Grocery Shopping budget thread

Caroline73_2

How much of that 6 pints is your daughter drinking?

That does seem like a lot. We spend £200 - 250 a month for 4 of us. I do cook from scratch but have treats too.

Pink.

Hi pnq,

As everyones needs/wants are different it's hard to put a figure on what is a reasonable amount to spend on groceries, but this thread should give you an idea of what others spend on their grocery shopping:

Grocery Shopping budget threads

It might also be worth joining in with the August 2009 Grocery Challenge thread. It's not a competition so you can set a reduced amount that you feel comfortable with and if you manage that then try to reduce it a little the following month. Everyone sets themselves a personal grocery budget and try to encourage and support each other throughout the month to stick to their own budget.

For lots of tips and ideas on cutting back your grocery bill have a look at Martin's article on Supermarket Shopping and we also have a new board where grocery offers are posted regularly: Food Shopping & Groceries

I don't know if you meal plan but if not, it's a great way to save money by making sure you don't buy unnecessary things. To get some help with meal planning have a look in The Complete Menu Plans Collection.

For cheaper meal ideas have a look here: Cheap recipe threads

I'll add your thread to the first link later to keep the replies together.


Good luck with reducing your bill.


Pink

Smurggle

Do you mind me asking why you are getting through 6 pints of milk a day? That seems like an awful lot and very expensive. We have a 2 year old who also still loves his milk and we found that it was cheaper to buy Cravendale (or Tesco's pure filter) and not waste any (because it lasts for 7 days when opened) than it was to buy normal milk and end up throwing some out.

We spend far too much a month for 3 adults, 1 toddler and a dog we spend about £350 a month, but I working on the budget and hopefully it will come down with a little work!

the_cat

Hi Pnq

I think you are probably under estimating the difference your daughter makes to your bills. You are spending approx £63 a month on milk alone. Add to that nappies, food, toiletries etc I think you will find she makes up a fair amount of the 'extra' you spend compared to before you had her. (added to that lots of cooking/home made stuff is more difficult with a boisterous toddler around)

So cut yourself some slack!!:D
That said you could probably shave a fair bit off your bill over time. I think your idea of shaving a bit off your spend at a time is great. I would suggest that maybe for a month or two you first of all practise eating more healthily on the budget you already have, as you going without nutritious food is definately not a long term goal.......then start shaving here and there.

Post a typical weeks menus and shopping list on here and I'm sure you will get loads of good tips

Good luck

Gigervamp

I can't really help with a budget as there are four adults, 2 cats and a dog here, but I did want to comment on this:

pnq06 wrote: »

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

You need to eat properly, otherwise you'll fall ill and who will look after your child? It's a false economy.

Also, 6 pints of milk is loads. We have our milk delivered and get 4 pints every other day. Is your DD drinking most of that? Maybe the reason she's not eating much is because she's full on milk. Try giving her water to drink sometimes.

If you post what you're buying and cooking, people here will be able to help you more with regards to cutting your food bill and seeing where you're going wrong.

Olliebeak

Hello pnq

Is that £300+ on just groceries, or does it include cleaning stuff; toiletries; nappies; couple of bottles of wine/cans of lager; clothing from supermarket; diy stuff; bread/milk; fruit/veg and videos/cd's/toys/magazines all from the supermarket as well? It's amazing how quickly the pennies can add up.

quote"..... my daughter only costs a max of £30 a month incl. nappies!...."

Just remember as well, that 2 years ago you probably weren't spending that particular £30 a month on nappies etc for your DD.


Some months I can have four or five birthdays and by the time I've put the cards into the shopping trolley, there's another £10 on the bill :eek:. I really do NEED to make a list of all birthdays in January and buy them all in one go from a cheapie card shop (apart from special ones that is !). For work purposes I use about four sympathy cards a year, and those just get put into the trolley as well - AND they're usually more expensive than birthday cards for a nice one.

It would be good if you could post a list of what you buy , what meals you cook and a cupboard/freezer inventory (as Trinny suggested)so we can have a look and make some suggestions .

Best of luck - Ollie xx

Patchwork_Quilt

I do agree with Gigervamp about eating properly. Also, we are a family of four with 2 teenagers and bfs and gfs who all come in and drink pints of milk, but we still only use 20 pints a week at the most. We spend about £80 a week, including organic dairy products and mostly organic meat.

pnq06

Ooh err, I never realised that you could only multi-quote 3 posts at a time!

Well, the 6 pints (although some days it can be slightly less) is used for, cereals, 1 pint for OH to take to work for drinks, a few drinks for me, some for mashed pots which is one of the only things my 2 year old DD will eat and the rest of that is for her bottles (My HV is trying to help me tackle this at present but unfortunately it isn't as straight forward as cutting milk out completely) oh and just recently with money being so tight I am having extra bowls of cereal for lunch and snacks (although that probably isn't working out as cheap as I thought...

I was doing most of my food shopping from farmfoods which I thought was ridiculously cheap but I think I've fallen in a trap somehow because its not really working pout that cheap! The odd few bits are grabbed from Tesco or Asda too... Just recently we've not been able to afford fruit and veg so I haven't been buying it as much- Not that OH minds :rotfl:

Just a few months ago I was happily dieting but had to give up because it was costing too much... It seems that we had a few hundred saved up (unintentionally!) but as the months have gone on we've just been eating away at the spare money (quite literally :rotfl: ) - Until now when we have a few pound left!

We don't really have brand name things either so not much to be made by cutting back on a particular brand...

I tend to buy things like chips and frozen pizza for OH which can work out at as little as a pound. Perhaps farmfoods is a false economy?! I'm thinking their prices are cheap to the like of tesco's but perhaps they aren't? I think I have gotten used to throwing stuff in the oven for OH though it just seems easier that way cos I never know what time his home and its quicker and fits in with sorting other things out

the-cat I think you're right about me underestimating the costs of my daughter We barely went through 6 pints a week never mind a day!

Milk is probably the biggest spend we have! Can milk be frozen? I have sometimes seen people write that they do but yet it says you can't on the bottle!

Some toiletreies/cleaning stuff will be included in that figure but I often by a few bits from wilko's too which I haven't included. Most of that is just strictly food!

Whilst I've got you here can I just ask what kind of pack lunches you or your partners have for work? My partner has a very basic lunch but that alone costs nearly £40 a month :eek:

PW thank you for the links- I shall take a look and jot down some ideas!

Perhaps I just need to get back to cooking from scratch... Our 'storecupbaord' is empty so I need to get a few basics in- Anyone know what I can start with? Money is gonna be really tight this month

Thank you for your replies xx

pnq06

And I do want to start eating better I tend to put my OH and DD first though and have whatever is leftover... I actually want to get back dieting

toolittletime

Are you a member or costco? We're a family of five and our kids love milk. At costco you can get 6 x 2 litres for 4.75. They normally have between 7 and 10 days till the use by date. We get through one of these each week.