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Original poster

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

449 replies

whatsausername · 09/09/2025 18:04

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?

OP posts:
cumbriaisbest · 12/09/2025 20:39

There's not much you can teach me about mince tbh!

buffyfaithfredwesley · 12/09/2025 21:29

springtimemagic · 11/09/2025 21:01

Your food is all UPF factory food, that’s why it’s so expensive. If you actually made a meal in the conventional way, from scratch, you would get a load more for your money.

It cracks me up that people actually buy McCains baked potatoes. I see them in the supermarket and wonder to myself who buys this stuff?! Now I know. How can someone charge you for a frozen baked potato ‘ready meal’ - a potato IS a ready meal. You literally stick the thing in the microwave and it cooks in 6 mins. It blows my mind. It’s symbolic of the times we live in that people buy this stuff.

People used to get buy on a lot less than people have now. They actually cooked though and made it last.

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I cook, I don’t use jar sauces etc and do most stuff from scratch as I enjoy cooking
i I do have those potatoes though - they’re baked already so it doesn’t taste like a normal potato, live alone and they’re handy to have in as I don’t always have potatoes in. And no weird ingredients in them

CatInspector · 12/09/2025 22:13

Microwave jackets are horrible, weird and soggy @springtimemagic
I want either oven baked or frozen
The Bannisters frozen ones are lovely -already cooked so you are just reheating and they come out fluffy.
They don't need an hour in the oven so saves time and money .

Interested in this thread?

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Cost of living General food General money
IAmNotASheep · 13/09/2025 08:45

cumbriaisbest · 12/09/2025 17:32

No, because I'm interested and broke. But never mind. Thanks

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Check out the Trolley website

GleisZwei · 13/09/2025 08:53

cumbriaisbest · 12/09/2025 20:39

There's not much you can teach me about mince tbh!

Well, you seem not to know how to make it taste decent.....lol.

Crikeyalmighty · 13/09/2025 10:32

@CatInspector I have managed to make really nice ones by microwaving 7 mins and then air fryer for 8 mins - soft insides, crispy skins!! For me, a revelation

CatInspector · 13/09/2025 10:41

Crikeyalmighty · 13/09/2025 10:32

@CatInspector I have managed to make really nice ones by microwaving 7 mins and then air fryer for 8 mins - soft insides, crispy skins!! For me, a revelation

Yes I've done that as well but I prefer frozen ones .
I'm not sure what they do to them?
Possibly steam pressure cooked but they are sooo fluffy.
I keep a box in the freezer and after a 12 14 hour shift they are perfect, quick and easy.
I always buy on special offer so about £3 for 4 .
By the time you have bought,cooked etc they probably work out the same
I dont eat many UPFs but these are staying!!!

Blondeshavemorefun · 13/09/2025 11:39

StillSittingInACornerIHaunt · 11/09/2025 14:19

I've just moved from school meals to packed lunch to try and save money.
A school meal at £2.40 per meal per child is £96 per month. And that's just a single meal, no drink, no snack at break.
Even so, packed lunches is:
2x bagels bag per week (5 bagels per bag) = £2.60
1 jar peanut butter per week = £1.60
0.25 of a cucumber = 22p
0.25 of a lettuce = 22p
Bag of bananas x 2 (5 nanas per bag) = £1.60
Crisps multi pack x 2 (12 bags) = £2
Snack bars x 2 (2 packs of 5) = £2.10

So that's £10.34 a week and £41.36 a month.
Sometimes we go wild and get some ham in too, sometimes one of them will have cheese.

Crucially this relies on you having children that don't just eat the weeks worth of bagels crisps bananas and snack bars by Tuesday.
I don't have those children.
Yes we hide the packed lunch food from them.
They find it!

Then we have to top up, so another bag of Nana's, another thing of bagels. In that scenario we need to grab what we can when we can so it can't always be Aldi.

In response to previous posters saying some people just want to moan and not actually try and cut back. I think that is massively unfair. I cut back about 2 years ago. I didn't complain or find that depressing, I got on with it.
We've kept cutting. Now we're arguing over coffee and bar soap.
That's what makes it depressing and miserable.

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@StillSittingInACornerIHauntyou are allowed /give your children peanut butter sarnies for school ?

most school ban nuts

JJZ · 13/09/2025 11:48

LuckyNumberFive · 09/09/2025 20:03

And yet here I am.. with a family... You cut your cloth. Some people don't have any more than that to spend, so they manage.

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How though? As hard as I try, I can’t get our weekly shop under £130, and there’s just three of us.

