Low spend March

[Orcubed]

Following on from February.

I’m trying not to spend outside of our existing direct debits, standing orders, birthdays etc, also trying to keep groceries etc low. I failed badly in February, hoping March will be better!

All newcomers welcome!

Marking my spot.

NSD today. Was planning an Aldi shop but we didn't need anything for today so will go tomorrow. Someone on here said they try to stretch each shop to 8 days so I'm going to try that

Joining new thread.
My husband's and BIL's birthday are in March, but I already have gifts bought from birthday savings pot. I would like to stay within budget on groceries though. In January and February it didn't work out. I keep exceeding it by 70 quid, and I know I can cut down.

OK I am ready to go!

Car is filled with diesel, cupboards/fridge/freezer full of food. Card is hidden and deleted off phone and laptop. One of the kids needs braces fitted at a cost of 4 grand (Ireland and yes I know it is shocking) so need to get on top of my outgoings.

March, let's be having ye!

Do you ladies do meal planning? I think maybe this could help me tackle my exceeded food costs.

Me too! I'm doing a spending cap of £70 pw on food this month as I need to pay off ds school trip by May. It's £350. So a hard no clothes buys or anything that isn't essential. It's also ds birthday this month! He also has a party to go to. I might list some bits on Vinted. Feeling really low re cost of living right now. It's utterly miserable. I had to pay £400 last month on gas and electric as the smart gas reading didn't go through in Jan. So already going into the month broke 😨.

I@xogossipgirlxo yes i always do a rough plan of main meals. Just 7 meals - there's only 2 of us so I usually have freezer meals as well

Check what I have in freezer before doing plan. Basically I look to include a
Pasta meal
Rice meal
Veggie meal
Fish meal
Something with chips
& 2 from freezer

So if I make bolognese for my pasta meal I'll have 2 portions to freeze. This will be used a couple of weeks later in a lasagne

I'm joining again! February ended up being a high spend month, unfortunately. We have a lot of birthdays in March, but I need to plan well and it should be okay.
I need to sit down with DH tomorrow (when we get paid) to plan our spending and saving.

I do meal plan. I plan to have leftovers so each meal I make should cover 2 dinners and lunches. I'm too busy and tired to cook a full meal every night. I do check what we have and plan to only buy fresh veggies and milk every week. I buy meat in bulk and freeze in smaller portions for dinners. I'm trying to incorporate more meat free meals, but always get a comment from DH. He can have a say when he cooks!

xogossipgirlxo, I meal plan and do an online shop once a week . Used to do numerous topup shops , mainly treat food but since Jan I have really curbed that habbit and saved £ 20-30 a week on our usually weekley budget for food . Saved loads more by not top up shopping as much .
Planning on having as many NSD or low spend days as possible this month ..NSD today

Checking in! Trying to keep on the straight and narrow this month, although I'll be travelling for work at the end (will be reimbursed later). And my parents may be visiting in April (they live abroad) so if that happens I'll hope to have some spare cash to treat them a bit and do some fun activities together during their trip.

We're quite boring at the moment with our meal plans - partly because ds is being quite fussy atm. I'm hoping to be more inspired once there's more fresh local food again. We are vegan and seem to eat approx the same rather stodgy things every week for dinner:

Pasta with veg and tofu
Curry/chilli and rice
Pasta with red or green pesto
Ratatouille lentil pasta
Burgers/sausages with salad and chips
Pizza
Leftovers night!

Joining here.

I spent Jan and feb determined to do low spend months however that didn't work out with a big car bill,some old debt finally paid off and expensive driving lessons as well as a couple
Of unexpected bills

I've done an inventory of what's in all cupboards fridge and freezer for inside the kitchen cupboard door so the household know what's in.

I've also sat down last night and went through our accounts to see where we are burning so much money and it's on random pop to shops in the week as well as a bigger shop on a weekend.

I'm shocked but we went over by a few hundred last month alone on just popping to pick up bits and bobs and then I find we throw out stuff that goes off

I was so annoyed with us all last night when I worked it out so I now have set the food budget for the month and we will NOT be going over it.

Little changes will save as well

I've bought a iced coffee maker for £35 and some ground coffee at £4 as I spend probably around £30 a week on cold coffee so that will save me a fortune.

I've also stopped the meal deals for quickness for the month.

A pack or wraps and loaf of bread plus fillings will be less than what we spend on two meal deals so that will help massively.

Life gets so busy so opting for quick and easy has become the norm but it's costing a fortune.

Me. Can I join. We've lost our income so on a mega budget.

I've discovered the joys of olio. The kids are having croissants for breakfast nearly every day!

Major meal planning here. Spent about £22 this week. Also done an inventory of all food.

This week's meals (in case anyone needs inspiration)

Mon: cheese bake with value pasta, value cheese and cooking bacon (made with free milk from olio)

Tues: trout (free from friend), mash, carrots & runner beans

Wed: omelettes, value cheese & left over cooking bacon

Thurs: sausage hash (800g root veg roasted & 3 sausages mashed up) fried egg in top & peas

Fri: frozen pizza x 2 70p each

Breakfasts & lunch - fruit/croissants/toast

Now I've written it down I think I'm lacking in veg ... But trying.

I need to join too! We’ve just done a big move to be able to help out elderly parents (my mum has just been diagnosed with ALS) so feeling the pinch and need to watch what we spend.

Joining in for march!

