To cut back on food to afford to take dd swimming and to soft play?

[Shortofcash]

All our money is allocated each month for bills, there is nothing spare. Dd is age 2 and we have always done free activities like go to the park or surestart activities. All her clothes are hand me downs from my older sisters daughters. I would live to be able to take her to swimming and soft play, I estimate it would cost me about £10 a week. We currently spend £80 a week in a mix of aldi and tesco (mostly aldi - just go to tesco for bits I can't get in aldi). If I shaved £10 a week off our food bill I could afford to take her swimming and soft play (although soon we will have a dd2 so will probably be only be able to afford swimming for both and no soft play :( ) would I be unreasonable to cut back on food so my dd can swim?

We use exactly you proposed philosophy OP.
I batch cook and cook from scratch in spite of working full time: we bulk buy and freeze to eat as well and cheaply as possible to allow money for trips, music lessons and so on. We live very simply day to day and then have spare for other things.

I don't use antibacterial wipes. I give my loo and sink a spray with antibacterial spray and use a cloth and hot water. Fairy in the bath/shower cubicle. Bleach down the loo too. I wash my loo last then put the cloth straight into the wash.

I clean my loo 2/3 times per week. It's all it needs. A wipe per day is costly I think and probably not needed.

I can't make the 3 for £10 go beyond 4/5 dinners really - we get the chops or loins, a mince and a chicken/breasts. Some weeks we get two lots of the £10 deal and I batch cool and freeze some.

I think meal planning and batch cooking is the answer too though. If you plan properly it saves popping to the shops in between your weekly shop.

the loo seat & outside gets cleaned with all purpose cleaner + j-cloths.
cloths are boil washed when I get a liad together.

Harverina I'm pretty sure the 15 meals was 15 portions - ie if there were 5 people in the family most people would say 3 meals!

If you are using micro rice for convenience, have you tried using cous cous? You can buy a huge pack for £1 that will do 5/6 meals easily. Simple to cook. 1 pot of cous cous, use the same measuring pot to add 2 of boiling water in a bowl. Stir in a stock cube, cover the bowl. Cooks in 5 mins.
Instead of buying animal biscuits, buy some animal cutters from ebay, and have DC help you make biscuits. More fun tan soft play!

To the person who asked what we eat as a family of 5 and spend about £200 a week, just normal stuff really. Fresh stuff mostly like chicken, tuna, baked potatoes, loads meals cooked in the slow cooker, house always has loads fruit, yoghurt, snack bars and crisps etc in. Freezer always has stuff like fish fingers, oven chips type things to. But the £200 ish also includes toilet paper, dishwasher tablets etc and all toiletries etc.

I'm agog however that one person says they only spend £20 a week on themselves - 7 days of meals and snacks for £20, seems impossible!

Yes I think £20pw of my shop is on fruit.

I buy a small chicken, poach it with any old veg I still have knocking around, season, bouquet garni from any garden herbs I can find and strip it for pies/sarnies during the week. I freeze the stock/use for sauce in pies or risotto. Saves £££. I also buy a gammon joint & roast it - use this in sarnies/pasta dishes - saves £££. I set aside a day for batch baking/freezing and buy cheap foil/plastic containers from Amazon. Also meal planning helps no end. We order online which I find saves on picking up those 'extras' that you don't really need...

I spend that too on fruit I think. We all have packed lunches so a banana and a satsuma each usually. Another piece after dinner. Blueberries on porridge for all of us. A crumble on Sundays. It costs loads. My 1 year old is the worst for this, he'd live on fruit if he could.

I'm addicted to the Flavor King plums just now, unfortunately they are £2.99 for 6 just now in Morrisons!

Soft play isn't necessary (or even desirable) IMO.

Swimming - I would perhaps leave it for now (go on an ad hoc basis if money permits) but once she's 3 ish find a group weekly lesson. This can work out decent value but you need to shop around as some lessons are much more expensive than others. Or, to do it for free when weather better, do you live near the sea?

