£45 per week housekeeping

Hi Ceegee,

I am a bit of a lurker, but your dilemma is striking a chord with me. I have been looking at ways to trim costs. I think your budget is doable, but of course constantly counting the pennies can be relentless.

I shop mostly at Lid@l and keep a close eye on their upcoming offers via their online leaflets.

I have switched to their uht milk, I think it tastes fine and having plenty in the cupboard stops me needing to pop to the shops for more milk.

I try to use my freezer more. Having frozen veg, bread, leftovers, etc reduces wastage.

I am also eating a lot less meat.

I find I can meal plan and that helps. There are lots of links on this site plus the wonderful Girl called Jack that make great suggestions.

I now have a garden and have started to grow some simple fruit and veg, but I am not sure how moneysavingexpert this is!

What I find I miss are "treat" items, ice cream, chocolate, cake etc.

As others have suggested, where you shop can make a difference, and I often use mySupermarket.com to compare and look up prices.

Although I really like Lid@l, I find that they do not have many yellow sticker items, so sometimes visit bigger supermarkets to see what they have.

In my city we have the wonderful Junk Food Project which sells fresh food that has reached its sell by date at vastly reduced prices.

I think that variety helps.

I shall be watching your thread with interest, and wish you well!

ceegee wrote: »

Thank you all for your ideas, much food for thought there, excuse the pun!

No alcohol, no takeaways, no eating out. If I need to buy something "over and above" such as tights, it leaves me struggling. I have no budget for things like clothes and haircuts, if I did, we wouldn't have even the £45 for housekeeping!

I think that the constant struggle gets on top of me sometimes. Sometimes I remember the well groomed and well dressed woman that I used to be and it does make me feel down sometimes.

I know it might seem that I am being a bit cagey about my circumstances, I don't want to appear that way, it's just that, at the age of 62 and having worked from age 15 until 61, I now find my self in a rotten situation. I shall take all suggestions on board and re -double my efforts.

Many thanks for the thoughts and kindness! !!!55357;!!!56397;

Hi I am doing this on £67 a week for a family of 5 - its really hard and I have no budget for haircuts, or even hair dye at the moment - this is my fault as I have taken on too much debt, but working my way out of it. We eat a largely vegan diet, its ok for us as the family enjoy my cooking. People often say vegan diets are more expensive but I can buy 800g of cooked beans for £1 whilst 500g of mince is £3.75 I suggest maybe looking for some new tasty, basic meals with no meat just occasionally - it will really help I even make my own oat milk costs me 19p a litre

I don buy clothes - except for the children, if I do really need somethign new I have to sell something to cover the cost

Nat

caronc made an excellent point about viewing your weekly pot as an annual, or perhaps a monthly budget if it's easier. If you spread that money slightly wider you might be able to make your cash go further.
You'll need to make sure you have some space in your cupboards/freezer.


For example, if your shopping list is exactly/nearly the same each week you might be missing out on special offers.
If you're buying a packet of chicken each week you might pay £4 for 3 weeks and get a special offer for £3 one week. However if you bought four weeks worth of chicken when the special offer is on, and freeze 3 of them then you've saved £3.


Same applies for the reduced/yellow sticker strategy - if you are spreading your money across a few weeks it might give you more leeway to stock up on a pile of reduced items to freeze for another day.


Could you swap out some meals for more simple things like egg or beans on toast/crumpets, soups etc which can be filling and cheap.


Are you buying fruit and veg seasonally? Frozen veg is as nutritious as fresh and invariably cheaper.


When it comes to winter slow cooked casseroles, stews etc can be bulked out with veg, oats, pulses. This might be the time of year when you can put aside a little bit of your budget to supplement the weeks when you need something fancier.




Apologies if any of this is stating the obvious, it might come in handy for someone.
There are heaps of resources on here on the food boards for affordable meals- maybe spend a few hours trawling the boards for recipe inspiration.
Are you meal planning? Do you find that you have many leftovers at the end of the week?

Hello ceegee

If you have a freezer, I think it can be helpful to menu plan for two (or even three) weeks in advance as this gives you the chance to bulk cook and/or freeze leftovers. I have found that writing out a fortnightly menu plan ensures I don't freeze a meal and then forget about it (which I have been known to do, repeatedly!).

It also helps if you and your partner don't mind eating the same thing two or more days in a row - if I am on a tight budget, I don't have the luxury (money or time wise) of cooking something different every single day. So for instance last Sunday I slow roasted a half leg of lamb (£8 in Aldi) and it fed us for a lovely roast dinner, then the remaining meat was stripped with most of it being added to lots of veg for a shepherd's pie which has produced six portions (two for last night, four for the freezer to have over the next two weeks) plus enough spare bits of meat to make a big lamb and rice pilaff which will make four portions.

There will probably be enough for me to take some of the above in to work for lunches too.

We try and eat non-meat meals twice a week, fish once a week, cook everything from scratch and don't waste anything.

If you have an Aldi near you, I would highly recommend it. It's good quality and the prices take some beating, imo.

I do grow quite a bit of fruit and veg, salad and herbs myself, and I also have my own chickens but can easily feed two adults, two cats and a big hungry dog for £50 a week without trying too hard.

Can you (and do you) cook?