Grocery Shopping budget thread

patchwork_cat

leanneh wrote: »

Hope this isn't too nosey a question but would you mind elaborating on an average monthly shop and the type of meals you eat?

We have 2 dogs and their food alone costs us £36 - I tried to move them to cheaper food and they didn't do well on it. We also have a 10 month old and I was struggling to stick to £50 a week with his milk, wipes, nappies, food etc.

Am keen to get any help I can as I'm new to OS and taking baby steps!!

Have you tried Gusto dog food? 1 bag (10 kg) lasts our Golden Retriever a month and that would be £14 for your 2 per month.

leanneh

patchwork_cat wrote: »

Have you tried Gusto dog food? 1 bag (10 kg) lasts our Golden Retriever a month and that would be £14 for your 2 per month.

not heard of that - where do you get it from - does your goldie do well on it?

Found that with the other food after awhile their coats went really dull and they both lost weight

mama67

valk_scot wrote: »

so it's half a loaf each covered in peanut butter or jam and a pint of milk each. Then they ask what's for dinner, sigh.

this sounds so familiar and it doesn't get any better the older they get

Hardup_Hester

Bad of me I know, but I don't keep an exact record of what I spend. Hubby gives me £400 on the last day of the month, half get's paid into my bank account & half I keep in cash & put into envelopes. There is just the 2 of us & a tank of tropical fish.
£100 in the Petrol envelope
£7.60 in the Egg envelope
£7 in the Milk envelope
The £86 left buys what we need for the month, I buy 2 slipper gammon joints from the butcher for £4.99 each, this makes sandwiches for hubby every day plus 1 or 2 gammon meals. I buy Tesco chickens when they are 3 for £10, my butcher charges £8 for a chicken & I can't afford that, every chicken makes Sunday roast, chicken pie, pasta bake & stock or soup. Last month I bought 3 half shoulders of lamb from the Co-op, they were reduced to £2.50 each. Most weeks I buy a hand of bananas for £1 & we eat liver once a week 80p worth of liver does us 2 meals with bacon & onion. I buy bacon from the butcher at £8 for approx 40 rashers, I also buy bacon scraps for 99p for meals other than breakfast. We have sausage & mash most weeks too, £2.50 for 6 sausages, we only eat 3 between us. I have porridge for breakfast or toast with HM marmalade, hubby has egg or sausage on toast or bacon sarnie. If I run out of money we live out of the freezer & cupboards for a few days. At the moment I'm not buying veg apart from mushrooms, a few carrots & frozen peas as we have potatoes, greens, salad & onions from the garden.
I use 99p shower gel for showers & hand wash, I use any shampoo that's on offer, my DD buys me hand cream for my b'day every year. I use the freebie newspaper instead of kitchen roll. I damp dust with microfiber cloths. A bottle of washing liquid lasts us about 4 months, I don't use fabric softener. A bag of dishwasher tabs lasts 6 months to a year.
I had to manage on £10 a week housekeeping in 1981 for me, the ex & 3 children, not because times were hard, just because the ex was tight, lol.
Hester

patchwork_cat

Some Tesco's do it I believe, we buy it online at Dodson and Horrell, yes she does well, but being a gannet Goldie and 11 she does need to lose weight, so is on Lite, but it is a working dog food, so ought to be fairly calorific in the normal. Also Autarky is another one, slightly more expensive. Here are some opinions of Gusto http://www.dogsey.com/showthread.php?t=70915. Some people feed with offal too. We do give her remains off our plates (if suitable) when she hasn't already nicked them! and this and she is doing well for 11 with only 1 kidney.

M0neysav3r

leanneh wrote: »

Hope this isn't too nosey a question but would you mind elaborating on an average monthly shop and the type of meals you eat?

We have 2 dogs and their food alone costs us £36 - I tried to move them to cheaper food and they didn't do well on it. We also have a 10 month old and I was struggling to stick to £50 a week with his milk, wipes, nappies, food etc.

Am keen to get any help I can as I'm new to OS and taking baby steps!!

Our dog (jack russell) has wagg complete dry food, roughly £3 a bag. She has always had this or anything else on offer, she is doing very well for 11. She also has meat scraps and treat chews.

Have you tried Lidl for Nappies? I used to get ds's from there and never had any problems with them When you say food was you refering to baby food? Jars are a con, much healthier to make your own baby food. Wipes you can get in basic ranges (or go without!) Milk you can't do much about, assuming you're not getting the ready made stuff?

Best of luck x

mandragora_2

leanneh wrote: »

Hope this isn't too nosey a question but would you mind elaborating on an average monthly shop and the type of meals you eat?

We have 2 dogs and their food alone costs us £36 - I tried to move them to cheaper food and they didn't do well on it. We also have a 10 month old and I was struggling to stick to £50 a week with his milk, wipes, nappies, food etc.

Am keen to get any help I can as I'm new to OS and taking baby steps!!

I'm old now, and wipes were only just coming in when my children were small, and I have to say we managed fine without them - to be honest, I'm not too keen on wipes because I think the cleansing chemicals in them must be a bit astringent for a baby's bottom. We just used cotton wool and baby lotion, with tissue paper and water to sluice down first if it was a messy one! Wipes were a luxury that I only bought for convenience if we were going out and I couldn't guarantee an easy source of warm water when changing the baby.

mardatha

Me too mandragora. I think that's what wipes are for really and to use them at home is lazyness. I keep telling my daughter this LOL - she smiles grimly and grits her teeth!

leanneh

mardatha wrote: »

Me too mandragora. I think that's what wipes are for really and to use them at home is lazyness. I keep telling my daughter this LOL - she smiles grimly and grits her teeth!

I'm with your daughter on this!! lol

I have started using a flannel rather than wipes at mealtimes to save money but will stick to wipes for bottoms! Think I would get through a lot of tissue paper and cotton wool when he has an 'explosion' so not really any cheaper.

Would still like to hear from threemuttleys about her shopping and meals etc. Going to look into theworking dog food suggested as well

ExTrolly101

I'm not sure exactly how much I spend. Haven't been able to access our chest freezer for about 2 years and presumed it was empty, it isn't it's quite full.:j I'm hoping that even though it's possibly passed it's best it'll be ok. Plan to start planning meals, cooking from scratch and no ready meals. We get through a lot of milk but i try and buy it on offer or from costco. Your posts are inspirational and I know I must try harder!