Urgh.. how depressing...

[Arimeh]

Big hugs mel i know too how it is altho i only get to shop every 4-5 weeks now spending only $150 - $200 and thats for 2 adults one formula fed child and a 10 year old 8 year old and a 3 year old.

How the heck do you manage to only spend $150 - $200 every month!?! I need to see your shopping list I think!!!

Madsmum - it does help to know that I'm not the only one.

[squidipa]

How the heck do you manage to only spend $150 - $200 every month!?! I need to see your shopping list I think!!!

hehe well basically if ya dont got it to spend ya cant spend it hey and it makes u more creative and we get all our fruit and veg from this cheap shop in caboolture. Im happy to give ya the link/ details at bigger food chains We buy in bulk amounts of what ever is on sale that week so it might be cereal buying 6 packets or pasta sauce. I have had to humble my self alot in the process.... Thing arnt so bad when hubbie can work but its been 7 months no work and loads of interviews down. i guess thats why its good im starting a business as just like you... we could use the extra CASH very easily

[squidipa]

BTW mel i have to add this... VERY IMPORTANT!!!

i DO NOT substitute on coffee it so aint worth it i need GOOD caffine lol i buy maccona and coffee beans my substitute if short on $$$ is nescafe think 48 or whate ver that number actually is hehehe (pre coffee need one) but i buy in a LARGE tin as cheaper and also with the maccona... I check the grams against the price on everything. That's my brain work out at the shops. We make our own food and i freeze them adding just 1 more tin of cruched tomatos a or maybe a bit more stock can make things go that little bit further... we also used to shop every week spending heaps then every week i delayed it by 1 day saving me a whole 1 days shopping... so it would look like this

• 1st week 7 days
• 2nd week 8 days
• 3rd week 9 days

over the course of a year thats MASSIVE savings and it was so easy.
so if i was spending 120 a week for 7 days food that would be about's 17 dollars a day so to stretch that to 8 days thats a 17 dollar saving and the beans grind in the automatic coffee machine, mostly drinking instant as im slack. hope that tip helps

[briggsy's girl]

Mel - after 7 months of having limited income due to me not working, and DH having enforced leave due to fires and the down turn in his work (which, yay, is finally starting to pick up when i need him home!) i know what it's like to be on minimal income and really struggling financially

DH and I can get away with minimal grocery money each fortnight if we make use of the slow cooker and bulk cooking. i know you've mentioned not having a big freezer, which isn't a huge help, but can i suggest you give it a go? and try to see what you can do. as i mentioned in my SC thread about my aunt with diabetes - we managed to cook just short of 90 meals for 240 - almost all of them in the SC. it's not great eating the same stuff over and over, but once you start experimenting with what you can make, you find a lot of stuff that is great and oh so tasty! and the best bit is, it's relatively simple to use. we make a lot of "versatile" type meals - stuff that you can eat today as something plain, next time you can make into something completely different (spag bol today, pasta bake late in the week - just freeze in between kwim?) - by packing it with extra veg, it's more nutritious, tastes better, and the veg is a hell of a lot cheaper...

as willow suggested - baking at home is heaps cheaper too - just make sure A isn't around cos he's not super helpful! i'd be looking for recipes that keep well over a period of several days so you only have to cook stuff like that once a week.

[squidipa]

oh mel i didnt know u didn't have a large freezer, we had a upright full size freezer bt thought with all those bonus going round before we should invest in something to help us save so we bought a chest freezer for 250 i think and that one has helped heaps we use it mostly for bread which ya can get as low as 1.00 or 1.10 in coles and for home made biscuits scones and cakes and kids pre made lunches... sometimes i saves to spend iykwim

[Cricket]

We're running on a pretty tight budget here too. I shop mostly second hand or clearance for my kids clothing, and for myself, and buy all my groceries at the discount grocery store. I bag my own groceries there, and have a little less selection, but that's no biggie to me. Stick to the cheaper meats (chicken and ground beef), and try some meatless meals, try baking your own bread (so yummy!), don't buy the little pre-packaged stuff - buy in bulk and divide into portions yourself, avoid the prepared foods - you can usually make it yourself cheaper, ummmm.... go bulk where ever you can, but be careful that you don't consume more, just because you have more in the house.
Watch your "extras". WATCH YOUR CREDIT CARDS!!! It's so easy to let those get out of hand! Only buy what you can pay for.
Check your budget for things to cut, or hunt for cheaper providers - memberships, cable, satellite...???
Hope things ease up for you soon. I know it can be really stressful trying to keep ahead of all these things. We just had our property tax bill come in, a car repair bill, income taxes, and a dental bill all at the same time. OUCH!!!
Hang in there! You'll make it.

[Winter]

I've only got a couple of tips to add, what everyone else has suggested is great advice & I'll be using it myself!

I extend mince meals like chilli con carne or spag bog with TVP - vegetarians use it as meat substitute, its cheap as chips and absorbs heaps of flavour from the sauce that its being cooked in. Most people wouldn't be able to tell that there was TVP in there if they didn't know, they'd just think it was mince!

Lentils & beans are some of my favourite things to add to meals to bulk them up in a healthy way. And they taste great!

Pots of soup are seriously good too, use up your old veggies in the bottom of the fridge, are nutritionally good if you chuck in heaps of legumes etc and oh so tasty for winter!

The one thing that I have been doing lately is using up everything in the pantry and freezer. I have basically banned shopping apart from the bare essentials until we have emptied them both and we can start filling them up again.

[Arimeh]

TVP? What's that?

[M22]

mel. i know how you feel- it sucks- dunno how we will cope with number 2 anyways- a suggestion- people normally still give gifts for third babies right? so maybe ask for tins of formula?? this may behlp a lot

hugs.

[Inertia]

Best tip I can add is to make a reusabale shopping list. In fact, I might put my computer print out on on my webbie and people can ask me to pm the link. Its utterly invaluable. It sounds like a whole lot, but we feed our brood for $400 a fortnight. Thats $4 each a day. What made that possible was having this list. Every tuesday we go through the cupboards and mark down what we need. This way we arent forgetting anything (limiting impulse buys) and only buy exactly what we need - knowing we need it because we checked the cupboards thoroughly before heading out.

With my list though - it does have all excluded additives on there and so some items are also missing because we couldnt get one without the additives. There is also yellow boxes over items that we need to make sure we are getting the right brand to be additive free. Its mostly ingredients too, so its back to basics cooking. But this could be a real contributing factor to our ability to budget it well.

If we didnt do it, we could not squeeze out needs into our guaranteed income. But although I have been a bit lazy lately, you can see by the dinner thread that we do eat some really nice stuff. Oh, and Nescafe. We refuse to skimp on our coffee..

And I will 50th the meal planning!