got my weekly shop with tesco vouchers yesterday, for £30, i dont think my pay is covering my outgoings

[waikikamookau]

but was quite proud that i made a list and crossed some out made another list until it came to the value of the vouchers i had.

i am seriously skint. but a month ago would probably have done my usual shop but put it on a credit card.
i tried to icnrase the credit on my card for christmas but they wouldnt allow it. good for them i spose.
am a very lapsed vegetarian but tbh cant think of any veggie meals. apart from lentil spaghetti
i used to make a mean black eye bean shepehrds pie. but dc didnt like it. so gave up. all my veggie recipes seem to involve a tin of tomatoes.

i have to feed a family of 5, 3 teens.

anyone any further tips on frugal living. really frugal living

Go and have a look on the "most frugal year yet" thread. Lots of ideas on there.

have you checked out approved foods. they have heavily discounted stuff, much of it short dated or out of date but still perfectly fine.

btw i have locked energy supplier, changed phone contract, have no home insurance even.
i coudl cancel dd's swimming lessons but dh wont let me as she relaly enjoys it

i did look at some webiste with close to dates but they didnt seem to be things that i would buy tbh e.g packet of wagon wheels

thanks.

What's this approved foods? Is it a website?

no home insurance is a REALLY BAD IDEA. If you own the place it is an even worse idea.

forget retailmas. You don't need sparkly tat. You do need insurance.

I'm being pedantic but why does your pay cover outgoings? What about your DH?

When you say pay - I hope you mean that your finances are pooled and you are both taking responsibility for the state of your current finances?

PLEASE insure your house. If you can barely afford to live how on earth would you replace yours and your children's stuff if you were burgled, or replace literally EVERYTHING if, god forfend, you had a fire?? Clothes, bedding, shoes, pots, pans, crockery, cutlery, electrical, white goods, beds.... Not to mention your kids personal possessions.

Thousands of people are burgled or lose everything in fires every single day in this country. It's just not worth the risk for the savings.

Plus if your house is mortgaged you could well be in breach of your agreement, which, worse case scenario, could result in the mortgage company recalling the loan.

If you rent you may be in breach of your tenancy agreement, again, that could lead to termination and subsequent eviction.

Both options far more costly than insurance.

no, you are right about insurance, we rent but i think it is probably in some sort of agreement. sigh. i was considering it when the storm was threatened.
and of course, dh pay too, our pay.

so who is a good insurer? i spose i need moneysupermareket.com

Are you claiming everything you are entitled to?

If you are in debt would it be worth getting advice from CAB to sort them out, you can get the interest frozen and arrange an appropriate repayment plan etc?

had trouble downloading spreadsheets.
but i do look at my bank every day and check in and outs and know my direct debts off by heart.
insurance will be yet another direct debit.

must go to CAB but i worry they will take our spend away so much.

is there an Aldi you can get to? You will save 25-30% on your groceries by shopping there instead of Tesco

i spose there is a Lidl

and i swap between tesco and asda and some in iceland. must do better though.

How much money per month are you spending on interest/servicing debt though??? You can't carry on borrowing beyond your means of repaying??

We're really happy to help, so are the people on MSE.

& for house insurance you can use eg gocompare

\link{http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/insurance/home-insurance\Martin Lewis} tells you the best order to check them

when you've found the price you're happiest with, see if \link{http://www.quidco.com/\Quidco} have any cashback for them. Quidco do their own search/cashback deals too but they're not necessarily as good. & look on Quidco any time you're going to buy anything

abosutlely, it is these dammed credit cards. that is our problem. i did do the spread sheet once and i didnt like what i saw. tbh

thanks folks. you are marvellous

If you're renting you'll only need contents insurance, the buildings insurance is your LL's responsibility.

Mine only costs £50 a year. Having had a burglary and a fire I can tell you it really is worth every penny!

Lidl is fine. You don't get the same range as the big stores but that's actually a good thing - you can do your shopping in half the time! All their produce & meat is great quality & very reasonable.

If you can do the bulk of your shopping there & top up from eg Asda it will make quite a difference

If you don't have an savings and you need your car(s) for work then you may find that your debt will be reduced as well as interest frozen and an affordable monthly repayment plan.

It sounds as though you are robbing Peter to pay Paul and that isn't sustainable...