Just had to put a food shop on the credit card, fed up!

[whatsausername]

We don’t get paid until next Thursday. I’d ran out of essentials like coffee, hand wash, toothpaste, chips etc. Needed the usual packed lunch stuff too. £78 in Asda. I have £82 in the account until payday but need to keep it in as direct debits due day before payday.

I just feel bleugh. We both work full time and having to put a weekly food shop on a credit card is just soul destroying.

anyone else feel like this?

I cannot believe how much this thread has blown up. I can’t even read all the comments there’s been that many. I’m howling at all the soap/handwash and chips/potatoes comments though.

I posted last night feeling deflated but honestly this whole thread has cheered me up.

to answer a few of the Q’s I’ve seen… no I don’t spend £50 on just packed lunch stuff. Sorry it read that way. I just meant that’s my approx spend for my weekly Sunday shop (which me and my husband colloquially refer to as the packed lunch shop) but includes all necessities for the week like sides for dinners etc. But my packed lunch stuff is made up for bread, cold meat, fridge raiders (own brand) and some chocolate for my husband (usually whatever’s on offer, this week it was Daim bars) he has the exact same lunch everyday I don’t know how he can be bothered. My DC who is 7 is autistic so he’s quite fussy with food, his packed lunch consists of a sandwhich (biscoff spread) or a sausage roll, then fruit (watermelon slices or apple slices, only fruit he will eat), a fruit shoot (or the supermarket equivalent) crisps (he will only eat wotsits) or a dairylea dunker and a snack depending on what’s on offer (this week it’s party rings, last week it was Maryland mini cookies.) and before you all come at me for how unhealthy his packed lunch is, I am well aware, but it’s so hard to get him to eat in general so I’m just glad he eats this. I like variety in my packed lunch so I go between a baked potato (the mccains frozen ones are ideal for the work microwave) or soup (own brand) and then I’ll have Greek yogurt with granola and fruit (strawberries and blueberries) and usually some kind of cereal bar or a mini cheese (again, own brand.) and yes I like a can of Diet Coke to go with it.

chips are essential in our house as my husband and son eat chips everyday. I change up my sides with rice or noodles or veg or whatever but unfortunately I live with fussy eaters.

the handwash was 73p and I think I buy it about 3x a year so we all need to calm down about the handwash

the toothpaste was £1.19 a general own brand sensitive toothpaste

yes there probably are cheaper shops like Aldi but unfortunately where I live Aldi is a good bit away. Asda is our closest supermarket

the price of the coffee is beyond ridiculous I completely agree. And normally I buy the big Nescafé tin off Amazon on subscribe and save so I never run out but unfortunately it was out of stock last month. But I’ve already compromised on Lurpak (god I miss it) for own brand butter so I’m sticking with the coffee for now

but yes I only posted for a rant to be honest but I’ve enjoyed how this thread has unravelled

Bar soap, the mumsnet chicken of the CoL crisis

73p for handwash, OP! Why, when you could be making your own soap with ashes and a bit of tallow? How excessive! 😮

😊

It happens, whatuser, hopefully next month will be a bit easier. x

Well, most of my relatives drink coffee and have to put up with the brand I buy (not Nescafe for historic reasons) because I don't drink coffee often. Those who drink tea drink my expensive stuff. They'd be able to tell, too.😃

I've eaten £6.60 worth of Bon Maman chocolate mint mousses since Saturday.

I forgot to ask permission on here!

Well done.

All this talk of soap reminds me of how my grandparents lived. But in those days (1930s for them), they were able to buy a house in their twenties and my grandma was able to stay at home and cook lovely dinners every day. (Grandad had to go to Cairo for several years during WW2 but we'll forget about that.)

But now most young people can't buy a house so they need a few treats to make their lives more bearable.

Me too I use tesco credit card with a club card attached so not only I'm getting cheaper shopping I just pay it off in full each month.

Thanks :). They're so delicious!

You know you could make your own with a few toothpaste shavings and some own-brand chocolate 😯 😆

Someone who gets up and goes to work everyday shouldn't need to make "a few sacrifices" to be able to afford what I consider very basic food/essential items.

Lunches don't have to be expensive or unhealthy. My DS gets plain yogurt with a bit of squash/honey portioned out in little pots, and fruit. His sandwiches are jam and butter because he is so fussy but otherwise he would have what I have -- leftovers. This week it's a big chili with beans & sweet potatoes which was very cheap to make. That said, I agree it is depressing how expensive things are these days.

Coffee would be an essential for me and Dh. I wonder have you tried Lidl and Aldi instead of Asda. It could work out being a lot cheaper.

Our household is on benefits and coffee is still an essential.

It’s not a case of ‘shouldn’t’ (the older person’s version of the kids refrain ‘is not fair’)
It’s how it is. Letting the kid become a ‘fussy eater’ Getting him ‘fridge raiders’ -he wouldn’t have know they existed if he hadn’t been bought them.
… And then moaning that budget doesn’t stretch to the fussy eaters’ fads and the family’s ‘daily chips’ habiit..

Clearly didn’t read my post properly as it’s my husband who likes fridge raiders. I wish my son would eat them, believe me.

Can tell you’ve never parented an autistic child with food aversions.

I cansee both side here re Fridge Raider. ( should be called Wallet Raiders)

You do realise that if you have a child that eats anything it's pure luck and nothing to do with your superior parenting, don't you?
What a staggeringly rude post

It's ridiculous. Do without coffee, don't put your heating on in winter. On and on it goes.

Glad the thread has given you a few laughs OP 👍
can I just confirm again Im in the soap camp 👷‍♀️

no, I just skip down the aisles of waitrose merrily chucking things in my trolley with no care for the actual total, merrily thinking of how I can advise the plebs to do things I have never needed to personally experience 🙄

as an example, from asda as that's the supermarket OP specified (I usually go to aldi which is a bit cheaper but then asda does tend to do more reductions, which makes things cheaper again, but for the sake of argument everything below is the current listed full price). .

1/4 of asdas large mixed peppers - £3.24 for the whole 1.5k bag so 81p for 3-4 peppers
1/5th of 1kg bag of carrots at 69p for the kilo = 2/3 carrots = 14p
2 x 500g passata = 54p each so £1.08
1 x stock cube £1.18 for 12 so 10p although again these are a LOT cheaper in aldi.
salt, pepper, paprika, etc = buy the big bulk packets so 5p at most per serving.
equals
= £2.18 for tasy, filling soup which will make at least 4 portions (so 54p a portion) and has at 3 of your 5 a day in.

add 2 slices of bread (1/10th of a 79p 800g loaf, so 8p) = 62p, so still have 38p left for snacks, could choose between 2 of asda crisps (15p per packet), an apple (16.5p), cereal/brownie/fake snickers etc chocolate bar (20p) .,,.or could just do 1 of these and instead add cheese to the bread, making it into a cheese toastie to dip in the soup....

or skip the cooking and just use a tin of soup (54p for the absolute cheapest adsa essentials, 64p for the next level up with lots of flavours) instead.

I’ve been on benefits and have friends on UC and to be honest there is not much difference in what we can all afford, obviously different with families that earn significantly more than the threshold (unless other income related expenses, student loans, child maintenance, professional fees, childcare etc) then still not much better off. I’m not saying that’s a bad thing as it’s great most people regardless of income are not in true poverty these days but being on benefits is no longer a reflection of being worse off than families not on benefits

Mint mouse

sounds yummy where are they from @IAmQuiteNiceActually

Bloody cheap food! I would have turned my nose up at it at one time.

Bulk out mince with lentils. It all tastes the same.