Trying to only spend £100 a week on food and petrol and use up what we have in the freezer

[BlueJellycat]

Luckily I'm not totally broke. But I need to pay off some things I put on the credit card. I'm not a massive overspend generally but I want to try to be strict for as long as I can and in turn pay my card off.

I'm going to spend £100 a week max food and petrol and see what I can use up.

I filled the car up today and bought the milk in the garage. If I stay away from the shops/ supermarket or only take cash to the supermarket I think I could manage for a few weeks and use up my freezer food. Any other ideas? I wish I could walk to the corner shop with £5 everyday but I'm very rural. Shop is two mile round trip and expensive.

Like I say it's not dire times. I just need a reset really. At some point I need to check my freezer and meal plan

Meal planning? When I became disabled and lost my job I had no choice but to tighten my. The biggest savings came from meal planning. I plan every meal, have milk, fruit, vegetables and bread in the freezer and tinned bean, fruit rice, pasta in the cupboard.
I also do an online shop every 10 days now and that saved me money. If its a really tight month I'll push that to 11 days and have a beans/egg on toast day. Batch cooking, bulk buying, and buying cheaper brands also helped as well as asking myself do you need two slices of bread or a pudding etc and stopping things that just became habits rather than need. (Obviously that's a needs must rather than a choice but could do it short term).

It's a good plan. Depends on how many people you are feeding and how much is in your freezer though. I like to run our big freezer down 1-2 a year, and not only does it cut the grocery spends right down for a month or so, it also reduces food waste. And sometimes I even defrost it too!

Depending on how big your freezer is, maybe it's cheaper to freeze some supermarket milk instead of buying it at the garage? So do an inventory and plan your meals for the next week and only buy what you absolutely need to. And if you can shop in one trip and avoid going back (so buy enough milk for the week and freeze if necessary) you should avoid top up shops and additional spending. I love that sort of challenge - substituting what I have on hand and generally being creative. You can do it!

We did use to freeze milk so that's a goid idea. I will do that again. Also like the idea of shopping every ten days rather than 7.

Cooking for 2 adults, two tweets one tween.

Tonight I'm cooking three 500g Packs or reduced mince at 3.60 each. Bought bag of potatoes for 1.80 I think.

Making sheppards pie with shriveled up carrots in fridge. Hoping to also make spaghetti and a lasagna with the rest of the mince.

Bought 4 apples.

£43.80 with the milk. But the car was half full and it's full up now. A full tank would normally last me two weeks but I have two longer journeys coming up. I guess that will even out over a few weeks. My cupboards are quite bare as I threw out lots of out of date tins two months ago so hopefully this will stop waste too if run it all down.

Freezer is upright. About 6 foot high half full of god knows what!

£46.20 then until next Wednesday which should be do able

Do they deliver? Could you ask a friend to do a shop, maybe offer them petrol money? If you are not there, you will not be tempted.

Also rural and have chucked a ton of food out over the year due to anxiety levels, shoddy fruit and veg, dodgy fridge etc. Quite reliant on freezer. All supermarkets who deliver to us send us the skankiest of fresh veg and I have just given up.

Pak choi lasts a good 7 days. Butternut squash will sit without ruining for two weeks. Courgettes easily last a week in a good fridge. Frozen cubed swede and sweet potato can be done in an air fryer or oven any time. Also diced onions. Won't freeze well if you get full onions and DIY. Frozen mushrooms a bit gross but you defrost them on kitchen towel to soak up a lot of the moisture. You can get vacu pack packets of large corn the same as corn on the cob and they last months. My other half heats frittata from lidl for £3 for a massive one and they last months. He has them with coleslaw and potato salad that generally lasts a week. Frozen stir fry veg. Frozen almost anything veg these days. Fresh baby corn will last a good 5-7 days.

Do you have a farm shop? Do they do onions on chains? Because they haven't had the top bit cut off, it's intertwined, they last MONTHS! But our local is hit and miss and last time they were all already squishy. Bought some at xmas last year and was still using in Feb.

Cheap as chips 30p cans of lidl rice pudding can be made to feel like a real treat if you heat and chuck in a bunch of saltanas, squeeze in some honey and sprinkle with demerara. £1 supermarket pate isn't all that gross, in a sandwich you can pimp up with thinly sliced pickled gherkin and maybe a slither of chutney if you are feeling fancy.

