Grocery Shopping budget thread

jetplane

Me & my husband are looking at where our money goes and how to spend less, save more, and Im sitting here amazed at how low people can get their food bill. I can spend £30 just popping in for a couple of items. I do a big shop online twice a month but spend approx £100 each time. I then get bits and bobs as we need them which add quite a bit on to the overall bill.

Having read some of these posts we clearly don't need them.

I do meal plans and have to admit I don't buy cheaper cuts of meat but even taking out treats I can't get it this low. Is there a board which gives me examples of how this works? ie meal plans, shopping lists etc.

There's only me, husband and adult daughter.

Thanks in anticipation

rising_from_the_ashes

Jetplane have a look at the Grocery Challenge (sticky at top of board) - friendly bunch, loads of tips, advice & support ..... and loads of great recipes at the start of the thread.

Plenty of time to join in for October .......

I've also just joined the Meal Planning thread (which is something I've never done) and it's incredibly hard (for me anyway) - my first attempt has been altered already .....

rising_from_the_ashes

notjustlaura wrote: »

I can spend £100/week on me and two cats. I've got it down to about £50/week and am starting to think about going lower ...

I was probably about the same if I worked it out (have separate budget for my stuff and the pets).

I have managed to stock up on cat food - got both their dry foods (different types of Royal Canin) on offer and bought bigger bags so it was cheaper and have enough to last about 5 months ... and probably enough wet for about 3 months:D so desperately trying to cut down!

I'm about to start a new sack of the dog's food and have just managed to get 2 additional sacks for £36 - so about 15 weeks for him:D.

I'll need to get veg for the dog (bulk buy, cook and freeze into individual portions) but aside from that, the odd box of treats and cat litter, should need to spend very little on them over the next 3 months or so.

Now ... I just need to get into the habit of not picking up cat food everytime I go to the supermarket!:o

GeorgieFTB

jetplane wrote: »

Me & my husband are looking at where our money goes and how to spend less, save more, and Im sitting here amazed at how low people can get their food bill. I can spend £30 just popping in for a couple of items. I do a big shop online twice a month but spend approx £100 each time. I then get bits and bobs as we need them which add quite a bit on to the overall bill.

Having read some of these posts we clearly don't need them.

I do meal plans and have to admit I don't buy cheaper cuts of meat but even taking out treats I can't get it this low. Is there a board which gives me examples of how this works? ie meal plans, shopping lists etc.

There's only me, husband and adult daughter.

Thanks in anticipation

Its about meal planning and using food more intelligently, thats not to say that anyone is stupid just that if you don't know how you can't do it...

Meal plans are important, there is no way to control how much you spend with out it but there are other ways of cooking... look up economy gastronomy, if you cook a roast on sunday the meat leftover gwets used on the monday in a curry for eample and the carcass get used for stock... homemade soup, simple dinners like jacket spuds or eggs and chips, batch cooking so cook twice as much as is needed then freeze whats left over for the nights you can't be asred!

There are several websites, weezl's website, cheap-family-recipies.org.uk (I think) and sansbobs feed for 50, altho most on here reckon they could do better...

Its not nessesarily how low can you go but how low works for you and your family and your purse, don't feel you have to get into a pi$$ing contest, this board is not about that!

Gx

gailey_2

I keep reading how well everyone manages to get by with their grocery budget but im struggling

wanted to spend £300 this month

but its more likly to be 400.

we family of 5

2adults
5year old who eats lots
2yearold who snacks
7month old baby who seems to detest my homemade baby food.

The 400 includes

household products
toilitries
wipes
pullups-for toddler
we have no pets.

I use cloth nappies with the 7months old I dont with toddler as she wees through them. I buy supermarket own brand tried value but they were awful.

I do buy value baby shampoo/bath at 11p a bottle and value wipes at 23p.

We shop the deals
use coupons
we downshifted to supermarket own brand and buy a lots of value products.
I would say least 60%of our shop is value lines.

we shop around main shop at sainsbury/asda /morrisions occasionaly tesco.

we go lidls once a month and get veg from there.

get meat from butcher- hes cheaper than supermarket

just feel like this year been much harder even values going up.

shop spar/co-op as they do best reductions

go farmfoods and fill our huge chest freezer
buy lots of frozen veg.

