Grocery Shopping budget thread

CFC

My 50-55 weekly shopping list for 2 adults includes packed lunches and all cleaning materials etc but not soap cos I like posh stuff lol.

Your husband is going to have to accept a reduction in his likes and dislikes re branded goods if you are going to manage on SMP.

Here's an example for us, I shop at Lidl.

This is just an example, a shopping list. as we both work I want things I can either cook in advance or sling in oven.

Bag of rice - usually lasts 2 weeks
6 eggs
selection of stuff for sandwiches, usually sliced meat and sliced gouda, frankfurters etc
bread for sarnies ( I usually buy wraps though cos not keen on Lidl bread and I cn't be bothered to do 2 shops)
cucumber
toms
maybe a lettuce
2 packs of 3 bell peppers
1lb of mince
1 pack of chicken quarters (sometimes chicken thighs)
red onions
2 frozen pzzas
1 mozarella
few spuds if I've run out
frozen peas
frozen sweetcorn
bananas
apples
huge tub of vanilla or strawberry yog
milk -2 or 3 containers, depending
butter - usually lasts 2 weeks
cheese - usually one lasts 2 weeks
2 packs chilled spinach & cheese ravioli
1 jar of curry sauce
1 jar of pasta sauce
1 jar of chili sauce
tin of kidney beans
frozen chips
2 very cheap frozen pizzas
pack of ground coffee
large tub of genuine vanilla ice cream.

sample menu

chicken curry - 4 chicken quarters with onion peppers and a bit of spud in it will make a good curry for 2 days with rice
ravioli - boil for 2 mins and add jar of pasta sauce, eat fast and go out within 10 minutes lol, fastest dinner known to womankind
chili con carne, add onion and a couple of red peppers, with tin of kidney beans, will do for 2 days and is nicer the second day, same as the curry
pizza - add a bit of onion, pepper and the mozarella to it, along with a 49p pack of salami on it for - yum it is actually nicer than a takeaway in my opinion.
Egg and chips.
1 bottle of diet coke and 6 tins of energy drink plus snacks for husband.

Sandwiches for work (boring boring I know) and nothing for breakfast cos we don't do brekkie.

ditsykitchen

bride2be2012 wrote: »

Is someone able to post up an example shopping list? We are two adults and can easily spend £90 a week! I'm on maternity leave at the moment and have just had my first lot of maternity pay, so shopping bills is one area I'd love to be able to spend less on!

I've got the time (at least til bump arrives!) to cook from scratch, have a slow cooker, but also have a DH who will only eat branded foods with some things - like cereal, bread, yoghurts. Ive tried only buying the supermarket brands, and he will just go and buy the branded stuff anyway and the first lot goes out of date :mad:

I've access to the main supermarkets,plus Lidle and Aldi but usually have to rely on public transport, so not easy to take loads of heavy bags home on the bus when 8 months pregnant!

We are also a 2 person family. Here is an example of next week's meal plan and what I'm buying & prices. I shop online at Tesc0.

M - Dinner with friends
T - Cheese, Tomato & Spinach Gnocchi (HM) Bake
W - Bean Casserole & Herb Dumplings
T - Red Lentil Bolognese & HM pasta or rice (depends how tired I am!)
F - Veggie Chilli & Rice
S - Spinach, Carrot & Orange Long-grain Rice Rissoto
S - Chickpea-Harissa Stew & pilau rice

Lunches - Carrot Soup
- HM bread or carrots and hummus
- Tomato & chilli rice

Cupboard Stuff
2 bars of value dark choc - 60p
Distilled vinegar (to be used as fabric softener) - 49p
Harissa paste - £1.80
Value 12 pack of crisps - 66p
5 cartons of passata - £1.45
A bag of gluten free flour - £1.70
A bag of dried chick peas - £1.09
2 tins of value kidney beans - 42p
Pack of 6 Low Salt & Gluten Free Veg Stock Cubes - £1.44
(I know, I need to start making my own stock!)

