Shopping List Spreadsheet

WoB

Hi everyone

I've posted on MSE in the past (but have lost my username/password somehow!). Anyway, due to the credit crunch and rising food prices I took it upon myself to do something about my food shopping spend. Previously we usually just did a weekly shop at Sainsbury and without any planning or thought (and lots of impulse buying) our weekly spend was almost always a minimum of £100 (often £120-130) for a family of 3 and we then spent on having milk delivered etc. We used the excuse that we were too busy to think about things properly.

I finally decided (this is months ago now) to make a list of what we bought and started comparing prices for the same/similar products across our local shops/supermarkets. A combination of getting the products cheaper at certain stores, changing brands (often to own brands) and actually buying what we needed, I've managed to get our average weekly shop down to around £50. This admittedly does not include my lunch at work (although this does come out of my own pocket-money). My wife does take her work lunch out of this though.

I was going to link to a cut-down spreadsheet I use for our shopping list but I can't as a new user. Not sure if anyone can advise on this as I really think the spreadsheet will be usefull for some people?!

I wish I had kept a version of this each week as the prices increease have been amazing! We just check what we need to replace each week and put an 'N' in column F if not required (this darkens the rows), print it off and take it with us for the shopping. I then lookout and make a note for better products/prices in most of the shops and update the spreadsheet when returning from the shop.

Hopefully this may help some of you just starting out on the road to cutting your shopping bill. The main thing is being organised and strict and I think this helps. You also start to appreciate price rises and how supermarkets use pyschology in their pricing (eg. price remains same, packaging looks the same but size/weight is reduced - or prices rise one week and then following week are reduced back to original price but with promotions classed as 'reduced'!).

If I can somehow post a link in future please feel free to amend it as you wish to suit your own shops/products.

Cheers
WoB

Fire_Fox

This website will do a lot of the comparing for you:
http://www.mysupermarket.co.uk/

KimYeovil

WoB wrote: »

I was going to link to a cut-down spreadsheet I use for our shopping list but I can't as a new user. Not sure if anyone can advise on this as I really think the spreadsheet will be usefull for some people?!

You can still post its address.

tryingtobegood

I have a pile of receipts from June lying by my PC at home as I was intending to do something similar. My plan was to try and plot what exactly we are spending £50- £60 a week on and where I could trim it back a bit. Last months are mostly from Morrisons due to the £5 off voucher but this month I think I'll be following the offers of the week from store to store more often.

BLUis

Can you pm the link to me please?

thanks

WoB

Tried to post the link but I can't as a new user. PM'd to BLUis though - let me know if it helps.

Cheers
WoB

Fire_Fox

tryingtobegood wrote: »

I have a pile of receipts from June lying by my PC at home as I was intending to do something similar. My plan was to try and plot what exactly we are spending £50- £60 a week on and where I could trim it back a bit. Last months are mostly from Morrisons due to the £5 off voucher but this month I think I'll be following the offers of the week from store to store more often.

In case it helps in the future, Tesco accepted the Morrisons (and Boots!) vouchers. I am no mega-fan of Tesco but I had double-up vouchers to use!