Long life milk in as a backup. If you are having it in hot drinks only, the taste difference is barely noticeable and it is still cheaper than a petrol station.

Unsmoked smallish gammon in a slow cooker on high for four hours, chuck in already boiled water and peppercorns. Eat with baked beans, coleslaw etc, or onions and pickles. Or buy frozen mash. To make pre made mash taste less pants you leave out to defrost then put in the oven with a knob of butter for 20 minutes and stir once or twice.

Waffles and suchlike can be eaten with almost anything but they are not cheap these days.

Best frozen chips we have found, been through loads, very thick cut M&S bag for around £2.50-3.00. Banging quality compared to the expensive competition. Preheat air fryer for three minutes and pop in a drizzle of rapeseed oil.

If you fancy a booze but have guilt, Lidl do £2 big bottles of cider - i don't like fizzy cider. i discovered if you open it and leave it a week to go flat, it's alright with some ice.

Pizza bases. Cheap passata. Squeeze in generous inches of tomato purée to thicken and luxuriate it up.

I am of brain power, will pop back if anything else occurs.

Oh and the best and most successful reasonable treat re dessert I have found: strawberry jelly with drained, old fashioned tins of fruit cocktail - keeps a nice little crunch.

Also, £1 pineapples - the ones with no head on - they are very filling imo and last at least ten days. Sainsbury's do them.

I’d dive into the freezer first amd plan around what you already have.

also put what you have into AI and it will come up with meal suggestions.

leftover veg is great in soups or omelettes. Part baked rolls are good for fresh bread.
also throwing in jacket potatoes when the oven is on for lunches or mash the next day.

This is totally doable.

You can pad out mince with green lentils, I use 2 tins per 500g mince and the DC will happily eat it. Similarly with other meat, pad it out with beans (if your DC are picky, haricot are the best bet).

I prefer online as I find it easier to stick to a budget as I can see the total with every item I put in, however I am also trying to save money so I’ve just switched her to Aldi and it is a lot cheaper, I find writing a list of dinners before I go works best

Deffo keep a few longlife milks in, 69p each (we also live rurally, and it saves unnecessary journeys & spending).

How OOD were the tins?? We eat stuff (veg / toms / beans etc) waaay past as they are only best before dates.

As for mince- based dishes, the other day I only used 150g to make an 8 portion / massive tray cottage pie. I start off with frying lots of chopped onions, celery, garlic and seasoning and both grated and chopped carrots. Then I add the mince and fry, then lots of red lentils, pearl barley +/- yellow split peas (all that I have pre-soaked, preferably overnight). I'll add peas or sweetcorn, or even leftover Peppers etc then either marmite or Nutritional Yeast and obvs gravy before topping with mash - plus this time, the mash all came out of the freezer as previous leftovers. You can also soak & use oats as well. Or use grated courgettes. You would not guess how little mince was in there - plus you have extra fibre and protein and it's so much cheaper.

Farmfoods have red lentils for 99p a kilo bag. Your £50 monthly spend in lidl gives you a free 'vegetable' which can be a 7.5kg bag of potatoes 🥔 😋

I am also trying to do this to empty the cupboard and freezer and also to stick some more towards my savings.

@declutteringmymind do you have to list any spices that you have as well when using AI?

Thank you, so many good ideas. The kids find red lentils in spaghetti a bit too grainy. Is tinned or green better? My eldest who is at uni makes a mean dalh. I need him to show me how as that really fills out a currey as a side ( or main - dh and kids would need to come around to that idea). I have a kilo of red dried lentils in the cupboard.

I had no idea the free Lidl veg could be a sack of spuds! Great idea!

Normally I do once a week shopping online with Tesco but min spend is £50. I tend to add own brand cola etc just making up to £50.

Once a week just before closing at Waitrose after dd club where I get things reduced but not much. Normally spend £15-£20 in there. Nothing mega cheap but its Waitrose quality at Lidl prices. Yesterday my my son found some right bargains like the mince. I normally buy 25% fat mince then drain it but I think the (reduced £6 to £3.60) 12% fat one works out better value as there's less waste.

