Another Shopping Diary

G'Meister

Hi

I've signed upto fixtureferrets (sharing the account with a couple of friends too...) and been reading the threads here - seeing how little I can live on.

So yes, here's my first weekly shop, moneysavingexpert style, turning over a new leaf .

Comments n suggestions welcome, feel free to comment if you think I need more veg or protein or whatever too .
I live near a Morrisons and a Sainsburys (and that's it).

sugarcultsweetie

Smoothies are inevitably going to be expensive, but i'm sure most shops will do own-brand dorito chips that are most likely quite alot cheaper... the seasonal mixed veg pack also looks quite pricey, maybe focus on following seasonal produce = better prices! Otherwise I think it looks great though, alot of deals in there

G'Meister

I've fallen for the marketing on the side of innocent smoothies I think - it always says on the side buying the same amount of fruit would cost far more in a supermarket than buying it already turned into smoothie, I've switched to the cheapest brand, which was also on a special promotion, and I drink 250ml of it a day as two of my 5 a day (I know how much that is 'cos I measure stuff in the same glasses sometimes) so it works out to about 37p.
Just had a look on Sainsburys website and I think I've been done (which is fine with me!).

Apples 17p/ea (assuming ~11 ounces)
Bananas 14p/ea
Kiwis 16p/ea
Oranges 15p/ea
Pears 17p/ea (assuming ~4 ounces)

Actually, the smoothie only works out a bit more expensive (5p, or 15.62% if I want to be really sad haha), course that's assuming smoothie is worth 2 of my 5 a day, I think it is, and the ones in my fridge are full of acai berries and mango's and stuff . And hey, the skin and core usually get thrown away with alot of fruit, can't say that about smoothie!

The mixed veg was frozen and it was a kilo too, so I thought it was good value for money - I've divided it into 80g food bags (which I got on eBay 500 for two or three pounds - they're not the zipper ones or anything fancy!). The back of the pack gave nutritional values for 100g and 80g, that's where that figure came from by the way. I used to buy Morrisons Steam n Serve frozen veg and was amazed that this stuff is about 66% cheaper per kilo!

On first glance I thought you were right about the Doritos, so I did the sums with them too:
They work out to 8.9p a bag and I'm comparing them against the cheapest alternative I know of, Sainsburys Basic Crisps, which are 6.3p a bag, so they're 40% more expensive per bag.
But I knew the Sainsburys bags weren't as full, so I googled and apparently they're 17.5g and these bags are 30g so they're actually 20% cheaper at £0.296/100g instead of Sainsburys Basics Crisps which are £0.36/100g, pretty surprising!
All food for thought though (mind the pun!).

Incidentally, I'm a professional mathematician (thus all the maths lol), and full disclosure, I'm not particularly broke (or at all loaded!!), interested in knocking several thousand off my annual food bill so I can put more in my pension and savings - my weekly shop used to average £100 (and therefore £5,200 a year!!) I'd love it if I can reduce that to ~£1,000 a year with the help of buying better value stuff and since Sainsburys and Morrisons are less than 10 minutes walk (I don't drive but I live on a busy High Road so I don't have to ) I can go there about 30 minutes before closing time (www.opening-times.co.uk is handy for that) and grab a few reduced items . I think because of the reduced items it's likely cheaper for me to shop twice a week too - I've got an under counter fridge with a pretty average sized freezer compartment (and although there's a full height fridge freezer doing nothing at my parents house, with the supermarket across the street I don't feel I can justify running it!).

jenniewb

I don't buy that about innocents smoothies- they are a well made drink, but it is cheaper to buy off the shelf and make a glass yourself. You not only get more for your money, you can taper to your own tastes.

Clowance

I assume that smoothies like fruit juice dont have the same benefits as eating the fruit - re taking longer to digest and containing fibre; thus probably not terribly suitable for diabetics.
Deff better than not eating fruit at all though!

MrsBartolozzi

Re: getting your 5 a day.
Weezl over on the OS board has worked out you can get 5 a day, covering all the colours for about 24p per day.
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=1157641&page=139
See post 2772.

Dried fruit counts and is often cheaper to buy (and you need less 20g = 1portion).

G'Meister

MrsBartolozzi wrote: »

Re: getting your 5 a day.
Weezl over on the OS board has worked out you can get 5 a day, covering all the colours for about 24p per day.
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=1157641&page=139
See post 2772.

Dried fruit counts and is often cheaper to buy (and you need less 20g = 1portion).

Fantastic thanks very much xD that's absolutely wizard, I knew posting this would save me ££!!

