How frugal can you be with food shopping?

taplady

black-saturn wrote:

TBH, I don't know. But I manage it somehow We eat porridge for breakfast or toast. My children have a free school dinner but I usually have a sandwich, 8p noodles or 9p beans on toast then for tea I cook something from scratch or buy one get one free stuff and then most nights we have a pudding cooked from scratch too. It can be done if you put your mind to it.

I'd like to know a bit more on how you do it too! :money: like the others I though i was doing ok but it seems I've got a lot to learn !

calleyw

I mean we have:

cereal and Juice for Breakfast.
Lunch is a sandwich or soup (not always homemade I have to say)
evening meal is anything from veg and quorn, Rice and noodles a pasta meal on toast (about once a week).
Occasional have a joint on a sunday if I get one in. Small freezer need to go and buy a bigger one to get more in.
And once week a week have frozen Salmon or Tuna as a treat on a friday night with some HM wedges and a very cheap bottle of wine.

Depending on how many weeks in the month and if anything has been on special offer and I have stocked up I still spend between £75 and a £100 and I plan meals at least two weeks in advance.

So must be doing something wrong. LOL!!!!!!!!!!

Editted to add: I have just worked out on food we have averaged about £80 a month.



Yours

Calley

Hermia

rach83 - do you have any Asian shops in town or even better an Asian part of town? Asian food shops are just brilliant. You can bulk-buy rice and pulses and pay less than at the supermarket and of course you can get reasonably-priced spices to make your cheap basics tasty. They are also brilliant for lovely fruit and veg at excellent prices.

My weekly food bill depends on how organised/stressed I am and whether I'm working long hours. If I'm disorganised and knackered I find myself buying convenience foods and that obviously gets expensive. If I'm in an organised mood I will plan my week's meals in advance (inc. my packed lunch for work). I will also get my huge curry pot out (also bought from an Asian shop!) and cook tons of bolognese/chilli/curry/whatever that I can freeze in portions. That is very cheap to do.

Ember999

Goodness, I don't know how you people do it! I spend about £50 - £60 a week! :eek: for two people and that does not include my bills for my cats food (dry and canned!) and I doubt I could do it for less. Not without compromising how we eat etc. I would like to spend less but how do you do it when I want us to be healthy, eat all the right foods, and no, I don't buy ready-made meals just proper food - chicken, beef, lamb, veggies, etc.....i can go through £20 just getting 'bits' in my local co-op or Spar :eek: that's mid week too! When I go to Tesco I am lucky if my trolley is less than £100 :eek:

How do I cut it down? and still eat very well?

MrsB_2

We eat really well for about £40 per week including all household items like dishwasher tabs and shampoo. AND we eat really healthily - DH wont have it any other way!! Should just mention that it's just me and DH.

I found that one of the easiest things to do to cut the cost was to make larger quantities using the same amount of meat. Ie if we used to have a pack of 6 sausages between us for one meal, I now make that quantity last for 2 meals for 2 people by bulking it out with chick peas or lentils and the like - they're super healthy foods, very cheap, and make a meal really filling.

HTH.

black-saturn

OK, I'll give it a go but I can't say that I really stick to the same things every day but I'll give you some examples of the meals I might cook:

Breakfast
Porridge made with full cream milk and sweetened with either sugar, honey or chocolate chips.

Lunch
8p noodles from Tesco either on their own or mixed with a couple of sausages from a tin of hot dog sausages chopped up.
9p baked beans from Tesco either on their own or mixed with hot dog sausages again or add curry powder to them!!!

Evening Meal/Tea
I cook most things from scratch but I try to use ingredients which have been reduced. So for instance if I see something reduced in the supermarket I will think of a meal I can make with it rather than think of the meals and then look for the reduced stuff. I make puddings out of things like dumpling mix. Add sugar to it and some drinking chocolate and you can make a chocolate steamed pudding for about 30p and it lasts 2 days. Or you can add sugar to it and chopped apple for an apple dumpling. Or a really nice one is to core and peel a cooking apple and then wrap dumping mix all around it and then steam it. It makes a dumpling with apple puree in the middle. I make all my custard from milk, cornflour and vanilla essense. I make the most of seasonal ingredients as I can.