Then normally spend £80-£100 in Lidl at the weekend.

Once every two weeks I pop into Sainsbury's when I top the car up. I spend between £15-£60 on food and have a old 7 seater car so petrol is £70 for around 375 miles - ouch! That lasts two weeks.

Costco Once every few months for all my cleaning stuff and such Normally around £200. I get the costco own brand washing liquid / power and fabric conditioner.

It doesnt sound much as we are normally 6 if ds isnt at uni but writing it down its a lot.

I need to write down what I have. Good idea too about AI.

I know I have about six bags of chicken bones left over from roasts in the freezer. So lots of soups to make. I add noodles and Gozo? Dumplings which I did see in the freezer.

I noticed my potatoes had also gone off. We don't waste much but it's still not great. I should have mashed and frozen them. Maybe if this reset goes well I can get a better idea of what's in the freezer going forward after I run it down.

I have a wok full of bolognese sauce now so that will do spaghetti for tomorrow and a lasagna for the freezer.

I find if you pre-soak the red lentils and you have a wet sauce cooked for a while that the red lentils just disintegrate / disappear.

Ditto Lidl for the free 'snacktastic' item for the £100 spend - choose the 36 pack bag of crisps!

Make sure you nake good use of your nectar app when in sainsburys.

Also we have all apos on both my & OH phones & sort of play them off against each other, depending on which has the best deals.

Plus, if either of your workplaces have an employee discount/ benefit scheme, you can buy all your shopping e-vouchers at discount 👍

If you have a zero waste shop in your town do see what they offer, ours is for anybody not just low income and food is free, mostly bread and fresh produce.

I did drive past ours today and thought about stopping for bread but stupidly didnt. They had around 2000 eggs to give away the last time I went. I did think of there whilst cooking dinner tonight. I'm going to pop in on Friday whilst I'm near. They are great for veg and bread.

@KievLoverTwo are the M&S chips the Home Fries? I get those, really good quality and gorgeous air fried.

Better still, you pad them out with the cheaper dried red lentils which are about £2 for 500gr in supermarkets, unless the have them in bigger packs in their world food aisle . I see your kids find them grainy, you just need to cook longer. I use a PC usually but also have good results using my cast iron casserole on the hob, set at a very low simmer for an hour or more - you can always use a potato masher to make sure they really dissapear

Check out community fridges and the Olio app. I have a friend who collects from Tesco for Olio - her food budget is around £20 a week for one

Another app, which is better the closer you live to civilisation is TooGoodTooGo. - check out what the supermarkets are offering . You do pay, but you get a bag of their end of day reductions for around a fiver. There's a FB page where people post their hauls - M&S service stations appear to give great value bags

Adjust your driving. I put £20 of diesel in every 10/14 days , gets me 300+ miles. If I know I need to stretch it, I keep the foot off the pedal and keep the revs low and the turbo silent. Get any excess weight out of the car as well, dont drive with the windows down and go easy on the air con. I always melt on getting in, I go full on for a few mins then turn it right down

I always charge phone and watch in the car as well :)

Lidl also do the too good to waste boxes , they are £2.50 here, I think £1.50 in England. Worth a look at, they do vary. My store had some this week - massive bargain as each one had at least 2 avocados and a mango as well as carrots, tomatoes mushrooms and courgettes

Potatoes gone off? Less they are running they haven't lol. Green and sprouting roots are cut off and the spuds are used in this house

I pad all stews out with tins of beans - cannelloni, butter, black eyed - boosts the protein and fibre. I also now pick up bags of frozen casserole veg - saves time and money

Well done on thinking about cutting back for a while to cut the debt. Life is a lot less stressful without debt. I personally am debt adverse because of my life experiences , it scares me to have debt. Im not having a pop, just saying that I personally would rather eat dust and drink water then to have a credit card bill again so its wonderful seeing someone posting BEFORE they get in trouble

I try not to use the credit card. But a few things came up over summer I wanted the extra protection on. Then days out with the kids ( which generally sensible I pack lunch, we get memberships, free splash parks etc) then i didn't pay off the things I wanted the extra delivery protection on. Eldest went to uni so bought him some bits. Doesn't take much to add up

If I could do this for a few months it would be amazing. I do need to retrain my spending habits. I have monzo pots for haircuts, mot etc so I could pay off the card by dipping into my pots as a few have just accumulated. But ideally I need to reset. Learn my lesson I think. Feel the pain and all that. I have just loaded up my freezer thoughtlessly over summer. I'm not being money smart at all and falling into bad habits. I know it all gets eaten eventually and that is how I have justified it. I need a clear deck now

A little thing but bendy carrots can be revived by soaking in water for a few hours.