Incidentally, if you click on the number on a post, it creates a hyperlink straight to that post, like this one:
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showpost.html?p=23151055&postcount=2772

G'Meister

I don't want to write too much - I just did, and then deleted it haha.
Here's my latest shopping bill, I've spent £9 on supermarket food since my last receipt, about £15 eating out, £11 on beer, about £15 on cigarettes, and £20 on some green (which I've still got most of - on occasion I want to take a break from work and a couple of spliffs on a friday night is enough for me to relax the weekend away .
I've also spent about £80 on going out, which is a dramatic decrease from what I was spending (one night for instance I went out and bought one drink in the club, a coffee at about 4am, and aside the train up and nightbus back, I live off the nightbus route so about £5 on a cab). I've been out about 5 times, so I'll see how much more I can decrease the cost of a night out lol.

Comments n suggestions please - I haven't been to Sainsburys armed with these receipts to compare prices yet, but I'll be doing that when I next go shopping - I'm sure fruit and veg prices are lower in there for a start.

sunnysea83

Hi
Well done with cutting down your food bill.

I have morrisons, tesco and sainsburys near me and this is how my bills go at each

Morrisons - about £40 a week - fruit and veg is a good choice and meat is quiet cheap along with hams and cheese (from the fresh parts). i mainly buy fresh veg, fruit, salad and meat. i got two (individually packaged) steaks enough for 1 each for 88p - bargain and not in the reduced section

Tesco - £40 again, regularly have good offers, use my tesco clubcard to collect points, receive money off vouchers and clubcard vouchers (can be used in store or 4 times value on holidays and days out, restuarants etc) def worth getting one if you dont have one. Ive also been given quiet a few 5p of fuel recently ive speant more than £50 due to buying extra items. Ive also got 3 £4 off £40 spends recently, spent £50 twice and got them and then £5 yesterday, they come in very handy.

Sainsburys - £55 - always find sainsburys much more expensive so ont shop there much, i find there veg goes off very quicky and doesnt last anywhere near as long as other two stores. Meat is good but only when reduced and then frozed, i got some nice pork mince there reduced too 99p last time. Nectar card a must, collect points and then spend in store, no need to wait for vouchers

As for your other spending cut down the green and smoking

try not to go out so much - why not ave your mates round urs, thats what mme and my mate4s do now, we go round each others (take our own drinks), if the weathers nice have a bbq etc. its a great way of saving money. sometimes we then walk in to town to a cheap pub for a few drinks.

keep up the good work

G'Meister

sunnysea83 wrote: »

Sainsburys - £55 - always find sainsburys much more expensive so ont shop there much, i find there veg goes off very quicky and doesnt last anywhere near as long as other two stores. Meat is good but only when reduced and then frozed, i got some nice pork mince there reduced too 99p last time. Nectar card a must, collect points and then spend in store, no need to wait for vouchers

Thanks for the info on Sainsburys - hadn't really thought much about how fast fresh produce from different shops might go off. Every week they choose a few fruit and veg items to discount heavily (if I'm not confusing them with Tesco), which seems worthwhile, and the Sainsburys Basics range is much more extensive than in Morrisons apparently, but aside squash (which I won't need more of for a couple of months I reckon!), 6p curry sauce (which must be good for something, if only some more jars!) and ketchup (I like their own-brand ketchup, it's got a nice mixture of spices in it), I don't really know what other bargains they have, looking forward to going having a hunt around in there next week.

Apparently if I buy household products like washing powder cleaning liquids n toilet roll from pound stores they'll work out massively cheaper, yet to try that one out yet either - my nearest one is a 40 minute bus ride away so unless I'm up that way and coming back at a reasonable hour I doubt I will.

I've got a roof garden with a bbq so I have quite a few parties at mine but I've got a few friends in Soho who're DJ's and promotor's so when I go out I'm generally going in support of some new clubnight (I haven't paid to walk into a club in a long long time ) and other nights of the week I go to networking events, so I write those off as business expenses .

G'Meister

There's alot of talk of meal plans on here. I just had a pretty typical meal; fry up (using no oils; non stick frying pan so not only do I not need any, the manufacturer tells me it'll destroy the frying pan's coating if I do), had a plum tomato (those M' Basics cans have 3 in, I'm sure other brands have at least 4, maybe 5), two slices of brown bread, two pieces of bacon, an egg, about 1/4 of an onion, and about 4 mushrooms. So, very filling . I'd already used the other two plum tomatoes out the can yesterday so I cooked the juice out of the can (in the frying pan, probably not the best idea) and added some worcester sauce and then drowned my plate in it, which was completely experimental, tasted good though! I might buy a blender; could've added some herbs and maybe some carrot (sure I can find a better recipe!) to it and made a healthy vegetable drink (instead of the full sugar cola I'm drinking at the moment, although technically it's a vegetable drink, apparently!).