Food - I don't think you overspend but the only suggestion I can add to what is above is to "dilute" meat. Eg if you have something like bolognese, I make a small/standard packet of mince do 10 portions by diluting with an additional can of tomatoes (and a can of baked beans if you don't mind them in it). I use this to justify buying "nicer" mince. Sometimes I pad out meals to make more portions by putting the meal on toast (note - unpopular with dh ).

Other than that, if anyone asks for birthday/Christmas suggestions, ask them for something you would have bought anyway, then you'll save the money you allocated for that item.

It is bloody hard to save money really.

Haverina and Fred.

No for me 15 meals as it's just me. Obviously if there is more than one adult then you'd have divide it by that many.

It was 7/8 meals when DP was having dinner at home all week. But still enough for a week DS would have a bit off of each of ours so no extra. Now he's not having dinner with us all week so I only use 1/2 of those.

Cut out the antiseptic wipes as you already buy antiseptic spray.

For the toilet either use kitchen towel or one of those blue jay cloths.After you've used it just wash it in the sink,really hot water and a little bit of washing powder.

Buy a large bag of rice rather than the microwaveable rice.We buy a 1kg bag of long grain rice for 40p from asda.

Your spending more than we do and there's 7 of us.But we do our shopping monthly.

If you have a market near you have a look at that for your fruit and veg they're usually a 1/4 of the price of the supermarkets and you get a lot more for your money as well.

Sorry couldnt rtft so may be repeated stuff but you can soften your washing water with soda crystals in your machine draw and use less powder that way too.

Also thats alot of fruit and those pouches are quite babyish for a 2 year old, you could save nearly a fiver there (if they're the 59p ones).
Also as others have said drink tap juice its free.
Congratulations on your pregnancy

Are the soda crystals ok for eczema?

Soda crystals are a strong cleaning product and are caustic so you need to be careful when using them. I sometimes pour a few down the plughole in the kitchen sink if it needs unblocking.

Saving on shopping - (2 adults and 1 teen and we spend about £65ish a week). We shop at Aldi mostly and top up at Morrisons, and DH got a sack of spuds from a farm shop for £8 in November and we've still got some left.

Fruit and veg - usually we get whatever the cheap deals are that week. Cheapest economy baked beans liven up no end with a dollop of brown sauce and a pinch of mixed herbs in, or some tabasco etc - whatever you've got really. Also we buy stuff like coffee when it's on special offer, and go mad on the BOGOF stuff, but only if it's something we use anyway.

Coleslaw is much nicer if you make it yourself, and the reduced veg section is handy for soft fruit for making pies/crumble and things like new potatoes that last for ages. I also stopped buying a daily newspaper over 10 years ago, and must have saved hundreds by now.

I don't use antibacterial wipes - just cloths with cleaning spray & hot water and I chuck them in the washing machine whenever I put a wash on.

I have an annual pass for soft play £60 for first dc £40 for siblings. Unlimited and no restrictions it's really worth it.

£80 is a lot , my grocery bills have recently gone up to £100 per week but that's for eight people.

£80 a week is a HELL of a lot to spend on food if you only have the one child.
We spend approximately £50 a week and there's 4 of us! We're never hungry and eat healthily.
That can be cut down for starters.
Haven't read all the thread, but saw you mentioned about eczema and then saw a post about fabric freshener (not sure who said it).
If anyone in your family's at all prone to eczema and you buy any kind of fabric softener, DITCH it.

What are your other monthly expenses - are there mobile contracts you can cut down on for instance?

soda crystals in with washing powder is fine. it will be rinsed away, just like the powder (which contains soda as well).

Agree yes soda crystals are fine in the wash.

And pp, it is £80 on her household shop, not on food alone! E.g. nappies and cleaning stuff.

Nancy, I make a huge vat of bolognase sauce for about 4 meals on a weekend. It's no real effort. I have a magimix, so no need to cut and chop. A magimix has been invaluable to me (I have 4 dcs also).

I slow cook the sauce in the oven, and that is what gives it it's taste. On a cold day, the oven being on keeps the room toasty also.

I don't use as slow cooker (though I have 2!). I find it is tastier slow cooked in the oven....