How frugal can you be with food shopping?

Curry_Queen

Hi, and thanks to everyone for all your lovely comments :A

I find everyone else's posts an inspiration too, especially mums (and MATH! ) with babies/young children or working mums, whom all seem to manage to do far more in a day than I sometimes do in a week!

My boys are all grown up now, well youngest is still only 13 but he's a very independant young man and often has his work cut out looking after me when I'm not well too. The eldest two don't live with my anymore, although DS2 seems to be spending more and more time here lately, and my eldest will be coming to live with me when he gets out of hospital so I can take care of him.

I've not always made everything from scratch, and have been down the road of convenience foods when I was busy working full-time and the family were younger, so I know exactly how hard it is to juggle everything and try to be supermum

I just have more time on my hands these days as I'm stuck at home 24/7 with only DS for company (hence spending so much time yakking to everyone here ) and I've always enjoyed cooking so it's more of a hobby really and I love trying out new dishes! Just wish I had more people around to feed them to sometimes :rotfl:

I do have my lazy days though, especially when I'm on my own ... yesterday I only had a fish finger sarnie for dinner and today, thanks to inspiration from Allexie, I'm having potato and courgette rostis with a tuna steak ... about 15 mins prep and cooking time and result is a lovely healthy but tasty meal

Oh, and Tesco deliveries ... I try to just stick to a monthly one now if I can, since they upped the minimum spend on the vouchers, but sometimes find I need one mid-month for perishables as I just don't have room in the freezer for stuff like milk, dairy products, cold meats etc and there's always something I find I'm running low on to add to the list

Lulubells

Squeaky - My hubby is the same with heinz baked beans, I just can't get away with the cheap beans !! just to let you know Asda have a 4 pack for £1 at the moment.

emp501

I live by myself in a small flat adjoining my family home. I have one standard fridge with a small freezer compartment, so I have to be careful what I buy. I also like to cook for my mum as well at least once or twice a week when she comes home from work. At the weekend I made a fortnight's meal plan which included some meals I could easily extend to cook for two, and did a really careful shop from that. I spent £30 - so you're right on target! That included a newspaper, a magazine for Mum and I to share, birthday cards for the month, some luxuries (like a raspberry cream sponge cake) and ingredients for a big pudding each week. All I need to top up on next weekend is bread and milk; all the rest of my meals are catered for!

1sue23

MrsB wrote: »

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.

I spend about £175 to 200 every week and that is only for 3 people and then I run out of food by the end of the week .:o

Mellika

1sue23 wrote: »

I spend about £175 to 200 every week and that is only for 3 people and then I run out of food by the end of the week .:o

Maybe you should give the grocery challenge a go

Sarahsaver

at £175 to £200 you MUST be buying proceessed food. Go cold turkey and do not get anything ready made, meals that is! i used to feed myself and 3 kids on £20 a week, you may not want to go that extreme (we ate v healthily though) but you can save a heck of a lot!

Skint_Catt

I'm looking forward to trying to cut ours down but it'll have to wait until I change my job at the beginning of May so I have more time to create things (I don't buy ready meals now but I struggle with time after working full-time 5 days a week) and getting more organised. It's my first go at Rubber Chicken this Sunday coming (if we're in) and also splitting a pack of mince to make at least two meals (normally 400g would do 1 :eek:).

Surprisingly my OH is really into this since I've talked about it and bought packs of soya &red lentils to bulk it all out. He even goes around bragging that I add white vinegar to the washing up liquid

Skint_Catt

Sarahsaver wrote: »

at £175 to £200 you MUST be buying proceessed food. Go cold turkey and do not get anything ready made, meals that is! i used to feed myself and 3 kids on £20 a week, you may not want to go that extreme (we ate v healthily though) but you can save a heck of a lot!

Not at all. I spend £175 for two at the mo (oops just read thats a week - mines a month) (gradually getting this down now we're fully settled in the house and have the basics) and don't buy processed foods, anything in a jar that I couldn make myself or ready meals - mies pushed up by OH's alcohol but now he's found he's allergic to whiskey (1l a month :eek:) I'm a happy bunny!