Tightening our belts with cheap toilet paper

[zippitippitoes]

We've done a supermarket shop for the week and bought quite a few "value" products

frozen prawns
frozen cod fillets
chopped tomatoes
diet cola
2 chickens for £4.00
mature cheddar
Tesco tea tree shampoo

but got stuck on some. Are there some things which just aren't any good when they are really cheap.

We usually shop in Tesco's, but we didn't try the Value range in any of these

Andrex toilet rolls
Kellogs cornflakes
Colgate Tartare Toothpaste
Eggs
Shampoo
Can't Believe It's Not Butter

And is Asda actually cheaper than Tesco?

I bought some toddler clothes there yesterday which were great value (including a suede effect jacket with toggles which I really liked for £12.00)but never buy weekly shopping there, should we?

Asda is starting to deliver in our area soon and will be £1.99 for delivery...

I get a Costco membership thru my employer, and we visit a couple of times a year for staples in bulk. The Kirkland washing powder is excellent! And £8 for a HUGE drum that lasts us for ages.

Also get a big canister of coffee for a tenner that lasts half a year.

And some other stuff in bulk that I know we'll use.

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Ever since we saw that 'Dispatches' we refuse to buy cheap meat. Would rather go w/o.

quick question.How much is delivery from sainsburys etc?I manage to feed 3 of us plus cats mostly organic and free range for #45 weekly That includes everything and can be done cheaper too if I am really strict.Don't have meat every night and eat lots of pasta and rice etc.Have one beans on toast night per week and an occasional take away Smart price etc is ok for some things but would never eat cheap meat or chicken

Asda Smart price is god value, I use it for Tomato soup 23p a can, baked beans 11p, eggs have to be free range but I do use their fabric conditioner (although I ran outrecently and had to buy bold and really noticed the difference!) I also use ASDA sp washing powder - works great on darks where stains are not noticable, not so good on whites tough.

I buy some sp fruit, oranges/apples particularly if I am juicing them too

I have/had a makro card but found it wasn't really cheaper, but I possibly didn't look as much at the food/groceries/household cleaners etc

Is Costco definitely cheaper? There is one about half hour drive away

and i could get a membership, i've just downloaded the form

Just to interject here, ALDI and LIDL are very different for quality. Aldi I would def. be sniffy about the quality of most their stuff. Lidl is quite respectable by comparison.

Costco isn't cheaper for some things. BUT it is for some. Just go in there keeping in mind what things cost normally in the supermarket and you'll be able to spot the bargains.

Also good if you're having an event - a party, for example - or guests to stay for a bit.

I see the nearest cash and carry is booker, and there are also DCS Europe and Bestway

no idea what any of them are like

You have to pay to join Costco £20.00

I might visit booker as it's quite near and i think free

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I get my membership for free, but yeah, there's usually a charge.

As for storage, well, clutter free is the only way to be - more room for essentials then.

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true cod

and our house is already a warehouse/building site

as i have all my stock in it!!

and about a million books
stuff that used to belong to my mum

dd's mountains of clothes

and virually no cupboards

We have one hall cupboard for storage. This is a flat so we don't have any outdoor storage available. I'm ruthless when it comes to clutter. We just don't have it. We had to keep all DD's old baby stuff for this child we expect in December to use, but as this child grows - it's our last - the things it no longer needs are immediately going to charity.

I don't buy books anymore - I get all mine from the library.

This is a pokey flat, but I've found that if I'm ruthless about keeping the clutter down we can fit all we need in here.

We also have a lot of wall shelving and shelves in the deep windows. IKEA makes a floor to ceiling coat hanger that's brilliant and only about £20.

es - what was despaches all about?

dh keeps tellin me what's in the processed meat when I buy it - so now stopped buying it all - we're much healthier as a result, and i'm sure that's what's helped us to concieve this bean so quickly.

(on processed stuff we were no where after 6 months on fresh within 2!)

"Have one beans on toast night per week "

for dinner??? God that would never fill my boys (including DH) up, and I'd spend another fortune buying 'extras' to keep them satisfied! I'm pushing my luck tonight with spanish omellette for dinner - and I can guarantee that about 11.30ish DH will be polishing off the rest of the bread to fill himself up )

Munz - once our finanaces have picked up a little, and we've actually got enough cash in one 'sitting' (so to speak) I'm definitely going to be buying more stuff in bulk.

Our current weekly food budget is about £30-35 (to including all nappies, and other non food items), that's to feed the 4 of us.

I must agree QoQ, if I gae my DH beans on toast after a days work he'd be mortified - mainly cos it wouldn't be enough so he'd snack and we'd spend more.

£35 how do u manage to get everything? I think we spend about £40 ish for 2 (and thats mega cut backs), normally with a few extras from wilkos.

trying to think we also do a lot of mince - it's great spag bolg, roast it cottage pie it, burger it - fab stuff and cheap, sausage - again fab and cheap.

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whispers quietly............that she gets cheap meat ).

Although this week, got 2 packs of Morrison sausages (one for sausage casserole, the other for toad in the hole), tin of corned beef (corned beef hash), spanish omelette tonight, small bit of mince for a spag bol type thing, bulked out with lots of cheap veg from the market, and then probably a bean stew/soup/casserole type thing with some kidney beans (dried ones) and all the left over veg for the week.

It's 'very' tight, and I look forward to the day (sometime in the distant future) when we have about £50 to spend - could do that comfortably now .

who does - u do? well my logic says if it does u a turn then do it - hell our mum did everything with faggots when we were small and those bernard matthew rolled meat thingys - cheap and quick! lol - until she could afford a bit more that is.

yes - we get cheap meat - mind you wasn't well pleased at Morrison's yesterday - was going to get a frozen chicken (as they've got the giblets - so I make some stock up), and they didn't have ANY - their space had been taken over by £20 Turkeys . Scuppered my plans a bit that, as was going to have Roast chicken, then make a pie with the left overs, plus DH can have some of the left overs in his sandwich for work.

I find lentils and mushrooms (I use the frozen ones at the moment as they seem more economical) are both good instead of meat, caramelising onions is good for getting flavour

dp won't eat sausages