Grocery Shopping budget thread

[Deleted User]

I save my left over cash from my monthly food purse(I only use real cash for buying food as it makes you concentrate on how much you have left to spend)towards my summer holiday I haven't a lot left this month but as I had cut down on the amount to go into my purse in January I don't mind.I had a lot of left over stuff from Christmas that my DDs had given me as they know I use everything up that I can so my budget in January was quite low.My budget for February is £60.00 from this Friday which with what I already have in store should be more than enough for 28 days.I draw this from my bank on Friday morning and put it in a separate purse to only be used to buy essential food that I have run out of.It means I have to spend less time at the shops ergo less money spent ,simples :)

dolly84

Hi, after reading back a few pages I hardly dare tell you my monthly budget. There are 2 adults, DD age 9 and DS age 7 and one dog in our family (dog food is not included in my grocery budget though). I used to spend £400 a month and then lots of little trips to the shops for bits so probably another £50. I have cut that down since December to £350.:eek:

From that I do kids packed lunches every day and DH packed lunch, he can't eat a lot of bread so has to fill up on other things like rice, cous cous with some chicken or something added. All alcohol, cleaning products and toiletries too. I bake my own bread and lots of other home baking, I cook from scratch and don't waste very much.

I have been shopping online with Mr T's and Sainsburys but have found that T's particularly confirm one price then charge another on your bill - e.g i bought tissues at 99p, not on offer or anything and they charged me £1.35 on the bill. I was not happy, if you are shopping with them check your item prices.

Aldi and Lidl seem to be the advice given on here but I tried Lidl and we all thought the fruit and veg tasted odd. Aldi is a 12 mile round trip which we can only do at weekends, a couple of weeks ago we went on a Saturday afternoon, we found that we would have had to go elsewhere aswell as they didn't have all that we needed, a lot of the prices were no different on branded goods and the queues at the checkouts were crazy long

Also we buy all our shopping on a CC then pay it off at the end of the month, if we were to shop there we would have to pay for the shopping and pay off last months shopping, it would only be for one month but i don't think we could manage it.

Mimi_Arc_en_ciel

Hi!

I am trying to save some money and wondered whether you lovely lot could help....

At the moment I am living out of my bank (using my card to pay for things) – but I’ve realised I don’t know how much I spend on gas/elec (Prepay) or shopping. So I am going to take the money out of my bank, put it in envelopes and see how far it can go!

Gas & Elec I *Think* I spend a maximum of £40 a month on each – but I’ve no idea about shopping! That where I was hoping you could help!

There’s 3 of us in our family – me, DD1 (5) and DD2 (1) and at weekends my partner comes over.

Both my children attend day care Tues – Thurs and get all their meals there (Breakfast – tea) so will just have supper those days. I take food in for my lunch at work (usually left over’s from night before)

I’m also a terrible shopper, I try to meal plan, it works for about a week then it goes wrong! Am going to be more vigilant in this! DD2 also wears washable nappies so I don’t need to add those into the expense.

So – given that – any idea what I should aim to be spending?

Thanks!

Mimi

good_advice

Hiya. I now plan a once a week shopping trip to the supermarket.
I start a shopping list in the week of things I need.
When I go to the shop, I first go and see what whoopsies are to be had. Then get the items off the list only.

I go into the town about once every 2 weeks at the moment. Then to drop things off at the charity shop. I am trying to declutter my home.

Gas and electric is working out @ just over £3 a day with the CH on.
Washing on line every day. The neighbours even comment - she has not put the washing out yet. It almost drys on the line. I put the clothes on the airer as damp when brought in.

ash28

Mimi_Arc_en_ciel wrote: »

Hi!

I am trying to save some money and wondered whether you lovely lot could help....

At the moment I am living out of my bank (using my card to pay for things) – but I’ve realised I don’t know how much I spend on gas/elec (Prepay) or shopping. So I am going to take the money out of my bank, put it in envelopes and see how far it can go!

