Grocery Shopping budget thread

nuttybabe

Hi

Just quick as the footy is on!! We spend half of what you spend for 5 of us. I am lucky that I have time to shop around aldi, lidl, and the other supermarkets for the offers on fruit and veg. I buy whoopsie food when I can. Ds1 got a healthy eating award today in school for always having the best packed lunches. I bulk out alot of our food with veg, lentils and oats. And I cook everything from scratch. We dont buy bisucits or cakes as I make them. I always meal plan and make a list of everything i have then do meal plan and write a shopping list. I am always looking for good healthy cheap meals.

Hope that helps. I am sure someone will be along shortly with links to brilliant eating on a budget threads. Now back to the football.

COME ON ENGLAND!!!!!

Gigervamp

Another thing to watch is your food waste. Ask yourself if you're throwing a lot of stuff away. If you are, then you need to address that. £700 a month is an awful lot of money to spend on a month's groceries, so I'm wondering if a lot of it is getting wasted.

Bubby

Thanks, we live about 15 miles from the nearest big supermarket so when I go it is usually for large shops. I did a month once where we were paid to detail our shopping and it was pretty scary stuff:o, however I realised that we rely on an awful lot of ready made sauces (never been a cook:o) and also spend alot on bread. So me trying to save money bought a breadmaker but they don't like the bread out of it:mad::o

I don't want to go overboard, but I will have a read through the OS board with my cup of tea later for some meal ideas (anything I can bung in the slow cook is my preference:o:rotfl:)

Gigervamp

Check out Cheap Family Recipes by one of the members here. It's a meal plan for a family of 4 that includes your 5-a-day and costs only £100 a month.

Bubby

Gigervamp wrote: »

Another thing to watch is your food waste. Ask yourself if you're throwing a lot of stuff away. If you are, then you need to address that. £700 a month is an awful lot of money to spend on a month's groceries, so I'm wondering if a lot of it is getting wasted.

It includes all household products and dog food etc aswell but I agree it does sound alot. Not alot of wastage sometimes a bit of fruit but nothing else that I can think of.

Penelope_Penguin

Bubby wrote: »

I find it really frustrating that junk food is cheaper than healthy food:mad:

Junk food is possibly cheaper than ready meals, but cooking from scratch is cheapest

We have a thread of people's budgets, I'll see if I can find it for you. Here you go, I'll add this thread to that one later.

Gigervamp

Bubby wrote: »

It includes all household products and dog food etc aswell but I agree it does sound alot. Not alot of wastage sometimes a bit of fruit but nothing else that I can think of.

What dog food do you buy? We have a lab and we buy a 15kilo bag of Wagg Complete which costs around £8 and lasts a month. We get ours from Countrywide, but they also sell it at Pets at Home. It works out far cheaper than buying dog food from a supermarket.
Also, if you have a large dog that gets a lot of exercise, you can get working dog food that's VAT free. Check out agricultural supply places.

floss2

Bubby wrote: »

... also spend alot on bread. So me trying to save money bought a breadmaker but they don't like the bread out of it:mad::o

Part of the art of saving money on your food bill is by re-educating the other consumers in your household.

Maybe you could try different recipes for bread until you find one that gets eaten, although any H/M bread is generally better for you than bought bread with its preservatives & additives. It's a re-education thing. Maybe start by going wholemeal bought, then sneak in a H/M wholemeal, and gradually take over from there? Thriftlady has a fab bread recipe that she makes daily but it also freezes. It can be made into rolls or loaves. How old are your children? Could they get into the cooking experience & help things change?

If they like something expensive, eg branded cereals, but won't eat the supermarket own brand of the same thing, DON'T just chuck the cheaper one & give in by buying the expensive one. Just say "that's all there is". Then it is their choice to eat it or do without.

Whatever you do, start with small steps, don't try to cut the bill by 50% in one go!

Bubby

Gigervamp wrote: »

What dog food do you buy? We have a lab and we buy a 15kilo bag of Wagg Complete which costs around £8 and lasts a month. We get ours from Countrywide, but they also sell it at Pets at Home. It works out far cheaper than buying dog food from a supermarket.
Also, if you have a large dog that gets a lot of exercise, you can get working dog food that's VAT free. Check out agricultural supply places.

We buy Eukanuba Salmon which is roughly the same price for 3kg as your 15kg bag:o, however they are allergic to many different ingredients so I have a limited choice of foods. I have a few left to try though;)

Bubby

floss2 wrote: »

Part of the art of saving money on your food bill is by re-educating the other consumers in your household.

Maybe you could try different recipes for bread until you find one that gets eaten, although any H/M bread is generally better for you than bought bread with its preservatives & additives. It's a re-education thing. Maybe start by going wholemeal bought, then sneak in a H/M wholemeal, and gradually take over from there? Thriftlady has a fab bread recipe that she makes daily but it also freezes. It can be made into rolls or loaves. How old are your children? Could they get into the cooking experience & help things change?

If they like something expensive, eg branded cereals, but won't eat the supermarket own brand of the same thing, DON'T just chuck the cheaper one & give in by buying the expensive one. Just say "that's all there is". Then it is their choice to eat it or do without.

Whatever you do, start with small steps, don't try to cut the bill by 50% in one go!

We use a fair bit of own brand products with the occasional value item thrown in they are happy to eat whatever I put in front of them usually but the bread wasn't great I have to admit. I will have a look at the bread recipes on here but I haven't got the will to want to do it all kneading etc myself so it will have to go in the breadmaker:o