Grocery Shopping budget thread

mandragora_2

katebl wrote: »

We aim for £50 p/w for me and OH and two rabbits, however the huge amounts of fresh parsley and rocket they eat means I rarely stick to this!

Bring them over here. I'll stick the run on my lawn and they can gorge themselves on dandelions...

dom300186

my budget is £140 a month for 2 adults, 1 child age 4, a springer spaniel a cat and a hamster.

I make my own bread now and rolls, also i make cakes for my other half to take to work for his lunch, maybe you could look at doing this if you have a bit of time, i am now a stay at home mum and im looking at growing my own veg make my own breads/cakes, and i make my own cleaning products and have reduced how much we use around the house and its helped so much, so my budget will come down when my veg has grown as all i would need to buy is meat/milk/cheese/cereal/and some veg like peas frozen.

[Deleted User]

I budget for £30.per week and always manage to have money left over from this which goes into the Holiday fund.I find going back to using cash really helps as I had to during the 1960s when debit cards were not so available as now.It was then a case of once its gone its gone until next payday(usually a Friday)In those days housewives had mostly a set amount to spend on housekeeping so you learned to make it streeeetch quite well.I bought the 'Sunday joint' on Saturday afternoon and I could with luck sometimes eke it out till at least Tuesday or Wednesday with luck and lots of veggies.Leg of lamb then 17/6d (seems unreal when I type this now ) did
roast Sunday ,
cold with mash and pickles Monday
some cut off for mincing for sheps pie for Tuesday
and with luck the rest maybe curried or made into pasties for Wednesday.
Thursday was usually sausages and mash and Friday fish and chips (all HM of course as I couldn't afford take aways)
Saturday dinner was my OH favourites either corned beef fritters with veg or corned beef hash.He just adored corned beef
Lunch was usually sandwiches or soup and breakfast was cereals or toast or porridge in the winter
My housekeeping in 1969 was £9 per week and it fed both OH ,me and two small children. No frozen food as I didn't own a fridge so milk was kept cool in a bowl of water and fresh dairy stuff was bought daily most of the time.Then we managed to buy the tiniest fridge possible and I thought i was in heaven.The top tiny slot was a minute freezer which I managed to put a long flat block of ice cream in Great for the kids in the summer and a few ice cubes.We lived in a very small two room and kitchen flat in South Norwood in London.The kids had the bedroom and OH and I slept on the put-u-up settee for five years in the sitting room (I actually gave birth to my youngest DD on it).We shared a toilet with two other families and had no bathroom at all .the kids and I would have to walk from there to Sydenham (around 4-5 miles, all weathers pushing the children in the pram ) to my sis -in-laws once a week for a decent bath as she lived in a house where she had sole use of the bathroom.But we at least had a roof -albeit a bit of a leaky one- over our heads:rotfl:I didn't feel deprived or hard-up as everyone I knew was in the same boat.I didn't own a washing machine only a Baby Burco and a Flatley dryer for drying stuff in. My hot water came from a very small gas wall heater on the wall over the sink.I would boil up the nappies in a big black saucepan on the stove to get them clean.It sound Dickensian, but it really wasn't What you don't have you don't miss.It was damp in the winter at times in our flat, but it was one of the things you just put up with.I can remember when we had saved enough cash to buy a carpet for the sitting room and I was so chuffed with my new carpet that I forgot that I only had a small brush to clean it with as a Hoover was an expense that didn't come into it.But I would do it on my hands and knees until I managed to save enough to get a push along Ewbank carpet sweeper.You just adapted to things in those days .But there was no 'helpful credit card' to get you luxuries.My OH was considered too well-off by the Croydon council to warrant rehousing as his basic without overtime was £21 per week, so we had no chance of being rehoused.So we saved and did without until we had enough for a deposit on our first house in Dartford, and if we thought we were broke before we had no idea how broke we would become by becoming home owners But it was well worth the effort in the end.Happy days though and I would never looked back and wished it any different.Tough times shape your outlook I think and everyone has them at times .
Makes you darned grateful when things do go right and get a bit easier but I never have forgotten my tough times and I'm glad they are over but it has made me a canny shopper and I never waste anything if I can help it:D

quintwins

i keep my bananas in the fridge, they never really get a chance to go black mind, but they do last longer than 30hrs

we aim for £40 a week thats for 2 adults and 3 kids under 5 one in nappies, but we've been going over lately because we've been stocking up, i will be pulling my spending in from next month again before it gets completely out of hand, we still eat very well we always have plenty of fruit altho it is mainly bananas/apples/pears and oranges because there cheapest we only get berrys or melon when there reduced, we eat meat 6 days a week and also use plenty of milk, i also try to make meals that can be streched into a few days, like a roast can be turned into a casarole, or a casarole can be turned into a stew , spag bol can be turned into chilli ect, or if it's cheaper i make double and freeze half, i think i'm acually quite good at it but i also think thats down to seeing my parents waste so much money and then years of not having any money

Elmo1985

JackieO wrote: »

