till debt do us part

margaretclare

Tondella wrote:

Any tips on how you manage to shop for four on £34 per week?

We're a pair of wrinklies, husband is extremely good at shopping - shops only from a list, and uses all the tips and wrinkles learned from his Yiddisher grandma in the East End. Even so, we average £45 - £50 a week for the two of us. We eat well, we eat simply, we never have take-aways, we rarely buy wine. We don't buy many cleaning products because the ones we do buy tend to last for ages. Fairy washing-tablets packed in pairs - I use one, not two (nothing we wear gets very dirty any more). The one thing we buy that we needn't, is dog-food, largest cheapest tins, this is for the foxes which I feed every night.

It's very much down to individual taste and choice.

Aunty Margaret

JAMIEDODGER

Fairylights...i totally agree!!!!

Tondella....i am a single parent with 4 children (9,7,4 and 1) and i spend £47 per week....this covers...all food, cleaning products, toiletries and nappies and wipes. like fairylights i cook everything from scratch, i have a breadmaker, youghurt maker and slow cooker. i havent bought a loaf, rolls, pizza, biscuit or cake in months!

Although i do all this because i am paying off all debt, my family have never eaten better! i also refuse to pay loads on a disposable item....however i would pay more on some thing that would save me money in the long run.....£98 for a breadmaker (which has already paid for itself i should think!!!

if you really want to spend loads on your wedding (which is totally your choice to do so) try and cut back on other things that arent so important to you....oh yes and come visit us on the OLD STYLE board.....everyone is really friendly and there is loads of great advice!!!! (not to mention the 101 wonderful uses of vinegar lol!!)

Tondella

I learnt to clean windows from my gran, white vinegar and newspaper to buff up the shine, works a treat although sometimes you have to wipe over the paintwork after to get rid of the newsprint. Cleaning products consist of bleach for toilet, flash or no name equivalent for floors (laminate), surfaces, lemon juice to get rid of the water stains in the shower (hard water area), disposable j cloths, used for kitchen surfaces and then when they get scraggy they are downgraded to floor cloths, then to wipe down toilet before throwing. Sponge with scrubber surface for washing-up, I use fairy liquid though so I could switch down to own brand. Sweep with dust pan and brush, dust with duster and some spray that has lasted me four years! (i do dust regularly, honestly!). recycleable toilet roll.

I think I could still get a reasonable selection of food in for a budget of less than £50 per week if I planned ahead, made a list, and shopped around. Fruit and veg from the local independent stores is something I'll try, although I do wonder about the quality of the produce in some places, my nearest asda is four miles away, along a very straight and busy dual carriageway so no cycling there for me! I'll have to take the OH when he brings the car up and just educate him to the ways of shopping off list.

I would like to get some good bean-based recipes as they are filling and I don't eat enough pulses at the moment, any recommendations?

JAMIEDODGER

hey well done you with the cleaning stuff!! *whispers* i would never use anything but fairy! false economy!

there is an amazing selection of recipes on the old style board just click on indexed collections! look forward to seeing you there!

jamie

Tondella

hi jamiedodger, thanks for joining in.

I was watching an energy efficiency programme on Beeb the other week and they told one family that their breadmaking machine was costing them more in energy than buying a loaf from a professional bakers! I don't have room for a breadmaker in the flat (a kitchen consisting of three units, one with a sink in it, one with a hob on it, one for all prep and toaster!!!), but I have previously made my own pizza base and so will reinstigate that. whenever I have made bread it has gone uncontrollable!! I don't actually eat alot of the stuff, I try to restrict it to one meal a day, although OH does snack alot on toast, so it might work out just as well to buy it in and use my time to make savings elsewhere.

I quite like the idea of a yoghurt maker though as I eat lots of that with fruit.

Tondella

JAMIEDODGER wrote:

hey well done you with the cleaning stuff!! *whispers* i would never use anything but fairy! false economy!

there is an amazing selection of recipes on the old style board just click on indexed collections! look forward to seeing you there!

jamie

well then I'll just teach OH not to squeeze half the bottle into the sink per wash then!

JAMIEDODGER

:rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl:

Tondella

jamie dodger

I know what the pms challenge is but what is the grocery challenge?

JAMIEDODGER

hi tondella,

the grocery challenge is where you set an amount for the month to spend on groceries (whatever that happens to include in your family) and set about trying to beat it ie spend less! you can do this in many ways...menu planning, buying generic, bulk buying etc....and of course any money you save can be counted as PMS money so i normally do them alongside each other...the other challenge is the store cupboard challenge....trying to see how many days you can last before you have to go into a shop...eating from your cupboards and freezer!!!!! this one is particularly good if you are mega skint or are saving up for something small that you need very soon!!!

hop this helps!!!

jamie

Tondella

Thanks!

I'm going to budget £50 shopping for next month, do the grocery challenge and see how much I can really save on. I'll then put all the VPMS onto the cc repayments and readjust my budget to make this saving a permanent feature!

Can't wait to get my hands on my OH's budget!