Please Sir, I want some more

Good morning, a pan of luverly gruel for breakfast today. This is great stuff for a slow release energy boost, it will keep me going till lunch time. Four big spoons of porridge oats, a few sultanas, four teaspoons of ground pumpkin seeds, and a few ground walnuts. Eaten straight out of the pan, no point in making more pots to wash :o)

Quite a few comments have landed in my post box overnight, you have been busy. Let's take a look at them. I do feel that £10 a week on food is easier to achieve if you are single. When there are two or more in the house, and one person say's 'I am going to have a piece of cake, does anyone else want one', it takes a very strong will to reply 'no thanks'. The way I would deal with this is to not buy cake at all, except maybe for a special treat. Justine, I do think that you could shave a little bit off your £160 a month for two people if you tweak it here and there.

I will mention at this point that I have not included any other household expenses in my food diary. This is another area where you can drastically cut your spending. I buy the cheapest wash up liquid and use the minimum I can get away with in a bowl of hot water. I don't fry food so no grease to cut through. There are hardly any bubbles, the few at the start of the wash soon disappear. That means I can leave them to drain, thus saving endless washing of grubby tea towels, and also less pollution down the drains.

Yes I still use toilet paper, bought in bulk so it was cheap, and, well you know what my toilet paper consumption is, we won't go into that again. Wash powder is also bought in bulk, a big box lasts me five years because I only wash clothes which are dirty or smelly, and as I spend a lot of time on my own I can put up with a whiff or two drifting past my nose, ha ha. Shampoo and other toiletries last ages and I buy cheap, no fancy names here. I use them sparingly, they last ages.

Thank you for your guest post lizzie, Becky is right, you do need your own blog, have you thought of starting one? As for checking government guidelines on what nutrients I should be eating, I would say stuff the government. I have been on this earth for 62 and a bit years, I am healthy for my age, I read books and the internet on healthy living, have never smoked, rarely drink alcohol, and my diet is fine. Reading through your post again, I feel rather miffed, it is not so much a comment more a lecture. I take great exception when you tell me to learn how to cook.

Sarina you are doing so well, your spending is at about the same level as Justine, keep going the both of you, you are on the right track.

Hi Cumbrian, you are right, when you shop late at night for the reduced prices it is unpredictable, that's what I like about it, you never know what you are going to find. I call it foraging in the supermarket. Being flexible with your eating habits is the key. I don't go every night, maybe once a week or ten days, and I try to combine it with coming back from somewhere else. Thanks for the tip about Maxwell House in Poundland, I had already bought a 200grm jar from Home Bargains for £2.19, so there you go, could have got it cheaper. I have a quick buzz round Wilko's sometimes, mainly to see if there is any cat food on special offer, but most of their prices are way too high for me.

Hi lizp, I would go to Asda a bit more if it wasn't so far out of town. We have a new one in town, used to be Netto, but their prices are higher than the superstore. When I look at cat food in pouches I always compare it with the price of Felix. On offer it is £2.50 a box, just over 20p a sachet. I'm not sure how the tins of Feline Fayre compare with the sachets, I don't buy them very often, just as a treat. In fact I'm sure the cats are better fed than me, ha ha.

I do pop in Aldi sometime as it's on the way to town. Yesterday I bought a cauliflower for 49p, nothing else, was looking for fresh veg and some of it wasn't cheap enough for me. Lidl is the other end of town so I don't go up there very often. I think I need to start comparing prices on the internet before I go shopping, but I already spend loads of time on here. I don't mind searching the shelves, it gets me out :o) Talking of going out, I'm off to do some litter picking, that's if I can catch it in this wind. Toodle pip.