Calling all budget shopping experts!

xacesx

Hi All,
Like most people starting a dfw journey I spend way too much on grocerys every week, waste too much food and dont eat as healthy as i'd like to!

I am desperate to start doing monthly shops, with as healthy but satisfying meals as possible and I need your help!!

My family consist of me and hubby - I dont eat meat but eat fish, and he'll eat anything! - my 8 week old baby, 2 rats and 2 cats )

I really want to get my shopping bill below £120 a month, and with a formula feed/nappy wearing sprog i'm not sure how easy this will be! lol.

So ladys and gents, any meal suggestions would be gratefully received to help me reach my goal!

xxx

SunnyGirl

Hi & welcome to Old Style

This grocery shopping budget thread is a good place to start as it'll give you an idea of what others are doing in similar circumstances as you.

This thread Feeding a Family of 4 for £20 is inspirational as well.

I found lots of ideas in this thread of Cheapest Evening Meals too.

Have a look through the Grocery Challenge thread for this month too. Theres hundreds of recipes and people will come up with ideas if you post what you want to cook & what ingredients you have.

Sorry to have bamboozled you with a few big threads but they are brilliant :T HTH

xacesx

your a star! thanks xxx

Bitsy_Beans

I recommend meal planning. that way you only buy what you need for that week (in theory )
when I did mine I wrote down the meals we liked to eat and listed them on a 6 week rota basis. Only a couple of meals get repeated over the 6 weeks. Just find the way that works best for you. Some plan on monday = left over roast day tuesday = pasta = wednesday = fish etc etc.
keep hanging around here - you'll get the gist of things. I credit this place for getting my shopping bill down.
You might struggle with £120 a month with nappies AND formula but if you don't try you'll never know!!
Good luck and congrats on your fairly new arrival!

xacesx

thank you so much!
i think we will struggle, but luckily have a nappy stash from buying the wrong size! so should have about a months worth to keep us going with lol.
i'll have to have a think about meals we like

Taye

I stumbled on this site last night. (yes i was bored)

http://www.shoppingplanner.co.uk

It took abit of work to set up initally as my recipe section was blank.

Basically what i did was, made a quick list of what i "had in the cuboards" centering around the main meal items, ie meats/veg etc.

I then created a whole bunch of recipes centered around the food i knew i had.

So for example i had a beef brisket in the freezer which i knew would feed us for 1 main meal, and some lunchs so i created a recipe for beef/potatos and veg and another for beef sandwiches.

Some of the recipes are really simple like

• Cereal + milk,
• Beef burger green beans, gravy and potatos (for mash)

Others are more complex like spagetti bolognaise, mince, onion, mushrooms, tinned tons etc etc.

Once i was done creating as many meals as i could using up what i knew i had (tbh i'd already done a basic meal plan for next week so i just wanted to see how well the site worked so i entered what i'd already worked out)

i then popped them all in the planner for next week, breakfast, lunch dinner which is no easy task for my lot who always seem to be eating different things.

when your done you can get it to save and generates a shopping list. I then printed that off and headed to the cuboards.

It add's all the food up so for example i have cereal 5 days a week so i told me how much milk and cereal i'd need in total.

From there i just crossed anything off the list i already had, you can then edit the list to remove the items you don't need and print off a final copy so you know what you need to buy from the shops to make the meals you've planned.

As i said it was abit fiddly to begin with, but i imagine once you've set up the recipes you use alot it will become easy peasy to manage (well if your like me and abit predicable when it comes to food haha).

I know when i printed off the shopping list and compared it to the list i'd already made i was pretty suprised at the difference, id both forgotten some items and i'd listed things i didn't actually need.... anyway im pleased it means im going to spend £13 on this weeks shopping rather than the £28 my old list would have me spend.

Taye

Here's an example of my list... well what it thinks i need as you can see it's not brand specific so when you have your list you can shop around, granted i think im going to be pushed finding a 21g block of cheese... but you get the point it's telling me what i need for what i've planned and the Best Before Date i need to look for to make sure it's edible when i plan to use it (though im very naughtie when it comes to those anyway i sware i should be dead 10 times over for the things i eat)

Dairy QTY BBE

cheese 21g 26/6
egg 4 24/6
semi-skimmed milk 1.9l 26/6
greek yogurt 1.4kg 26/6

Delicatessen

ham 10g 26/6

Fruit & Veg

sweet potatoes 100g 25/6

Unknown

fajita wraps - pack of 8 2 26/6

slowandsteady_2

Have you checked to see if you can claim the Healthy Start Vouchers? They are given to people under a certain income and can be used to buy formula milk/milk/fruit/veg.

rosieben

I think meal planning and shopping lists are the way to go. If you write down all the meals that you eat regularly that will give you a head start and you can meal plan as it suits you, weekly, monthly etc. I tend to stick the kind of thing bitsy beans mentioned - Sunday - Roast; Monday - leftovers - eg curry, shepherds pie or bubble/squeak; Tuesday - sausages or bacon; Wednesday - pastry or pizza; Thursday - pasta or rice based meal; Friday - fish; Saturday - vegetarian or soup/ salad or jacket potato

I eat quite simply but I have a list of meal options for each day so I could work through this list and not repeat anything for a month or more, for instance - sausage toad, sausage casserole, sausage egg and chips , bangers and mash, fidgetty pie, bacon pots and broad beans, egg and bacon pie, cabbage gallette are just some of Tuesdays options.

Most importantly, I keep track of what I have in the cupboards/freezer, make a shopping list based on my meal plan, and stick to my list (which is by far the hardest part ).

I joined the grocery challenge when I first found MSE and my spending reduced from at least £45 per week :eek: to less than £80 per month so might be worth having a look at that. Here's the current GC, but Pink will start the July thread around the 28th of the month; its worth reading through even if you don't want to join as you'll find loads of tips and useful information and there's a nice list of recipes on the front page every month

HTH

hermoine_2

Hi and welcome xacesx

I can honestly say that my family and I have never eaten so well or wasted so little since I started to look at this forum. I joined the Grocery Challenge for June and while I have not managed to stick to my budget - a birthday and fathers day that I had not factored - it is only down to inexperience that we did not manage it.

I got a copy of good housekeeping cheap eats book and use a lot recipes from that - also get recipes from this site.

I would suggest that you start your first month managing your food shopping the same way you will manage your nappy supply - use what you have first! This will hopefully make your first month extra cheap. When you have worked your way through what you have in your cupboards you will be able to manage your menu planning easier as you will have no surprises in your cupboard but will know instantly what you have and what you need - no more arriving home with yet another tin of toms just because you buy them every week!

I also enjoy cooking now I am not reactive - trying to decide all day what to have - I know and my family know what is on the menu and unless we unexpectedly get invited out we are organised and know what to expect.

Enjoy the adventure.

H :T

falady

Hi there,

I find it helps to have a shelf in the fridge which is just for 'things that need using up'. Hubby and i always look there first to see what to have for lunch / make packed lunches with etc.

That way, things don't get lost at the back of the fridge (I used to be terrible for that) and food doesn't get wasted. I also sometimes realise that there is enough to make a meal out of, or rather than getting something out of the freezer for tea. If there are lots of veggies etc i can make soup or another dish to freeze for another time.

We have a big fridge, and there's only 2 of us, so it works quite well (though I have to move things about sometimes if OH has been in there rooting about!). I appreciate not everyone has enough space to keep a separate shelf, but it works well for us.

HTH,

Ali