The Mighty Frugaleers Meticulously March into March

[WreckTangled]

New thread. Sorry for lame title

We spend a lot on food too, mainly because of catering for two different sets of food intolerance, which in a family of three means doing three different meals every time.

We all eat all our meals at home every day including lunch, and totally grocery bill including all cleaning stuff and meals out for the month comes to about £900.

I've tried hard to reduce it, and weirdly the thing that helps is actually going to more expensive supermarkets (M&S and Waitrose) and buying stuff that people really want to eat. That way we have far less waste and everybody looks much cheerier for being well fed.

It hasn't reduced the bill much but it's definitely making everyone happier and it's definitely not more expensive, which is a good start.

Welcome Moo.

Welcome moo at your food bill! Easily done though I'm sure I could quite happily spend that if I had it.

Meal plan including snacks lunches and breakfast
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I looooove skinny jeans. In fact it's all I own. I have grey, black, dark navy, light navy. You get the picture...

Meadow Really interesting radio article today on 5 Live with a lady called Anna Williams, who has written a book called Breaking Mad, an Insiders Guide to Anxiety. She suffers herself from crippling anxiety. Might be worth a look?

Me too wreck my faves come from primark and also m&s. I really rate their 5 pocket super skinny jeggins. In all the colours. (I have Fluro pink, coral, purple, dark green, teal, red....)

Welcome all newbies, great that the threads keep growing.
Great high school news girlie and knitting. Scary how time flies isn't it?
moo that food bill can definitely be reduced by however much you want/need to. Planning is the key and after planning, then shopping from a list and sticking to it! There are lots of people with a range of incomes & different situations on here but the principles are the same.

I've had a spendy day, £65 on a pair of shoes and a pair of boots which were much needed. £67 on renewing our family railcard and paying for trin tickets to get us to the Airport and back this weekend. £45 on a cabin suitcase. We had one and are borrowing another and DS will take his school rucksack. Shouldn't need to take much as we are staying with a friend and her family who will provide towels, shower gel, shampoo etc. looking forward to it. Weather forecast for Cologne looks good so don't need to pack too many layers. Neither of the dc really remembers much about our last airport adventure as it was 7 or 8 years ago when they were 8 & 5 so they are excited too. Dh on the other hand hates flying and is dreading it!

Ok, so I had half an hour unexpectedly free and I've done my first ever meal plan, looking in the fridge and freezer and have shopped to fulfill. Shop also includes washing tablets and shampoo and it is coming in at almost exactly £100.
There are bound to be bits we run out of before it arrives on Tuesday. But it's a far better start than usual.

I'm aiming for all food (including inevitable top up shops and snack) to come in for max £150 week.

Thank you for the welcomes too!!!

Well done moo

My cauliflower is not nice. It's a horrible texture.

welcome Moo,
LSD here....£1 for tea/ biscuits with friends and £17 for haircut.
The stuff for the final bathroom came this morning. They sent the wrong wash hand basin and cupboard last week. Send wrong stuff again today. Very angry😡😡
It will be next week now. Hope they get it right.
Enjoy the lunch Meadow. Hope you feel well enough to go.

Welcome moo! There are only two of us and two guinea pigs and I feel that we spend quite a lot on food but then I do buy a lot of own brand/value range stuff and hardly waste anything so I always get stuck about how to reduce it. DH eats a lot as he does a labour-intensive job and is quite tall.

Need, thanks for that, will that be available as a podcast do you know? I often listen to Radio 4 podcasts. I like Ouch!, the disability one, and Inside Health. And the legal one is starting up again soon which I'll probs listen to as well.

North I feel excited for your holiday and I'm not even going . Although I hate flying & airports, worst part of any holilday for me. I find it so stressful, all the overwhelming sensory input (noises, weird lighting, horrible smells), the rudeness of other people, the exhaustion (worse because of having to deal with all the strange sensory input) and on top of all that I get travel sick too. DH actually quite likes flying and the airport part so that's useful for me.

Social worker has called me about 4 times and keeps leaving me messages asking me to call her back, even though she spoke to DH this morning who told her it wasn't really worth calling me as I wouldn't be able to speak to her on the phone anyway due to anxiety .

Oh you're joking, Trying? Can't believe they got it wrong again!

Glad your scan went well, Wreck.

Welcome Moo and sounds like you're on the right track anyway, Babyinarms.

