Grocery Shopping budget thread

betterlife

we are a family of 6 ( me, oh, kids are 10, 6, 4 and 2 (in nappies)) + 2 cats, we also have great selection of shops but i always use iceland once a week, this is mainly for milk as it is £1.00 for 4pts of any colour top, we use about 6-8pts a day so i normally buy 12-14 4pinters a week (and get it delivered free) then with the rest of the money i need to spend to make it up to £25 for free del i normally buy cheese, cereal, sugar 67p, bacon and maybe a couple pizza`s for sat nite. i buy my potatoes from farm at £4.50 for 25kilo and veg there to about 20p for lrg leek, 50p bunch of carrots etc. i also go sainsburys and buy basic choc bics 30p , cat biscuits etc. i think the key is to meal plan and cook from scratch, like if i cook roast chicken on sunday, monday is normally chic and veg soup, if i do spag bol i cook enough mince to do chilli or cottage pie the next day and any lesftover cottage pie goes in a stew (very tasty) saying that though its always handy to have a pizza or the likes of in the freezer for when you dont fancy something thats planned. i also try and bake at least once a week, cakes, cookies, sausage rolls pastys etc. some evenings i batch cook american pancakes, waffles etc for breakfast quick and easy for the morning.
once you get into a routine your`ll find it easier, write a shopping list and stick to it, i use a variety of shops but it works for me, i stick to my list and make sure im not hungry when i go shopping, reduced items are great if you will use them or can freeze them, bulk out with lentils, oats and veg. have tea ready for around 4.30 on school nites so kids dont snack to much before tea. dont over stack plates if they want more let them have seconds but if they dont you can use the leftovers rather than chuck them in the bin. hth x

Cheapskate

cazscoob wrote: »

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!

What's BB4L? Looked on t'internet, but it came up with loads of random stuff!
Thanks,

A x

ilovethecomps

Cheapskate wrote: »

What's BB4L? Looked on t'internet, but it came up with loads of random stuff!
Thanks,

A x

Big Brands For Less -
http://www.bigbrandsforless.co.uk/

bluebag

I am very disciplined when shopping but my days! if I take the kids or the OH the bill grows like you wouldn't believe.

It is much cheaper for me to menu plan and shop online, no carp I don't want. Saved me a fortune.

I venture to the supermarket ALONE with no more than £20 and no cards to get all the sandwich supplies for the week, any left over money is used if I see anything reduced. I don't buy anything reduced unless it fits in with my menu plan.

I have a clothes plan each year and shop twice a year to get the things I need for summer/winter. I do the same with the kids and OH.

arsenalbarnie

Hi new poster here. Am trying this year to spend less on supermarket shopping and to stop throwing food away. Done well so far, two banana cakes and bread pudding made this week,stale bread and overipe bananas would usually go in the bin so feeling pretty pleased with myself.
We are a family of seven, including four big teenage lads and a 10 year old growing girl.:o Have checked spending last year and it averaged out to approx £900-1000 per month at the supermarket, including wine, the odd dvd, cleaning products.
Have started doing a big shop at lidl once a month and am thinking of using a butcher for the meat. We now have a milkman as this cuts down the shopping trips. I am wondering what you all think is a reasonable food spend for a month for a family of this size.? Am now buying toiletries at Poundland etc if they are cheaper. Me and dh also giving up alcohol for January :A so will be interested in how much we save there! At least the recycling bin will be lighter.
Anyway look forward to any suggestions.
Thanks

Penelope_Penguin

arsenalbarnie wrote: »

I am wondering what you all think is a reasonable food spend for a month for a family of this size.?

As this has fallen from the front page of OS, I'll add it to the existing thread to give you ideas what others spend

Catchymonkey

could you get a weekly food shop for a family of 7 down to? Including cleaning, toiletries, toddler in nappies half time and a dog? Do you think it is possible to do it for less than £80?

TIA

Penelope_Penguin

Catchymonkey wrote: »

could you get a weekly food shop for a family of 7 down to? Including cleaning, toiletries, toddler in nappies half time and a dog? Do you think it is possible to do it for less than £80?

TIA

You possibly could, though have you looked at other ares of spending that can be cut first?

how many are children, btw?

Catchymonkey

5 children.

All other areas are already as low as they can go. DH has developed severe, and difficult to control Epilepsy, so our income is about to drop by more than half as he can only work part time now. We have worked out a budget that sees us keeping our house but it only leaves £80 a week for food and I just don't know how achievable that is?

Penelope_Penguin

Catchymonkey wrote: »

5 children.

All other areas are already as low as they can go. DH has developed severe, and difficult to control Epilepsy, so our income is about to drop by more than half as he can only work part time now. We have worked out a budget that sees us keeping our house but it only leaves £80 a week for food and I just don't know how achievable that is?

Sorry to hear that

Have you looked at what benefits you might get? Will this affect your tax credits?

You'll get nearly £100/week for child benefit, plus tax credits. Can you not afford more for food?

I'd strongly recommend you post a Statement of Affairs on the Debt Free Wannabe Board (you don;t need to have debt ). They'll help you see if there are other places where you can economise.

We have an existing thread where people post their food budget, so I'll add a link for that (and merge this later). Here's the link.

Good luck!