£22.30

[charlottegrace1]

Thats how much I have to feed a family of 5 on for 3 meals a day till Monday and I have to buy washing powder too! So as there have been a few posts on here from the hard up club I thought I would start this thread and let you know what I buy and how much I spend and what I am cooking with the ingredients. If anyone else wants to join in please do as we can all learn from each other on how to save money.

We could call ourselves "slim hips, slim purses lol.

 

[Donnie46]

Good post Charlotte, I tried to rep it for you - but I am told to spread my rep about a bit, so I am sorry for that. X

 

[KittyB]

Look forward to hearing how you get on...pasta n potatoes will be stables I guess?
xx

 

[Mrs V]

Ok...start with the basics...bread, milk, eggs and work up from there!

 

[jacqui35]

Well i have a tenner till monday but i can add that to urs but that means another adult and three kids to menus, great post as i put that in my other post, im totally struggling too

 

[Kelly xx]

Two words really

Great idea!!! x

 

[Sarah-Jayne]

I am pretty much skint now until Thursday next week so we are going to be living on the 5kg of pasta that we gpt from tesco for £2 lol x

 

[tara40]

we are much the same. we are a family of 5 and i am the worker as hubby cant do his trade anymore due to injury. we usually shop on a budget. we seem to be using Asda and Lidl for shopping mainly. where does everyone else shop.

 

[Sarah-Jayne]

We shop at Tesco because we like to collect the clubcard points and when we get the tri-monthly vouchers, we are collecting them so we can put the money towards a holiday next year as £10 of vouchers is equal to £40 off your holiday!

There isnt an Asda or Morrisons close enough to us unfortunatly.

 

[MissShiraz]

LIDL FOR FRUIT AND VEGGIES!!

Mince
Potatoes
Pasta (spaghetti - it's cheapest!)
Passata
Eggs
Baked Beans

(Spaghetti Bolgnese, chilli and jackets, homemade burgers)
chips and egg, wedges, potato cakes or mashed pots and mince?
Jacket potato and Beans
Omelette and Beans, Scrambled egg and Beans
Spicy tomato Pasta

 

[SarahSez]

You can usually buy a sack of potatoes from a farm for a fiver ... ok regular jacket spuds and beans can be boring but you could find various things to make with them.

If I lived closer i'd definitely give you half of my sack

Keep your chin up x

 

[frugal fifer]

we are much the same. we are a family of 5 and i am the worker as hubby cant do his trade anymore due to injury. we usually shop on a budget. we seem to be using Asda and Lidl for shopping mainly. where does everyone else shop.

I am pretty much the same and on an expensive week have 50-60 for the food for the week, more often than not I have to stick to around 40, I use Aldi and Lidl mainly then keep an eye out for offers in local stores. I see it as a challenge and have lived this way for so long I would wonder what to do if I went to asda with loads of money.

 

[BigV]

Hi, all

I'm in the same boat. My biggest tip is to use every single bit you have.
eg: I don't put the potatoe peels in the bin. I wash and dry them. Put them in the oven and spray Frylight over them and any spices or just plain salt. They make lovely "crisps"...if you are not going to use the peelings immediately, you can put them in a freezer bag and freeze them, until you need them....almost like SW chips but with the peels.

Another tip of mine is to use all the leftover bits (veggies left in the bottom of the fridge that have seen better days) like onion, carrot, potatoe etc. put it in the slowcooker of normal pot and make a soup. You can add broken up spaghetti or macaroni to bulk it up. Flavour it anyway you like.

Happy cooking people.

 

[charlottegrace1]

Thanks guys for all the replies its good to know I'm not alone on a shoe string lol.

