Please tell me I can survive on £80

[catlady39]

I currently have £80 left in my purse, and to pay all my bills, I cannot take any money out until 5th July.

There's me, 2 teenagers, a toddler and 4 cats. I spend about £20 a week on petrol. I have two weeks cat food in the house. We have frozen fruit and veg in the freezer, some pasta and rice in the cupboard - then mostly just stock herbs/sauces etc. So the cupboards aren't empty, but nothing substantial.

I've had a clearout and been selling things to make some odds bits of cash but nothing major.

I recently lost my job, had court/divorce fees, and am just temping. I'm setting up a business, which is taking time but will be a good wage by October. Just need to get through these few months. Please help.

hi OP have been following your thread - well done for getting through so far! just thought Id mention the following cashback apps where you buy the item and take a picture of the receipt - checkoutsmart, clicksnap, greenjinn and shopmium, which often have freebies as well as money off items. (The cash gets sent back to your account - shopmium gets sent back individually per item, checkoutsmart has a £5 min before payout but its easy to reach, cliksnap goes to your quidco account if you have one and greenjinn minimum payout is £1.50). Not going to change your situation dramatically but a few freebies might help stretch the budget.

Shopmium I can do a refer a friend link where I think you get an extra jar of chocolate spread on top of other offers - PM me if you want it

Also - have you any boots points?

Hope to help

PAYDAY!!!!

I am heading to Asda to buy fruit and pop. The two things that have really killed me!!

We all survived. Thank you everyone for your support. Also keeping a few of the recipes for future use 😁

Fab news catlady!

Fantastic 😁 hope you enjoy the treats

Just wondering- is it worth replacing the Iceland voucher if you can afford it so you have the same fallback if stuck in the future?

Glad to see that it worked out. Are you putting a few things away, food or money, in case of future hiccups?

@catlady39
Hows it going?
Agree with others Re: building up a buffer

Fabulous help and advice here on this thread!
I’m in a similar situation myself this month but luckily I buy lots of yellow sticker meat and fish to freeze and also keep plenty of frozen fruit, veg, and a variety of yellow sticker breads, pastries ect in the freezer. I also make sure my cupboards are reasonably full with chopped tomatoes, beans, rice, pastas, falafel mix ect, I would so recommend doing this for times of future potential struggles! I panic if the food in the house won’t cover us for at least 2 weeks!
(I’ve felt ridiculous about this in the past but as a single parent of 2 Growing DS one being a teenager too without any family to turn to I am now am very grateful for it!)

I’ve not always been the most sensible with finance but I’ve worked so hard last year and this year to become debt free and the end is in sight. I finished my largest repayment last month and another 2 (one large and one smaller at the end of this month!) Then I have a few smaller ones to continue with but all will be gone by February!
You did an absolutely amazing job to make the money last you the 3 weeks @catlady39. I’m most interested in how you fed your cats though. We have 4 cats also and they will be taking up the bulk of our food shop budget this month with having all the frozen and cupboard bits in already.
@Redkatagain great idea about the voucher, I think aswel as buying reduced and freezing I will buy a food shop voucher and stash it away somewhere once I’m in a better position again.
@TheInvestigator your advice and recipes are fantastic!

Go and get the reduced food from supermarkets. I just watched a video actually of how to feed your family on £20 a week it was on this morning on YouTube.

Penne 29p always keep at least 4-5 in your cupboards
Passata is 32p again 5 in cupboard
Mixed herb pot 50p
Rice pudding 22p each 5-10
Big bag of onions at worse frozen ones £1.07 for the freezer 2 bags in for onion soup very easy with stock cubes
Bread in freezer or part baked Baguette usually last a month or so
Eggs so many possibilities big tray £1.49
So you could make omlettes
Pancakes
Cakes
Scrambled eggs
Egg soldiers
Fried eggs
Boiled eggs

Big bag of cheese £2.59
Flour
Mince mince mince frozen mince is a freezer must have for meals like lasange spaghetti Bolognese cottage pie keema curry chilli
Keep sauces stocked in the cupboard aswell

Not just food try stock up on toilet rolls when on offer
Sanitary products
Shampoos conditioners
Washing powders