Grocery Shopping budget thread

lilrahi

I spend about the same and it's me, DH, 4 yr old who hates food, and 1 yr old who still insists on pureed foods.

I think a lot of my expense comes from multiple shops. If we limited ourselves and went once every 2 weeks I'm sure we could get it down.

Lil one still in nappies but I buy the own brand stuff. I find Morrisons and lidl to have the best ones for her bottom. Asda and aldi gave her rashes as did Huggies.

And Asian vegetables! Don't get me started, DH likes his food traditional and when you're buying a cabbage from Bangladesh the size of a grapefruit that costs £3 believe me it mounts up. If I do the shopping I buy pointed cabbage for like 75p at lidl and tell him it's Bangladeshi! There's another Citrus fruit used in cooking called a shatkora which costs £3.60 each and is about the size of an apple! Unfortunately there's no cheap replacement for that!!

squeaky

Hiya,

We have a long running "collected" thread on budgets Grocery Shopping budget thread and it is very likely that browsing it will lead you to posts from readers who are in circumstances very similar to yours - and in any event it's full of good stuff that you'll be able to use.

I'll merge your query with this later.

You might also find our Grocery Challenge, which is a sticky at the top of the board listing, of help and inspiration too.

Good luck

tigerfeet2006

We are a family of 5 and my bill is around £450 a month, so I don't think you are doing to badly. My aim is ti get it down to around £400. Though I have to admit at it's worse it was around £700.

Have you checked out this website at all?
http://www.cheap-family-recipes.org.uk/cookingadvice.html

gailey_2

Thanks guys for feedback.

im doing grocery challange updated figures today and realised we going to go over the £300 I would like to have set.

I do use lidls pullups find them the cheapest.

get milk from lidls too.

I have a breadmaker and have made handmade bread but its working out cheaper to bulk buy reduced loaves.

we often use leftovers for hubbys lunch next day

i sometimes bulk out mince with red lentils

I do rubber chicken can make 1 whole chicken stretch to 3meals.
one thing i do like to do is buy free range poultry and eggs , if not freerange rspa freedom.

I try to buy lean mince as on a diet.

Not throwing any food away.

sadly only hubby likes porridge will try and get 2year old and baby to it,

Trying to cut back on babyjars and replicate same flavours homemade,
hes 7months and only seems to like really smooth purees.
The kids have value fromage frais and mouse.
they also love crumpets and scotch pancakes.

use value toiliet roll but that lidls one sounds good value will look out for it.
toddlers managed to waste 3rolls this week by chucking them down toiliet!

They couldent live without their crisps and biscuits they limited to 1pack a day usually with lunch.
I either buy on offer or value same with biscuits mostly value bourbans.

Sadly no market near me,.

there is mobile butcher in van carpark who I already use for our meat.

we rarly go out so do have odd drink or value choc as treat.

just seems scary to spend £400+a month as thats like 25%of monthly salary just on food.

we are paying off some debts but not prepared to cut back to much to unhealthy food we like our fresh fruit and veg.

we have had really skint months in past few years and one month just did farmfoods but got sick of frozen food!

I think all the shopping around does help.

I like a full storecupboard with coffee, sugar, flour, herbs,spices, tomatoes/passatta ect.

just noticed the price rises last 12months or so

even value foods gone up.

feels like we getting less for more some weeks.

lirahe -sounds tough not sure where you live but some areas of my city have huge asian supermarkets which I think are quite cheap.

pickle54

Hi, I have a 2yr old and a 3 1/2 yr old, use washables and disposables at night, but don't get through the same amount of milk as you. I also only use free range eggs and chicken.

Have you tried just putting off shopping for a day or 2? If you usually shop for a week, see if you can stretch that to 8-9 days? Have you considered baby led weaning for your youngest? I did that with my youngest as she refused the spoon, but an added bonus was that it was waaaay cheaper.

I've been cutting my food bill by stretching meat with veg, getting some value/market shopping, and stocking up on the deals. I waste nothing, I prefer to dish up seconds than load up their plates as at least that way some can be frozen if not eaten. I'm probably averaging about £70 pw at the moment. I'm a bit tight with snacks/treats....a bag of crisps maybe twice a week and biscuits on bath nights, the rest of the time they have fruit/homemade cakes or toast.

lilrahi

gailey wrote: »

Trying to cut back on babyjars and replicate same flavours homemade,
hes 7months and only seems to like really smooth purees.
The kids have value fromage frais and mouse.

my DD is like that as well and she's 13 months old! I blend her stuff really well but now trying to get her used to lumps and bumps so I pur!e half and mash half.

use value toiliet roll but that lidls one sounds good value will look out for it.
toddlers managed to waste 3rolls this week by chucking them down toiliet!

