Well here we go...after having our household budget cut by a quarter..i think its about time i started my blog..its something iv'e been meaning to do for along time ..I have always cooked ever since i was a small child at my grandmothers knee..I remember coming in from school and the first thing i smelled was home baked bread, straight from the oven..oven bottom breadcakes, large and flattish with a hole in the middle ( i still dont know the purpose of that hole!)..she usually made them when she had something else in the oven in order not to waste power.usually a casserole or maybe a cake or two..we were never without home baking in our house, and i guess thats how learned.I remember her baking apple and blackberry pies for every kid in our street, after we had been out picking blackberries and scrumping apples which in those times was a major pastime..40 pies she made and no one went without.!The other think she used to make was corned beef hash..one tin of corned beef and a few vegetables would feed a hungry family especially when it was served with yorkshire puds!Yum!its a dish i often make in the winter..but i think our recipe might vary from someone elses recipe as i think its different in other counties!
Well now i am looking to cut our food budget and our general spending budget out of necessity , as things are always tight for us in the winter.I know there are lots of you out there who also have to do the same..trying to feed a family these days is no joke,but i enjoy a challenge!so here goes...
I went out today to do the weekly shop with only £40 this is to feed two of us and the dog and to buy cleaning stuff ect...i planned a menu, to include what i had in the larder and the fridge and freezer .We had a delivery from ROSSPA last week totalling £34
This included 2 large packs of muesli which will do us for breakfast for the next week or so (we eat tons of the stuff!) and also lots of bargain priced fruit, nothing wrong with it at all and about half the price of the supermarket.I also bought several bottles of cleaning stuff, and washing liquid , again half the price of the supermarket.Their stuff varies from week to week but its worth having a look at!
Hi Purplestormwitch, I just found your blog via Frugal Queen. I am interested in following how you cope, etc with your income dropping by a quarter. Is this because of retirement? We are going to have to deal with retirement in about 2 years, and will only have a pension. I am in Aust, where are you?
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HI chookasmum, no its not retirement,,for times sake lets just say I have lost my income recently and have had to pull the purse strings WAAAAAY in to make allowances for the loss (which I am good at as i spent several years alone with a small child to look after and a mortgage to pay)first thing i did was to go through all the direct debits and anything that wasn't a neccessity was cancelled, we have decide that we also need to downsize our house, as there are only now two of us living here, and the bills are quite high.I have cut my shopping bill by almost half by planning what I am going to cook for a week and then only buying what i really need and i do shop at the cheaper supermarkets no Waitrose for us!There are also some pretty good discount sites online if you search we have one called Approved foods, where you can pick up some good bargains..I don't know if you would have them in Auz...i make all my own food i hardly ever buy ready made stuff as most of the time its a dissapointment and not really economical.If i am cooking i often cook double so i can freeze a few meals for when i don't feel upto cooking or for when we fancy a "takeaway"(well, from the freezer!)Monthly, I print off a calender sheet that shows when all our bills go out and when our payments go in..i highlight it in different colours..it also has things like dental appointmets (that we have to pay for) and doctors visits ect.this way i can see ahead and allow for the extra cost.I do try to be organized finacially, i have always kept a record of what we spend and where..its better than estimating what you think you have and then getting clobbered by the bank at the end of the month with bank charges.I hope this goes some way to help you , i know its always a worry bt the most important thing is paying your main bills and keeping a roof over your head..I am always amazed at how people live in places like India..what a contrast to how we live.x
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