Grocery Shopping budget thread

adelight

You're lucky you have access to so many different supermarkets, use it to your advantage
Find which places do the best basic products and your regular buys (ie, always get value carrots, spuds onion from asda but buy the weekly f/v offers at aldi), and keep an eye on offers and use https://www.mysupermarket.com to see where has the best prices on items you want each week. This is good if you want say a whole chicken, a few boxes of cereal, jars of pasta sauce and some tea bags. You can compare the cost of getting them from the different shops available to you.

lucielle

We are a family of 6 and have a mutt as well. Mine are older 15, 13, 12 and 10 but the 15 year old eats like a horse. I try to keep my budget to £350 per month for everything. I buy sacks of spuds and in winter I get horsey carrots, which are seconds and ok. I use a wholesaler for trays on tinned tomeatoes, beans, tea and coffee etc.Bulk out mince with lentils and make a lot of soup. HTH
L

jcr16

were a family of 5, plus 3 cats. if i write a list and meal planner i can do a weekly shop on about £40-£50. this will inculde nappies for youngest plus cat food.

if i don't meal plan or list write, then i can easily spend way more than i need to buying stuff i just don't need.i love supermarket shopping and can spend hours in there, then go next day and doo the same,lol.

i have found online shopping fantastic, but i generally don't use this as much at the mo.

ixia

family of 5 my shopping budget changes from week to week it's dependant on what offers are on. I bulk buy non-perishable items when they are on offer saves me money in the long run.

meal plan and cost it out before you go shopping and just take that amount with you with a few quid extra for any bargains. stick to your shopping list and work your meals around what meat etc is on offer.

Good luck.

cazscoob

We are a family of 7 with 3 cats and i spend £300 a month on shopping inc all the essentials, i bulk buy most things and use sites like approved foods and BB4L. I find the local butchers and farms have great deals and their food tastes better and stretches further (meat doesnt shrink) We can also buy a huge bag of potatoes for £5 along with all the other veg we need.

Baking goodies and making snacks instead of buying in also saves a lot, and finding a treat meal is far cheaper than take aways! our at the moment is icelands special fried rice with farmfoods curry sauce!

valk_scot

I cut my budget in one fell swop by telling my OH that his beer wasn't a household expense so shouldn't come out of the housekeeping budget, it should come out his pocket money/leisure budget. Then I stopped picking up his beer at the supermarket for him unless he handed over the £££. I don't drink so it was easy for me but really, it is a optional expense, not a necessary one like food or nappies. If you're having to cut back on food and such for the kids just to keep abreast of buying wine and beer (whoever it's for) it's perhaps time to sit down with him and review the budget.

The next thing to look at is how much of your household budget goes on necessary things like milk, bread, nappies, basic foodstuffs like veg, meat and fruit, cleaners and toiletries and how much goes on non-essentials like sweets, cakes, biscuits, crisps, treat foods, booze (!) etc etc, then see where you can make savings here.

gailey_2

footballmanagerwidow wrote: »

Hi All,

I was just wondering if there's anyone out there that is regularly shopping for and feeding a large family? I have 4 children (8,5,2 and 1) plus an OH and a labrador, and however hard I try I just cannot get my weekly shopping bill below £140 I dont know why it's so difficult for me, I tend to go on a big shop and then within 2 days i'm back in the supermarket because I need something else. I'm a bit of an impulse buyer and find it difficult to stick to a list, esp when I go somewhere with a clothes/homewares section! I have an Iceland, Co-op, Sainsburys, Asda, Tesco, Morrisons and Aldi near me and I tend to dip in and out of each - i'm not loyal to one particular one. My youngest 2 are still in nappies, however the baby has just gone onto cows milk so there will be a definite saving of a fiver or so a week on having to get her a box of formula weekly! DH does drink quite a bit indoors, which I really want him to stop doing, and this adds alot to the bill...otherwise i'm not particularly over the top I don't think.

