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

That sounds like a good plan.

Dont be afraid to think a bit outside the box. If you don’t have potatoes there’s no reason you can’t have roast chicken with rice or pasta. If you don’t have parsnips or carrots, it’s fine to do it with peas and sweetcorn.

As the last person said, I would actually up the Tesco order to £50 to avoid going to the shops repeatedly. One big shop, that covers this week and we'll into next, alongside everything you have in your freezer makes more sense.

And as @Namechange822 said, think outside the box. We often have a roast chicken l, sometimes with potatoes, but I've served it with baked rice, pasta or cous cous too. Even grains like Bulgar wheat. The veg can change too, sometimes its traditional, but other times I might even serve it with salad. Roast chicken, cous cous and salad is lovely.

Other things you can try is, roast 3xtra veg and either make into soup or save for salads. Roasted sweet potato and peppers are great for salads for example. Serve with a bit of feta, salad leaves, beetroot and some walnuts.

I'm also a fan of buying strongly flavoured things, so you need to use less. A sprinkle of blue cheese is often enough, parmesan lasts ages in our house. Sun dried tomatoes are another item you only need a few of to give a real flavour burst. Plus you can use yhe oil after fir cooking or dressings

Anyway, I digress! Id sweiiusky consider not going to the physical shop at all, if you can. They are literally designed to make you spend more

Thank you this is all helping me. We went to the shops without the kids. Stuck to the list. Bought more milk as it was reduced so we will freeze that extra milk. Bought some crumpets for 22p reduced and all the bread was reduced. Decided to get two lots of cereal, milk, salad and bread as this is what runs out normally. Spent 34.24 rather than 28.65 but it will take us to ten ish days rather than 7. I'm going to empty my Tesco basket and add the things I run out of to that now.

Looking good for this week I think now. I got dd her treat for less than half price I normally pay. So just got to hide it for treat day now

Im in a similar position, it’s turned out there is more month than money in September due in part to some unexpected expenses but also due to the fact everything is so expensive anyway.
Last week I ate jacket potatoes about three times, with beans, with tinned tuna with cheese. Also sausage pasta - a packet of mattesons, a tomato sauce with some chilli flakes for heat and any pasta. Also made a crumble and had soup to start and made pancakes, which the kids loved with various toppings of left overs and tinned fruit.

Well done OP!

Second week has gone well. £5.76 left and nothing buy for this or next week. I might need milk but if get that I will double up and freeze half.

Dd had her treat day and spent less too.

I have started up a new online Tesco order. I have started a list of cupboard things I have used up and added these to the order. Then I can remove whatever regular things I buy to get back to £50.

Still so much in my freezers. I feel like I've made zero dent! Also using up random tins and lentils. Hopefully all my tins will be used up too. So maybe empty clean cupboards and freezer for Christmas?

Feeling good about it now I have done a week. It's tight but possible

Tin of peaches in a baking dish with the juice, box cake mix made as per package, on top. Rally good pud and very filling

drive as if you have an egg underneath the accelerator, take your foot of the accelerator as you leave the motorway, same approaching red light - so many people race to the line and brake - which many people do and its a sheer waste

making your own bread using the no knead method has stopped many top up shops along with freezing milk

I now just pop on a pizza tray and it works juts as well as the dutch oven
if you use the tin of yeast - keep in the fridge and it'll last 6 months

List what is in your freezer, and add/ remove items as you go.

I did this for years then managed to delete the whole thing in a moment of stress. Need to get it going again.

Great tips keep them coming.

We had curry with Dahl last night. Kids were horrified and didn't even try that. I should have used Dahl when they were toddlers. I'm going to do kema and see if I can gradually win them round by adding lentils to that. Or trying different lentils. I'm not giving up! My uni boy lives off Dahl. I put half a spoon of sugar in a massive vat of it and tinned potatoes. I thought the sugar just took the edge off as it's a lot of dried powder going in?

Did hairy bikers sausage casserole and rice tonight, which was lovely, so thank you for that suggestion.

Still not emptied a freezer shelf. I'd like to empty one, then we can put that weeks food on one shelf? It's getting enjoyable now rather than stressful. Breaking habits is painful at first. I'm not sure how much we have saved or will save, but it's likely to be a lot. Hopefully, my card will be paid off before I buy more freezer stuff. Need to work that out next

i used to make dhal when my dc were younger and they liked it cold, you could tempt them that way?

I posted a daal recipe near the top of this thread which everyone loves in this house. Really tasty. Keep going!

See that hairy bikers recipe, I often make it with just beans , cannelloni or butter beans and serve with a crispy leafy salad and maybe a garlic bread or crusty bread

marry me chicken is another one that can just be made with beans and is so tasty

Garlic bread is made to order , part baked rolls of which I always have in , make a bit of garlic butter , cut through and add the garlic butter and in the air fryer on bake for 10 mins

when it comes to the kids and lentils , I don’t let them in the kitchen when I’m cooking. If they don’t see them going in the dish , they tend to eat and not moan. Dh isn’t too fussed on Dahl as a meatless dish so I will buy some tikka chicken fillets ( which I will eat as a snack instead of a bag of crisp when hungry and no time ) and add one or two cut into his portion. Keeps him happy and he will happily eat that instead of ordering a take away

Really enjoying this thread @BlueJellycat i also love when i get into the using up what i have mindset and find it enjoyable. Alos using up my freezer at the moment and trying to pick some of the older random items especially for lunches.

