Ideas to get my shopping budget down even more?

iwanttosavemoney2008

tam21 wrote: »

Thanks so much for all your replies! Have already knocked some money off the shopping list

mummytofour - My only concern with the value eggs was that I was assuming they were battery which I didn't want to buy, but not 100% sure if that's the case?

barn eggs are still battery but in a different type of building sorry only way to not have battery eggs is to buy freerange not very:money:

OrkneyStar

iwanttosavemoney2008 wrote: »

barn eggs are still battery but in a different type of building sorry only way to not have battery eggs is to buy freerange not very:money:

Does barn not mean either the same space and less hens or bigger space with the same amount of hens ? I think barn are treated better than battery but free range is the best. This said I paid £1.41 for 6 medium free range eggs in the Coop!!!!!!!! We try to get free range ones from local sources as loads of people have hens around here. Agree it is not very :money:
I would love to keep hens but in our garden it would just not work- too many cats and in a built up area, even though the actual overall area is rural ifkwim.

shopaholictiedtheknot

dholtuk2 wrote: »

Shops own brand loo rolls are only about £1.12 for 12 rolls and they are absolutely fine once you get used to them.

I always buy those now - asda and morrisons both do them and I find them great, we go through TONS of loo roll and I once heard something that made me think

If you spend a lot on expensive loo roll you may as well wipe your ar*e on pound notes!!!

This is especially useful since the advent of the pound coin as I don't imagine they are very absorbent :rotfl:

Paige

tam21 - can I just say congrats on being so organised. I am trying but I find it really difficult to meal plan for 1 week let alone 5. !!!
Well done
Paige X

mardatha

Is it ok to buy a breadmaker on ebay ? What happens if it packs in ?

Jammygal

Have added my two pennies worth HTH;)

tam21 wrote: »

(Sorry in advance for the vv long post!)

OK, so over the past year I've gone from being a "buy it all ready done and to hell with what it costs" person to a fairly enlightened OSer :T (although I realise quite a few things on my list are still pre-made) but now we've had another baby and the budget is being squeezed even tighter, so I'm hoping that you lovely MSEers can help me shrink my shopping budget even more. I've read lots and lots of the threads on here and taken loads on board, but would really welcome any tips if I post my monthly shopping list and menu list! (The following is for 5 weeks)....


4 Milupa Aptamil Extra Hungry Milk 900g 31.80 (unfortunately buying this as I have to, have had problems this time with bf that I won't go into here but it has left us with this extra expense :mad: )

20 Pampers Baby Wipes Sensitive Refill 63 £23.00(usually get tesco value but these are bogof this month and are easier to use fewer of so work out as cheap for us while on offer)
4 Tesco Easy Fit Pants Junior 38 £27.92(appreciate it's not OS, but hopefully not an expense for much longer as soon as DS1 gets the hang of the potty!) Try Lidl nappy pants they are great and cheap!!
2 Colgate Advanced Whitening Toothpaste 100ml £2.27(bogof)
1 Tesco Luxury Soft Toilet Tissue White 4 Roll 964 Sheet £1.88
20 Hovis Best Of Both Medium White 800g £20.00(looking to get a breadmaker soon but need to find an affordable one!)Definately go 4 one asap!
3 Willow Farm Barn Eggs Large Box Of 12 £7.65(DH resisting my idea of keeping chickens )
1 Discovery Flour Tortillas 320g £1.22 Lidls are 79p
3 Tesco Value Curry Flavour Instant Noodles 65g £0.24
4 Tesco Value Chicken Flavour Instant Noodles 65g £0.32
3 Tesco Value Beans & Sausages567g £1.14
10 Tesco Value Orange Juice 1 Litre Carton £5.80
6 Tesco Malt Wheats 750g £8.04
1 Tesco Bicarbonate Of Soda 200g £0.41
1 Billingtons Demerara Sugar 500g £0.60
3 Tesco Value Green Pesto 190g £2.97
1 Miscellaneous Corned Beef 340g £1.18
1 Tesco Dried Oregano 14g £0.62 Only 2op ish @Lidl
2 Tesco Value Spaghetti 500g £0.46
5 Tesco Value Chopped Tomatoes 400g £1.05
21 Tesco Value Baked Beans In Tomt/Sauce 420g £4.20
1 Tesco 12 Beef Burgers & Seasoning 681g £2.49
2 Youngs 20 100% Fillet Fish Fingers 500g £2.98(whatever happened to tesco value fish fingers? )
1 Tesco Value White Fish Fillets 800g £1.95 Try making your own with fresh fish coated in breadcrumbs
1 Tesco Value Peas 900g £0.98
2 Tesco Thin & Crispy Oven 2kg £2.78
15 Tesco Whole Milk 568ml/1 Pint £6.30 (Buy the smaller bottles even though slightly more expensive as it means DS1 can help himself and not spill it all :rotfl: )
15 Tesco Healthy Eating Semi- Skimmed Milk 1.136ltr/2 Pints £12.00
1 Tesco Value 4 Cheese & Tom Pizza 760g £1.81Make own when you get BM
2 Tesco Value 10 Singles 170g £1.08
2 Tesco Value Processed Cheese Spread 150g £0.84
2 T Light Choices Extra Light Softcheese 250g £1.62
1 Tesco Value Unsalted Butter 250g £0.85
1 Healthy Living Diced Lamb 307g £4.42
1 Tesco Butter Me Up 1kg 1.72
2 Tesco Value White Full Flavour Cheese £6.56
8 Loose Carrots Class 1 £0.64
5 Cucumber Whole Each £2.25
5 Orange Peppers Loose Each Class 1 £3.40
15 Bananas Loose £1.80
50 Finest Apples Loose £13.00 (The only thing I ever buy "Finest" of as DH just won't eat the others :rolleyes: )
1 Tesco Cabbage Sweetheart Each £0.50
1 Baking 2.5kg Pack Potatoes £2.38
1 Swede Baby 300g £0.59
1 Tesco Value Tomatoes 500g £0.60
1 Value Lemons 500g £0.60 (looking to start buying fruit and veg in Lidl to see if this might make it cheaper)
Value Red Onions 750g 0.59
Also five whole small chickens which don't cost us anything as the in-laws buy us one each week

