often have cheap recipes. Finally (and someone may have suggested this) have a look at some of the sticky links for cheap recipes and black-saturns meal planner (which I found very useful when I had to cut back from £50/week for 2 adults and 2 children).

Sassamac wrote: »

Store cupboard stuff (recipe suggestion welcome) - things I always have in; porridge, bisto, oxo, ketchup, flour, sugar etc for baking, bread, tinned tomatoes, tuna, chicken soup, corned beef, sweetcorn, baked beans, tinned fruit, dried fruit, honey, jam, pasta, (spaghetti, lasagne sheets too) rice, noodles, spuds, onions, mushrooms, garlic, selection of colourful veg, fruit, cheese, white fish, chicken, frozen peas, and a random selection of leftovers in the freezer.

ok.. more suggestions...

1. stick with a limited choice for breakfasts (you may already do so) - no processed sugary cereals - offer toast and jam (or marmalade) and yoghurt or porridge (add rasins for a healthy extra or a blob of jam or a blob of golden syrup or get some cake sprinkles (hundreds and thousands) - doesn't add taste but looks exciting to the kids - just a tsp mind!). Porridge is cheap and filling - you can make with milk (dried or value longlife tastes fine) or half-milk/water or just water depending on tastes.

2. make flapjack - basic recipe: butter, sugar and golden syrup melted together until bubbling, add in porridge oats, stir well and transfer to tin, bake at 220 deg C till golden, remove from oven, mark into squares and leave till cold. This is yummy like this, add dried fruit for a change. Again cheap to make - use value products.

3. buy value bags of fruit- cheap but just as good as the rest. Use value tinned fruit as well - use to make crumbles etc or add to jellies.

4. when you meal plan - make sure everyone gets at least "5 a day" - value fruit, value carrots and broccoli/cabbage/cauliflower are always cheap, add other veg in depending on costs. You can then make up snacks with filling stuff (bread/ homemade cakes / flapjack etc) if money is getting tight.

5. Pasta is cheap as well as potatoes (good potato dishes are corned beef hash/ baked bean/cheese and potato pie / bubble and squeak / jacket potatoes with beans and cheese / twice baked potatoes (keep a few "bits" off a roast chicken and mix with mash and a little grated cheese on top, serve with baked beans and a veg)

6. do "rubber chicken" - roast one day (give extra veg and gravy and less meat, hm yorkshires are a good filler), bubble and squeak and chicken the next day, chicken pie the third and use the bones to make soup. Don't forget you can freeze the meat - you don't have to eat it 4 days in a row!!

hth, I will think some more...

Sassamac

Kune, we dont live in Oxford itself. We used to (separately when we first met) but had to ship out becuase we couldnt afford it. There is a Lidl (in Cowley / B. Leys funnily enough) but Ive not tried it yet.
Dont worry Im not skinny, were all well built and well covered with flesh, but then we're still living on food in the cupboards etc. most of which was bought in Dec when we spent £225 in Tescos across the month, but then my Dec paycheck was the biggest of the year.
The jist of it is I want to see if we can make ends meet on your current income because I dont particularly want to go out and get a 'proper job'. I want to see if we can get by with me working from home (which I would have to all but give up if I got a proper job) and still get to see my kids grow up. If its not possible then I will have to sacrifie that.

Sassamac

thanks Yate, some of those suggestiosn I already do but definitely room for improvement. will browse your links now.

Psykicpup

Hi ya
just reread & see your not a stranger to the DFW lol - sorry 'bout that!

Would it be possible to sell the motorbike & get a secondhand (but good) one, saving the Bike Loan? or are you tied in to a credit agreement now..? Having looked at your SOA I agree you are doing pretty much everything right (I'm no expert thats for sure):rolleyes:

One thing that has saved me loads recently is bulk buying esp on meats - there is a good butcher near me that does 3 for a £10 or £7 deals which are quite good, one in the town that does big trays of meat at £10 each or 3 for £25 & the market on a Sunday (bit of a drive but not that far) where I kid you not I got a large carrier bag of chicken portions (about 20+) for a £10 (& they were BIG portions lol I could barely carry the bag back to car :rotfl: )
although its been quite an outlay with batch cooking too I reckon I wont need to shop til mid Feb - barring daily stuff like bread, milk & fresh veg. If you can it might be worth spending a little more occasionally to stock up on stuff that can be frozen leaving some NSDs in the future.
Will have a think on cheapy good meals for ya!

nursemolly

sassamac, are you anywhere finmere market held every sunday??? out towards bicester area
you can get some good food bargains there and if you go towards the end of the day, you can get some very cheap fruit and veg.
hth

Psykicpup

Ok so lets go with soups for hot pack-ups for DH - heres a link to a fav of our family http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showpost.html?p=661922&postcount=199 - thanks to apprentice tycoon:A for that one. Little ones can also have this if you are a little carefull with type of stock cos of salt levels
I made a lovely ham & pea soup with the water I had boiled a gammon in over xmas - i reduced it & added frozen peas (well to about a fifth of the total stock so the remainder is in the freezer:T ) heated & then blended with a stick blender - much more filling than you would think - dont believe you have to use dried for it fresh or frozen work well too!

Check the Mega index for more ideas & dont forget what I call Tuesday stew - which basically is any left overs from Sunday Lunch bunged in the slow cooker all day! have as stew or blitz for soup - we have 5 bags of xmas soup in the freezer - my word is it good! Dumplings thicken a stew & strech it too so remember to make those to go with it :rotfl:

I'll try to think of some more later for you

Sassamac

ooh yeah Finmere market is about 10 miles from me. I go there a lot in the summer but not this time of year cos its effing cold and there hardly seems to be any stalls. Ive never really thought about buying meat from the butcher wagons, I might give it a go when I have an empty freezer. My kitchen isnt huge though, I normally have to restock the tins etc every fortnight.

Psykicpup the motorbike is 4 years old which is middle-aged for a bike really, and yeah we're locked in to the agreement for 2 years (18 months to go). At least its cheap to run.

Psykicpup

ohh seeing post above from Nursemolly, I found you this link which may be helpful .....http://www.information-britain.co.uk/typeslist.cfm?county=11&type=Market

Sassamac

I havent had dumplings since I was a kid, might be worth a try DH loves all that stodge. I do make soup but only really veg and tomato so anything else would be good. Im cursing now that we had a Christmas ham (courtesy of my Mum) and chucked the water out. made a damn fine ham and cheese pasta bake with it.