How frugal can you be with food shopping?

Curry_Queen

moggins wrote:

Arrrgggghhh, that is not fair, The View from River Cottage is on at 8pm too

We're just watching that and DS went rather _pale_ whilst watching the castration, and looked postively when they cooked and ate the testicles :rotfl:

moggins

My daughter was looking rather green round the gills too DH taped Spendaholics for me so I'll watch it when DS comes home and I can go to bed. Don't know what's happened to me since I hit 40. If I can't make it to bed by 10 then I'm completely useless the next day

HappySad

Curry_Queen wrote:

I can't even imagine spending £800 a month on shopping, even when we were a family of a five, let alone a week!!! :eek:

I was doing my budget spreadsheets earlier today and made a new sheet to calculate running totals and averages, as my spending goes up and down every month due to bulk buying so I was finding it hard to stick to a monthly budget, and I was pleasantly surprised at the results!

On average I'm spending around £24 a week on groceries, household products and toiletries. This is to cater, on average, for myself and a teenager, although I often have an extra mouth to feed but this balances out with DS spending the weekend at his dads, often returning to eat with me on a Sunday anyway, so technically he's only away for one meal per week.

We eat very well on this budget and I only ever buy organic meat, dairy, fruit and vegetables, so it's definitely possible to do it cheaper if you're not bothered about buying organic products

Hi CurryQueen, I would love to know how you manage to have a low shopping bill when you buy organic food. I can't imaging how you do this when you also buy organic meat. Where do you get your organic food from? I get mine from Sainsbury & Waitrose as they are just local to me. Do you travel out to get your organic foods? Do you mainly eat veggy?

Curry_Queen

HappySad wrote:

Hi CurryQueen, I would love to know how you manage to have a low shopping bill when you buy organic food. I can't imaging how you do this when you also buy organic meat. Where do you get your organic food from? I get mine from Sainsbury & Waitrose as they are just local to me. Do you travel out to get your organic foods? Do you mainly eat veggy?

Hi HappySad

I suppose I'm what you'd call a "savvy" shopper and I'm forever looking for bargains, vouchers to use, BOGOF's ... the usual deals ... and this probably cuts my shopping bill by around a third on average ... in fact I've just looked at my spreadsheet again and I'm consistently achieving 30-40% savings across the board every month from deals/vouchers, so the gross cost would be much higher if I paid full price.

All my shopping is done online at various different places, apart from the odd pint of milk etc picked up locally if I run out, and whilst I haven't included the delivery costs in the figure I quoted, they probably amount to approx £5-£10 a month on top, which is much less than most people's petrol allowance or bus/taxi fares to go shopping!

I also buy in bulk when I spot things on offer, especially BOGOF's, and I'm still using up supplies of toiletries I got from Boots 6 mths ago! I also managed to get myself a couple of 5 litre containers of Trevor Sorbie's shampoo and conditioner which will probably last me years LOL!

I recently stocked up on Charmin double-size toilet rolls when Tesco were doing them on BOGOF, and I've still got some of the Andrex quilted ones I bought a few months ago on BOGOF, so no need to buy them for another good few months! I probably have around 6 mths supply of washing powder too :rotfl:

I have a family sized organic fruit/veg box delivered every fortnight and cook and/or freeze what I don't use within a week. Meat/poultry is again ordered online in bulk quantity as many suppliers will then offer discount and/or free delivery, so I only order every 2-3 mths. Jimmy's Farm is my favourite place for pork products as he rears rare breed Essex pigs and I've never before tasted pork like it! Also, his sausages and bacon are magnificent, as is his Stornaway black pudding :drool:

I'm happy to buy AF free range lamb/poultry rather than pay the extra for the SA stamped organic version, as there's barely no difference apart from cost. We don't often eat beef so I probably get a delivery from Well Hung Organics about twice a year for joints and steaks, and top up in between if necessary for organic mince and stewing/braising steak, either at Tesco's or Jimmy's farm.

I buy fresh fish from a local fish van and get good deals on end of day stock, for e.g. tuna, sea bass, monkfish, skate wings, pollock, trout, salmon, scallops etc, and freeze what I can't use immediately. I also get given free game from time to time (rabbit/pheasant/venison etc) and the odd surplus fruit/veggies from a friend's allotment.

If I'm after something a little different for my "exotic" cooking then rather than just buy that ingredient I'll take advantage of offers/free delivery to stock up on various storecupboard items, and use places like Goodness Direct, Redmoor, Wing Yip and a couple I've forgotten now, but will probably order only 2-3 times a year. My "storecupboard" probably resembles something like Nigella's if you've ever seen her "Nigella Bites" series, although unfortunately it's not all contained in one large walk-in pantry like hers LOL!

