Challenge - 7 days on a tight budget, what would you fix?

Before I do a big shop, I empty out my freezer. We eat EVERYTHING in the freezer and only buy fresh veggies. It does take some planning, but I find that it saves lots of money. And whatever leftovers we have, I take to work with me for lunch.

Not that there's a burning need for it, but my wife absolutely delights in frugal shopping.  Her favourite is to go to Tescos on Saturday night and follow the man who goes up and down the aisles and marks down the prices.  She grabs the stuff as soon as he puts it down.  The mark-downs can be substantial.

Another tactic is at Sainsburys.  She finds a nice roast with an expiration of the next day or the day after.  She takes it to the butcher and asks for a discount, and he will usually mark it down to 70 or 80 pence!!!  From around 6 or 7 pounds!!!    Next day we have roast.

For clothes shopping, she and her buddies keep close track of what day and what time of day the delivery lorries will arrive at high street shops like fcuk and the like.  Like a hawk.

She delights in it.

LOL Garry, your wife sounds like she'd actually be quite fun to go shopping with!

She's a sweetheart.  But cold and ruthless when it comes to grocery shopping or clothes shopping.  I think it comes from growing up as a Soviet army brat in far flung locales where you had to stretch your dollars to the max.  And the habit stuck...

I make chilli in the slow cooker and add two cans of beans - pinto and red kidney - to bulk it out...
Then we go jacket tatties with chilli and melted cheese on top.

I do chili with twice the beans/half the meat too.  Then serve it over brown rice to make it go further.

I also like to do baked potatoes. I especially like to remove the potato from the skin, mix it up with bacon and leek and put it back in.  Four potatoes, one leek chopped, a few slices of bacon chopped, and a bit of grated cheddar for the top.

Cottage pie?  Fried potatoes with onions, tomatoes, and green pepper?

The best way I've ever found to save money on our food bill though, is for my husband to go out of town for work! 

Frozen mince is really cheap.  You can use it for pasta bol. which can stretch for a couple of days or sloppy joes.  A big frozen chicken is good for a couple meals.  A couple bags of frozen veg are handy and will see you through the week. Buy pasta in the huge bag-it's cheaper that way.  Only let yourself buy a couple of basic packs of biscuits (custard creams, ginger snaps) they will satisfy your sweet tooth but you won't get through them as quick as luxury biscuits.  Instead of Ragu make your own sauce using tinned tomatoes.  Buy a big block of cheddar, some eggs, milk.  You've now got the ingredients for omelets and Mac and Cheese.  All the super markets sell what they call cooking bacon which is great to jazz up pasta sauce, mac and cheese, omelets and is very cheap.
Have a look at the clearance stuff but be careful-a lot of that was overpriced to begin with and is high in calorie, low in content.  Your better of making your own.
Also, if you're really on a budget look at the frozen meat-much cheaper.

Garry's right - hitting the store just before it closes (or maybe an hour or so before anyway) and watching for markdowns. DH got two Indian meals for one the other night at Waitrose for £1! He says there are certain lines that just aren't selling so they're perpetually marked down (he works for Waitrose).

ETA: This new regular thing that M&S are doing is FANTASTIC - the meal for two for £10. Yesterday I got a whole roast chicken, a pack of veg, desert, and a bottle of perfectly drinkable wine for £10. The chicken not only fed us last night but provided lunch for both of us today and there's enough left for a curry or something! It was such a good deal we were trying to figure out if we have enough fridge space to do our entire weekly shop - that would be £70 for a week's worth of dinners plus 7 bottles of wine!! 

Anne - next time you go can you see if they do vegetarian meals?

This new regular thing that M&S are doing is FANTASTIC - the meal for two for £10. Yesterday I got a whole roast chicken, a pack of veg, desert, and a bottle of perfectly drinkable wine for £10. The chicken not only fed us last night but provided lunch for both of us today and there's enough left for a curry or something! It was such a good deal we were trying to figure out if we have enough fridge space to do our entire weekly shop - that would be £70 for a week's worth of dinners plus 7 bottles of wine!! 

There's only one of me, but this sounds like a brilliant deal!  I could probably make that last nearly a week!  And with wine?!?   

Garry's right - hitting the store just before it closes (or maybe an hour or so before anyway) and watching for markdowns. DH got two Indian meals for one the other night at Waitrose for £1! He says there are certain lines that just aren't selling so they're perpetually marked down (he works for Waitrose).

ETA: This new regular thing that M&S are doing is FANTASTIC - the meal for two for £10. Yesterday I got a whole roast chicken, a pack of veg, desert, and a bottle of perfectly drinkable wine for £10. The chicken not only fed us last night but provided lunch for both of us today and there's enough left for a curry or something! It was such a good deal we were trying to figure out if we have enough fridge space to do our entire weekly shop - that would be £70 for a week's worth of dinners plus 7 bottles of wine!! 

That M&S deal is a really good deal because when it was on last time it included large Oakham free range chickens! Which are normally about £8, those big oakham chicken will do me and my boy for about 4 meals alone, and they can be frozen.
They also did a really  nice salmon dish....plus potatoes and veg, and really nice lemon souffles and the wine was very gluggable!!!
 

There's only one of me, but this sounds like a brilliant deal!  I could probably make that last nearly a week!  And with wine?!?   

I'm loving the sound of this too! Is it pre-cooked stuff or to-be-cooked?

I'm loving the sound of this too! Is it pre-cooked stuff or to-be-cooked?

As i remember it's a combination, the oakham chickens are raw obviously, the salmon was half prepared and needed to be put in the oven. There was a pork dish as well which was one of the "to cook" meals, raw pork with a sauce etc that you cook yourself. I think it's mostly meal packages that you cook yourself. There were some more ready meal type things I think.

Get the lemon Souffles, they're lush!

I'm loving the sound of this too! Is it pre-cooked stuff or to-be-cooked?

I saw what appeared to be plain salmon fillets on this offer today--didn't look that closely, though.

we took up the m&s offer today. got a whole roasted chicken, a large bowl of salad, a pyramid of profiteroles & a bottle of wine for £10. the till receipt said it would have come to £17 at the normal price. dh will get several days' worth of chicken from it.

Garry's right - hitting the store just before it closes (or maybe an hour or so before anyway) and watching for markdowns. DH got two Indian meals for one the other night at Waitrose for £1!

and don't forget about my foot-long Mississippi Mud Bar dessert for 15p!