I sometimes chop and fry a rasher (or two!) of bacon, then add the dahl to the pan and stir it through. You don't need much, just a bit for flavouring especially if it's smoked. Or sometimes I add root veg (a carrot/parsnip, or onion) or some chickpeas for texture. My kids both went through a phase of fussing about dahl and this helped us over the hurdle. I think it just looked bland or felt boring in the mouth compared to the alleged excitement of beige freezer food.

Daal - my kids aren't the biggest fan but are very happy if I serve mini garlic naan breads with it, which aren't very expensive (I think about £1 for 4). I use a Gousto recipe, not very authentic but kids will eat it.

Other savings - eat more veggie options/bulk meat dishes out with lentils (sounds grim but I genuinely like lentils!), eat seasonally. Also do you buy disposable things like kitchen towel, clingfilm and wipes? Stop that and use reusable products instead. Saves a lot of money long term. Products like washing up liquid can also be more cost effective if bought in bulk (5L container).

Go to pasta with minced meat daily, tinned fruit and you're done

Your variety will come from seasonal cheap fruit and veg

I'm still going!

The freezer still isn't empty. The aim now is to get it completely empty so I can clean it and start again.

Spent 44.72 last week

38.99 in Lidl today which would have been less if I had done click and collect from Tesco. I added some frozen fish as I have everything else for a fish pie. More milk than I needed and frozen some.

8.66 on sweets today at the corner shop but that was my fault as I got the boys a treat each and myself a chocolate bar. My first fir ages. Normally the treat day is under £4 just need petrol this week.

Thats amazing @BlueJellycat

Have you stuck to your budget? How much do you think you have saved?

I did the big delivery shop from Tesco as it stopped me overspending in store.

Then I changed jobs to go past an Aldi with free parking . I worked out that buying a pack of meat ; pork shoulder steaks, chicken thighs , mince for dinner, plus salad leaves for next days lunch and veg/tins/rice was £5-6 a day. So only £30 a week.
Aldi is much less tempting than Tesco
or Asda

I dont think my freezers will ever empty.

I won a £50 meat voucher there on a charity night. Its not the best butcher in town but I have plans on how to get the best value from it, only finding freezer space is a mare

Cos I keep filling the darn thing

Today I can home from work with 6 boxes of the BBQ ribs that are in the vac packs, you heat them, add the BBQ glaze? I got them FREE, cos they were being binned - sell by was yesterday - they are vac packed and refrigerated - nowt wrong with them

Then today cos I was waiting for mum at the hospital, I went into Asda for the free parking and a something to do - 6 x 500grs of lamb mince at £1 a pack - would have been rude to have said no. So the one drawer I had emptied - FULL

But this is how I keep our food bill low. I buy when it's at a price that Id be mad to pass by. I might have had 2 or three packs of lamb mince, but I would still add to it at bargain prices

Up till finding the mince, the weeks shopping has been milk, orange juice, a loaf of hovis, dog treats , spuds and fresh veg - about £20 . I also took advantage of the £5 packs of 18 Coke Zero on offer in the spar - saves paying full price for a few weeks ( last week it was Baked beans - Ive at least two years worth for a £12 outlay )

In June I worked out I spent £122.91 on petrol
537.15 on food over 19 trips to the shops.

September will be 128.39 on petrol.
245.41 on food and ten trips to the shops yes just about stuck to my £100 pw budget. Halved my food bill and trips. To be totally honest 44.67 of this month's food was on crap I didn't need like reduced candels and clothes for dd I bought on impulse looking in Asda for polo shirts for ds. Kicked myself over that but hey ho. Some will be Christmas presents.

IF there is enough food left in the freezer I can try harder in October. Food combinations might get a bit weird by the end of the month. I have used up lots of tins too.

On a plus note I paid off my credit card tonight. I'm definitely going to change my shopping habits once I have emptied my freezer. We are quite rural so I do like to have at least two weeks of food in normally in case of snow and a months worth of cupboard things. But I have no grip of what I do have. Same with things like shampoo and shower gel. I have used everything up. There's so much I have no clue what we have. I could be well prepaired and have a lot less. This is very eye opening.

Wow. That's fantastic @BlueJellycat . You must be so pleased to have paid off your cc. It is eye opening when you take notice of the habits you form.
Fingers crossed you can manage to keep it all at a manageable level.

Get into the habit of comparing the per ml/ kg/unit price of things. Not the item price.

Costco is convenient to buy in bulk, usually a better price if you're comparing identical products, but not always, but rarely the cheapest option if you're prepared to go for 'own brand' products.

They have stuff you can't get elsewhere, but it's not the place to go to save money.

good luck!

I hadn't noticed the date you started the thread. Sorry. You seem to be doing really well.

our local co op closed a while back & the Texaco garage used to be paired with it being the provider to the garages forecourt shop. Now Texaco is supplied by ASDA (nearest ASDA is about 10 miles) & my friends wife gets a LOT from there for 9p (whole ready meals as well as deli meats etc) He said the stew & lasagne were both really nice. I'm not sure if the actual ASDA stores mark down this low or not?

Due to health issues & being vegetarian my diet is limited & is 90% fresh veg & other very particular items, so it's expensive these days & I can't eat the usual things that save money 🫩.
its frustrating, but it's either that or even more medication 🤯

I hope October goes just as well for you!