As for cooking/eating ... I make absolutely everything from scratch, including breads, yoghurts, baking etc, and unless it's school holidays, I only have to worry about cooking one main meal a day as DS has cereal and juice/smoothie for breakfast, and lunch at school (free) or at his dad's, and I have a bad habit of only eating once a day, or sometimes I'll have muesli/porridge/fruit/toast/smoothie etc if I'm hungry

I have a large repertoire of meals I cook, and always cook in bulk where I can to freeze for my "off" days, but there's always something new on the menu as I like to experiment, so I can easily intersperse "cheap yet nutritious/filling" meals with the more expensive/exotic options to keep costs down, yet maintain a varied menu so we don't ever get bored with food! We don't eat meat/fish every day, maybe 3-4 times a week at most, and I often use beans/pulses/veggies to pad out mince/sausage meals. A joint or whole chicken will easily give us 4-5 meals plus stock/soup, so works out very economical.

I never buy ready meals and junk food fillers such as crisps, sweets, snacks etc as there's always a supply of cheeses, fruit/veggies (DS loves raw carrot and cucumber LOL!) to munch on and we make our own breadsticks, dips, popcorn, ice cream, cookies etc. DS has his own allowance from his dad so could go and buy sweets and "junk food" if he wanted, but he rarely does and prefers HM options


Wow, that was a long post!


Well, I hope it helps somewhat to explain how I manage to keep the costs down, but then I have no choice whilst on benefits, although my credit cards come in handy and give me the flexibility to bulk buy, but I do try to pay the balance off each month so I'm not running up any debts!

As I mentioned in another thread, I'm a bit of a foodie but because of illness/disability my only pleasure these days comes from cooking/eating good food, so I've become very adept at creating tasty, yet cheap and nutritious meals, although I'm certainly not averse to having good old beans on toast, egg and chips or an omelette on occasion


Edit: Oh, forgot to add that I also didn't include any wine (only the odd bottle of spirit once or twice a year) in the £24 a week as I also buy that in bulk separately from Tesco's wine warehouse 3-4 times a year when they have their half price deals and offers on (usually average £2-£3 a bottle for some decent wines) combined with a decent money off voucher

Curry_Queen

On reading back what I wrote I realise it makes me sound like some sort of ... oh, I don't know what the word is ... but like I'm sort of superior in some way and can cook all these fantastic dishes at such low cost, but believe me, the reality is much different than it sounds

Ok, I am a pretty good cook if I say so myself, and will attempt to cook anything and everything, but because of my illness (primarily depression related) the days I can actually spend in the kitchen cooking are very varied (especially recently) which is why I cook in bulk batches where I can to freeze, and for example, I cooked a big 3-course meal last Sunday for my son's birthday, but it was very stressful and took me days to recover from it

I also have far more time on my hands to shop around (online) for deals with being stuck at home 24/7, which I fully appreciate a lot of you, especially working mum's, just don't have the time to do so it's often a one-stop hit at the supermarket for everything, even if you do take the trouble to cook from scratch where you can, which can often works out more expensive.

I'd really hate for anyone to feel ... again, I can't think of the word that I'm looking for (sorry, had an extremely stressful day ) ... but that you don't measure up or have failed in some way, as this isn't what it's about and as has been mentioned numerous times, it's not a competition and everyone has to do what they feel confortable with

Ok, I'll go away and stop rambling now

taplady

You dont sound superior at all ! I really admire what you manage to do on a limited income and I aspire to follow you where possible but i have a very long way to go yet ! lol

You're a brilliant example to us all Curry Queen! :A

lovinlife_2

Curry Queen, I loved your long post and found it inspirational! We all do what we can and maybe we can learn things from each other... I'm certainly thinnking 'hmmm, I think I'll try doing that'! Sometimes I just can't see any other way of doing things than I do now, then reading a post like yours shows me that there are other ways which might make life easier.

Just wish I had a bigger freezer - that pork sounds delish! :drool:

Bargain_Rzl

Curry_Queen wrote:

On reading back what I wrote I realise it makes me sound like some sort of ... oh, I don't know what the word is ...

Domestic goddess??

Believe me, Curry Queen, if you weren't a domestic goddess this forum would be much less informative.

And if there's one good thing to come out of your depression & agoraphobia problems, it's that you have loads of time on your hands to indulge your cooking habit and can then advise the rest of us mere mortals :A for which we are all eternally grateful.

summerday

Thanks for your long and useful post Curry Queen. OH and I don't get through much meat just the 2 of us, but when we have a family one day I will definitely think about having meat deliveries like you do. I giggled at the Charmin stockpile bit though- because my understair cupboard is packed full of them too from when they were on BOGOF, and same with washing powder!

I'm sure everyone realises you wouldn't mean to act 'superior' in any way- certainly I find all your posts very inspiring and helpful without ever being the slightest bit boastful or patronising. Just wsh I had your culinary skills!

Sarah.

HappySad

Thanks CurryQueen for your very informative post. I think that you are doing so well and you really inspire me. I hope that in time I will do more of the things that you do.


Where do you shop online for your food... you mentioned Tesco. Do you shop online twice a month which is why your deliviery costs are only £5-£10. I only shop online with Ocado about once a month when they email or post me a £5-10 voucher.

Do you have children CurryQueen. I have a two year old. When do you find the time to make everything? I cook about 3/4 or our food from scratch and I am aiming to make more food from scratch.

Don't feel bad about letting us know how you live your life and feel that you are being superiour to others. We all have different lifes, priorities and needs.

Thanks again