Obviously there are some things on here eg the frozen white fish, toothpaste etc that will last us more than one month, and some things that we have already from previous months left over, but these should pretty much cancel each other out.
So this totals £217.50, £130.63 of which is food, 86.87 of which is nappies, wipes, baby milk etc
Our month's menu will be ...

35 Main courses - 2 quesadillas + chips, 1 sausage bake, 2 shepherds pie, 5 lemon pasta, 2 fish + pasta bake, 5 tuna tomato pasta, 2 calzone, 5 egg, chips + beans, 2 tomato pasta, 1 corned beef hash, 2 sandwiches + chips, 1 lamb stew + dumplings, 2 pesto pasta, 2 cheesy rice, 1 chicken casserole, 1 colcannon + gravy
25 DH's lunches - 7 chicken sarnies, 8 chicken/BBQ sauce jackets, 4 pesto pasta, 6 jacket + beans
25 My/DS1's lunches - 10 cheese spread sarnies, 5 fish fingers and peas, 5 pizza, 5 beans on toast/beans and sausages
10 Whole family lunches at weekends - 5 burgers, 5 noodles
35 Breakfasts - 30 cereal/toast/OJ, 5 eggy bread on sundays!
Treats - HM flapjacks, krispie cakes or biscuits that I make with DS1

So, sorry again for the ridiculously long post, but any ideas?

ravylesley

I dont want to be controversial here but if your finding times hard then you surely must have to sacrifice your ethical stances just a bit if eggs can be had from Asda for £1.50 for 15 then surely it makes economic sense to purchase those rather than the more expensive free range ones.As for the nappies I've potty trained all five of my children and I know from bitter experience that using these pull up nappies was a waste of money.I'm sorry to say this but the best way of potty training is to clear your diary for a week and let the child run round bare bottomed until it gets the hang of the potty and then go into underwear.Its not a pleasant job but it has to be done and it costs a lot less than the pull ups and works better too.The loose bananas you could substitute with a big value pack of bananas which are just as good and cost a lot less

Lesleyxx

RustyFlange

ravylesley wrote: »

I dont want to be controversial here but if your finding times hard then you surely must have to sacrifice your ethical stances just a bit if eggs can be had from Asda for £1.50 for 15 then surely it makes economic sense to purchase those rather than the more expensive free range ones.As for the nappies I've potty trained all five of my children and I know from bitter experience that using these pull up nappies was a waste of money.I'm sorry to say this but the best way of potty training is to clear your diary for a week and let the child run round bare bottomed until it gets the hang of the potty and then go into underwear.Its not a pleasant job but it has to be done and it costs a lot less than the pull ups and works better too.The loose bananas you could substitute with a big value pack of bananas which are just as good and cost a lot less

Lesleyxx

Completely agree with above post. I never used pull ups on my son, we went out together and chose some funky pants which he wanted then i spent a full week with him with either nothing on or just pants on. Within 3 days he was pretty much potty trained. Even if i went out i simply went out armed with several changes of clothes and he went out without nappies but wearing his big boy pants.

And also the bananas, the asda smart price ones last a lot longer than loose ones, very often they are hard but soon ripen up and are just as nice if not nicer

tam21

Paige wrote: »

tam21 - can I just say congrats on being so organised. I am trying but I find it really difficult to meal plan for 1 week let alone 5. !!!
Well done
Paige X

aaw shucks Seriously though, it's taken me a while but I'm slowly getting there

tam21

ravylesley wrote: »

I dont want to be controversial here but if your finding times hard then you surely must have to sacrifice your ethical stances just a bit if eggs can be had from Asda for £1.50 for 15 then surely it makes economic sense to purchase those rather than the more expensive free range ones.As for the nappies I've potty trained all five of my children and I know from bitter experience that using these pull up nappies was a waste of money.I'm sorry to say this but the best way of potty training is to clear your diary for a week and let the child run round bare bottomed until it gets the hang of the potty and then go into underwear.Its not a pleasant job but it has to be done and it costs a lot less than the pull ups and works better too.The loose bananas you could substitute with a big value pack of bananas which are just as good and cost a lot less

Lesleyxx

Yeah, I do know what you're saying but having had to work on a battery farm (among others) as part of my uni course when I was younger, there is no way I could buy the eggs.
Totally agree with the potty training advice, we did do this a few weeks ago but he just didn't seem ready so it's back in nappies for a few weeks until we try again.
I would get the value bananas but we only use a few a week so by the end of the month a lot would have gone off, that's the only reason