help me to afford to be on maternity leave please?

[frazzled74]

ive just started my maternity leave and whilst i get a reasonably good deal ,i will drop my income quite a lot over the next 9 months, I really need inspiration to live within a £75 per week food budget for family of 4 and any other money saving/making ideas? Ive drawn up a budget sheet and most of my money at the moment is going on food and impulse buys. I have put a little money away for the summer holidays christmas and birthdays and i will save on travel expenses.

We are a family of 4 and spend 50-60 a week on food. I meal plan and I don't buy anything ready made-make everything from scratch. We don't eat meat everyday and have a couple of cheap meals a week, something like jacket potatoes, home made pizza. I also bulk meals out with veg, or if I do a curry I will bulk it out with home made chapattis. I also make all bread in a breadmaker. This has saved more than the cost of just bread, I now don't impulse buy stuff when popping in shop for bread! Also I have started using some frozen veg- find if steamed it is perfectly nice. It goes mushy if boiled!

Shop in aldi, it's really good.

Quidco for internet shopping, changing utilities etc

Meal plan and stick to it, packed lunches for days out/work for your OH

Always take a drink and a small snack out with you.

Park in a side street away from town, mine only takes 5 mins to walk down but saves me £2. The baby weight will drop off.

Homebargains/savers/ poundshop for cleaning stuff, sainsburys smartprice bio washing powder (its only the UK that worries about bio and babys skin, do an extra rinse if your worried).

It all adds up.

thanks for the tips, dozens , which breadmaker do you have? I have been thinking of buying one for a while and now would be perfect as im at home every day so plenty of time to use it.and do you have a chapati recipe?

Sorry for delay, I have a panasonic breadmaker. It was pricey but worth every penny! Will link chapati recipe when I can get to computer-so easy to do!