I’ve been in a work funk since returning on Wednesday. The school I started at in September very much still lives in the dark ages (girls one side, boys another and no use of email in the school before I arrived!) and it has been a lot of work making changes in the school system, getting others to accept that the changes are for the better all whilst working in my first Head of Department role as well!
Work funks = sleepless nights = more snacking.
More snacking = problem when just two days earlier I decided that we need to cut back on our food bill.
Favourite tip I’ve picked up? Never take your favourite chocolate bar to work – always take your second or third favourite…that way you’re much more likely to wait until you’re truly hungry before tucking in!
I don’t tend to keep chocolate in the house…Favourite, or least favourite I’m pretty sure it would all go relatively quickly! However, I have been building up a large selection of freebie bars from races, Graze boxes I wasn’t as fond of and general small snacks that have been filling up my cupboard over the past couple of years.
On Wednesday I threw together a bag of odd snacks to keep under my desk at work.
But it still left a massive pile of gels and snacks in my kitchen cupboard…
…and also a spare fruit bowl full of odd bits!
My aim is to have gotten through this little(!) lot by the time we move! No need to buy more snacks for a while yet!
Over the past few days several people have suggested shopping at Aldi to try and save some more money on groceries and after chatting with Dan we have decided to give it a go next week. We’d been put off in the past as I’m not sure they take credit cards? And we religiously use our Tesco credit card for all purchases; using the points we collect for a couple of free breaks each year. If you aren’t that frugal, https://www.unsecuredpersonalloansnow.com/unsecured-personal-loans/utah may be an option for you.
Although there are many ways for us to save money within the house over the next few months, I think the food shop is the area where we can make the most adjustments and savings.
This post : On the cheap: Healthy eating Part 2 from Laura has loads of great ideas for keeping food costs down.
Do you stockpile the snacks that aren’t your favourites?!
Having a well endowed healthy snack drawer at worked always helped me to try and stay on track. It was full of all of my favourite energy bars and snacks like Nakd bars etc. Both Aldi and Lidl are great for budget friendly shopping as their fresh produce is great.
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I’ve heard great things about the produce at Aldi and Lidl and can’t wait to check it out!
Thanks for the link to my post! I’ve been finding that when I’m in the office I need to have snacks. I was not taking any with me, then eating less healthy stuff because I got so hungry, definitely need more snacks for that! Your school sounds pretty tough, well done you for trying to bring them more up to date!
No worries. You had loads of great ideas there.
I think I need to have snacks nearby incase I do get hungry, as, like you say you end up eating much less healthy items otherwise!
I take it you’re not a huge fan of the Graze olives then? Hehe. They’re not my favourite of the snacks I must say. I love those dip ones…either with the biscuits or the savoury, yum. And I never bother with the seeds (I’ve unticked all of them basically) as I really am not a fan and manage to throw them all over myself anyway…
It’s a good way to save money and clear out some cupboards! I do love doing that. I feel all frugal and saintly 😉
I do like the Graze olives, but in small doses. It felt like I had them week after week for a while and I got fed up of them…so now I have a stockpile! 😛 I’m a fan of the dip boxes as well and the flapjacks are my favourites.
The other good place for bulk purchases is Makro. It isn’t always cheaper, but we bulk buy chicken from there because it works out about £1 per fillet and they are quite large.
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Do you need a business to shop at Makro? My friend used to always stock up using her Dad’s card before we went back to uni after the holidays and our cupboards were filled with oversized jars that she bought for next to nothing!
I have a bunch of gel pouches and supplements in my cupboard, too. I need to figure out what to do with them before they expire. The snacks don’t last a hot minute!
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Trade them for snacks?! Haha!
Aldi don’t take credit cards but they do take debit cards, also they charge for bags so remember to bring your own!
I think they are good for cheap foods and most of their things seem good quality too.
I gave up with Graze in the end because I found out how fussy I was- I hate olives (although when I was signed up you had to pay extra for an olive box so I didn’t get them) but I don’t like dried banana, and dried apricot gives me a bad tummy, and I don’t like walnuts, or coffee beans, not a massive white chocolate fan, didn’t really wan flapjacks…and it seemed that there were only a few boxes that I actually liked!
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Thanks for the bag tip! We have so many stored in our cupboard at home and every single time without fail that we go shopping I forget carrier bags! I must start to keep a supply in my car.
I know what you mean about Graze. I cancelled my membership a while back. To start with I didn’t take anything off the list as I wanted to try for well rounded snacks. But I really don’t like raisins/sultanas and these are included in a lot of the pots. I wasn’t a massive fan of the seeds either. And then I realised I was paying for several pots that I was eating just for the sake of it.
They are some delicious looking snacks you have there. I always try to make sure that I have loads of snacks on hand so I eat something healthy and not just junk. I have a huge post on healthy eating on a budget on my blog
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Cheers Dannii – I’ll check it out!
I definitely find that if I have unhealthy snacks around they get eaten but I don’t miss them if they’re not there to begin with.
Snacks don’t last long around our house, me or Nick use them very quickly. I like to make a big batch of snack bars, as it works out pretty cheaply compared to buying them all the time.
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Yes, good idea. I used to frequently make my own healthier flapjacks for running snacks but haven’t done in a long while. Once my snack supply has diminished I think I’ll start up again.