Grocery Challenge - February 2012

cleggie wrote: »

Coldcazzie- i am exactly the same (re the bit in bold). i think that because having an emoty fridge/freezer/cupboard for so long WAS because i had no money or food in the house, i cant bear to see any of them empty, even wheni KNOW i have plenty of food.
A prime example of this is this morning. My fridge is virtually empty, only ham, eggs and marg in there really, and it made me so miserable as we didnt have cheese, yogurts, chocolate (all the 'luxury' things for me)...but i also know that barr milk, i have everything i need in the fridge. I have a weeks worth of meals written down, that i have all of the ingrediants to..so i shoudln't worry about it looking empty, all i need is milk!

rising_from_the_ashes wrote: »

I think both the above apply to me .... I grew up in the middle of nowhere (literally) and we were frequently cut off for weeks in the winter and ended up eating the same staples over and over (but at least we did eat).

I think some of it is having a larger choice. If you have ham and several cheeses and patê and some veg in your fridge then you can choose whether you want cheddar and ham, or lancashire and tomato or patê and cucumber, whereas when you're hard up that choice can be taken away from you - you have to have cheddar every day because you've nothing else and can't afford anything else. I find that particularly hard with the kids, while they're quite happy to have a cheese sarnie two days running, I feel like a bad mum for not being able to offer them that choice; to say do you want ham or cheese and would you like a yogurt or a banana afterwards. I feel like I've failed them.

rising_from_the_ashes wrote: »

Then I got really into debt and the SM replaced the clothes, make up (and handbags .... lots and lots of handbags:o) as it was the only shop I could justify visiting.

I think past debt is important - it's so hard to understand what it's like to live on such a tiny budget unless you've actually been there. I remember my mum once saving to me "but the multipacks are better value" and I said "I know they are, but to get that better value requires a bigger outlay in the first place, and I simply don't have the money for it". It's very hard to shake those habits once theyre ingrained - more money means you can stock up and get those better value things you werent able to get before.

And again it goes back I think to feelings of failure at not being able to provide for your family. Part of the period of my life that lead to my LBM involved tax credits screwing about with my payments in that way they like to do. They'd sent me an award, but by the time the payment arrived they'd sent out a subsequent award (which hadn't yet arrived) which changed the payment amount. I rang them and queried the fact that the amounts didn't match to be told airily "oh that award notice is out of date". So I asked, panicking, how I was supposed to buy food for 4 for 3 weeks with the £80 they'd paid me (I was expecting £250+) and was told "well, it's not a benefit, it's a credit, so you shouldn't rely on it to buy things with". I was stunned at the callousness of such a statement but more than that I felt horribly guilty and like a complete failure as a person and a mum at having to 1, rely on handouts to be able to feed my kids, and 2, at having to ring my mum in tears and ask her to buy me food so we could eat.

I just want to send hugs to everyone who's exploring really difficult stuff. I hope it's not too grim doing it but I suspect it is a valuable process.
Big hugs

Weekly shop done, mainly in Mr M with The S*n voucher, managed to get just above the £40 to get the £5 off, then frozn veg in Asd@ but ggrr they had run out of the discounted coffee beans I wanted, will have to go another time. Asd@ have some Garnier/Nivea skincare at £1.50, great if you use it, as I do. 'New' freezer now stocked with 3 ys loaves, hurrah!

More than half the budget spent but that's this week's shop pretty much done and then only one more week to go.

Hi everyone just declaring my first NSD in well ......ever!!! Thanks to your hints and tips x:T

Another NSD for me, pleased with that anyway, two in a row. Horrific month budget-wise as lots of big outlays, but I got an unexpected bonus from work so that's alleviated the panic.

To those who struggle to stay out of supermarkets, I know exactly how you feel. I think mine comes from somewhere else rather than childhood, though I have been proper skint on more than one occasion.

I feel like going shopping for food and trying to get bargains counts as getting hold of myself and my life, like being in control, and it's also almost like a game, where you put your prizes in the fridge, only being good at it is also being good, if that makes sense.

So coming home with seven quid's worth of shopping and posting it on here is my equivalent of dragging the hairy mammoth back to the cave and waving my spear around. It's much harder to say, well, actually, my fridge is full of mammoth and I've got no money so I can't go and triumph over anything today. No prizes for me, in fact nothing at all. I'll just sit here and not do anything except be skint.

Anyway, that's my tuppenceworth and apologies if it's completely garbled.