General grocery savings tips?

krazyk · 15 April 2005 at 5:42PM

Hi there,

I've been through a lot of forums here to find help on my debt problems. The only area that I feel I have left to tackle is my grocery bill which is very heavy at £200 a month (for just *little* old me)!!

I buy online from Tesco as I don't have my own transport to get to the out of town supermarket (there are groceries stores in town but have fairly small at best). I always pick delivery for the days when the service charge is cheapest at £3.99 and buy for 2 or 3 weeks as best I can (I get milk and bread, for example, from my local Tesco Express, when needed). I think the £3.99 would cover the petrol costs and car running for the journeys to and from Tesco each week.

Are Tesco the best place to buy? I like a lot of their own products, so moving over to, say, Sainsbury who are the alternative big supermarket here, would be abig change for me. I've also bought from Tesco.

I can give more details, but are there any general tips that might cut my bill down? I find it easier to pick up special offers online and do so where possible. I also use e-coupons whenever I get sent them from Tesco.

I am going to buy 2 recipe books (Real Fast Food and The Cost-conscious Cook books mentioned in another thread) - I'm no cook at all and buy a few ready-meals like Lasagne sometimes, but I'm up for learning how to cook (I'm more a "can't cook" instead of a "won't cook"). But perhaps its not the food part of my groceries that is the problem (now thinking I should try and breakdown my grocery bill).

K

Bogof_Babe · 15 April 2005 at 6:02PM

This board is crammed full of tips - I wouldn't know where to start in directing you to them, so if you haven't already then I would start by trawling back. Be warned it will take you ages, as every thread is so full of helpful ideas!

More info you could give us is how many do you cater for, and what are your other commitments i.e. work etc?

Hope you can make a start anyway with the aid of this board, and I expect some of the rest of the "gang" will be along soon to advise you.

See you soon!

Good luck with your new project. :beer:

Magentasue · 15 April 2005 at 6:23PM

Breakfast - supermarket cereals are much cheaper than branded - what do you buy?

Lunch - what do you do for lunch?

Dinner - the big saving area! Tell us seven meals you would eat and what ingredients you would buy. Afters too!

Other - snacks? Drinks?

Everybody here will have loads of ideas for you, you'll be spending less next week!

krazyk · 15 April 2005 at 6:27PM

Hi there,

Cool, thanks, yeah there is a lot of tips, very specific though. I have started going through them, just wanted to quickly ask if its possible to provide any general help or not.

Like I mentioned, the bill is just for me and is very high (shocked me when I sat down and took the last 6 months Tesco bills and worked out the cost per month). I work full-time (9-5 every week day). I'm self-employed if that matters (e.g. no holidays for me).

No other commitments that I can think of, though I sure need to get some exercise commitments into my schedule. ;-)

K

crazyhazy · 15 April 2005 at 6:47PM

krazyk wrote:

Hi there,

Cool, thanks, yeah there is a lot of tips, very specific though. I have started going through them, just wanted to quickly ask if its possible to provide any general help or not.

Like I mentioned, the bill is just for me and is very high (shocked me when I sat down and took the last 6 months Tesco bills and worked out the cost per month). I work full-time (9-5 every week day). I'm self-employed if that matters (e.g. no holidays for me).

No other commitments that I can think of, though I sure need to get some exercise commitments into my schedule. ;-)

K

First things I would suggest is to do a menu plan, maybe start at a week, work out what meals you want on what days, this can be just evening meal or can include breakfast/lunch aswell. Then check your cupboards and see what you already have (or do this first and plan around what's there), then make a list of everything else you need. There's 2 of us and a part time dog! and we spend never more than £120 pm on food etc. Usually nearer £100 and this is eating really well, not even buying much value stuff, but we also don't buy much convenience food or any ready meals.

Bogof_Babe · 15 April 2005 at 6:58PM

crazyhazy wrote:

There's 2 of us and a part time dog!

I hardly like to ask what the dog is the rest of the time!

Perhaps the OP just has expensive tastes, or expensive buying habits. Living on cheapo's isn't for everyone but if you want to cut down you do have to make sacrifices somewhere!

I have recently discovered the joys of instant noodles for lunch - Sainsbury's vegetable flavour @ 23p a pack makes a quite satisfying mid-day snack, and a couple of biscuits plus an apple or banana takes me through until the evening meal for less than £1.

Only buy loo roll when in 6for4 packs, (even better than 12for9); buy fresh produce when it's in season; have a bread roll with every meal, to help fill you up.....

