Grocery Shopping budget thread

darkblue_2

1 Adult and 1 (growing) child:
About £60-70 on all groceries/food/housekeeping per week.

I'm trying to cut back, but we're big eaters.

csarina

There are two of us and my budget for the month is £140. We live well, Grow our own vegetables, but I do cook from scratch, make my own bread but I do not have milk delivered I get long life skimmed from Aldi, there is always milk in the cupboard so I never run out. We live in a rural area prone to being cut off in winter, so I have to keep a good store cupboard.

OK we do not eat steak every day, but we do have a balanced diet with plenty of fruit and vegetables.

Wee_Jo

Hi there! :hello:

We spend between £120 and £130 a month on food, which includes cleaning stuff, drinks for home, etc. There are two of us and my hubby eats a LOT!! We used to spend loads more (probably double) but then I cam over all MSE and got stuck into meal planning and writing shopping lists from the plans. It has made a massive difference. We seem to have more food, yet we spend less. I have also found that a side effect of this new thriftiness means I absolutely HATE wasting anything whereas before I wouldn't have given a monkeys! The Grocery Challenges and the Meal Planning threads are two great places to start. Oh and I shop in A$da and sometimes $ainsburys.

Have fun!

Jo

CFC

At the moment I am spending £65 per week for all shopping for myself and 6' 4" OH who never stops eating or drinking (He keeps pepsi and red bull in business!)

TUS

Someone PM'd me for tips, so I thought I'd post them here too.

In my opinion, the key is to select your staples and base your recipes around those. The staples should be the main ingredient which is (a) cheap and (b) filling.

The common staples I use are: Rice, Cous Cous, Lentils, Pasta, Potatoes ... and meat-wise Mince, Stewing Steak, Chicken.

I buy the staples in bulk - rice/cous cous/lentils/pasta are very cheap if you shop around. Don't be afraid to use shops "value" range. I use Asda Value pasta shells with are 30p and one bag is enough for 2 meals.

Make sure you have some spices/herbs in to give you options in making different flavours.

And then start looking for recipes based on what you have in. I do a weekly shop and I plan the weeks meals ahead. I ONLY buy the ingredients I need for what I am making.

Generally, I will:

* Make a meal plan
* List the ingredients I need
* Go to mySupermarket.co.uk and add everything to my basket (I use Asda) and then use their "swap" function to find any cheaper options.
* Once I have my final basket I write down everything (with prices) and go shopping. This way I know what I am buying and how much it will cost me. No surprises at the till.

Some meal ideas:

* Various meat/veg casseroles
* Cottage pie (either meat or lentil & baked bean)
* Bolognese
* Chilli con carne
* Lasagne
* Turkey Meatballs in Red Pepper Sauce
* Ommlettes
* Roast Chicken (Sunday lunch) - I'm a bit tight here and use Asda Value chickens which are about £2.80 for a whole chicken.
* Soup and crusty bread
* Frittata
* Pasta bake
* Potato bake
* Jacket potato with filling
* Savoury bread pudding (there's a great one that is like bread & butter pudding but with cheese, tomato and basil. Lush and filling and soooo cheap - as in about £2 for 4 people)

Veggie/fruit wise - I get those at the local grocers which are cheaper than the supermarket. I can easily get enough for a week for under £5, although normally do this over 2 trips to avoid it going off.

For lunches we generally eat beans on toast, scrambled eggs or sandwiches (cheese/pickle, coleslaw, salad).

We don't eat crisps/chocolate and I buy Asda value double strength cordial for about 29p per bottle. One bottle easily lasts a week. The only luxary are Asda value cookies, which I buy 4 packs for the week (30p each).

I really am tight, lol :-)

There are loads more recipes, but I'm at work at the min and don't have them to hand. But almost all of them were from this forum and a few other "froogle cooking" sites. Just google.

Bitsy_Beans

Churchmouse wrote: »

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)

I am lucky - my milkman delivers around 4.30am on a Monday and Thursday. Their milk is only very slightly more expensive than the supermarket but oh boy does the milk taste better!!! It's sooooo much nicer than what I buy in Sainsbury's

As for what I spent each month - I aim for £40 a week for 2 adults and 2 young children (and I have to feed additional children lunch and snacks from this too). Lately it's been closer to £50 but £40 is what I used to spend before prices started to creep up.

EC12345

There are two of us and we probably spend about £170 - £200 per month on food, however this includes all toiletries and cleaning products. I'm sure some people could really cut this down but I find it so hard with rising prices. However this amount includes breakfast, lunches to take to work and a proper home cooked meal every night (all made fresh).

We grow loads of veg and have stacks at the moment so I've hardly had to buy any veg today which is something I suppose.

Good luck cutting down.:p

missychrissy

I manage to live on a supermarket shop of approx £10 per week. I live on my own so I don't have to cook meals at 'meal times' and just eat at home whenever I like or feel hungry. I cook in bulk, especially using my slow cooker and freeze one person sized portions for taking to work.

I shop in Aldi about once every 4 - 6 weeks and if I am in the vicinity of any other supermarket I pop in to check out any bargains especially the on the sell by date reductions that can be frozen.

I make all my own wine and grow quite a lot of veg, though sometimes I think it is cheaper to buy, by the time you have paid for compost/fertiliser/containers/raised beds etc.

seabright

I try and keep to £200-£225 per month, which is food and other household groceries (cleaning stuff, toiletries etc). There Re 2 adults, one toddler & 2 pets.

I also love having the milk delivered, I think it saves me money, as I'm sure I'd buy more if I went to the shop to buy it. Also, it's much better from a recycling point of view - re-use is better than re-cycling

v8monkeyboy

Hi,

We tend to spend about £250 per month - that's for 2 of us, and one border collie who isn't bothered about food, really (that's not to say we don't feed her! She just doesn't want to eat every day - she has raw chicken wings, and beef mince, so dense and filling).

We eat so much fruit it's obscene, and loads of veg with a reasonable amount of meat from the butcher, and I make my own bread, cakes and biscuits. Fruit is probably our biggest expenditure, but I've started buying Aldi's Super 6 and making good use of wild fruits and fruits from the pick your own place, which has about halved what we spend.

When OH is here, our food bill creeps up as he exercises so much and has gained so much muscle, it takes a lot to keep him going. When he's not here, I tend to spend £80 per month.

Just recently, it's been much lower as I live next door to my parents, and we tend to share food - mum fetches stuff she needs from here and I do the same from her house depending who's cooking. She is also an incorrigible milk waster - one day out of date and out it goes, so I've started taking to mine - I haven't bought milk in over a month.

Just recently, I've been so busy all the time that I've not really eaten much, so in the past 14 days have spent £30 in total.

There you go, totally rambling post . Just to add, the £250 is a massive come down from the £550 we were spending when we shopped in Waitrose!!