I use the LIdl ones and they are really good. It's like 10 for £1.70 or something and they're not thin and flimsy like some of the supermarket own brands and value stuff.

lirahe -sounds tough not sure where you live but some areas of my city have huge asian supermarkets which I think are quite cheap.

They are excellent of things from this country, spinach 5 big bunches for £1, normal cabbage for 75p, 2 Cauliflowers for £1 etc... But is the stuff from Asia that's expensive but I suppose they're trying to recover their airfare!

[Deleted User]

I live alone and have a food budget purse with £100.00 per month in it .With that I buy all food ,cleaning stuf etc.My diesel is seperate, also my one luxury (my window cleaner ) as I am far too decrepit to be climbing on stepladders to clean windows and at £6.00 per month he is well worth it
I manage very well on the budget and use every bit of food that I buy (no throwing stuff out in my house):eek::eek: I like fresh fruit, and am fond of all sorts of veg I rarely drink so i don't need to buy wine unless I am entertaing I am lucky in as much as I have my Sunday dinner cooked for me at my DDs every week (if its chicken after I have stripped the left overs off for her for a curry next day I bring the carcuss home and bung in the slow cooker to make stock for my HM soups.I make all my own cakes and biscuits and cook from scratch the majority of my food I don't like 'junk' food or anything 'ready made' as I think to myself 'I could have made twice as much for half the price'
Today is the 19th of November and so far I haven't spent a third of my food budget as I am shopping from my freezer in the hope of being able to defrost it before Christmas.Nothing edible gets binned in my house as before I buy anything in I think about what I am having and could I substitute anything needed for something I already have in stock.I think its a mixture of food planning,stock rotation and being just aware of how much things cost .I shop on a full tummy when the shops are half empty and make good use of any reduced stuff I buy.
Last week when passing Aldi's in Welling on my way home I spotted they had pork chops at half price and snaffled four for £1.89 .Now to me thats four dinners at under 50p each for the meat so I can make a dinner and pud up to a quid a meal with those sorts of bargains.With the cost of food going through the roof at the moment I am happy to be frugal and not waste resourse (my cash0 on keeping the supermarkets tills ringing.I have a jar of mincemeat to make my pies for Christmas that I bought reduced in January (its Robertsons)and it cost me 20p Its BBD is May of next year so my mince pies will be inexpensive this year.
I often pick up bargains like this after Christmas (hence wanting to defrost my freezer )I managed to buy a left over frozen Turkey for Easter last year for £2.50 which went into my DDs freezer and fed 7 of us with lots of left overs at Eastertime.
I don't buy snacks and crisps as I honestly am not keen on them and find them a waste of money I would rather buy some fruit or something I can make a meal out of instead of a bag of what amounts to barely half a potato deep fried and covered in god knows what chemicals to make you think it tastes nice ,I have seven grandchildren and they never ask for crisps in my house as they know there not there,but they do know that grannies fairy cakes or chocolate swiss rolls maybe in the tin and they all love ginger cookies or 'twinks' cookies
The money I save by DIY cooking goes to give me and my lovely family a fortnights holiday in August and for me a week away in the spring with my oldest friend

Mimi_Arc_en_ciel

I'm curious as to what everyone's household budget for a month is: would you mind letting me know the figure and how many family members there are?

(I'm trying to arrange a budget - my family is about to increase and currently we have no budget and are wastful - i know! very bad!)

123budget

I too am very wasteful. I joined the grocery challenge last year and really watched what I spent - menu planning helped. However fell off the wagon during the year.
I am now back on the grocery challenge board as it helps me focus.
I am a family of five - 2 adults, 2 children at college (so makes it 4 adults) plus a 10 year old, and 2 dogs! I have set a budget at £450 a month which I will really have to work at to stay within but it CAN be done! here are many people of the grocery challenge that do it for far less than me.

Danili

We are a family of 4. 2 adults, 5 yr old DD and 10 month old DS.

We have a budget of £280 a month, which includes buying nappies and formula milk. DD has school dinners and OH takes sandwiches to work a few days a week. We shop in Waitrose, Aldi/Lidl and Iceland. Will also go in our local Tesco Express if there are any deals on.