How do you manage to spend so little?!

LilacPixie

i comein at around the £50-£60 mark for 2 adults and 2 kids so I don't think you are that far off base.

Onethinki did notice is you are making HM pizza yet also bought a cicago town one, no idea why possibly for lunches, didtto the 8 beef burgers.

No idea about your asda but in mine the diced chicken breastis the equivilent to £9.72 a kg, chicken breast you can dice yourself are the equivilent to £7.87 a kg. If you are having a casserol could you not consider using thighs instead which come in at £3.38 a kg but include a bone. You can also get boneless skinless diced turkey thigh for £4.00 a kg which is nice done in the slowcooker.

I personally bake bread and treat items such as flapjacks, muffins and biscuits. This cost more than it does to buy some value brand packets but then I know exactly what is in it, just personal taste but I have a *thing* about chemical preservatives.

I shop once a month at a mainstream supermarket and the rest of the time in lidl/aldi

Fire_Fox

I am perhaps not the best person to comment as I only just started the Grocery Challenge this month! But in general I find that the things that really kill my budget are meat and junk food. Meat because it is expensive and junk food because it just doesn't fill you up. I notice that the really 'hardcore' Old Stylers have smaller portions of meat and bake a lot from scratch - perhaps you already bake with your little one sometimes?

You could replace the pizza base, batter mix with some Smartprice flour then you'd have enough for several weeks of meals and could make cakes, biscuits and other treats yourself instead of buying custard doughnuts etc. It wouldn't save money the first week, but over time I am sure the savings would add up.

Also do you need chicken breast as well as a whole chicken? We are two adults and eat less than half the chicken and are stuffed. There is still tons of meat left on the bird for a curry (lots of veg and lentils) and a casserole (lots of veg and pearl barley). If you need extra meat for meals you might try a turkey drumstick? Buying chicken breast on it's own is quite expensive per 100g.

A lovely alternative to flavoured yoghurt or ice creams is plain yoghurt with a handful of Smartprice raisins and a chopped apple or a sliced banana and a few chocolate sprinkles, or honey or jam etc. Obviously that doesn't work so well if you need the yoghurt portioned out to take to work!!

clutterydrawer

Re: yogurt....I like to get a big tub of plain yogurt and put a little brown sugar into it and some fruit if I have any...delicious! and it would work out cheaper than buying flavoured yogurts if i didn't end up scoffing half the pot at once *face of shame*

[Deleted User]

Practice and poverty makes excellent bedfellows . You aren't doing too bad but if you try cutting back and maybe making a weekly menu and more or less sticking to it you will find that gradually it will fall. I shop around quite a bit by looking at the prices at diffent supermarkets online and if I am near to say Aldi's on a friday when I go to college then I buy stuff there.I have always had a shopping list sitting by my kettle in the kitchen so I know when I go out exactly what I need, as opposed to what I may like. I am lucky where I live that sainbobs,& tescos are quite close. But one of my DD's shops at Afdas and Morrisons so if I want her to pick me up something thats on offer she will.
Also never,ever go shopping when your hungry ,you will always buy more than you want for some reason.

clairelg88

thanks for all your replies.

I have an aldi quite close to me so will definately start shopping there more often!

I think i will have a go at baking my own bread and biscuits etc, do you just buy a bread mix or do this from scratch? And how long does the bread last?

I like the idea of getting plain yogurt and adding to that.

The reason for buying the frozen burgers and pizza is just for convienience really. If i cooked more and froze some, what could i use to freeze say a stew in for example? As i do use my slowcooker once a week and we always have loads left that ends up going in the bin!

To be honest i think i try and base my meals around meat too much, so does anyone have any non meat ideas?!

oceanspirit

Another thing to look at is how much food do you waste each week? I used to think I didn't throw away very much, but when I noted it down one week it was £11.00! Now I make sure I use up anything which is near its sell by date and freeze any leftovers if they are not going to be used immediately. ie recently I had some reduced onions and I noticed one was going soft so i made them all into soup which went into the freezer instead of leaving them and hoping for the best as I would previously have done.

Yesterday I made risotto with some fresh peas, broccoli and asparagus which had all been reduced but I knew if I'd left the cooking until today as originally planned they would have been past their best. So although I didn't actually eat the risotto yesterday, I have saved throwing the veg away by cooking it a day earlier. I put one portion in the fridge for today and the rest went in the freezer.

rach

don't ever bin anything!! you can freeze stuff in plastic tubs (really cheap in supermarkets or the £1 shop, or the ones you get chinese takeaway in), or even freezer bags.

my trick is to make up a spag bol or whatever and before i serve it take half out and freeze it - which leaves us a whole extra meal for 2. if i left it in the pan we'd eat it all or maybe have one portion left!

oceanspirit

Hi again,

I'm vegan and make risotto, lentil stew, lentil soup, thai veggie curry, ordinary veggie curry, vegetable satay, kidney bean curry, various veg soups, chilli etc etc. I also don't use tomatoes.

You can also make shepherd's pies etc using lentils instead of meat and many OSers use lentils, grated carrot and oats to bulk out meals with a minced beef base such as spag bol so that you're not removing the meat content completely.

Olliebeak

Don't forget that some people on here have been moneysaving/os-ing for most of their lives and have got it all down to a very fine art. You're doing very well indeed right now and could make some more savings by buying flour and making your own pizza bases/cakes/biscuits as another poster has said. It does take a little expense to get a stock of 'baking ingredients' together, but after that you only need to top up one or two items a week - certainly nothing wrong with SmartPrice(or Basics) flour, oats (mmmm Twinks :drool:!), sultanas etc. - just make sure that you can identify the difference between Plain and Self-Raising Flour (I write 'P' and 'SR' on the sides of the bags - so I can tell at a glance which is which).

I use the large margarine tubs with lids on for freezing stews, curries, chillies soups etc. They stack very well in drawers and chest freezers.

Make sure that you label them before freezing though - very hard to work out what's in them afterwards. OH YES - don't forget to allow them to cool properly BEFORE putting in the freezer.

If you're going to Aldi/Lidl for your fruit/veg you may need to go very early in the day to get the real bargains. Ours have always sold out of the good bargains by late morning.

Zazen999

Stuff like chillis; we make extra and plan to have it the next day in baked potatoes.

Ditto curries I have for lunch the next day. Pasta sauces you can make double and keep in the fridge and have 2 days later......it gets easier when you write it down and plan your meals.