Anyway, how much does it cost you to feed a large family and does anyone have any advice for me? I really need to buck my ideas up here

Hi

you seem to have good selection I find the key is shopping around maybe doing several

buying more own brand or value products

less meat

Make things stretch so
lentils mixed with mince, boil up chicken carcass from roast and get 3meals out of it, double concentrate squash for kids lasts longer

shopping from scratch.-bread,cakes and biscuits much cheaper so many recipies on this site and kids love baking.

in summer trying to grow some own fruit and veg.
In summer foarging the hedgrows for apples, pears, berries.

baking own cakes/bread.

what about seeing if anyone else you know goes to france.
we know someone who gets hubby s baccy cheaper and odd bottle of wine. Not sure what hubby drinks but if its beer

the french sainsburys beer is 8bottles for 3quid in white box is nice.
co-op czech lager 1.33 a bottle is lovley and great value.
wine we drink white and aldos badger creek easily as nice as jacobs creek and only 3.49.
Try to do the multibuys on booze and maybe stock up if your ph can restrain himself from drinking it all at once.

nappies-got 15month old but use cloth, used cloth with 1st too only exception is nitetimes use pullups for 4year old too and cheapest i found is lidls at 3.30per pack.

Not sure how big your freezer is but stock up on lots of frozen veg that you could make meals out of like cauliflour cheese, peas and sweetcorn. great in savoury rice or rissotto.my 2 love corn on cob too.

buy veg mostly aldis cheapest maybe batchcook and freeze meals into tubs as notice that way not needing to go out for more fresh and spend more.

Get big bag of spuds as so much you can do with potato

jackets
homemade chips/wedges
mash to go sausages or casseroles.
frittata.
pasties.
roasties.
potato bake/gratin

sainsburys by far best basic range although morrisions do lot of value lines too.

eggs are great so many meals to make with them omlette, fritta, savoury filled pancakes.

Milk and bread cheapest is farmfoods as 8pints for 1.50 but lidls were doing 4pints for 1pound. sometimes the purple milks cheap in morrisions.

Shop the reductions especially bread and meat and freeze, if you dont have chest freezer it be fab investment and pay for itself in bargains.

reductions

co-op by far best and most generous. after 3 and sundays best time.I got lots of meat and bread today.:D
find the others quite stingy and you have to go in just before close which dont have chance to do.

Do consider cheaper stores such as

ethnic stores cheap herbs, spices and rice.
wilkos,superdrug for household,toilitries.
poundland,poundstretcher, family bargains and other cheap shops do some foods and non foods.
primark do cheap homewares.
ikea and asda very good on kitchen stuff.
Local butchers and markets.

petfood not sure maybe someone with dog can advise but reckon buying dog food in bulk probably cheaper and saves you keep going out.

try split a shop or category a week.

so for example

week 1- sainsburys or morrisions large grocery shop with dried good essentials tins, pasta, rice, herbs, spices, tinned tomato, passata, eggs , flour, tea. coffee, squash, cereals.

Also aldis for fresh veg/milk

week 2 iceland-maybe set 25pound limit as free home delivery for staples chips/wedges maybe breaded fish, chicken,frozen veg.

week 3 aldis again for fresh veg/fruit /milk try and tock up fornightly of you can.

week 4-household/non foods
other retailers.

Cook things that cook well in bulk

curries
pasta dishes/lasagne
shepards pie
chilli concarne with rice
homemade soups.
casseroles.
bangers and mash always a winner even if topped with ahh bisto.

Forget impulse.

start keeping shopping lists.
stocktake cupboard see what you have already.
start meaplanning on weekly basis everyone luches and dinners so its set what you havinga nd you know you got the stuff to make it.

meanmarie

Would agree wholeheartedly with Valk_Scot that booze is not an item for grocery shopping....my OH buys his own or does without!

Mealplanning and writing a list (which you stick to) are 2 good ways to keep costs down.

Marie

Penelope_Penguin

footballmanagerwidow wrote: »

however hard I try I just cannot get my weekly shopping bill below £140 I dont know why it's so difficult for me, I tend to go on a big shop and then within 2 days i'm back in the supermarket because I need something else. I'm a bit of an impulse buyer and find it difficult to stick to a list, esp when I go somewhere with a clothes/homewares section!

I think you've answered your own question

Either make a list and stick to it, or shop online (there are often codes on here, which effectively give you free delivery :money: ).

We have an existing thread where people list what their budget is, so I'll merge this so you can have a browse.

auditbabe

This is an excellent site it really is possible to feed a family of 4 for £100 per month. To see is to believe.


thttp://www.cheap-family-recipes.org.uk/

All the ideas people have suggested are there in one place with good solid advice and help in cutting down on the household spending. :j