Mumsnet Talk

You could make laundry gloop. I keep mine in a bucket that had held fat balls for the birds.

It would last you ages too.

I use aldi every week, dh tells me the digestives are better than mcvities and we like the beans so we don't miss Heinz at all.

I use smart price cleaning products from the co-op, they are BUAV approved which big brand names usually aren't apart from astonish.

Green flag...very good they are too! When I joined it was only £50 and I did it online.
Fluffy...I really like the cleaning stuff from the co op. the ultra non bio gel is ace and I do like the co ops ethical stance wrt animal testing, additives etc.
So....so,far from aldi I am getting fruit, veg, beans, k towel, loo rolls, cleaning stuff, baking stuff, digestives, apple juice, jams, choc,
Ragwort...ds1 has a brown bread sandwich, flapjacks, rice cakes and fruit compote each day at school (he will not/cannot eat fruit so it's the only way to prevent scurvy )
Dh takes salad with tuna/meat etc
Annoyingly ds2 will eat porridge, but only the really expensive boxed one I like him to have it though.

Aldi mayo is gorgeous btw...

I would do a 4 week plan ie fish/fish fingers once a week, sausages once a week (casserole/toad in hole/egg and chips and 'with mash') do pasta once a week(carbonara/with tomato sauce/mushroom sauce/pesto) jackets once a week (beans/cheese/tuna/coleslaw) chicken for 2 meals (roast and curry/risotto/pie) and something with mince (Bol/shep pie)
Drive to aldi to get enough mince and enough veg to make a bolognaise/lasagne/pasta-ey type sauce so bulk it with courgettes/mushrooms/peppers. Make a massive vat of tomatoey/minced/vegetables sauce and portion it when it's Cooked, freeze it.
work out how much cereal you need, butter, tuna, curry sauces,Dairylea type stuff for butties, passata'tinned tomatoes,pastry slices/pasta sauces/baked beans,cheese,cooking oil etc. To make the above meals and do lunches around it (soup/on toast/eggs) and buy it all that at start of month. Inc sugar, teabags, etc.
Divide rest of your budget over month, Aldi will save you a fortune btw.
Get custard. Rice pudding. Swiss rolls, sago, tinned pineapple,sago etc. To pad out 'crap' meals.
Buy just apples and bananas unless you get a deal on other fruit (ie no berries/cherries/melons/satsumas!)

Can you tell io've done this before??

Glad I am in experienced hands TSC so to speak.
Thanks to all those who have posted x

Tea bags! Sainsburys basics. We switched 25 months ago, dh hasn't noticed yet.

Lidl will have half price offers at the weekend.

Mornflake oats are 2kg for about £1.80 and lasts ages. We have it as porridge with raisins and agave, as flapjacks with nuts, seeds and dried fruit, and as hm granola on plain natural yogurt (I think tescos own big pot is 60p ish) Also can be added to burgers.

Soup is cheap and can be filling if you add lentils and/or potatoes.

If things are really tight make it "fun" and have breakfast for tea. They all have to go to bed while you make "breakfast" then you wake them up and serve them breakfast in bed. DD loves this as shes never usually allowed food outside the kitchen.

Oh my God, the one thing I will not even scrimp on is tea bags. They must be Clipper unbleached ones. Anything else now just tastes like bleach. That is my only luxury ever though apart from Friday bottle of wine.

I quite like tesco quality tea (in red box) BUT I, pretty much pour the hot water in on top of it then immediately take it out of the mug, otherwise its too strong. Its perfect for making a pot of tea though

Ooh granola. I must get round to making that, I love it in yogurts.

I feel like an MN failure for not knowing, but what is granola?
Have made a list for aldi and will top up at the local co op.

For dinners I am planning so far...
Jackets, salad or veg and chicken goujons.
Pasta and meatballs and garlic bread.
Pizza
Home made wedges and onion and courgette frittata
Roast potatoes and fish fingers and veg
Roast dinner
Cottage pie and veg
Puddings..ice cream, home made cakes.
Snacks...popcorn, rice cakes, choc
Sound about right?
Wrt breakfast, they tend to be hit ones as dh and dc have cold lunches.

Crunchy museli.

Hairdressers round here will trim fringe for free if you had your hair cut there.

Use whole milk and half water for morning porridge. Half the price.

Try to encourage more porridge and less "meat" breakfasts.

Don't throw anything away. Ends of meat and leftover veg can make soup for the next night's dinner. Fry an onion, food prices the leftovers and add some pulses.

Ice cream no good when its this cold. Make microwave syrup puddings or a fruit crumble instead.

Could also water down whole milk or use dried milk. I used to make the porridge sachet type things for dd when she was younger - small Tupperware type pot with, porridge oats, dried milk powder, raisins and a wee sprinkle of sugar in it. Just add boiling water, stir it up and let it cool to edible temp ( or zap in microwave for a bit first depending on oats used) She made "packaging" for it too- a plain cardboard box that she drew all over then put the pot of porridge mix inside, still in container.

OP you mentioned DS's liking of expensive boxed porridge. Have tried refilling the box while he's out and just not telling him that it's a cheaper version?

Haha yes we have adora.
And with his crackers that he likes - ditto.
Doesn't fool him for a second
This morning ds1 has had 2 "posh" cheese on toast (which is an English muffin, split, toasted with pizza topping and grated mozerella on and baked in he oven for 10 mins) and water.
Ds2 has had porridge, a banana and 2 slices of whole meal toast with butter and apple juice.
They will both have sandwiches for lunch as usual.

Neither dc have milk, except in baking or food.
We use UHT skim milk as its cheaper than fresh and I prefer it (I am a bit odd I think) and we don't run out as I buy the large packs.

make your own chicken goujons from cheap aldi chicken or Asian butchers

Well I have done a my supermarket.com shop and asda came up cheapest so I have shopped with them for this week. Came to just under £40 inc del.
Am a bit worried as I am not really an asda fan, but will reserve judgement.

Do you have a Lidl anywhere near you? Even if it's a drive it might be worth it. I shopped there yesterday and spent about £54 and when I checked on Mysupermarket later it showed that I would have been at least £68 anywhere else (Tesco being the cheapest, then Sains, then Asda). They are doing bulk bags of rice and onions at the moment and lots of their fruit and veg is British and good quality. They also do 1kg tubs of greek style yogurt (we get plain but I think they do flavoured too) for £1.58 and it is lovely. Aldi's greek style yogurt (500g) is great too and under £1. Oh and Aldi do pole and line caught tuna for under £1 a tin too. I know you can get cheaper than this but it sounds like good quality and ethics are important to you so just thought I would mention.

Hth. Good luck!

Thanks ginger

Have just found the menu website I was on about. It's the resourceful cook. Got loads of different menus ranging from £24 for a family of four (although 2 toddlers would probably mean using a menu for 3 ) can change some of the meals etc, add in lunches and desserts.

I am glad you ventured into Aldi, the quality is good and often better than other supermarkets. They have started doing orgnic food as well . All their cleaning stuff is fine. I try and do a shop there and then top up at the other supermarkets with the things that I could not get. You could make pizza dough very cheaply . For the porridge buy some cheaper porridge and mix it in the box with the expensive one. You would be amazed at how many families think they are eating branded things when in fact they have replaced and decanted by canny mums into the original package and nobody has noticed !