My financial situation - where can I cut back?

ashmit

ashmit - when you put travelling to parents -do you mean by train? is there not some sort of discount/discount card :-/

No, I've tried booking up to six months in advance and there is never-ever-ever a discount fare. Makes me mad. I've asked about railcards but we're too old for student ones, too young for retired and too broke to have kids Newcastle-Warrington is £50 on the train (and it's a bloomin' awful service to add insult to injury, no direct trains after 5.17pm which is before hubby even finishes work!), coach much cheaper but takes 7 hours and when you're only going for a weekend makes it not worth it, and there are no cheap flights between

Debt_Free_Chick

There are two of us (and he's a 15st ex Rugby player!).

I spend £50/60 a month in Lidl. Then about £10-15 a week in the butcher's and the veg shop. I never buy meat in any supermarket - always the butcher. And nothing ever goes to waste. We had roast leg of lamb on Sunday, which was made into Shepherd's Pie on Tuesday and one portion (for 2) was frozen.

This time of the year I buy cheaper cuts of meat to make into pot-au-feu type dishes as they can be padded out with lots of lovely winter veg and any surplus can be frozen.

I even use the carcass from roast chicken to make a stock to freeze and then use this as the base of a sauce, soup or just for good gravy when next needed.

Seriously ... look at what you buy, how you cook and how much you throw out  ;)

p.s. My Lidl shopping includes household & cleaning stuff too!

ashmit

I'm veggie ;D

And we rarely throw food away

I was thinking as well... the figures I'm giving are maximums - I like to set myself ceilings to be able to come in lower week after week Now, that's all very well, but in some ways it does encourage extravagence - 'oh we've spent tons less than normal let's get this and this and this' - and suddenly we're back up to £40 ::) So maybe i need to reduce this limit, yes, but also see it as something to stay well away from - if I'm actually spending the limit weekafterweek, I need to consciously cut down.

And, what I really do need to get is get the hubby on side - all the debts are mine, and so I feel like I shouldn't make him suffer if he wants something, but maybe I need to talk to him - not that we stop getting the treats, but that we stop getting them quite so often.

You see, this is what's great about this board - the advice is fantastic and much appreciated, but sometimes just as valuable are the thought processes that people trigger about *why* you do what you do, and that's the best way to stop doing it ;D

ashmit

- Toiletries

Now, the thing with toiletries is, I get Lush stuff which is NOT cheap - however the only things I actually get are moisturiser which lasts forever, deodorant (ditto), and shower gel and shampoo which are quite cheap anyway (at least the ones I get are). And I use one of those scrubby things too and I've been meaning to post about them in the pennypinching thread for ages and couldn't think of the name ;D And I've got very short hair so my shampoo lasts for ages too.

it won’t hurt to not hoover for a couple of days till you get a replacement.

Now, theoretically, that's not true, as I'm asthmatic and should hoover every day, but we only hoover once a week so yeah ;D Just don't tell my mum!!!!

I hate clothes shopping so never really buy much anyway - every so often my mum takes pity on me and buys me some clothes. I did get a couple of amazing bargains from La Redoute before they tightened up on the codes. I think my most recent purchase was a white shirt from Asda for £3. Bargain!

Debt_Free_Chick

Veggie - uh, OK

I was vegan for 15 months and then vegetarian for 7 years. So ... what's your diet like? I never bought soya mince, quorn and the other meat substitute stuff. But I did study the nutrition of vegetarianism and found Asian, Indian, Middle Eastern & Mediterranean food very easy to achieve within a vegetarian diet. I think you said you both like to cook, so I guess you're pretty good already

If you live in a city, find the nearest Asian quarter and head for the biggest supermarket there. I found (when I lived in Bham) that the pulses were cheapest there and they had a much bigger range than any supermarket, including some I had to ask about. But, generally, shopkeepers were an excellent source of information and only too pleased to advise. I think they were very flattered that English person seemed so interested in their cuisine.

And the vegetables are excellent too - good quality, cheap price. Or find a local market or street barrow boy.

The price of veg in supermarkets beggars belief

Spendless

You could also start a thread on oldstyle - ashmit - cheap vegetarian meals - (Caterina loves a challenge )

ashmit

I've been thinking for ages that I should start a vegan thread as most of our food is actually vegan - even though hubby is an omnivore For the record, I sometimes eat fish and still eat eggs, but they are mainly to stop my mum from getting too worried.

We eat fake bacon (only recently discovered but I love it dearly!), sometimes quorn mince (although not other quorn products as most have milk in), and Linda McCartney sausages, but none of those very often. It's normally rice, pasta or potato based food we eat. There are lots of tinned tomatoes, peppers, onions, mushrooms (LOTS of mushrooms!), that kinda thing.

You know, I never thought of going to Asian supermarkets for veg and pulses - d'oh! I'll have to do that next time I'm in town!

I was going to ask about veg too - supermarket prices are indeed horrendous but there are no cheap decent veg places nearby - so that's a great idea. I got mixed quality from the supermarket but I should try that again. There are loads of fruit and veg places in the market so I shouldn't give up if the first one isn't very good.

Marsie

I also buy huge amounts of fruit particularly, and find the fruit/veg quality in supermarkets very mixed.

Do you have a market nearby, perhaps? You get such a lot of fruit & veg for your money that even if you do have to throw the odd bit out, it's still miles cheaper - although I tend to find the quality as good or better than the supermarkets anyway.

M.

ashmit

Going to look into the market thing

Whaddaya know, Martin's written an article on mortgage life assurance - thanks Martin! Will look into this asap too

Mrs_Thrift

- Toiletries

Now, the thing with toiletries is, I get Lush stuff which is NOT cheap - however the only things I actually get are moisturiser which lasts forever, deodorant (ditto), and shower gel and shampoo which are quite cheap anyway (at least the ones I get are).  And I use one of those scrubby things too and I've been meaning to post about them in the pennypinching thread for ages and couldn't think of the name  ;D  And I've got very short hair so my shampoo lasts for ages too.

OK, I'm getting into fully fledged Mother Hen mode now!

I agree it makes sense to spend a wee bit more on a good moisturiser when you find one that suits you, and you can make it last. The same sometimes goes for deodorant.

But just how cheap are the shower gel and shampoo you're buying? What is "cheap" to you, and how much are you getting for your money? Because you can probably find something similar, and just as good, a lot cheaper than Luch prices (even their "cheap" stuff!) Every penny helps! ;D