Grocery Shopping budget thread

Penelope_Penguin

boredjellybean wrote: »

I see that I need to make a new budget & also plan meals better & be stricter at following this but how much does everyone budget? I know its a personal thing but is there a rough rule of thumb?

We are a family of 5, 2 adults & 3 small children

It's impossible to say without knowing

• what you like to eat
• where you live
• what shops are available to you
• how much you cook from scratch
• do use use Brands or Value

We have a thead where people post what they spend, so I'll add this so that you can take a look there

Good luck, Penny. x

**purpleprincess**

Hi fellow OSers!!

I am curious, I can see what most people aim to spend on food each week/month and I am working on getting mine down again. Up til now I've been including my household and toiletry items in my budget but think now I want to keep it separate.

What do you do? Do you keep it all together as one total, or do you have separate 'pots' for each thing?? If so, how much for each. Just trying to get ideas and direction!! And trying to see if keeping 'pots' for each thing works and whether it would help keep on track.

I've tried to gauge it from looking at other threads but I can't really see the wood for the trees!

Thanks!! xx

PasturesNew

Washing powder: £5/year
Washing up liquid: £3/year
Loo roll £50/year
Washing up sponges/J cloths etc: £3/year
Bleach: £5/year
Deodorant: £1/year
Shampoo: £5/year
Conditioner: £5/year
Toothpaste: £3/year
Wet wipes: £2/year

So it looks like: £82/year. Well under £2/week.

pretz_2

omg pasture new how do you manage to spend sooo little not that im questioning it but would love to know as i easily do that every other month i spend your yearly allowance on washing powder in a week please tell me where i am going wrong, how many people does your £82 cover as mine is for 2 adult and a small child and also what deodrant do you buy mine is twice that lol

loshypops

how do you live on £1 for deodorant???????

geek0

PasturesNew wrote: »

Washing powder: £5/year
Washing up liquid: £3/year
Loo roll £50/year
Washing up sponges/J cloths etc: £3/year
Bleach: £5/year
Deodorant: £1/year
Shampoo: £5/year
Conditioner: £5/year
Toothpaste: £3/year
Wet wipes: £2/year

So it looks like: £82/year. Well under £2/week.

Do you make your own wash powder?
Where do you buy your toothpaste, deoderant and washing up liquid from and how much is it, there is only me and DS but i cant imagine how i would get these things so cheap to last me a year

Id say i use the following
Wash Powder £20 yr Based on 4 washes a week using large boxes of whatevers on offer
Shampoo £9 yr Morrisons own brand anti dandruff shampoo which works just as well as branded
Conditioner £9 yr same brand as shampoo
Toilet Rolls £50 yr any thats on offer usually big packs
Toothpaste £24 yr im a bit dubious about cheap toothpaste so use branded
Deoderant £12 yr from pound shops
Bleach £6 2 for a pound from pound shop

I dont really use wipes either very often.

That comes out at £10.83 a month, i could make it cheaper if i changed my toothpaste and used own brand washing powder, would take some convincing to change the toothpaste though lol.

Linda32

I don't know how much I spend but I can tell you what I use.
Have used PasturesNew list for no other reason than it seems to include everything

Tesco Daisy range is very good and cheap, can really recommend the washing liquid pouches.

Washing up liquid: Whatever is on offer on supermarkets home brand, not the basics range this is really a waste of money.

Loo roll, again using the Daisy range, usually cheap loo roll means smaller rolls.

Washing up sponges/J cloths etc - Use microfibre cloths and put them in the washing machine every few days. (I never have used fabric softeners, but if you do, please remember that it kills the microfibre part of these cloths)

Bleach: ASDA/Sainsbury's own brand etc, usually about 60p

Deodorant: Basic/Smart Price etc. is quite good enough although did happen to buy Impulse after and advert in Grazia - Sorry

Shampoo: Tesco/ASDA the big bottle for about 70p

Conditioner: Fructis when I remember!

Toothpaste: Sainsbury's/Tesco etc not basics/SP I could tell the difference.

Wet wipes: don't use these

Linda32

I might be wrong but am guessing that PasturesNew uses Soap Nuts for washing powder and isn't there a type of deodrant that is a sort of rock crystal, I can well imagine that lasting a year but its more that £1.00

loshypops

Linda32 wrote: »

I might be wrong but am guessing that PasturesNew uses Soap Nuts for washing powder and isn't there a type of deodrant that is a sort of rock crystal, I can well imagine that lasting a year but its more that £1.00

Where do you buy soap nuts??? any good??

Linda32

loshypops wrote: »

Where do you buy soap nuts??? any good??

They are okay for a few months, from what I remember they are actually a type of nut and nothing to do with soap. I think its the resin which naturally leaks out of the nuts which does the cleaning.

A google search will bring up lots of links straight away and more to the point reviews as well.

You do tend to end up wth bits of nuts all over your kitchen floor I found :rotfl: