Grocery Shopping budget thread

maman

Or better still buy milk in Farmfoods (2x2l for £1.50) if you can.

There's heaps of ideas around which should help you cut down hugely. Give us some ideas of what you like and the lifestyle you need to fit in with.

Churchmouse

slummymummyof3 wrote: »

Stop using the milkman and buy your milk in Aldi/Lidl for £1.09 (2.272 litres)

Where do you shop? Are you including wine etc in your shopping? Are you batch cooking? Do you make the most of items that you use that are on offer?

Of all the things I've done over the years, this is the one thing caused me the most pain and turmoil My mum was the most ardent supporter of the doorstep delivery, and it took a very long time and a great deal of heart-searching before I could stop it. I just got fed up with a delivery of between 12 -4 pm. Often ( in Summer) I would come home to milk that had already "cooked" and was "off" by the next day, it was costing too much money down the drain, but I really wish I had a decent milk delivery and could support a UK job Yes, I save a fortune, even buying Cravendale at Sainsbury's, but I'd rather support a mlikman if he'd deliver ( at least once or twice a week, at a reasonable time)

Hardup_Hester

I do still have my milk delivered, I had a similar problem with milk on the doorstep all day, though my milkman delivers by 7:30 I've already set off for work by then. I now ge a weeks worth of milk delivered on a Saturday. This also means I don't pop to the shops for milk & spend £10.
Hester

TUS

I spend £220 per month for 2 x adults, 1 x seven year old, 1 x 1 year old and 1 x newborn.

We eat a varied and healthy diet (lots of home cooking) and that budget includes nappies for the babies (although we tend to buy these in bulk when offers are on, so sometimes buy 2-3 months worth in one go). I also buy milk/bread in bulk and freeze that and take sarnies to work for lunches. The budget also includes cleaning products.

The absolute key is building up a list of recipes with their ingredient lists which are cheap to make. I'm slowly building up my recipes and most are based around basic staples with variations.

My kids/partner have never moaned they don't eat well :-)

Herbyme

Good luck! See also top tips post via the intro posts in the August grocery challenge:
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?p=13254289#post13254289
Remember, research proves that what gets monitored, gets better - eg try driving with the petrol consumption monitor visible, it's amazing how much lighter your right foot gets! (but don't crash watching it!)

kings981

I cannot give up the milkman!! Me and my husband are both out from work 8am - 7pm, it is a nightmare trying to remember do we have milk/or not! I know it is a bit more expensive but I really feel it is worth having. That and we have no Aldi/Lidl/Farmfoods. We shop so infrequently as I hate supermarkets so milk runs would need special trips and neither of us conviniently pass one on our way to work - and I go by buy bike most days and really don't need to be carrying it. And if I was to be visitiing a shop more often I know I would end up buying added extras.

I do balance out the extra cost on milk by bulk buying oats in 5kg sacks for my daily porridge fix. So I don't think the savings need to be made in this area.

I was just curious to see how much other people spend - are we to greedy or not!! Thanks for the links I will check these out and probably join Augusts challenge - think I'm going to put £20 in a pot a week and only spend from that and see how we get on. It's not as if the cupboards are bare.

simonrayjay

When I am at uni I can eat for £10 a week... but it's not the most balanced diet I gotta say.

magicgirl

i so need to do something like this!! I spent £73 in sainsburys yesterday and hardly any food in that. I would love to manage a months shop on £200 which is my ultimate aim. I am currently spending no less than £500. That includes 2 adults, 3 children and a cat. the children have lunch at school (when its open) and teh baby is at nursery three days a week so there is no excuse for this awful waste in all honesty. I am spending it more down to laziness as i can't be bothered to cook when i get in. so we have takeaway or ready meals. i need to buckle down and hope no one minds if i lurk in this thread for a bit. I will be saving my receipts in the month of august so i can get a proper idea of spend and go from there..

Nicoll

magicgirl wrote: »

i so need to do something like this!! I spent £73 in sainsburys yesterday and hardly any food in that. I would love to manage a months shop on £200 which is my ultimate aim. I am currently spending no less than £500. That includes 2 adults, 3 children and a cat. the children have lunch at school (when its open) and teh baby is at nursery three days a week so there is no excuse for this awful waste in all honesty. I am spending it more down to laziness as i can't be bothered to cook when i get in. so we have takeaway or ready meals. i need to buckle down and hope no one minds if i lurk in this thread for a bit. I will be saving my receipts in the month of august so i can get a proper idea of spend and go from there..

I, like you, also need to really get a grip on my spending, don't really have a budget so go shopping thinking "mustn't spend too much" .
Need to start making a list and stick to and not get diverted by "Ooooh that looks yummy". Did do this for a while and was better but gone back to my old ways.

We have some big bills coming out for August (car tax £205, motorbike insurance £110, motorbike MOT (hopefully £35 and passing but possibly not!) dentist bill £198) plus all the usual stuff so this is definitely the time to start taking control!

The_Thrilla

I've managed to get through the last four weeks on £37.81. But that was because I was skint, because I had invested nearly all my readies in non-negotiable bonds and two silver bullion coins.