Grocery Shopping budget thread

medsdemon

tiddly_widdly wrote: »

Hi
Ive not been around this board for a while but Im after ideas again.

Im feeding essentially 5 adults. I meal plan and cook everything from scratch. I currently spend £160 per fortnight for us all. Which Im happy-ish with but it has crept up in the last year or so.

I would like to get it back down to around the £140 per fortnight mark if at all possible. but we have a new problem.

My DH1 has just been diagnosed with a wheat allergy. This is proving costly.

So the question is this, do you think I can reduce my overall costs at the same time as having to spend more for my daughter?

any help and suggestions would be appreciated.

Hi,

Just wondered if your DH1 is just allergic to wheat, or to gluten too. My hubby is a coeliac ( can't eat wheat, barley, oats or any gluten at all, it makes him really ill) and gets his pasta and bread on prescription ATM so it saves us alot.

Not sure if he would get a prescription if it's just a wheat intolerance but you could always ask your GP ?

GF cereals are double price and "normal" rice crispies etc all have barley malt extract in so are unsuitable. Hunt out Whole Earth Cornflakes which are with the normal cereals and gluten free and are only £1.39 a pack atm. I also make drop scones as an alternative to eating bread, or fruit and yoghurt for breakfast. Or ricecakes:o

we have got used to the diet now and I cook everything from scratch..The whole family eat the same meals so no contamination happening...the hardest time is finding lunch-time food that's easy to grab if you're out and not able to take a pack-up and no-more relying on sandwiches. Soups often have wheat flour in as do many cooked dishes you wouldn't think have. Baked potatoes and salad is pretty safe.

I find S**sbury's a pretty good place to shop, they stock a range of frozen convenience food that's quite edible, one of there sausages is lovely and GF ( toulouse i think), continental meats never have wheat in ( eg bratwurst, chorizo, salami etc) and always have cornflour in to thicken sauces safely if needed.

if your making biscuits or cakes I mainly just use a normal recipe or maybe try polenta or ground almonds instead of flour or brownies work well as does banana loaf. in fact anything a bit moister as GF can be awful dry.

Two things I've still never achieved with any success- pastry or yorkshire puddings. We buy the frozen Gf ones sometimes as a treat. Please let me know if you manage this:D

[Deleted User]

I have cut back more than ever as I now only buy whats essential and if its not on the list by the kettle then it doesn't get bought.I am saving as much as I can as 8 weeks tomorrow we go on our annual family holiday to the Isle of Wight and there are me, my DD and her OH and five children to feed for a fortnight.IWe save all our tesco vouchers towrds the fortnights food bill and ever penny I can get out of my monthly food budget goes towards the holiday from around April onwards .I have a freezer full of grub and the cupboards are stacked so lots of NSDs for me. I don't eat crisps and cook from scratch every day Tonight I shall put my SC on overnight to do a small piece of gammon that I bought last week and tomorrow I shall slice it up cold and portion it up for the freezer.A lot nicer than the packets of 'plastic ham' that the supermarkets sell

tessie_bear

jackieo...lidl do a nice bit of gammon kind of semi circle shape...often 30% off...i do it in sc and we have it with egg and chips and on sarnies hth

firesidemaid

CSJ is really good for dog food.

have a look at the local suppliers, so you can save on the delivery charge too.

one of our vets uses it for her dogs too.

bluebag

leanneh wrote: »

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

Add a half a teaspoon of the cheapest margerine ( the sort that's meant to be bad for your heart) to their feed daily, really perks up the coat and reduces shedding. I have no idea why it works, but it does.

youngmummy

i dont know weather i have posted previously but i currently spend about £250 for the month maximum, this is for 2 adults, a toddler (a dog and 2 gerbals even though there food ect is included im not going to include it in my pp per day) all cleaning stuff toiletries included, so about £3 a day per person based on a 28 day month, i bulk buy and if its on offer i buy it and stock up, as well as freeze left overs (curry, spag bowl, chilli ect) i use vouchers but only if its something i need or will use and is a good deal or would work out cheaper than a similar item i would buy. xx

cookie9

Used to be quite good at the food budget but since dh moved in and we got married have let this slip. With baby on the way I need to get to grips with it again. Going to try for 200 for August. Fridge and freezer quite well stocked so fingers crossed for low spend in the next couple of weeks although dh on holiday for a week so will be snacking! Going to do some baking eg banana bread, blackberry and apples muffins and cheese and onion muffins. Hopefully that will help.

lushlifesaver

Bit of an unusual question I think but I think this will be the best place to get an answer:
(Background: I work in a residential project)
Where I work we have a maximum budget of £25 per woman per week minus £10 (which is kept in the house for bread, milk and toilet roll), this therefore means that our budget is based on how many residents we have at the time (e.g. currently we have 7 so (7x25)-10=£165) we then take off approx £5 per person so that they can go to the market and get food that they like/food from their home country - for example the African women buy hard chicken, okra etc). We *have* to do an online shop at ASDA (because that's what we're told), I did it for the first time this week and spent £117.63 (incl delivery @ £4.50) in this I git 8 lightbulbs as well as stocking up on a lot of basics e.g. pasta tubes (4packs) spaghetti (4 packs) and rice (3 packs).
I was just wondering if anyone had any advice on what basics we could use some of this money for (we are happy to bulk buy and have plenty of space to store things) whilst still leaving a decent amount for the women to use at the market?
By my thinking, we could spend £100 of basics and essentials at ASDA which would leave up able to up the £10 to £20 (which we really need because the women go through toilet rolls and milk like crazy!) whilst still leaving £50 for market purchases. Does that sound decent or do people think we could manage with less at ASDA? (as part of the asda shop in order to maximise our budget we also buy household goods - soap, washing up liquid, lightbulbs, kitchen sundries...)
We have access to Costco so does anyone know how their prices are likely to compare for bulk purchases of toilet roll, rice, pasta...things like that?
Looking forward to any input people can offer!

Argh, sorry this has turned in to quite the essay.....

patchwork_cat

Do you buy smartprice pasta and rice? If not either look into that or buying the large bags 3kg pasta and large bags of rice. DO you buy chapest loo roll or regular? Toilet roll from Costco is cheaper than regular Asda.

Snowlilly

Hi everyone,

Im brand new to this site, it's great! Seems to be a wealth of info and support

Ok We're trying to seriously save on everything and our weekly food bill is one of them that I know we can cut down alot.

We are a family of 5. 2 adults, 3 children (2 young children who eat very small portions)

What would you say we can live off of per week? We are going to buy our meat once a month then freeze it for the rest of the month. Also going to make home made soups to have for dinner one night per week.
Someone else has said if we have already bought our meat we should be able to live on £40-£50 (sometimes less) per week as she does it. Does this sound reasonable?

Any tips will be greatly appreciated.

Snowlilly