Spends: £5 travel; £4.85 lunch out; £6.30 latte and 2 brownies; 38 p Co-op, after using a £1.50 voucher. Total: £ 16.53.

Good news wreck
trying that's so frustrating, fingers crossed they get it sorted quickly for you.
meadow I love flying but find the airport quite overwhelming in terms of how busy it is, the noise etc & I think dd will too but I'll try to carry on regardless so she doesn't pick that up from me. Holidays in France by ferry really have been a revelation for us, so calm in comparison & much less stressful for dh. As far as the dc are concerned, going out on the overnight ferry & sleeping in a cabin is one of the most exciting parts of the holiday (even now at 15 & 12)! The year we decided to save a bit of money & do a daytime outward crossing, they were gutted!

Glad about the scan w wreck.
Welcome newbies
£10 fabric, £4.37 Morrison's, £200 boiler deposit.

I spend £150 PW on food, give or take I like food and cooking.

Trying, time to let rip?

Thanks creme...am trying 😶.....meal planning and sticking to grocery list seems to help also ..... not buying u necessary clothes for kids also...difficult but trying to stick to.it !
We have ds confirmation this month....its a big outlay but have most of the money for the meal put aside ....started in Oct ! And I haven't gone overboard on clothes for the day. Got new clothes for ds but ds2 and dd are wearing clothes they got for Xmas and never wore ! I got a new dress for €60 , so not too bad 😶!
I love reading all ur tips here and because I'm starting to report here I'm spending less 😂

NSD although I need to buy a present for my friend's new baby so I might nip out and get that in a bit.

Is it shop well for less or whatever it's called tonight?

Yes snuggly 8pm. Haven't watched this series yet but will this evening.

Trying I would be fuming by this stage...

Welcome any newcomers, moo you can definitely make inroads on that grocery bill, maybe try taking it down gradually rather than a big jump?

£14 at the butchers
£6 at the local shop
£50 in sainsburys (had a 6 off voucher).

I did my skint first week of the month and there still seems to be just shy of 4 weeks to payday! May be where we are going wrong with the budget not allowing for 5 weeks in the month. How annoying. Plus we are nearly out of heating oil again. We're topping up monthly at the min at a cost of nearly 200 quid. Combination of cold house and crap older boiler - working out expensive and its not like the house ever feels 'warm'. It generally gets turned off about may / june til sept - this year I plan continue to save for fills during that time so I have a buffer next winter and I can pounce for a full fill if the price drops. Hate having oil heating but it's the norm where we are in NI. It's running as we speak and I sat shivering! Must get more materials to light the fire.

Hi all, today ended up much spendier than I intended

£8 in Pets at Home on a couple of bone type things for the dog who hasn't paid them any attention and poo bags (they were of offer 3 for 2)

£18 in Dun Elm, ended up getting dd a new duvet, tbf she has needed one for ages, the one she has was a smart price one 8 years ago also picked up some smelly candles which were 99p each.

£20 routine dentist check up, gingerly enquired how much it would cost to straighten my bottom set of teeth and nearly fainted when he said £2400!!! Will be sticking with my wonky teeth for a while longer then

Dd won best costume at WBD, I can't really take any credit as my very creative SIL made it (BFG outfit, complete with trumpet and a tiny Sophie!) Dds prize was to choose a book from the book fair so she was very pleased.

Have walked miles today, having a dog certainly is good for making you exercise. Here is a pic of the little fella

I want him Girlie, right now!!! You like having a dog don't you? Well done to your DD.

Meadow Yes, the programme is called afternoon edition and it's always available as a podcast.

Suddenly feels grateful for a new build house where energy costs are £100 pcm, and we are not energy efficient at all....

The dog is lovely, Girlie. I like JRs.

Need Thanks, I might listen to it when I go to bed tonight. I often listen to podcasts in bed when I can't sleep (and I find it hard to fall asleep most nights really especially without DH here).

Girlie He's a gorgeous little scruff!! Give him strokes from me . I am so jealous. I should put pics of DGuineaPigs up sometime, they are so silly. They argued for 10 minutes over the last piece of broccoli earlier .

Aw, he's lush, Girlie. Part of me would love a dog, but a slightly bigger part is still enjoying not having the responsibility for a pet, after having a cat for 16 years.

That's a very cute dog!
Also good point about allowing for 5 weeks in a month. Sounds sensible but I've spent all day budgeting, working out expenses and have done it all on 4 weeks /month 😖