Grocery Shopping budget thread

mardatha

O my god that IS an eye-opener !!!

minstrel57

Hiya everyone and WOW you all do so much better than me. You have all given me lots of tips and idea's "Thankyou" for all your responses.

I have "in the past" spent £250 + a month on 2 adults. But I'm a born waster, waste money like my purse was bottomless.....hence the debt :eek:

But I am going to turn that around. This board is jam packed full of fabulous tips and ideas.

I have no children at hope and plenty time to cook from scratch. so I will keep yous updated on my progress

Homemade bread........yummy think it would cost me more as I would be eating it as fast as I made it.

One other question

Pastry.....I am a fair cook but pastry is not one of my strong points, so I buy it from the scoopa dooper shop (loose).

I understand half amount of fat to pastry ?

Thankyou

J

minstrel57

Pink winged thankyou for all those links and everyone else who has left me links to follow.

J

Justamum

minstrel57 wrote: »

One other question

Pastry.....I am a fair cook but pastry is not one of my strong points, so I buy it from the scoopa dooper shop (loose).

I understand half amount of fat to pastry ?

Shortcrust pastry is half fat to flour, and be careful when adding the water - just a bit at a time until it holds together. It's so quick to make pastry, and you could make the crumbs (without the water) in bulk and freeze it (it will defrost more quickly than made-up pastry).

strawberrypud

How do some of you manage to live on say £30 a week for food? We spend £20 a week on fruit and veg alone from lidl. Do you all grow your own veg?

There are 2 adults and a child and a baby and we spend £80 a week. This includes toiletries and cleaning products, baby formula and nappies but we buy the cheapest possible versions of these things.

zippychick

minstrel57 wrote: »

Pastry.....I am a fair cook but pastry is not one of my strong points, so I buy it from the scoopa dooper shop (loose).

I understand half amount of fat to pastry ?

Thankyou

J

Here you go m-lady

Making pastry

Short pastry

the best mince pie pastry ever

I want to make puff pastry - am i mad?

Zip

minstrel57

Thankyou for that zippychick

J

nattyt

I was wondering what a realistic food budget is for myself and my 3 children age 14, 5 and 2. I've been doing a big shop once a month spending around £150 and buying extras throughout the week eg bread, milk etc but then seem to spend another 50 quid some weeks! Too much as works out sometimes as £300 plus over a month! I cook everything from scratch and do batch cook as much as possible. I know i need to cut back on the treat type stuff so tomorrow going to do a load of flapjacks, cookies and cakes for the kids for the freezer. Also i think my kids eat too many crisps. Whats a healthier alternative? Thanks in advance.:)

JulieGeorgiana

I give myself the equivalent of £50 a week... so if a month has 4 Fridays it's a £200 budget, 5 Fridays is a £250 budget!

First I buy butchers (equivalent to £10 a week) and get an organic veg box delivered (equivalent to £5 a week), and have £25 a week for the shop! I go to the shop once a week (Friday) and if I forgot to buy something... we go without 9 times out of 10!!

I use the comparison website for my food shop, and I always stick to the list!

I never go shopping hungry! And I try not to shop with my son!

You however do have the equivalent to 2 adults and 2 children... so £60 a week should be realistic!

Alternative to crisps... make scotch pancakes (cheap and cheerful) and the children can add honey or Jam! Email me if you want me to dig out the recipe! They keep well in a sandwich bag too! And if you use half milk and half water, they fluff up more and save money!!

Another is scones... no sugar in scones!!!

Apricot

Check out Weezl's website Cheap Family Recipes as you have to feed basically 2 adults and two children this should be perfect. It shows how to feed a family of 4 for £100 per month. Obviously you can spend more if you wish but it's great for really slashing your food budget and the menu is nutritionally balanced to ensure that everyone is getting the correct amount of vitamins in their diet.

Try Martins downshifting challenge as well. Go down a brand in everything that you buy (eg from Supermarket brand to Supermarket Value) you will be suprised at how small the difference is in taste and how big a difference this makes to your purse.