Household
2 pairs of gloves for washing up - 46p
5 cleaning sponges - 19p
4 pack of kitchen roll - £1.99
Eco-friendly washing up liquid - £1

Fresh Stuff
Scotch bonnet chillies - 90p
A large orange - 30p
A value mozzarella ball - 44p
17 carrots - £1.36
1kg of value onions - 63p
2 cartons of value pure orange juice - £1.30

Frozen Stuff
1/2kg mixed sliced peppers - £1
1kg spinach - £1

Total price of shop: £20.22

Hope that's of some help. The meal planning part is really the key to making the shopping part less painful on the wallet.

CFC

You can see from the disparity between Ditsy's shop and mine that you can shop how you like, and buy whatever kind of style suits you, and still come massively under your current budget, Bride2be.

Rummer

:j I finally got my shop for two adults, a child and two cats down to £35 :j

Meal planning has been the key to slashing my costs, that and a well stocked herb cupboard

bride2be2012

Thanks for all your advice. I do, kind of, meal plan at the moment, it can be difficult though as I'm eating lots of stuff at random times (joys of being 8 months pregnant!) and DH works shifts, so can be eating dinner anytime between half five and half ten at night - so I try to make sure whatever I have is ok to reheat for him when he does finally get home.

The other thing I have to cut down on is snacks - I think we spent nearly £20 last week on chocolate, crisps, fruit and juice alone!! DH takes some to work for his lunch/snacks (works 12-15 hour shifts) and if its in the cupboard I will eat it lol! I have started baking again, made enough flapjacks and scones for DH to take to work the rest of this week, so that should help reduce the snack bill a bit!

ditsykitchen

bride2be2012 wrote: »

Thanks for all your advice. I do, kind of, meal plan at the moment, it can be difficult though as I'm eating lots of stuff at random times (joys of being 8 months pregnant!) and DH works shifts, so can be eating dinner anytime between half five and half ten at night - so I try to make sure whatever I have is ok to reheat for him when he does finally get home.

The other thing I have to cut down on is snacks - I think we spent nearly £20 last week on chocolate, crisps, fruit and juice alone!! DH takes some to work for his lunch/snacks (works 12-15 hour shifts) and if its in the cupboard I will eat it lol! I have started baking again, made enough flapjacks and scones for DH to take to work the rest of this week, so that should help reduce the snack bill a bit!

We were buying too many expensive snacks but I've started just buying value stuff - 12 packs of ready salted crisps for 66p, big 100g bars of dark choc for 30p each (I bought 2 this week), orange juice for 65p per litre (got two of those this week too). Bananas are a really good cheap snack too.

Any

bride2be2012 wrote: »

Is someone able to post up an example shopping list? We are two adults and can easily spend £90 a week! I'm on maternity leave at the moment and have just had my first lot of maternity pay, so shopping bills is one area I'd love to be able to spend less on!

I've got the time (at least til bump arrives!) to cook from scratch, have a slow cooker, but also have a DH who will only eat branded foods with some things - like cereal, bread, yoghurts. Ive tried only buying the supermarket brands, and he will just go and buy the branded stuff anyway and the first lot goes out of date :mad:

I've access to the main supermarkets,plus Lidle and Aldi but usually have to rely on public transport, so not easy to take loads of heavy bags home on the bus when 8 months pregnant!