It's the little things that help - there are no obvious smack-you-in-the-face solutions really, we all find our own ways.

krazyk · 15 April 2005 at 7:18PM

Hi Magentasue,

OK, I seem to have gone back to Weetabix for breakfast. I have a smooth yogurt (prefer Ski but Tesco's and Weight-Watchers are nice too) and a glass of smooth orange juice from Tesco. I buy Tesco skimmed milk but you cannot get the big litre bottles that you can with the whole milk version.

Lunch is very small for me, home-made sandwiches (fillings like pate, paste, cheese, ham - cheese is laughing cow, everything else including the bread is Tesco, butter is Flora Pro-Activ). Perhaps one or 2 choc bars (yes, very naughtly) - Twix, Twirls or Kit-Kats and a packet of crisps (though definitely not every day) - Walkers. I actually suffer from tiredness in the afternoons so would actually need to increase the amount of food for lunch.

I have 2 or 3 cereal bars during the day too (I try and eat little but often). Rice Krispies and Nutri-Grain bars.

Dinner can be several things, but all package or tinned food (hence why I would like to get these 2 books and start "cooking"). I also want to start creating 'smoothies' with my juicer. Tinned food such as spaghetti (Tesco), semolina (ambrosia), smooth soups (Tesco), package food such as lasagne (love 'em/Tesco), pizza (though not very often/Good Fellas), waffles, fish fingers (both (Birds Eye), rostis., scrampi, spaghatti bolognese, microwave cheeseburgers (not too often/all Tesco). I've recently got back into omelettes (cheese/Tesco) and I know they are very easy to make yourself. Thankfully I don't smoke or drink (other than wine at home).

If I have a dessert it's normally a microwave pudding, ice-cream (both Tesco) or Ambrosia custard.

I have one batchelors cup-a-soups a day, one multi-vitamin from Centrum a day (100 tablets at just over £10 but I've been told this product will be discontinued soon, only Tesco stock it now), one Yalkult Light drink a day and a Mullerlight yogurt a day (I buy these individually as I'm picky on the favours I like and they don't appear to stock "packs" of these favours. No tea or coffee (yuck) and the odd glass of wine (one glass a day at the very most). The wine I'm currently drinking is Lambrusco (Tesco). I buy one bottle at a time atm (trying new wines out but will probably stick to Lambrusco and could get a box full). I drink a lot of water too (Evian bottled, I've tried tap water but hate it, I've also tried many other bottle water, like Tesco's but they too taste horrible).

I tend to buy in bulk and the biggest packets available if I know I'm going to use it before its used by date

My problem is that I don't like many foods, so are limited to what I can get, but perhaps the £200 is higher than normal as I have just moved back out of my parents into a new house in these last 6 months (though I didn't have to buy many "extra" things).

Perhaps I should list toiletries and cleaning/other items? :-)

K

Bogof_Babe · 15 April 2005 at 7:30PM

Well,could you be bothered to itemise a breakdown of your monthly shopping bill?

If you check out the monthly "grocery challenge" threads on here, several people have listed fairly exactly just where their cash goes, which enables other members to suggest ways of economising in various areas.

You don't have to be till-receipt precise, but a rough idea would probably show up some potential savings.

For instance the Yakults - they are to me a luxury item, however I agree that to some people they would be a "must have", but can we find other products like ordinary yoghurts that would have much the same benefit?

Trow · 15 April 2005 at 7:31PM

krazyk, you might find that your tiredness in the afternoon is less to do with how much you eat and more to do with what you eat - I always am tired if I have bread for lunch, but never if I have fruit/yoghurt, baked potato or leftovers from teh previous night.

Try varying what you have at lunchtime and see if you see a difference.

krazyk · 15 April 2005 at 8:03PM

Hi Bogof_Babe,

>Well,could you be bothered to itemise a breakdown of your monthly shopping bill?

There's no need to be like! If itemising helps then yes I'll do that for you.

I do agree with you in regards to it's down to each person's taste. If I cannot cut it down then fair enough, but at least I can say I've tried. But if 2 people and a dog (be it a part-time dog??) spend about £100 a month then I must be doing something seriously wrong at £200 a month for one person.

Trow,

Yes I realise this too, but varying doesn't seem to make much difference, could be just me job, lol.

K

Bogof_Babe · 15 April 2005 at 8:40PM

Oh sorry, I really meant no offence. Just that personally I probably couldn't be bothered to list out everything I spend for a month, and what on.

Honestly - only trying to help

(mortified now

).

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General grocery savings tips?

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