We too have a similar freezer situation which I am determined to conquer by Christmas. I used to make lentil soup to use up bendy carrots, which then went in the freezer, so made a different problem as it didn't get used, but I don't need to do that any more.

Do you also have anything you can sell to help with the CC bill?

Definitely second Chaptgpt for menu planning. It’ll also suggest recipes based on a photo from what you have left in your cupboard/fridge... I usually set a prompt such as ‘devise a protein rich dinner menu plan for 7 days for 2 adults which includes fresh fruit and vegetables, no shellfish shopping at Ocado with a budget of £x’

Ocado deliveries have the freshest produce with the longest dates IME. They are picked by robots from a warehouse so no humans trying to give you the first item on the shelf. They price match with Tesco and proactively send you a voucher for the difference if your shop was more expensive. But obviously they are more expensive than a trip to Aldi/Lidl.

This dhal is very tasty (I use a chicken stock cube instead of water to pimp it up) and use all of the coconut cream from the tin. I make simple naans to go with it (non faffy ones with yoghurt, flour etc rather than using yeast)

Dhal

Lentils 120g
Curry powder 1tsp
Tumeric 1tsp
Chilli powder 1tsp
Onion red 1/2 diced
Garlic 2 cloves sliced
Curry leaves about 8 dried
1 Red chilli cut
Dijon mustard 1 tsp
Salt 1/2 tsp
Coconut milk 1 tin
Water as required

Rinse the lentils in cold water

Take cream off coconut milk and leave to one side

Put everything in saucepan with the rest of coconut milk and about 200ml of cold water

Bring to the boil and boil for about 15 mins or until it’s the right consistency

Add a heaped dessert spoon of the coconut cream and heat for 1 min or so

Taste and add more salt and coconut if required

Check that your tyres are set to the correct pressure in your car and remove any roof bars/top boxes/bike racks to improve fuel efficiency.

Instead of spending £5 a day work out what you need for up to for the week with the same amount.

£200 month for cleaning stuff is very expensive. The cleaning products in Aldi are great and it’s under £1 for most things, their washing up liquid is about 60p a bottle and works as good as Fairy. B&M and Home Bargains has got to be cheaper than a Costco run.

I spend about 130 week one of four in the supermarket ensuring I get all the store bits I need, pasta, tins, frozen stuff, washing powder, jams, butter, cheese and some meat. I then budget 40 per week for the next three weeks shopping bring my bill to around 250 for 4 weeks this works perfectly and give me the money weekly to buy bread, some meat, fruit veg and milk.

For me it's not running out of things that brings the bill down so I never go into a shop really. I always have toothpaste, loo rolls, washing powder etc in the cupboard so that really helps s I always buy more than I need in the first shop of the month

I also try and get 8 days out of 7 days shopping.

Do a farm foods trip once per month, great for some bits like lunch box bits far cheaper for cleaning stuff.

I budget 50 per week in petrol and withdraw this in cash. Any I have left over which isn't often, I treat the kids to something like bits from the bakery or some sweets.

I bake a lot too that saves loads as well.

There is me 3 teens and a 9 year old

Are you sure that is possible? There is no way I could do that, but I get through £35 petrol just to go to work each week, and our freezer consists of frozen peas, oven chips and ice cream.
It's definitely worth trying, but dont get too disheartened if you go over your target, as I think it's pretty tight.

one time i took three freezer meals (left overs) out of the freezer and we all had one
i was very proud - but it was unusual that i actually had three meals at the same time.
i need to make a list of exactly what is in my freezer, mainly blackberries i feel
op i would work out your weekly petrol use and the rest for shopping.