Grocery shopping experts - how little do you spend

Sassamac · 7 January 2008 at 2:38PM

A question for the experts please, either people who have done the Grocery challenge in the past and got their budget down to a level where they cant save any more, or those who already had it sussed and never needed the GC.

Basically I want to know how little you spend, because according to my budget on our current income I need to get my grocery budget down to around £60 per month (2 adults, 2 kids, 2 cats), simply because most of the rest of the budget is fixed.

This to me seems impossible. Our current spend is around £220 and so far this month I am target to reach my £150 budget (£120 for food £30 for nappies, toiletries, cleaning etc.) for Jan which is my first month in the GC.

So is it do-able and what lengths do you have to go to to stick with it?

overlykeensaver · 7 January 2008 at 3:05PM

Well I am in no way an expert (they will be along soon I am sure;)) but I do know that to get shopping bills down, lots of people might go to Lidl's or Aldi etc rather than the big 4 supermarkets. Also can you buy some value products rather than a named brand?

Do you plan your meals? If you do a menu each week before you go shopping, based on what is already in your fridge/freezer and cupboards, this also helps to keep costs down.

Why don't you tell us your usual shopping list as this is an easy way for people to point out where you can make savings.:D

miserly_mum · 7 January 2008 at 3:11PM

My family is 2 adults and 3 kids, youngest still in nappies and i'd find it impossible to go as low as £60 per month

Currently i'm spending around £240 a month but I I know if I had to I could do it on around £200 and if really really skint maybe £185

Is £60 just for food or cleaning stuff etc aswell?

Skint_Catt · 7 January 2008 at 3:12PM

£60 a month for 4.2 of you! :eek: Well if you can do it so can I! I'm budgeting £200 at the mo for just OH and I - and struggling at that even though I meal planned the entire month! (It's better when I go shopping alone though!)

G-G_4 · 7 January 2008 at 3:17PM

hmmm, £60 a month.. if you said £100 a month then I think that might be do-able..

Depends on how much you eat and what type of quality you like.

Me and OH have £200 a month to stick to, that includes, 2 dogs, 2 rabbits & 2 guinea pigs.

x

crawley_girl · 7 January 2008 at 3:27PM

I don't meal plan as much as i should but i spend about £150 a month on me and my foster daughter and that includes cleaning products, toiletries for me (she has she her own money to buy her own) and all food. I will eat at work for free maybe once or twice during a week but daughter still needs feeding.

Can't see how it can be done for £60 per month on a reular basis without having cupboards that restock themselves overnight or having freezers that are rammed full at the start of each month.

I'm sure there will be someone who will say it is possible, and perhaps it is as a one-off month, but not £60 every month to include nutricious food, include fruit n veg.

:heartpuls CG :heartpuls

fizzel81 · 7 January 2008 at 3:29PM

were a family of 4 (me and 3 kids)
when i think about it and properly i can look at around 120ish a month luckly ive got one out of nappies daytime which has saved me lots (i gave up on my washables when my washing machine broke it was repaired but im just lazy i guess ) so its just the one nappy user full time now

depends on how/what you like to eat, im sure the wondefull peeps on here could point you in right direction

ravylesley · 7 January 2008 at 3:31PM

I will probably be shot down in flames when the more experienced OS'ers log in.But I personally could not spend just £60 for a month.It costs me more than that weekly as there are 2 adults and 4 children in my household.Will be watching this thread with interest though to see what suggestions are made

Lesleyxx

Sassamac · 7 January 2008 at 3:38PM

I already buy a lot of value and reduced products as well as the BOGOF's etc. We rarely buy snacks or junk food and I throw very little food away.

I am yet to try Lidl (the nearest one is 15 miles away so am thinking of a stock up shop next month). No other budget shops near me.

I am also going to try growing my own fruit and veg, and baking my own bread and pizza, but just taking things one step at a time at the mo. I already cook a lot from scratch (bar pizza and the odd emergency chicken kiev) and bake cakes etc.

I dont like to limit the quantity of food we eat but we dont stuff ourselves silly, nor do we eat expensive food like steak or salmon. At the same time I dont want to be eating offal.

We all have a healthy appetite. If the kids eat all their dinner they can have a dessert or seconds and if theyre still hungry I wouldnt refuse them two or three pieces of fruit. DH doesnt like cold food so takes a leftover dinner to work everyday, so I always cook extra to freeze.

The £60 is just for food so needs to halve from where we are at the mo. I have allowed £30 per month for all the non-food supermarket stuff (including cat food). Just to buy nappies, BOGOF wipes and tampons is £20 per month so two thirds of that is non-negotiable.

Skint_Catt · 7 January 2008 at 3:39PM

As said above, it MAY be possible if the cupboards and freezer is rammed full - my freezer certainly is at the mo, but I'm still going to spend at least £100 this month on stuff for packed lunches/fresh fruit veg/additional bits to go with freezer food.

belfastgirl23 · 7 January 2008 at 4:06PM

The other way to approach it, which I've been trying to do a bit, is to identify your fixed items that you buy every month/quarter and see how much they cost. See if you can bring the cost down on the major items - eg we get through 25l of skimmed milk a month - going down to longlife milk saved 10p a litre, £2.50 a month, and meant we don't have to go to the shops so often. I had identified bread as a big cost for us so when the reduced price breadmaker showed up on Amazon I jumped at it. Mysupermarket.com is good for this.

It can also be worth going to specific shops to stock up if there's something you use a lot on offer.

The other question is whether you have a local market for fruit and veg. I find that this does eat up a fair bit of my budget. And thinking about eating seasonally for this sort of thing.

Chinese supermarkets can be good for bulk buys. Might be worth seeing if you could get really into rice since it tends to be incredibly cheap there.

But TBH your budget doesn't sound outlandish to me at all...you could probably shave off a bit but it's hard to see how you could do £60 a month healthily. I think it would be pasta with tinned tomatos every night

I'd guess we probably spend the best part of £60 just on fruit and veg in a month and that's just for 2 of us.

PLEASE READ BEFORE POSTING

Grocery shopping experts - how little do you spend

Comments

Confirm your email address to Create Threads and Reply

🚀 Getting Started

Categories

Is this how you want to be seen?

Get our FREE Weekly email full of deals & guides - and it’s spam-free