O.k. there is 2 of us here.
It depends, but I will give you an example of week when we had treats as well.
This relies on some existing cupboard though.
Shopping done in Aldi and Tesco, freezer usually done at Costco

M - Chicken stir fry
T - Corned beef hash
W - Spag carbonara
T - steak and chips
F - baked camembert with sour dough bread
S - Fish red thai curry
S - half a roast chicken and cous cous

Kingsmill bread (£1.35)
Sour dough bread (£1.30, sometimes I bake it in a breadmaker)
Milk
5 bananas
2 Oranges
5 Apples
lemon
roughly £7

Mushrooms (Aldi 79p)
courgettes (Aldi 79p)
Leek (Aldi)
Peppers (if on offer)
or brocolli
2 carrots
1 parsnip
Potatoes
roughly £7.50

2 chicken breasts (Costco, 1 roughly £1.5-£2)
2 Steaks (Tesco Finest max £10)
1/2 pack white fish (Aldi, pack for £2)
1/2 pack bacon (Aldi, packet £1.59)
Tin of corned beef hash-branded (£2)
1/2 a chicken (£3)
roughly £22, but you have 1/2 pack of fish and 1/2 chicken left, also bacon for butties

2xCrisps - only buy at Aldi 79p per 6
granola bars - posh Aldi ones, £1.10 per 6
large camembert £2
packet of ham £1.50 (aldi again)
packet of german/italian salami for OH £1 (aldi again)
roughly £7.50

Total shop roughly £44 (+ then wine or cider:-))

I try to go for £50 pw including drinks/washing things.
Some weeks we will have more cheap dinners, some days we will have posh things like here the Finest steaks. I wanted to show the slightly better then average meal plan, to show you don't need to eat beans on toast 6x a week.

Other ideas:
If you like Chilli con carne, ALdi has great quality vs great price compromise mince for £3ish for 500gr (ie typicaly 12% fat - cheaper is more fatty, while the posh stuff below 10% quite expensive), 27p can of tomatoes and 31p can of red beans - add 1 onion and total cost of chilli con carne is £4
This feeds me, hungry OH and I have left overs for lunch.

If your OH likes beer/cider, B&M has currently for example large bottles/cans of Stella Cidre (I quite like it when it's sunny) for 79p each, instead of £1.19-£1.49 like at Tesco.
Sometimes they have good but cheap wine, too. Otherwise I buy wine when it is on offer.

2 salmon fillets £3, courgettes 79p, cherry tomatoes £1, new potatoes £1 (veg Aldi) - create bag from tin foil, place courgettes, tomates and onion in, sit salmons on top, sprinkle with spices (oregano or Italian herbs, paprika, salt, pepper), stick into the oven for 25mins and serve with boiled new potatoes - oh la la, really healthy, posh dinner for £5.79.


Definitely meal plan. Mix what you really like even if the price is higher with cheap meals, especially from the beginning, you will find it easier to adjust and OH especially will.

I am aiming for £5 per dinner for 2 people. If we have Finest steaks in 1 week, then I will throw in really cheap couple of meals too. I try at least 1 vegetarian meal a week, I feel better if we have 2.
I also do a lot of stews, chilli and spag bog in doubles and then freeze extras.

CAT££

All

I am curious about how much other people spend on their weekly shop (inc cleaning products and toiletries). My OH thinks we spend too much, however, am inclined to disagree with him. I am, after all, the one who does the weekly shop. I shop around between Ald1, L1DL, Home Bargs & ASD4 to ensure I get the best bargains. The only thing I compromise on is free range chicken & eggs, and have to get mince from the butchers.

I can spend between £60-£90 pounds per week, depending whether or not I have stuff to use up in the fridge/freezer/store cupboard. There's only myself, OH & small dog. I could majority of meals from scratch, and make lunches for work etc.

I'd be interested to know what others spend, for peace of mind - and to show OH. :rotfl:

tru

I keep a yearly spreadsheet of our grocery spends, it's quite scary watching it go up by the year :eek: I've just done an average of our spends since January - for four adults, £91.90 per week.

ETA - this isn't an absolute true reflection, son spends a lot of time at his girlfriend's house, if he was here every day, we'd spend a bit more.

double_mummy

atm with the kids at home (they have school lunches normally) im averaging about 100 every 10 -11 days

there are 2 adults and 2 children in this house but LO1 eats as much as his dad