I budget for £30.per week and always manage to have money left over from this which goes into the Holiday fund.I find going back to using cash really helps as I had to during the 1960s when debit cards were not so available as now.It was then a case of once its gone its gone until next payday(usually a Friday)In those days housewives had mostly a set amount to spend on housekeeping so you learned to make it streeeetch quite well.I bought the 'Sunday joint' on Saturday afternoon and I could with luck sometimes eke it out till at least Tuesday or Wednesday with luck and lots of veggies.Leg of lamb then 17/6d (seems unreal when I type this now ) did
roast Sunday ,
cold with mash and pickles Monday
some cut off for mincing for sheps pie for Tuesday
and with luck the rest maybe curried or made into pasties for Wednesday.
Thursday was usually sausages and mash and Friday fish and chips (all HM of course as I couldn't afford take aways)
Saturday dinner was my OH favourites either corned beef fritters with veg or corned beef hash.He just adored corned beef
Lunch was usually sandwiches or soup and breakfast was cereals or toast or porridge in the winter
My housekeeping in 1969 was £9 per week and it fed both OH ,me and two small children. No frozen food as I didn't own a fridge so milk was kept cool in a bowl of water and fresh dairy stuff was bought daily most of the time.Then we managed to buy the tiniest fridge possible and I thought i was in heaven.The top tiny slot was a minute freezer which I managed to put a long flat block of ice cream in Great for the kids in the summer and a few ice cubes.We lived in a very small two room and kitchen flat in South Norwood in London.The kids had the bedroom and OH and I slept on the put-u-up settee for five years in the sitting room (I actually gave birth to my youngest DD on it).We shared a toilet with two other families and had no bathroom at all .the kids and I would have to walk from there to Sydenham (around 4-5 miles, all weathers pushing the children in the pram ) to my sis -in-laws once a week for a decent bath as she lived in a house where she had sole use of the bathroom.But we at least had a roof -albeit a bit of a leaky one- over our heads:rotfl:I didn't feel deprived or hard-up as everyone I knew was in the same boat.I didn't own a washing machine only a Baby Burco and a Flatley dryer for drying stuff in. My hot water came from a very small gas wall heater on the wall over the sink.I would boil up the nappies in a big black saucepan on the stove to get them clean.It sound Dickensian, but it really wasn't What you don't have you don't miss.It was damp in the winter at times in our flat, but it was one of the things you just put up with.I can remember when we had saved enough cash to buy a carpet for the sitting room and I was so chuffed with my new carpet that I forgot that I only had a small brush to clean it with as a Hoover was an expense that didn't come into it.But I would do it on my hands and knees until I managed to save enough to get a push along Ewbank carpet sweeper.You just adapted to things in those days .But there was no 'helpful credit card' to get you luxuries.My OH was considered too well-off by the Croydon council to warrant rehousing as his basic without overtime was £21 per week, so we had no chance of being rehoused.So we saved and did without until we had enough for a deposit on our first house in Dartford, and if we thought we were broke before we had no idea how broke we would become by becoming home owners But it was well worth the effort in the end.Happy days though and I would never looked back and wished it any different.Tough times shape your outlook I think and everyone has them at times .
Makes you darned grateful when things do go right and get a bit easier but I never have forgotten my tough times and I'm glad they are over but it has made me a canny shopper and I never waste anything if I can help it:D

I've just found this the most inspirational post:beer:

We spend £140.00 a month for 2.5 of us usually a big shop £80-90 for essentials, rice, pasta, cereals tins etc and top ups each week including all household cleaning products.

From next month im trying to cut this down to £100 a month as we have quite a lot in the cupboards at the moment and i think we could easily last a good month at the most if i get weekly fruit veg etc.

We use all manners of superstores, tesco, asda, co-op, aldi, netto, farm foods, herons (OH popped in here last week and spent just under £15.00 and came home with 5 overloading bags!)

Rebekah24

This thread has been very useful, I am looking to drive mine down this month

Mine is easily £10- £20 a week - still too much

OH £40 - £60 a week ... he really dosent have much idea how much it costs!! So handed that back to him to sort now, just doing my own shopping

12-15 big pots of greek yoghurts per week really adds up for OH, plus fresh fruit and veg, protein...erk!! I dont have to get much for myself!!

Gonna shoot for £30 for the month for me for may!

dom300186

id tune in on a wednesday to watch superscrimpers great with tips to stop over spending you can also watch it online with 4od.

[Deleted User]

dom300186 wrote: »

id tune in on a wednesday to watch superscrimpers great with tips to stop over spending you can also watch it online with 4od.

Make Do and Mend online at Channel Four is even better and the people are great its a combination of cookery DIY and general housesaving tips Its on at mid-day on channel four but I caught up with the ones I missed by watching onine

alison6692

We spend about £600 a month! I know this is a lot but am planning to try and reduce it.

calleyw

JackieO wrote: »

Make Do and Mend online at Channel Four is even better and the people are great its a combination of cookery DIY and general housesaving tips Its on at mid-day on channel four but I caught up with the ones I missed by watching onine

Was not on today. But double tomorrow:j

Yours


Calley