Inspired by @Pseudonamed I did a big aldi stock up for the coming month today, just non perishables but I know we will use but that are far cheaper at Aldi than our usual ocado eg cereal, crisps etc. Then we can just use ocado weekly for fresh stuff, in theory anyway!

Nothing particularly spendy planned for march as far as I know. We need to go to town one weekend to spend book day vouchers we always make a bit of a day of it.

Mother's day sorted already for MIL I need to get something for my own mum.

Who was asking about meal planning lunches? I don't specifically meal plan lunch but I'm at home most days so usually have leftovers from the previous night, or make a pot of soup to last a few days, or a sort of ploughmans lunch of cheese crackers, cold meat, picked onions etc whatever in the fridge really. Eggs feature quite alot on my lunches too, a fritatta lasts a couple of days, poached egg on toast cheap and cheerful. Pancakes are cheap and feel like a treat something a bit different.

I want to join please. This month a garden project will cost us £4000 ish, so we are on tight budget for everything else.😪

Thanks for the new thread @Orcubed

Overall I spent £100 less in Feb than I did in Jan. That doesn't feel a massive improvement considering it is a much shorter month. So I could have easily spent that £100 over the next few days.

Thanks for all the meal planning info.

I need to get into that in a positive way. Constantly cooking and planning can feel so relentless so I need to come up with some easy and nutritious ideas.

I'm not working at the moment- am job hunting with a vengeance so will hopefully get something soon. But I really need to make a significant difference to outgoings in the time being.

Vinted has not been a second income source in any way! Made £3 last month despite best efforts!

This is my weak spot too- treats from Tesco Express. Now I have a drawer (upstairs, so I'm not too tempted) where I keep kinder bueno etc. and if I want something, I know it's there. I think we spent around 50 quid last month on sweets and chocolates itself. It would be much cheaper to just buy them in Lidl or wherever.

@grannycake I've done my first meal plan until Sunday. I think week by week will be best approach for me, I would probably run out of ideas to plan 2 weeks ahead like I intended to. It's two of us at home too (+baby on the way). From what I see I need to buy gluten free spaghetti for Saturday, because husband cooks pasta, but except this I have everything. Today we're having beef stew.

@xogossipgirlxo I love stew especially with dumplings

I also meal plan but usually by friday i have just given up and bought takeout but its gone so expensive so i bought in some fillet steaks for our friday meal instead of takeaway so while the steak was expensive enough its still saving me a fortune not getting take away and it is somethig to look forward to.

Stew and shepards pie or bolognese are cheap staples in my house.

Please can I join? Every month I have a set budget for every category and we are consistently overspending on food, clothes, random shite for the kids, and weekend/fun spends. So overall I’m going over budget each month by about £400. Fortunately this isn’t causing us to go into debt but it’s meaning that we aren’t saving as much as we want and we may also struggle for spending money on holiday which I really don’t want!

doing a meal plan today and stock taking the cupboards. Going to have a month of using up stuff!

Can I join? Just trying to be a bit more mindful as I'm definitely an emotional spender... struggling with 3+ years of secondary fertility and emotions are often all over the place.

We do meal plan, don't have a food budget as such but I do take notice of what we spend and try to stick to my list as much as possible.

Main pinch points are: coffee shops and eating out, saying yes to DD whenever she asks for something just because, takeaways!

Ooh, hello again, thanks for the new thread.

I kept our groceries bill to about £290 last month, so aiming to keep it low again this month, around £300. Will be overpaying energy bill, to clear the winter backlog some more before government support is withdrawn.

I want to make room in my budgets this month for a trip north to see DS, and to spend some money on eating out while there. And I'm getting my hair cut and coloured, and will have to replace some skincare and make-up items. So I am loosening the reins a bit this month, but carefully.

I vary on my meal planning. I have a few weeks where I’m hot on it and then there are the weeks where I chuck 4/5 different meats into my online shopping basket and then make it up as we go along. And then there’s the times (like today) where I plan something and everyone moans about it so I give in and buy some pizzas instead! Lunches are boring here, cheese or ham sandwiches for those out of the house and the same or leftovers, soup or beans/eggs/avocado on toast for those at home. Breakfast we always have porridge, weetabix, muesli and one other eg Cheerios or toast. Or eggs but trying to make it so everyone has eggs at the same time to cut down on cooking times.

Ive spent already this month 🤦🏻‍♀️
£26.31 groceries
£13.99 on a cutlery set for the younger kids who have outgrown the toddler cutlery but find our big cutlery difficult to manage. So this is proper cutlery but smaller than ours. Hope the 7 year old finally starts using a knife 🙄

It is worth trial running own brand items to see if you are able to swap. I have swapped quite a few items to own brand but still get certain items branded, as we prefer it. Some of the treaty bits like sweets, ice creams ,biscuits and chocolate bars have gone down well and Tesco baked beans are pretty nice.
I have had a low spend day , £14 , coffee at the cafe with a friend and a few bits in the sale in the gift shop. Beef stew in the slow cooker for dinner

@Pseudonamed takeaways are really expensive now aren’t they? We’ve used the same Indian for years and our regular order used to be c£25, last time we got one the same order minus a rice was £48. It just didn’t feel worth it.

@Decafflatteplease our Aldi shop always skews the numbers a bit for similar reasons as I tend to stock up on the things that I know are cheaper there (mostly cereal, junk food, corner yoghurts and dishwasher tablets and washing powder for us).