Grocery Shopping budget thread

natc

Dancing Shoes,

Im sure there will be someone coming along with better advise than i can give you! but as you can see from my above post, i am thinking that meal planning is the way forward, not only for saving money, which im sure you could if you plan and stick to it (and "just say no" to the stuff you really dont need, just walk on by while the product/naughty food winks at you while you pass!) but also for time saving and less stressful, especially for you, having to think about what to make for everyone everday. Penny has given me a link to a monthly meal plan, follow that link for now, until someone more qualified can help! Youll find that there are links in there to other threads, and then more links in there to ther threads that will help.

natc

sorry dancing shoes, the link is on another thread here it is

BigMummaF

xmaslolly76 wrote: »

...........
Has anyone got any tips on bin bags ?? i really struggle to find good quality ones cheaply i buy at the moment tesco's extra strong ones which are about £4 for 20 ouch!!! but non of the cheap ones will hold they are flimsey and just rip :-)

I like the ones from Robert Dyas..often on offer & I think I paid something like four quid for 100 last time I got some. They're strong black ones & a good size to put directly in the large swing bin we have.

Penelope_Penguin

Dancing_Shoes wrote: »

Hi:hello:

This is my first post. We are a family of 2 adults and 2 young children and 2 dogs. We currently spend £400 per month on our food and all the cleaning and alcohol etc. We need to cut this figure down and would appreciate any advice you could give us. If I am in the wrong place then if you could point me to the right thread that would be great.

Thanks

Take a look at this thread - it's been designed with new Old Stylers like you in mind There are links to lots of the most useful money saving threads, and you may want to join in the Grocery Challenge to help reduce your shopping bills.

Penny. x

buxtonrabbitgreen

xmaslloy
I find the saisburys Basic black bags perfectly adequate. Not flimsy at all, which is more than I can say for the carrier bags lately.

buxtonrabbitgreen

As to what my budget is. Unlike all of you I have no idea. I spend about £70 on pay day then about £30 a week. 2 adults and 2 teens. Sometimes plus or minus one depending on boy/girlfriends. I do get quite a lot of stuff reduced for staff especially veg. Also grow/make my own jam, chutney, bread, cakes and biscuits, etc.

Confuzzled

currently i'm spending approx £15 week on average for myself and my 7 year old daughter (who eats constantly and is skinny as a rail too :eek:) this consists of about £25/month through approved foods and then the remaining £35 of the montly budget gets spent over 4 weeks between morrisons clearance (mostly) and aldi's cheap 6 fruit/veg offers. this also covers all of our cleaning supplies and toiletries, no alcohol though i don't drink much (usually only if someone insists they buy me a drink) and i don't smoke.

right now we're so well stocked on cupboard/fridge/freezer items that unless i find masses of really cheap clearance items from morrisons i'm going to try to reduce the spend to just £5 a week and save up the difference towards my daughters birthday present :T

if we didn't need fresh fruit and cheese i could lower this to almost nothing per week as we are so well stocked now between AF and clearance raids as i call them. my cupboards are so well stocked now i had to start using inventory lists to make sure i wasn't spending on stuff i didn't need to be.

but i must say i love this feeling. as long as the rent is paid, the heat/electric/internet is paid and i have a food savings account as i call it, i can't really consider us poor, i just think of us a little less materialistic nowadays

pnq06

Can someone please help me to see where I am going wrong?

I used to be quite frugal but the last few months we have been really tight for money a few days before the end of the month.

I've looked on the grocery challenge board but can't really get an idea of what people spend on a family thats similar in size to mine- I figured if I could get a few figures and then maybe start to try to cut back to the higher figure and then work at cutting back a bit extra each month from there. (Does that make sense?!)

Basically we are a family of 3- 2 adults and a toddler of 2 who is still in nappies and doesn't eat very much but still likes her milk :rolleyes:

As we're getting tighter for money each month I find myself only eating pasta with salad cream or similar and not much else to try and save a few pennies and make OH and DDs dinners slightly more appealing and healthy

I tend to see myself as tight with money and really skimp (or so I thought) on the shopping but last month alone we spent £309.71 :eek: and considering 2 years back we were left with £90 a month for food shopping I am really quite disgusted with myself as my daughter only costs a max of £30 a month incl. nappies! So what's changed!? We seem to eat a lot worse now too despite me still making a fair bit from scratch! Only DD benefits from 5+ f&v a day as we can't afford anymore... But obviously we can if I can just see where I'm going wrong with the budget!

Can someone tell me roughly what a family of our size (with no pets) should be spending?

We are going through approx 6 pints of milk a day so is there any cheaper way of buying it whereby it won't go off and be wasted?

Does online shopping for store cupboard stuff help to cut back through the month?

Any help will be greatly appreciated- Thank you's xx

erichamster

pnq06 wrote: »

We are going through approx 6 pints of milk a day so is there any cheaper way of buying it whereby it won't go off and be wasted?

How? :eek:
Where do you shop? Maybe if you posted a list of the sort of things you're buying/cooking people could suggest alternatives that would be cheaper.

Trinny

Hello there

we are two adults and a hungry cat in our family and i normally spend £180-£190 pm. I am trying to get us down to £150pm but its taking some time.

These are the things we do

1. No ready meals - all HM - i still buy jars of sauces but am learning to make these HM too.

2. Dont shop when hungry and drop a brand - eg finest -> regular or regular to stores own brand etc.

3. post on here your monthly shopping list - let others suggest where savings could be made.

4. do a storecupboard and freezer inventory and menu plan using items you have - only buy what you need and even then - buy online if it saves the temptation of shopping

5. join the grocery challenge and save all your reciepts - including take aways so you know exactly where the money goes.

It can be done - i shop at waitrose and choose fairtrade /organic wherever possible, i buy up all the reduced items and stash them in the freezer, we grow our own veg and we forage for wild food too.

Best of luck - pm if any of this is unclear

trin