My Mum needs help getting her shopping bill down!

MissWorzel

I've heard so many things over at DFW about how good you guys are at reducing shopping bills... So... I propose to you ladies and gents... a challenge! :O

Currently, my Mum spends £100 a week on a shop for 4 of us. Her, my Dad, my brother and myself. Not to mention we have a little king charles too that eats like a king!

Sometimes my boyfriend stays over on weekends, but we rarely eat their food as we normally get takeouts. Also some days during the week, and 2 weekends a month, I stay at his, so I'm a part timer as far as eating food at home is concerned.

I'm not very good at planning meals OR cooking, so I don't really know what other information to offer, but all I know is that my Mum isn't a meat lover, but the rest of the family is, but she's happy to eat something else if we all have a meal with meat.

So, does anyone have any ideas? If you need anymore info, let me know and ill extract it from my mum

Worzel xx

julieq

Post what was on last week's shopping bill if you can, that'll be a good starting point. The great thing with bill reduction is to find better ways of eating what you like.

Also does she throw much food away? What's her position on eating leftovers?

MissWorzel

julieq wrote: »

Post what was on last week's shopping bill if you can, that'll be a good starting point. The great thing with bill reduction is to find better ways of eating what you like.

Also does she throw much food away? What's her position on eating leftovers?

As soon as I get home I'll post what she bought and how much it totaled to! I'm at work till 5, so I can't get that just yet.
We don't tend to make big batches of food, and any food that gets left over from a meal is usually tiny tiny amounts that get given to the dog! We normally just cook enough for the meal and share it out between 4 of us, or whoever is eating.

I've got a really good feeling about this My money saving bug has rubbed off on everyone in the house :rotfl:

xx

CurlyTop

Hi MissWorzel

This is my first post on here (I've been browsing for months and finally plucked up the courage today to register for the forums).

I too used to spend a lot of money on shopping weekly. I would say that the biggest changes I've made are to:

1. Plan meals for a month - this allows you to make a bulk list of what you want but also allows you the flexibility to change any of the meals around so if you had planned fish for Tuesday but don't fancy it, you can always swap with another day that you do fancy.

2. Check off ingredients for the monthly food against what you have in the cupboards.

3. I do an online Mr T order once every 4-5 weeks which is made up of the items from number 2.

4. I go to Aldi for the likes of milk and bread cos they are cheaper. (Aldi sells 4pt of milk for £1.48 yet sells 2pt for 48p, so I buy 2x2pt and save 50p - it all adds up),

5. I go to Iceland for the frozen stuff such as peas, carrots, cod, prawns, etc.

6. Home and Bargains for the toiletries and household stuff.

7. Keep all the receipts and in a book and at the end of the month, I write a total for each shop. This I do as a comparison for the following month and so on. My shopping has come down from £175 in July to £114 in November.

Not sure if this helps, but at least it may be a start.

sexykellylovespink

hi i am new too and am really interested in this i can easily spend £150 a week, stuff just gets thrown in the trolley with no thought of meal plans, and my cupboards look like i am feeding the 5000. i would like to become more frugal, using left overs and being resorceful. any hints and tips greatly recieved kelly x

Pink.

Hi MissWorzel,

I think a lot of us are finding the grocery shopping creeping up at the moment because of price increases.

A good place to start is Martin's article on Supermarket Shopping which has lots of hints and tips on saving money on groceries which may help.

I don't know if your mum meal plans ahead, but if she doesn't it's a great way to save money by making sure you don't buy unnecessary things. To get some help with meal planning have a look in The Complete Menu Plans Collection.

Also there are lots of ideas for cheap meals on these threads:

Cheapest recipes???

Meal for two for 50p. Suggestions?

The Cheapest Healthy Meal Ever!

Feed 6 for £1.62

Cheapest meal

Your Cheapest Evening Meal.

cheap, easy family meals

Show Jamie How To Cook On A Budget Champagne Contest

Meal idea's under £1

Has your mum got a slow cooker? If not it might make a good Christmas present? Many of them cost under £20 for a family sized one. It's great if you're busy/out during the day as you can pop the food into it in the morning and come home to a cooked meal. It's quite moneysaving too as it works particularly well with cheaper cuts of meat.

