Oh crap crap crap

[colditz]

I have £20 til Tuesday. Have had a really heavy month.

Get £40 on Tuesday, I have to live on it for a week, and I've practically forgotten how.

Any money saving tips? My meagre savings are gone too, holiday and motorbike repairs have sucked them up.

OMG!!!

Bag of baking potatoes, a lump of cheese, several value loafs, butter and many tins of value baked beans?????

Poor you??

I can sub you a few quid if its that bad??????

I'll be ok soapbox, I'm nowhere near London so I'll manage.

Thanks very much for the kind offer though

My plan of action is many "stews" with mash and gravy and frozen peas, baked beans, etc, but if anyone has better ideas I would be glad to hear it.

This is on the basis that you can stick anything in stew!

Try to go to supermarkets near closing time and bag all the reduced stuff - you can sometimes pick up bread etc for 10p and can be frozen.

CAT me it things get more desparate!

Even in London we run short sometimes

Value beans on value toast.

Tell me about it, nearly £1000 of bills/mortgage going out in a weeks time and only £79 left on the overdraft

somehow we always manage to spend all our money bout a week after dh gets paid

will be feeling rich for about 2 minutes on friday though cause we exchange on our new house! so money goes into our bank account..... unfortunatly it goes straight out again!!

Not sure where you are colditz but im in birmingham so if theres anything you need let me know

Smart price everything from asda usually works for us and it tastes ok. In fact half the time DH can't tell the difference.

i live on £40 a week most weeks!

Asda shopping is the key, but then i do have a freezer full of stuff so its usually milk, bread, yoghurt and veg i have to buy.

Will be rich on friday because its payday but that will only last the weekend!

thank god for tax credits!

Know how you feel Colditz. We have £2 until tuesday, when my CTC goes in but since I went overdrawn last week I will be £25 down cos i've been charged

We are having egg and chips tonight.

my fave dinner for when im skint is sausage casserole.its a pack of value sausages with a chopped onion,a few rashers of bacon chopped ,a dash of worcester sauce and cans of value beans.need to be the juicy type of value beans and you need at least 2 cans.thats enough for me and my 2 kids.i also brown and chop the sausages before putting them in casserole dish.then just chuck it all in,stir and put in oven till cooked.

my kids love it with chunky fried potatoes.

dont think it costs more than £1.50 to make.

Buy frozen chicken fillets not fresh or buy thighs (tastier meat IMO). Buy a big roast chicken and make soup with the leftovers. Use tins of tomatoes in stews to stretch them over two days and add lots of veg in them. Make some flapjacks (bag of oats (30p in our supermarket) some golden syprup and butter - cheaper than kitkats and healthy too!

Good luck with the challenge! - we all spend far to much on food don't we? I am going to see how far I can stretch the food budget this month too!

We do a monthly shop for frozen, dried and tinned food plus the toiletries and cleaning stuff then just get the fresh stuff each week and then if i find we are really skint at the end of the month we have a freezer week ie live off what ever is left in the freezer/cupboards.

Buy loads of baked beans, they're nutritious and cheap

Savers brands taste fine and are excellent value

Shop at Lidls for fruit and Iceland for the offers

Eggs are great- omelettes etc

Potatoes. lots.

Mashed potato, onion, cheese, mix together and bake- yum

We have £55 a week for five of us, it is possible I promise but it takes a little extra work!

Agree with smartprice stuff from Asda - got a pack of lasagne sheets for 27p yesterday. Noone noticed.

bean stew .. can pinto beans, chickpeas, carrots, root vegetables, maybe butter beans, stock, spices (I like chilli and cumin) and serve with rice .. makes huge veggie chilli for about £4

Check any magazines floating round the house for vouchers. As long as asda stock the product they will take up to three of the same voucher upto one third of the value of your shopping.(tends to p* off the people in the queue behind you but save money where you can) Some other supermarkets (can't remeber which ones though)used to take one voucher per item on the belt (you didn't necessarily have to have the product, just as long as they stock it). Ask the checkout operators what the policy is on vouchers if in doubt. If there is a farm foods by you their food is good and they tend to put vouchers through the door which can take 10% off the bill. Lidle and aldi are ok as long as you watch what you are buying.

Colditz,this happens to me too now I'm not at work.Can you get to the market on Tuesday?When I get there after 12pmish,the stallholders start reducing stuff & you can get loads of fruit & veg for very little money.Also the £1 shop has tins of Princes steak in gravy & salmon in ATM.(I have given dh the steak for tea before & he went on & on about how tasty it was-I didn't tell him it was out of a tin.).

Somerfield normally have a trolley of reduced bread,rolls ect & had loads in on Saturday when I went in-I bought some for the freezer.

I'm living not far away from you now,CAT me if I can help.

Wow, thanks Mirage, will check out the market tomorrow lunch. CTCs go in tomorrow too, so will blitz on veggies!

The sausage and bean cassarole sounds lush Motherwolf, that will be our tea tomorrow, I have some value sausages in the freezer.

Unfortunatly Asda is 15 miles away and I don't have a car, and the local Tesco has stopped a lot of their Tesco value stuff.

I will manage! I have done it before on a lot less, and I can do it again! Just don't really want to, but that's tough.

(pssst, Nutcracker....I love egg and chips!)

Thankyou everyone for taking a moment to post helpful messages, I'm really grateful.

Colditz,I need to go to ASDA this week.If it will help you out I can pick you up & take you with us(that is if you feel brave enough to go into a supermarket with a 20month old & 9wk old in tow).

Is there any stuff in the cupboards you could improvise with? When we moved house was shocked at how much food we had - flour, tins of beans, tinned fruit (mmm, beany fruity flour pie, sounds delicious)

tinned tomatos and a plate full of toast to dip. my kids love it cos its messy. we put a big bowl of tinned toms inthe middle of table

same with soup and bread. buy two packets of soup - as they go further - i like the knorr vegetable. and then a plate of bread cut into triangles in middle of table

with the princes tinned meat that was mentioned you could make a stew - very filling and cheap. 2 tins meat, potatos, onion, peas carrots, meat stock - presto

if you could get someone to drop you off a big sack of potatos you have the choice to do mash or boiled or baked anything

noodles. tesco own brand noodles are 8p i do them with cut up cheapo hot dg sausages or cut up cheapo burgers both with beans. all mixed up. or cheapo meatballs.