JJZ · 13/09/2025 11:51

LikeWhoUsesTypewritersAnyway · 09/09/2025 20:20

I don't think anyone can help you on here, as you are clearly not going to cut back or sacrifice anything. I use bars of soap because I have up to 10 showers a week - 15 in the summer, because I walk a lot, and am in the garden a lot. My main shower in the morning, (5-6 minutes) then a quick wash down/freshen up in the late afternoon (2 minutes.) I would go through shit loads of bodywash and so I use soap. it lasts much longer.

The amount you spend on packed lunches is ludicrous.

You wanted to vent, and I assume wanted advice? But it doesn't look like you will listen to anyone's suggestions. A bar of soap gives you the ick. WTAF? Confused

No-one can help you if you don't want to help yourself.

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Soap is often the same as hand wash.

You must be rubbed raw with all that washing 😂

CitrusNConfectionsHotel · 13/09/2025 11:52

I use Amazon Subscribe and Save for toiletries, hand wash, washing up liquid etc.

NormaNormal · 13/09/2025 11:56

@JJZ , soap and handwash aren't the same. The ingredients are different.
As hard as I try, I can’t get our weekly shop under £130
Look carefully at what you are buying - is everything necessary, is there a cheaper alternative?

GleisZwei · 13/09/2025 13:14

JJZ · 13/09/2025 11:48

How though? As hard as I try, I can’t get our weekly shop under £130, and there’s just three of us.

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If you don't have 130 to spend then you just don't spend it, choices have to be made - some of MN woulf frown about those choices, but that some of MN aren't always aware of their privilege.

GleisZwei · 13/09/2025 13:18

JJZ · 13/09/2025 11:51

Soap is often the same as hand wash.

You must be rubbed raw with all that washing 😂

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Soap and hand-wash aren't the same (just as it was explained a while back on another thread that soap and showergel aren't the same). We do use hand-wash at the sinks, but me and DH use soap mainly for washing - I do have a few shower gels that I'd accumulated and DS does prefer gel, but he is very good with not wasting it. The trick with soap is letting it dry properly between uses.

CharSiu · 13/09/2025 13:37

You need to look at the overall picture and your budget as a whole, every single penny looked at. Nooner can really assist unless you look at it as an overall picture.

Whilst I appreciate your child has autism there is no way I would be buying, fridge raiders for an adult. You’re buying berries out of season as well, buy them frozen.

Plus if used correctly and no charges buying on a credit card is the best way. We buy eveything on a credit card as long as you can pay it off in full. We have accrued points and also some have cash back, deals are not as good as they used to be. But we have done stuff like have a weeks car hire when on holiday.

Original poster
whatsausername · 13/09/2025 16:20

A wee update. We had a bit of a windfall this weekend and I’ve managed to pay off that said shop on the credit card. Beyond chuffed!

OP posts:
cumbriaisbest · 13/09/2025 16:22

GleisZwei · 13/09/2025 08:53

Well, you seem not to know how to make it taste decent.....lol.

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I can knock up a moussaka, a spaghetti, mince and tatties ( from the auld country), meat balls....on and on it goes my prowess with mince.

GleisZwei · 13/09/2025 16:33

cumbriaisbest · 13/09/2025 16:22

I can knock up a moussaka, a spaghetti, mince and tatties ( from the auld country), meat balls....on and on it goes my prowess with mince.

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My comment was in response to 'mince.....yuck'.

cumbriaisbest · 13/09/2025 16:38

GleisZwei · 13/09/2025 16:33

My comment was in response to 'mince.....yuck'.

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I know @GleisZwei I love to chat mince. Takes my mind of the facists.

GleisZwei · 13/09/2025 16:44

cumbriaisbest · 13/09/2025 16:38

I know @GleisZwei I love to chat mince. Takes my mind of the facists.

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TBH, mince isn't my favourite but I know how to cook it in ways my family like.

cumbriaisbest · 13/09/2025 16:52

I raise you roast veg and feta!

GleisZwei · 13/09/2025 16:54

cumbriaisbest · 13/09/2025 16:52

I raise you roast veg and feta!

I love roast veg. I'm so-so on feta. I do love our local farm cheeses though.

LBFseBrom · 13/09/2025 17:57

cumbriaisbest · 13/09/2025 16:52

I raise you roast veg and feta!

Perfect! Thank you, I will do that soon. I also have some cookable cheese in a packet which must need using, forgot what it's called.

HazelHedgehog · 13/09/2025 19:54

I feel your pain, I have just started a second job to try to get some more money in the bank.

Winter2020 · 13/09/2025 20:02

GleisZwei · 12/09/2025 17:10

There was no indication of sarcasm. HTH

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"Chips - maybe check behind your kids ears to see if he’s growing some potatoes"

...you think that was a serious suggestion?
It was a list of ludicrous suggestions clearly.