I get my main shop from Iceland as I have experimented with all the supermarkets and Iceland was where I found I got the most value for money. They also sometimes have sales on there where everything is 50p or £1 so I stock up when they have one of those on. Also if you spend more than £25 they deliver for free. I get top up shopping like milk and bread from Tescos but only because I collect the points, not because they are cheaper. I've also noticed the bigger the packet you buy the cheaper it is. So if you buy a box of 40 fish fingers it's cheaper per fish finger than buying a box of 10.

I also re-fill any loose ingredients from the Weigh and Save. So when my coffee, sugar, washing powder, flour, bicarb or any other loose ingredient has run out I will refill the packet with stuff from the weigh and save.

I can't really think of anything else

16011996

wow, thanks black saturn, some great ideas in there, i love the sound of the apple dumplings. and the idea of adding hot dog sausages to beans, far cheaper than ready done beans & sausage. Also the curry powder in the beans, i love curried beans, so that was a bit of a d'oh moment for me, lol.

We have value weetabix for breakfast with warm or cold milk (i only use uht value skimmed milk, its cheaper by far per pint, and it keeps for ages in a cool cupboard). and toast if the kids want it.

lunch tends to be either sandwiches (value bread, value ham or egg mayo) and apples and pears and yogurt(value ones again) plus a warm drink of juice (you guessed it value again).

tea can be anything from baked potatoes with filling (cheese, tuna, beans) with some veg to a casserole filled out with veg (2 chicken breasts chopped up does 4 of us in the slow cooker with all the potatoes etc i put in) again with a warm drink, as i always feel a warm drink at this time of year fills you up.

i only buy my veg from local greengrocers, it always seems much fresher and usually far cheaper. especially of you go late saturday and they don't open sunday you can get quote a few bargains there.

thanks

160

squeaky

black-saturn wrote:

9p baked beans from Tesco either on their own or mixed with hot dog sausages again or add curry powder to them!!!

Now that's where I hit my comfort barrier. Of the low cost beans available to me I can't stand a single one of them and so stick to Heinz - though I try to buy them when they have 3 for 4 type offers.

16011996

squeaky, have you tried adding a teaspoon of ketchup to value beans. i find this really helps as i wasn't so keen on them to start with, works well with value spaghetti in tomato sauce too.

edited to add, if you like them with a kick a sprinkle of worcester sauce is good too.

Penny-Pincher!!

Hey

I must admit that I do prefer Heinz baked beans when having beans on toast

When we do shepards pie/chilli or stew-I always stick a tin of value beans in to bulk the meal out with goodness and for flavour. I dont have any heinz in the cupboards ATM, but normally wait for them to be on special at Nettos-as they sell them for 19p when on one of there super special deals and stock up then I do only use for beans on toast though-it seems a waste otherwise :eek:

I have tried most value items from Asda (where I do main shop 3/4 weekly)and Tescos. Value items I buy all the time from Asda are: flour, biscuits, crisps, tuna, cheese, tinned-toms/sweetcorn/kidney beans/beans/spagetti/raviolli/soups/garden peas/mushy peas/rice pudding, veg oil, vegetables, frozen pies, oven chips, eggs (sorry), toothbrushes, scourers, washing up liquid, polish, frozen chicken breasts/portions, sausages (if no others on special), mutton mince, lamb chops.

Lidls is another good place to buy items. We are lucky that we have one down the road and weekly buy a beautiful smoked ham (300g) 89p for 6 thick slices, bags of potatoes, fresh fruit and veg when half price or top up needed, milk is cheap, coleslaw is lovely-especially on a spud with grated cheese or tuna, mozzarella is 45p and makes 2 big pizzas, frozen fish is good value, strong white flour for the BM too.

PP
xx