Grocery Shopping budget thread

rosslyn2007

Nargleblast wrote: »

Don't worry about what other people spend - what's important is that you feed yourself and your family as well as you can within the budget you have. Good on you for not buying loads of sweets and crisps etc - your children don't need too much of that kind of stuff in their diets, and it can soon push your budget over the limit. Focus on buying fresh fruit and veg and as good quality meat that you can afford, ideally from a proper butcher (often cheaper than supermarkets and better quality). Suggest you keep a spending diary for a month, noting down what you spend on food each day, then seeing where all the money goes. You can then cut down on the high fat and high sugar snacks (if there are any), and cut down on any ready meals. Try and plan a week's meals at a time, cooking things from scratch with fresh ingredients and making sure any leftovers are put in the freezer or used in another meal. This way you will be able to cut down your food spending and spend more efficiently.

thank you for the tips the one about the diary is a fantastic idea

tori.k

I think that a fantastic budget with so many of you. the only way i could see you getting it much cheaper is to start growing some of your fruit/ veg at home. salad veg is very cheap to home grow and most can be done in pots, which is a bonus when the kids see the garden as a footy field

pelirocco

BitterAndTwisted wrote: »

You could afford sweets and crisps if you do a shop on Approved Foods or Food Bargains! One of them has a CASE of Walkers Sweet Thai Chili crisps for less than two quid.

I can't help you myself with a large family's weekly food budget as I'm a singleton

But they dont need them in their diet !! , maybe its not a case of not being able to afford them , more a health decision?

BitterAndTwisted

I didn't say they did need them. It was just an excuse to introduce the OP to those two sites where very keen bargains could be had, if they were interested, They're a new poster so I assumed they might not be aware of them. I wasn't until I read about them on this forum very recently

maman

You sound as if you're doing pretty well to me rosslyn2007. All I would say is that sometimes 'top-ups' can be very expensive. Some people buy unnecessary extras if they go into shops too often or buy in small shops which can be expensive too. This may not apply to you but it is worth checking.

Also, do you have a range of shops near you/time to shop around/space&funds to stock up? All these things can have an effect on your budget.

Just ideas but:T (and congratulations on keeping sweets and crisps as occasional treats for your children)

katylou6180

I have now started the £150 p/m grocery spend, there are three of us here- two adults and one ten year old boy with hollow legs! I have been round the cupboards etc and built an inventory of what I've got and what I haven't, I have just done a £90 shop at Mr S for a lot of the "essentials" eg Loo Rolls, cleaning stuff, Cupboard stuff, Meat ( as is on offer, other months will sometimes use the butcher if cheaper). I am hoping that it will last us the month, I've allowed £10 per wk for "top ups" bread, milk, fresh sarnie fillings, fruit & veg...I am lucky as Morrisons and Aldi are both in stomping distance from me and are doing well with the fresh offers atm so that should be enough. I have also allowed £20 for Approved Food/Market as that's where I buy all hubbys c**P to take in his lunchbox- son has cereal bars and fruit, o/h is the only real rubbish eater in the house. I am also now all menu planned out as i have tried to plan a months worth of meals making sure that we don't get sick of anything.... I have also not "tied myself down" to some of them otherwise I'll get moaned at...some days just say "chicken & veg" that way i'm not tied to veg types and my picky son won't be going "says carrots on the menu, why have I got cauli and peas?" and some days just say "mince" and I'll do meal according to what we fancy at the time...as sometimes there's nothing worse than looking at your plan going "ergh...I really don't fancy that" that one is fatal for me as I will then resort to takeaway or nip down the shop at the end of the road (which I now can't do as we can't afford it!!) I am hoping to get on ok.....I'll probably be posting in a weeks time having fallen off the rails but I hope not

Toomuchdebt

Ok-we are a family of 2 adults and 5(soon to be 6) children.The children are aged 15,12,9,7 and 17 months.My OH is a BIG meat eater.Every meal has to have meat of some kind in.The kids and I are quite happy to eat other things too.I have a SC and have just started using it again for casserole type dishes.None of us like soup particularly though it's nice occasionally.The kids have packed lunch for school(the older ones have school dinners twice a week as they love them-we used to get them free until my partner moved in).The kids all eat LOADS!!I don't know where they put it all.They all love fruit.Will eat most veg.
At the moment I'm spending around £100 a week on food shopping.I hate cooking(luckily the older ones help out now).We don't eat a lot of convenience meals as such but a lot goes on snacky stuff/biscuits etc though I always either get the value stuff or a bogof offer.
Do you think that's about right for a large family or is it too much?How much could I realistically reduce it by?

BitterAndTwisted

Feeding 7 on £100 a week doesn't sound like a very lavish budget tbh. One of the things you could do is to bear in mind that a normal person only needs about 4 ounces of meat in their diet a day, so don't be afraid to cut portions down and offer extra pasta, spuds or veg.

I'd cut out the snacky stuff and the biscuits and get those teenagers baking.

Have look on the Approved Foods site on a regular basis and see what you can get on there. Some of their prices are per case and very cheap, especially for lunch-box items. I think they were offering fruit-cups and fruit in jelly for a couple of pounds for a case of them. I can highly recommend the current offer of tortilla chips: five 400 gramme bags for a quid and they're deliscious

Toomuchdebt

That's the trouble then-OH isn't a normal person:rotfl:
I will have a look at that site you mentioned.

Just looking at the site-a lot of food seems to be out of date though?Is it worth buying or am I going to end up throwing loads away?

zarazara

Your budget sounds about right to me.