Urgh.. how depressing...

[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?

[Ca Plane Pour Moi]

Meat-free meat - and it is cheap! Meat-free mince is 50p/lb cheaper for me, using the cheapest supermarket brands.

Shopping lists and sticking to them. That helps. Write out meal plans and do your shopping around that.

The "rule of 3" I have heard, which I already did, that is good. You just split into 3, not 2. So shop every 9 days, not 6. Put 2 bags in a teapot, not 3. Cook a big meal, partly for the freezer - split it into 3, not 2: smaller meals but you have an extra one.

Take a packed lunch to work.

One that saves me a LOT of money: take your own coffee granules to work. Seriously, ?1.10 for a decaf instant but 20p for hot water. My coffee granules don't cost 90p a time!

Look at what "luxuries" you get and how to get them cheaper (such as my coffee above). Cake? Bake it. Flour? Switch to the cheaper brand. Veggies? Grow your own.

Can your DH carshare to work?

Look at your bills and see where you can save. Water? Use dishwater on the flowers and share baths. Electricity? Books not TV. Meat? Try vegetarian alternatives, good recipes on the web. Clothes? Cheaper brands and washing more often. Ask for clothes for birthdays.

Good luck!

[Winter]

Textured Vegetable Protein - you can get in it health stores for next to nothing. You just soak it in water and it triples in size before chucking it in with your mince and cooking it exactly the same way.

[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.

[{sarah}]

We're down $37 a week, so know the feeling well. We just run up the credit card & pay it off at tax time. Not ideal, but we have no other choice without savings. We scrimp & I rarely buy clothes for Aaron & I unless is absolutely essential.

That said... You're selling your Ergo??

[Curly]

You can get TVP from the supermarket, Sanitarium make it.

I was also going to suggest vegetarian meals, slow cooker stews with cheaper cuts of meat.

It is cheaper to buy meat from the butcher rather than the supermarket, sometimes you can get meat at wholesale prices, look in the local rag for adverts. Fruit and veg at the fruit market/barn is also cheaper.

Pasta and rice based dishes can be cheap meals. Home Brand wherever possible.

Chemists and Priceline often have cheap washing powder, dishwashing liquid and odd things like that on special. And formula is often cheaper at the chemist.

I shop at Safeway (Woolies) and I notice that now they have the price per 100g listed on the shelf so you can pick out which is the best value for money which is great for things like toilet rolls, cleaning products etc.

Water saver shower heads? Cakes of soap rather than shower gel? Use decent quality shampoo and you can get away with a cheaper conditioner. Roll on deodorant rather than aerosol?

Another one...if you have one locally, the Shaver Shop sells razor blades far more cheaply than the supermarket if your DH is a Gillette user - the price of razor blades is scandalous. I have also noticed Big W toiletries and cleaning products are often cheaper than the supermarket.

[Winter]

Check Bunnings too for bulk items of dishwashing liquid & spray & wipe concentrate.

The 5L Glinz dishwashing liquid has lasted us a good 7 or more months and far cheaper than buying bottles from supermarket. Think its around $13 for 5L but dont quote me

[Willow]

I agree with meal planning saving money - I've been doing it for about 2 months now and it's working well. Nothing fancy, I just sit down and write out a fortnight's worth of meals, check what I need to buy to make those meals and that's what goes on the shoppping list.

I find this way I'm not buying heaps of things 'just in case' like I used to. We have only what we need and it works.

[boobaloo]

i definately feel your pain, i'm a sahm, and df gets paid ****e, and he's a supervisor! we just got a suspension notice for our phone and electricity bills which are depressing, and we'll probably have to borrow from one of our mums to pay them.

a few things that i am picking up on the way though.
*i shop at aldi, and buy more than i need so that it'll last longer, and i wont need to go to the shops where i can be tempted by other things.
*got a phone and internet plan with aapt who are brilliant, all of their deals are cap plans and you can pretty much tell them how much you want to spend a month and they can cater to you.
*i've started baking too
*big fan of beans and lentils to fill out meals
*freeze leftovers
*take lunches
*when i go out, i always have drinks and snacks for kids so i don't have to buy
*trying to make sure i turn lights off when i leave a room - working on that one

that's all i can think of at the moment. oh what i'd give for a money tree...

[Arimeh]

We haven't been going too badly - I've managed to get our food bills under $200 a week for most weeks - which is amazing, and I have been cooking (bad, terrible biscuits, but they still get eaten!!)

I don't have a slower cooker, and we have an upside down fridge, so our freezer is quite tiny. So can't really stock up on meat unfortunately (Thanks for the PM leash!)

Sarah - thanks for your PM - there is one in maroochydore so i'm going to send them an email - thanks for the tip!

We've been buying our fruit and vegies from the local fruit market - I can get a weeks worth for around $32 - which is great considering how much fruit DS and DH eat. So that saves us money, plus I've been only buying sausages and mince once a week - and chicken once a fortnight (I make an awesome chicken soup which does us for 2 nights meals and I use chicken thigh fillets - cheaper )

[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!

[{sarah}]

Ooh good point on the pantry list Mags. I downloaded a pantry program the other week that I haven't used yet but it looks really good. Basically you load into it everything in your fridge, freezer & pantry and as you use things take them off the list & it makes your grocery list for you. I think it will be very handy cos I will then know what's lurking in the back of the cupboard & won't go out buying a tin of crushed tomatoes when I already have three IYKWIM.

The other thing I think would be helpful & I try to work on constantly is to keep your pantry & fridge tidy & organised. Whenever I do it I find I spend less on groceries because I can see everything easily & know what is there.

Someone mentioned not buying individual packets of things, but dividing big packets up. We do this too. I buy 1kg of sultanas or dried apricots from work & divide them up as snacks for the kids rather than buying the little boxes. An added thing to this is to use little containers over zip lock bags, waaay cheaper.

Oh & another way to use up leftovers that we love is to put whatever (stirfry, spag bol sauce etc) on top of a baked potato or sweet potato with some cheese. They are pretty cheap, you use up your left overs & it's YUM!

[Willow]

I will then know what's lurking in the back of the cupboard & won't go out buying a tin of crushed tomatoes when I already have three IYKWIM.

The other thing I think would be helpful & I try to work on constantly is to keep your pantry & fridge tidy & organised. Whenever I do it I find I spend less on groceries because I can see everything easily & know what is there.

YES! Totally agree, I did a massive cleanout of our fridge and pantry, reorganised and even labelled everything so now I know exactly what's there and what we need.

[Arimeh]

Labelled? *snigger*

Nerd *points finger at Willow*

LMAO

[Willow]

Dude...I'm VERY pregnant and nesting...alright??!!

DH went out and brought me a labeller....

[Arimeh]

PMSL

I have a labeller too - but not for tins in my cupboard.. ROFL