Gas & Elec I *Think* I spend a maximum of £40 a month on each – but I’ve no idea about shopping! That where I was hoping you could help!

There’s 3 of us in our family – me, DD1 (5) and DD2 (1) and at weekends my partner comes over.

Both my children attend day care Tues – Thurs and get all their meals there (Breakfast – tea) so will just have supper those days. I take food in for my lunch at work (usually left over’s from night before)

I’m also a terrible shopper, I try to meal plan, it works for about a week then it goes wrong! Am going to be more vigilant in this! DD2 also wears washable nappies so I don’t need to add those into the expense.

So – given that – any idea what I should aim to be spending?

Thanks!

Mimi

What can you afford to spend? £20, £30, £50, £100?

No one can tell you how much you need.

There are 3 of us OH, me and our grandson (11), I went from not knowing how much I spent on food a week to spending £120 every 2 weeks.

Some people will think they couldn't survive with a £60 a week food budget and others will think we're extravagance personified....

I roughly meal plan by using the meat I have - if we have mince for 1 meal that could any one of 4 or 5 different things. I have a good store cupboard so I could make a bolognese, a shepherds pie, mince and dumplings, a chilli - I decide either on the day or the day before.

Same for pork chops - could be pork and apple casserole, pork chops, veg and gravy, wiener schnitzel etc.

Chicken breast could be a curry or a stir fry or chicken goujons, thighs could be a casserole, a curry, a jambalaya.

I guess basically I have a list of meals that I chose from on a daily basis.

Before I shop I have a quick whiz through the cupboards and freezer to see what needs replacing.

Like the previous poster, I only buy reduced items if I know we will use them - pointless buying a kilo of parsnips for 20p, or a couple of chicken kievs for 50p if no one will eat them.

Mimi_Arc_en_ciel

Well I've managed to get a meal plan sorted, went shopping this afternoon. I looked at mysupermarket to get a pride for each item, then took that shopping with me. Managed to get a few things cheaper so saved £5 which I stuck in my savings. All in all I spent £35 on this shop :-D

Thanks for the ideas x

ipie

Hi
I was just wondering how much do people with large families budget for food . I estimate we spend about £550 a month that includes pack lunches for the children. There are two adults and six children ranging from 4 months to 14 years. Is anyone else able to do it for less? tips and advice would be really appreciated on bulk cooking/ buying as well.

FairyPrincessk

Hi Ipie,

I'm sure someone with large family experience will be along soon. For two adults we spend around $160is/month but extrapolating out for large families isn't always useful as needs are so different (i.e. you can buy in bulk but you also are more likely to need things for babies etc.)

In the meantime, you might find the Grocery Challenge at the top of the page useful. They set themselves targets for monthly spends and work to meet them.

BitterAndTwisted

What other people spend isn't really that helpful, in my opinion. Everyone has different priorities, budgets, skills and time available. You might find this site useful:

http://www.cheap-family-recipes.org.uk/

It has some really fantastic recipes and may give you some ideas.

The usual intelligence around here is to meal-plan, cook in bulk for the freezer most especially when you spot good offers or reductions, and to swoop up yellow-sticker discounts when available. Some people find a "price-book" helpful, so you know what the "usual prices" for things are, so bargains and offers become much more apparent. This might be a bit of a challenge when price-increases for staples seem to be occurring on a daily basis. It seems that about five minutes ago you could get loo-rolls at about ten pence each if you weren't that fussy. Now, they're nearly twenty.

ipie

Thanks for your responses i do try and buy all the bread yellow sticker ed and have only paid full price for six loaves since Christmas and considering we use about 14 loaves a week i have saved myself a fortune doing this. So will try and build on this. Also keeping a note of prices sounds a fab idea especially when shopping with the little darlings in tow will help me keep focused. I am going to join the grocery challenge too to help me focus on keeping the costs down. Am off to check out that website .

Thanks again

Ipie