I also cook mostly 90%from scratch
i batchcook and freeze into homemade readymeals.

both hubby and 5year old take packed lunches

kids drink mostly double concentrate squash
we cut down on pop
cut back on alchol.

i do sometimes bake biscuits /cakes if not we buy value biscuits.

with cereals and crisps we shop the offers.

value toiliet roll. polish and black bags.
buy own brand washing up liquid.

get through 4pints of milk a day so thats very min £7 a week/£28 a month!

we grew some of own veg in summer
we also forage what we can throughout the year.

Am I being unrealistic with budget less than £100 a week for everything.

quintwins

wow i could have writen all that myself except i spend £200 a month (give or take about £20 it averages out) and i use proper fairy washing up liquid (i buy it from amazon)

my kids are 2 x5 and a 2 year old tho

could you maybe post a normal weeks meals as it seems alot, have you tried lidlpull up pants cheaper than proper pull ups i used them for potty training but only for the first week then moved onto pants and then at night

you can use your value baby bath in your soap dispensers to replace handwash aswell

lidl toilet roll at 10 for £1.50 is good not teh softest but lasts ages, i've been using the same pack for 3 week now even i'm amazed it's lasted this long

Hawthorn

Heya Gailey


Could you perhaps make porridge some days instead of using cereal?

Do you stretch out mince using lentils or something like that?

Also I find meat goes further if it's not just a serving of meat on a plate if that makes sense. Use in pies, pasties, stews, soups, pasta dishes and so on.

What are you giving for packed lunches? Sometimes it works out far cheaper to cook a joint of meat/chicken up, instead of giving presliced meats. My kids for example love it when I make chicken and stuffing sandwiches after a sunday lunch :rotfl:

Perhaps bulk out meals with more veg, or dumplings done in the oven, yorkshire puddings?

I know what you mean though, I have four kids, two of those teenage boys who eat like horses (well, they're both pushing six foot at 14 and 16) and it is really really tight lately.

Also, what are you doing for bread? My family prefers the 47p aldi loaf to the (should come gold plated for that price) kingsmill.

Do you have a market near you? We have one nearby, and you can pick up fruit/veg dirt cheap near the end of the market time..some of it's not brilliant, but if you can use it up in your cooking to freeze you can save a fortune.

aberdeensaver

Hi Gailey,

How much food are you throwing away wasted? And what do you think the value of your stock pile is? After all if you are spending £400 a month, but every month your store cupboards are still pretty full by the end of the month it is likely you are just buying more than you need.

Can you make your evening meal stretch to do one pack lunch? I squeeze one more portion out of dinner, put it in a tupperware and that becomes my lunch for the following day?

£400 does sound like a huge amount to spend, are your writing detailed shopping lists and only buying what you need? I always find if I dont go with a list I spend a fortune.

If your family eats alot of bread could you start with a cheap breadmaker (I appreciate there is an initial outlay) but I believe many say it soon becomes more cost effective.

rachbc

what do you buy, what do you eat? Do you get lots on individual portion things for packed lunces as these can be ££. I don't buy crisps or biscuits - they are expensive and not a neccessary part of a healthy diet. I do bake though less than I used to. Kids have toast/ crumpets/ fruit/ carot sticks etc if they want snacks.

I spend £250 for 2 adults a 13yo boy who eats more than an adult and 5 yo. 3X breakfast, 4X packed lunches and a cooked evening meal. Main shop aldi, top ups B&M, Home Bargains, and a whoopsies trawl 2/3 a month to waitrose/ asda and tesco.


Once it was clear my dd wasn't going to be dry at night a week after day training we ditched pull ups at night and went back to nappies - never used pull ups during the day with either of mine.

ragz_2

£400 sounds fine to me, as long as you can afford it. If you seriously need to cut back/cannot afford your spending then obviously there's a problem but don't cut back for the sake of it. I spend more than you, I could spend less but DH would moan! But if I had to I would cut the budget, I just like to be comfortable, have the odd drink, eat decent meat etc etc

My kids are 5,4 and 21 months. Everyone but me and youngest has packed lunches, DH insists on meat and cheese in his. He eats a lot. I cook a lot.

I use washables and tesco value disposables. I don't use the washables at night or when we go out.

Storecupboards... erm, that may be my weakness (they have taken over extra cupboards now... and don't get me started on the chest freezer!)

See my signature for how much I spend - I wonder if I could value the contents of my stores... I don't think I dare!