Ideas to get my shopping budget down even more?

Sian_the_Green

I would say for herbs some things are worth buying in a pot rather tahn growing. I got a supermarket basil plant and repotted it in a bigger pot with some fresh compost and have been taking cuttings off it.

My Mum always took cuttings by wrapping the stem of the plant in kitchen roll until it was the width of the neck of a jar or milk bottle, filling it with water and popping it in so the end is in the water. When the roots start growing plant it out. I have been taking loads of cuttings off the basil and some mint as I go along and I took a cutting from a friend's rosemary bush.

Pitlanepiglet

pavlovs_dog wrote: »

lakeland do a banana bag which will store bananas in the fridge for up to 2 weeks without blackening the skin or letting them over ripen

That's where my idea came from....spoke to Hubby about it, he (don't laugh!) used to work on a banana boat (misspent youth!) and he said that when bananas are shipped they are kept at the right temperature to keep them green and stop them ripening. This temperature is warmer than a domestic fridge so to keep them in a domestic fridge you need to insulate them from the temperature to stop them going black.

Lakeland have the banana bag - I find a tea towel works fine...I might push the boat out and try two tea towels if I feel the need....:rotfl:

Horace

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!)
2 Colgate Advanced Whitening Toothpaste 100ml £2.27(bogof) go to Lidl and buy Dentalux toothpaste for 79p
1 Tesco Luxury Soft Toilet Tissue White 4 Roll 964 Sheet £1.88 Again Lidl, they have 24 roll packs of Carmin loo rolls for little over £9
20 Hovis Best Of Both Medium White 800g £20.00(looking to get a breadmaker soon but need to find an affordable one!) Look on Freecycle for one
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
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 Again buy herbs in Lidl or Aldi as they are cheaper than Tesco same goes for Spaghetti
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
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 £1.81 Again Lidl sells frozen pizza 2 in a box for £1.99 - cheaper and yummy.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 Veg and fruit can be bought in Lidl, less packaging and who can tell if its Finest or not?
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. My chap swears by Lidl's frozen fish - I don't eat fish so can't comment
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?

Lidl also sell 1Kg Lasagne in their chiller cabinets these are cheap and extremely tasty and not overly loaded with bechamel sauce like some. Lidl sells noodles (I can't abide them anyway) but my chap says to avoid them because they are dreadful. They sell chicken burgers which are tasty, chicken cordon bleu (filled with ham and cheese), their Rowan Hill bread isnt too bad and cheapish at 79p.

Their fruit juices aren't bad and they do sell a cloudy lemonade (it is quite sharp and doesnt contain artificial sweetner only sugar) in 2ltr bottles for 37p. It's a good alternative to Schweppes Bitter Lemon.

Register at Lidl.co.uk to receive a weekly newsletter so you can see what's on offer. Look at their Tried & Tested part of their website as this will show items that have been tested by magazines.

I feel sure that there is a topic on this forum dedicated to Lidl shopping and what to and what not to buy.

Good luck.