how the hell am I spending £200 a month on groceries

for 2 adults, I spend about £160, which is about £40 a month more than I used to when I was clearing my debt. It's a bit more than I could be spending, I do buy the occasional 'treat' bottle of wine once, maybe twice a month or a slightly posher brand of cordial when I get sick of the Asda own brand stuff.

The best thing to do is keep all your receipts this month for everything you spend. then pop over to Old Style and sign up to the supermarket challenge and set yourself a target of (say) £160 next month and then reduce it each month until you don't feel it can go any lower.

Plan your shopping - never go without a list - and look to shop when they are reducing items. Tesco is often 5pm and then again at 9pm.

Old Style can also help you meal plan. When I was debt busting I had a 7 days x 3 meals planner on the fridge and I only bought what I needed for the week ahead.

Take packed lunch to work, try buying everything at Basics level and if you like it, stick to it. Have your shopping delivered - stops impulse buying and if you use Asda, use the free delivery codes for deliveries over £50 - I do 2 per month.

Hope that helps a bit. When I first found MSE, I was spending £300 on 2 people (eeek!) and I have no idea how I was managing to do that now I look back!

I'm on about £240 a month on my own, but that does include my clothes, social life and large quantities of alcohol as well.

You need to go over to the os board,theyve helped me get our bill down from £600 a month to edging £300.
We also eat better than ever now,lots of home made foods with no carp.

Approx £240 a month for 2 and a half of us (part time DSS aged 7!). This does include alcohol and all toiletries and cleaning equipment. Compared to before I had my LBM? I have no idea as we just bought stuff on the way home or extras if we fancied them.... I would hazard a guess at about £450 a month!!

twirlypinky wrote: »

Thanks, I'll take a look at the old style board, but i usually avoid it because it's so hard for me to do the things suggested.

I live in nurses accommodation in a flat in a block with three other people. I have one shelf in the fridge and one drawer in the freezer which makes bulk buying virtually impossible. Also, i detest being in the kitchen, so often end up with a micro meal that takes 5 mins and means i can scramble in and out of the kitchen in 4 mins.

I'll have a look though, thanks.

Just a thought, Have you thought of doing the following :
Buy some mince (any kind you want, even veggie).
Buy some chopped toms, onions, some garlic, some mushrooms, some peppers and some kidney beans.
Buy some rice and some pasta (and maybe some baked tatties or wraps).
1. Spend one day cooking mince with with onions, garlic, toms, and peppers.
2. Divide into three batches (or 6 if you have lots), to 1 (or 2) add some kidney beans and chilli powder, to 1 (or 2) add some mushrooms, leave 1 (or 2) as is.
3. Freeze these in plastic tubs (takeway ones are good). Defrost night before for use, serving option 1 with rice/wraps/baked tattie as you like. Serve option 2 with pasta/garlic bread. Serve option 3 with potato wedges/chips.

3 (or 6) meals, one lot of cooking and its ready to be taken from freezer as you need the night before!

Good luck