And finally (if you've made it this far) does your mum use the computer at all? Could you direct her towards the Old Style board? Each month on Old Style there is a Grocery Challenge where she would be made very welcome and would get lots of encouragement and support from others trying to cut back on grocery shopping too.

Good luck with helping your mum to cut back.

Pink

Bitsy_Beans

I meal plan. I don't mean on a Monday night is fish night, tuesday is pasta night - I went through all the receipes my family like to eat and chose a different receipe for each night. I managed to work out a 6 week meal plan with very little repetition. I also buy a lot of the Basics range at Sainsburys (I don't like Tesco's value). I am disappointed that since the start of the credit crunch in the summer their prices for the Basics have been creeping up (catching on that people are trying them) but they are still decent price. I cook from scratch most of the time and I buy my fruit and veg from a local farm shop (which is probably the same price if not cheaper) but unlike the stuff that have been shipped from god knows where to the supermarket my fruit and veg actually last for weeks.
I don't spend a fortune on cleaning products. I buy bleach and Stardrops and that's all I need for cleaning.
I try and make my own cakes and biscuits and when I have the energy I use my breadmaker.
We try and eat less meat than before and bulk out meals with veg etc.
Hope that helps for now. If I have any more inspiration I'll be back!

julieq

There are a few basic techniques:

1) What do you find yourself throwing away? (buy less of that)

2) What are you buying from habit? (change habits - this can also help you lose weight if the habit is chocolate biscuits, for example)

3) What do you buy that's branded? (buy own brands or cheaper brands to see what they're like).

4) What can you make instead of buying pre-processed? This isn't just ready meals: for example, boney chicken breasts with skin are cheaper than chicken breast fillets, and it takes 2 minutes to transform them. Similarly a chicken has two breasts and a lot of other meat, can turn into stock, and so on, and it's a good cheap option usually.

5) Always go shopping with a list backed with a rough meal plan and don't deviate massively from it. If you find a bargain, knock something equivalent from the list.

6) Look for cheaper cuts of meat and so on. Stewing steak works as well ins stews as fillet steak, but a lot of people feel they have to buy the "best".

7) Whoopsies are great, they can actually be a lot of fun too as you can have to improvise around things you might not have bought otherwise. But try to avoid impulse buying whoopsies, make sure they fit basically into your meal planning.

8) If you have things in the freezer or cupboard, use some of them each week. Otherwise they just lurk expensively for ever.

9) Change supermarket each week, or at least cycle round them, stock up with the things that are cheap and/or good at each one, and obviously consider smaller shops from time to time if you have them closeby.

10) Buy yourself a treat with half of what you save.

I personally think you shouldn't get too hung up over what you spend within limits, providing you're eating well from it and you can afford it. Home cooking everything is a lifestyle choice just as much as eating ready meals and using time saved for other things you like doing is.

mouseymousey99

Hello - Go to the library and get some books out, that way you can 'try' some cookery books and pick up a few tips. Once you have made your own pizza you will not go back to buying takeaways - and you won't beleive how easy most things are to make (and how much you have been paying)....

MissWorzel

Thank you all of you guys for your tips! Especially Pink for those great links!
Unfortunately my Mum's thrown away last weeks shopping receipt away, so I can't let you know what she's bought!

Ill print out any tips given to me though, and hopefully when she next goes shopping, ill re-bump this thread with how much shes spent, and on what!

She does have internet access, uses it more than me the cheeky bleeder! But I don't think she's too keen on using it to talk to people, she's a bit old fashioned and a bit scared I think, but I'm sure a bit of gentle persuasion can make her come round, as long as you lovely ladies are gentle with her haha! I'm sure you will be

I'm off to print out these masses of tips.

Thanks again guys... and I will be back for your help after the next shop!

Worz xx

Pink.

MissWorzel wrote: »

She does have internet access, uses it more than me the cheeky bleeder! But I don't think she's too keen on using it to talk to people, she's a bit old fashioned and a bit scared I think, but I'm sure a bit of gentle persuasion can make her come round, as long as you lovely ladies are gentle with her haha! I'm sure you will be

Hi Worz,

Tell your mum she doesn't have to talk to us, but she can read the advice that's been posted previously and take her time to find her way around the board without registering. I imagine once she's had a look around she'll find she has lots of tips and advice to offer and will want to join in with the rest of us.

Just warn her that mse can be addictive. :D

You sound like a lovely daughter!

Pink