Well this is what I bought today:

Farmfoods total spend £5.44

2 x 2ltr of "the one" milk £2.00
500g of mild cheese £2.00
1.5kg bag of carrots £0.69
1 jar of tikka cooking sauce £.75 (I only use half a jar and dilute with stock and freeze the rest)


Aldi totoal spend £16.02

necterines 49p
white seedless grapes 49p
bananas 49p
fun size apples 99p
baking pototoes £1.79
onions 79p
wheat bisks 36 pack £1.59
soft wholemeal loaf 65p
square sandwich loaf 59p
2 x naan bread packs £1.18
premium lean corned beef 12 slices 99p
premium lean steak mince 500g £2.49
washing powder £3.49


Totoal spend £21.46

Meals planned for the food are

weetabix and milk for brekkie every day

Tonight - veg curry made with a bits of left over veg. with rice from store cupboard and naans (no naans for me though)

Saturday
weetabix and milk
wholemeal sandwich with half a slice of corned beef and home grown salad.
bolognaise using half the mince, onions, carrots, tinned tomatoes from store cupboard together with spaghetti from store cupboard

Sunday
weetabix and milk
Jackett potato with baked beans from store cupboard and home grown salad
Chilli con carne using other half of mince, onions, chillies flakes from store cupboard, carrots and diced potato and red kidney beans and rice from store cupboard.

Monday

weetabix and milk
home made potato and carrot soup with bread
ratatouile pasta bake with onions, home grown courgettes, carrots and tinned tomatoes and herbs from store cupboard.


So, there is how I am managing to get through till Tuesday morning when I can go shopping again and replenish all the food we have eaten on a small budget. I was lucky really this week as I have a few store cupboard basics still in hand to use to fill out the meals, but that won't be the case come Tuesday as we will have eaten them all! So next time it will be a budget of £72.00 for the whole week for everything including cleaning stuff etc and putting back a few basics into the cupboard. I will let you know how I do Tuesday on that score. Going to plan menu for next week now and do shopping list and hope I win the lottery lol.


Thanks for all the lovely comments you have sent me over this post, and everyone who is slim in the purse lets show them how we can be kitchen goddessess on a shoe string. Want not, Waste not as they say. Happy shopping, and don't forget to post if you find any bargains or stuff on offer in the top section under bargains. xx

 

[StaceyUK]

I'm going to pay attention to this thread more as we spend far too much on shopping! I just managed to spend £110 in Tesco and that was for meals from today only til Monday! But I'm on a red week and I do find those more expensive.

I have an Aldi not far from me which I haven't been to so I'm going to check it out this week!

 

[MissShiraz]

We used to do our weekly shop in Morrisons and for 3 of us would spend around £80-100! Most of the fruit, veg and salad would go off in a few days, but what we buy from Lidl lasts for days. Farmfoods are cheapest for milk and crisps / chocs for the little ones.

We hardly touch morrisons or tesco now. My fridge is ALOT fuller and for atleast half the cost.....

Had to laugh in Tesco the other day they were doing 2 items for £2 (ie pineapples, mango) they were only 39 and 49p each in LIDL and were MUCH bigger....

I really think it pays to shop around. We live 13 and 18 miles from our nearest towns anyway - so have to drive to do the shop so might aswell drive around in town and make sure we make the most of it!

 

[rainbow]

I too should pay attention to this thread for when I switch back to SW from LL, I used to spend around £100 ish pound a week in Tesco (for two of us) and then spend in the butchers on top of that!! xxx

 

[madhousemum]

i be watching this one always up to save a few pounds. thank you xxx

 

[madhousemum]

oh one thing our slimming world mentioned to us was on the slimming well site there is a student menu which one of the women was following and it cost her 22-00 a week let me see if i can find it. xxx

 

[Iris]

I've been painfully skint in the past - I really do empathise, it's exhausting trying to ferret out the best deals on everything. If you have a good weekly market or farmers' market near you it can be worth getting up early and heading there for some bargains. The fruit and veg is usually top notch and often a lot cheaper than most supermarkets. Good place to pick up fresh fish, too. Herring and mackerel are easy to cook, great for the diet, and won't break the bank.

Like another poster said, cooking in bulk and freezing portions is really handy. Pasta sauce, curry, shep pie, corned beef hash... all freeze really well. And I definitely second the suggestion of a big spanish tortilla style omelette with whatever you've got lying about in the store cupboard or fridge (plenty of potato!) can be really tasty and good for using up odds and ends. And if you're stuck for a cheap and cheerful (and easy!) pud for the family, you can whip up a microwave sponge pud in less than 5 mins. Stick a bit of jam or marmalade or canned fruit in the bottom of a microwaveable tub and top with standard sponge cake recipe, cover with cling and on for about 3 mins on high.