Grocery Shopping budget thread

arlybarly

Well i nearly had heart failure at Asda yesterday it came to 131.00 and i didnt even get all the shopping in either. I usually spend about 100 a week for 2 adults and 2 teens ages 15 and 17, 2 cats as well. I have 2 German Sheps and they are on the raw diet but this is bought from the butchers seperately and not added to the food bill and its about 25 a week for their food. I also have 4 puppies left at the moment and they are costing me about 30 ish a week.

DD also has about 12.00 dinner money for school and DS has about 20 for college as his mates always go to the cafe in their breaks and it costs a fortune.

wssla00

Happydaze- This should help a little. Here is the getting started thread Take it a step at a time and why not join us on the grocery challenge thread?

grannytwice

I allow £40 a week for 2 adults and one cat includes everything food cleaning materials and toiletries anything over gets saved in the xmas fund so keep trying to stretch everything within healthy limits. I mainly shop in ldls keep an eye out for reductions in other local supermarkets , but there seems to be a lot of price increases lately margarine and butter being one of them as i bake quite a bit i am always looking for offers on this lds have utterly butterly at 58p just now which is about the best i can find

Wee_Jo

Happydaze wrote: »

Having read everyones posts I now realise how much money we waste every month shopping (2 adults, 12 yr old & 5 yr old).
£300 is paid into Clubcard plus every month to cover food & about £100 of that is petrol, on top of that we probably spend another £200 a month on shopping and that doesn't include any meals out we may have.
I'm just realising how much it all adds up!! Especially when I open the fridge and realise that stuff has to be thrown away as it's past its best!!!
At the moment we are fortunate that we can afford to shop this way & not have to think to much about what we spend however this is going to change shortly when I'm made redundant meaning our income will drop by 40%. So drastic measures required!!
Where do I start?
How do I form a budget?
DO MSErs do a meal plan pre shopping?
Is online shopping moneysaving compared to trips to supermarkets as you avoid temptation?
Kids are always hungry - inexpensive & filling snacks?
Pack Lunches or school dinners? At the moment we do school dinners as I always seem to spend a fortune buying pack lunch items/drinks (tried sending 5 year old with juice in a bottle but she never manages to close it properly and it ends up everywhere!!)

So many questions but hopefully you can help me in my quest to become a more efficient shopper!!!
:question:xx

Hi Happydaze! :hello:

I find planning out my meals for the next week and then writing my shopping list from that helps a LOT. That way, when I go to the supermarket I have my list and I stick to it (I also never shop when I'm hungry!) I also try not to take hubby with me, because he is permanently hungry which is v v unhelpful.

I don't do my actual shopping online, because of the cost of delivery. Most of the big supermarkets charge you for delivery if it is under a certain amount and as our weekly shop costs about £35 that's usually under the required amount for free delivery. Also, I don't like the fact that the supermarkets substitute your items for others if yours aren't available and as I buy the Basics/Value ones, then I find that my shopping bill is more than I budgeted for as they swap in the more expensive ones. :mad:

I find that doing batch cooking at the weekend is really helpful for meals during the week, I also use these for lunches the next day, but if you have kiddiewinkles who can't re-heat the meals in school then that's not an ideal tip for you

I think I am also going to follow in Hippeechiq's footsteps and try and plan my meals out for longer than 1 week (Hippeechiq does an amazing FOUR WEEK plan!) You should have a look at that thread actually, if you haven't already - lots of cool tips on what others are doing: https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/1295539

Anyway, that's my two pence worth (from my piggybank :rotfl:)

Have fun, Happydaze!

Jo

EC12345

Interesting thread.

There are only two of us and we spend anything from about £40 to £55 - but this includes all toiltetries, cleaning products etc and includes breakfast, lunches to take to work, dinner and snacks - we eat healthy and cook from scrach almost every night ....

Would like to try and cut down though ... :j

Lindy_-_Loo

Hiya, theres 4 of us 2 adults a 3 and a 5 year old. We spend £300 a month includung cat food and cleaning stuff. Ideally I want this less as prices are going up and OH hasnt had a pay rise.
five year has packed lunch as he fussy eater.
we on line shop fortightly then go to netto for the offers and fruit and veg. farmfoods for milk and bread (£1 for 2 hovis loaves).
I try and meal plan for one week at a time. Trying to cut down on buying kit kats etc so making more fairy cakes and crispy cakes.

Sorry to hear your being made redundant - this forum does help, I do the grocery challenge and post on the daily thread.

Vaila

at the worst its about £30 a week , but i grow my own vegetables, salad etc which keeps it down during the warmer seasons

Penny-Pincher!!

There are 3 of us and I now allocate £350 every 4 weeks...so £87.50...BUT...this includes our petrol of about £20pw. So about £67.50 per week on food. This includes a take-away once a fortnight which is usually an Indian (£15).

We usually shop with Ocado and use their vouchers of £15 off a £65 spend every 10 days roughly. I get everything within the shopping including all cleaning, laundry, fresh and frozen items. I utilise their offers, so although my bill is around £50-£55 each time, I have actually saved £25+ and get free delivery also. We only have organic milk and I find the meat and poultry from Waitrose is second to none and they do some great offers on them too.

My husband only likes decent coffee and usually buys this from Starbucks...but to make this cheaper, he has a Starbucks card which we put £10pm and every time he buys a bag of beans (£3.50)..he gets a free drink which is usually over £3 anyway. There are also many other offers being given all the time.

I usually have £50+ left over every 4 weeks and I put this in a tin towards our cheap holidays at friends caravan which pretty much covers the cost.

We are growing a lot of veg and fruit this year, so that should shave some money off too.

So working all that out....we spend about £50pw actually on groceries.

PP
xx

LindseyandMatthew

we spend £150 per month for 2 adults and 2 kids, really we should spend more but we just can't afford it

bobbybobby

we have a budget of £200 a month for all groceries, toiletries and cleaning stuff.
the children have cooked school lunches £80 a month, which are excellent, main course and pudding for £2 day and have all their 5 portions of fruit and veg included in that one meal!
we have 1 takeaway a week and allow £45 a month for this as a treat.
all money is put into an envelope at the beginning of the month and we do not overspend and if any left over we put in a sealed pot towards paying off our mortgage earlier!
2 adults and 2 children: total £200 + £80.00 + £45.00 but do not spend anything else at all as we make all our lunches and snacks to take with us to work or if we go out for days etc.:)