Where Do I Start? Lol..

janegresty

I am 6 months pregnant and due to leave for maternity leave in 2 months which will reduce my wage dramatically.
I really want to save my pennies in any way I can. We already buy food at Asda by offers and own brand food. We bulk up on beans, soup, pasta, rice etc.
We have just moved house and now have an oven that actually cooks properly! So once on maternity I want to start cooking big meals, and storing some in the freezer or fridge for when hubby is on lates. I also want to start baking... scones, cakes, home made pies etc.
Anyone know where I can get a list of cheap ingredients I will need to get started? I want to stock up my cupoards before my full wage vanishes!
Also... how else can I safe money? Are there any usefull incentives that people use?
All advice will be much appreciated.. and I hope I'm posting on the right board lol x

sammy_kaye18

Hi Jane

Well I think alot of basic cooking ingredients for cakes, scones, bread, shortbread, pies etc tend to focus round the basics like
flour,
sugar,
butter/marg
eggs.


you could include other basics like
caster sugar
icing sugar
sultanas (for scones)
baking powder

from these you can make scones, victoria sponge mix (then put it in one tin or in seperate mini cases for fairy cakes), and pies - obviously you will need to pick up the filling for these things like jam for sponge cake, and pie filling etc but you can make a fair bit from these - like pancakes too.

I would also say as im sure many other OSers will agree that if your making a baking cupboard you have to include ingredients for the infamous Twinks Hobnobs!

plain flour
oats
sugar
butter
golden syrup
bicarb of soda

also if you decide to try breadmaking by hand you would need a stronger bread flour and yeast. All the above ingredients can be gotten really cheap and inexpensively

will add mor ewhen i thnk of them later!

janegresty

Thanks I get paid in just over 1 week, so will be making a huge list and buying everything I will need over the next 4 weeks x

noonesperfect

If you've got an Aldi nearby their dried fruit, flour, eggs etc are as good as any for baking and so on (the flour is in slightly smaller than normal bags). They also have cinnamon sticks and vanilla pods much cheaper than anywhere else!
Come to think of it, I've always been happy with everything I've bought there, whether it be canned fruit or soup, biscuits, yoghurt or whatever. You'll rarely see brands you recognise, but don't let that put you off.

The price of pasta has shot up but Netto's is fine. Their flour is fine too.

Both stores will send you twice-weekly emails of their special offers if you request them. HTH

mummysaver

Good morning! My tip is to do a meal plan, and write your shopping list from that, if you find that it costs more than your budget, or whatever you would like your budget to be, then try adapting some things. Lots of meal plans on the weekly meal plan thread, or you might prefer a looser version, with say Monday - an egg dish, Tues - mince based dish, Weds - pasta and sauce.

Sammy's list above is a good one, and I'm sure she's just too modest to mention but she started a thread about feeding her, her oh and lo for £100 a month, think it's on page 2 of the old style thread (sorry can't work out how to cut on paste on laptop yet, lol).

Something else, when you batch cook, a slow cooker is great, you can do huge amounts of stew or bolognese or curry or soup without having to stand over it all day. Oh and I like to freeze some individual portions as well as family sized ones - I am trying to train oh to eat the smaller helpings, as otherwise he would quite happily munch his way through a huge lasagne or whatever in an evening whilst I was at work!

Loads and loads of advice is on here already, if you have a good browse around the threads you can discover all sorts of money saving ideas, and everyone is really nice if you have any questions, I'm def not an expert, but lots of people are!

squeaky

This thread should help...

OS store cupboard basics

And all sorts of "Starting up" help can be found here:-

Getting Started

AND... even if you're not in debt the Debt-Free Wannabe board can help you to reduce all other household expenditures.

ajames08

mummysaver wrote: »

Good morning! My tip is to do a meal plan, and write your shopping list from that, if you find that it costs more than your budget, or whatever you would like your budget to be, then try adapting some things. Lots of meal plans on the weekly meal plan thread, or you might prefer a looser version, with say Monday - an egg dish, Tues - mince based dish, Weds - pasta and sauce.

Sammy's list above is a good one, and I'm sure she's just too modest to mention but she started a thread about feeding her, her oh and lo for £100 a month, think it's on page 2 of the old style thread (sorry can't work out how to cut on paste on laptop yet, lol).

Something else, when you batch cook, a slow cooker is great, you can do huge amounts of stew or bolognese or curry or soup without having to stand over it all day. Oh and I like to freeze some individual portions as well as family sized ones - I am trying to train oh to eat the smaller helpings, as otherwise he would quite happily munch his way through a huge lasagne or whatever in an evening whilst I was at work!

Loads and loads of advice is on here already, if you have a good browse around the threads you can discover all sorts of money saving ideas, and everyone is really nice if you have any questions, I'm def not an expert, but lots of people are!

You mentioned that there was a thread re feeding family for £100 a month. Could you let me know where?
Thanks.

Penelope_Penguin

ajames08 wrote: »

You mentioned that there was a thread re feeding family for £100 a month. Could you let me know where?
Thanks.

It's here

Penny. x

Pink.

ajames08 wrote: »

You mentioned that there was a thread re feeding family for £100 a month. Could you let me know where?
Thanks.

Hi ajames,

I think that this might be the thread:

sammy_kaye's £100 a month food budgetting

This thread might help too:

£20 to feed a family of 4 for a month?

Pink