'How much is your weekly shop?' poll results discussion

kaj70

sarymclary wrote: »

Kaj - I've got 2 teenagers and 2 aged 9 and 11. I used to be just like you. I bought for everyone's tastes, and was cooking 5 different meals at a time. This is seriously wasteful in both money, and your time. I made a decision about 4 years ago to stop doing it. I now buy items that I know I can usually get all/majority to eat. I have 1 of my boys who doesn't like pasta, so I will keep a portion of say the chicken from a pasta bake to one side, and do him some with a baked potato. On the whole I try to tailor the meals to suit them all in one meal. Sausages (including meat and quorn, but cooked at the same time), with mash and yorkshires, for example. A roast dinner with a selection of veg.


My top tip as a mum shopping is never take your children to the supermarket with you, unless you are very comfortable with saying 'no' consistently, and never giving in. Mine don't even bother asking anymore.:p

hi,

thanks for that, today i sorted my fianances money in/out expensis etc. and also done meal plans with my children. i am going to otry to stick with it. and i know what you mean about taking them shopping, it is a nightmare. and i soend about 3 times as much as i want to!
what are anyones thought of shopping online, do you think its a good idea, that way your not so tempet by other items you dont need. but then you dont get all the offers or bargains...do you?
this is an interesting thread, im enjoyine reading eveyones comments

cw18

There's been a bit of a debate about shopping on-line/in-store on the Grocery Challenge thread recently.

Some people find it works well for them, as they can stock up on multi-buys they wouldn't be able to carry home and they also don't get tempted by other things.

On the other hand, I find that I'm much better off doing it myself - but that's 'cos I live in easy walking distance of a store that does brilliant end of day clearance deals (Whoopsies), and my freezers are regularly at least half full of those. Means we get more meat and better quality items than I could otherwise afford, plus I don't mind trying new things (types of fruit, veg, fish, cuts of meat etc) when I'm only paying pennies for them


Mind, my experiences of home delivery aren't great. I used it 5 or 6 times and never once got everything I ordered, In one case they 'forgot' all my chilled stuff and couldn't bring it out until the next day - but I needed it that night, so having stayed in for delivery I then had to go to the local supermarket anyway!!! And they wouldn't even refund my delivery charge as they'd delivered over half the order :mad: On another delivery (the one and only time I used this store for it) everything persishable (meat, fruit, veg) had a 'best before' date of the delivery date - and they substituted each 4 pint milk with a 1 pint milk...... heaven knows how long they thought 2 pints of milk would last a family of 4 :eek: At least that time they refunded me the cost of the perishables and milk and delivery charge.

trickypockets

I spend about £30-ish for myself and 2 cats, - that's my weekly shop, not just food. Savers : I bought a Thai deodorant stone about 6 years ago and I'm still using it; I use washballs for the laundry, no powder; no dishwasher, so don't need tablets; I buy only 1 multipurpose cleaner, 1 spray polish and bleach - no other cleaning stuff at all, so no money wasted on disposable wipes, anti-bacterial junk etc; vegetarian, so no expensive meat; make my own bread and loads of big pans of soup to use up any leftover veg.

sunnymoneytree

Hi trickypockets, I was talking about those washballs the other day and then wondered if I was imagining they existed because everyone was so incredulous! Do they really make your clothes clean? I've seen dryer balls in our Co-Op but where do you get the washballs from? I seem to remember they cost quite a bit?
p.s. Haven't read rest of the grocery thread but good bit on Jamie Oliver's site re. making the most of a whole chicken....

oldnewhand

I use one piece of advice read in Which? magazine (discussing shampoo) when we were first married 40 years ago, but I apply it to most things. Start with the cheapest and move up the price range until you reach the quality you're happy with. The only trouble is I do take longer to shop as I don't buy it all under one roof. In addition to this I go out with an open mind and buy reduced items IF I can use them before their sell by date. I only buy what I can afford so life may not be luxurious but I can sleep at night!

SusanC_2

nzseries1 wrote: »

What an eye-opener this poll is... I had no idea that spending over £75 per week on groceries was bad (that's an average week for me - £50 per week if I'm really scrimping and saving). I'm very into money saving but I don't see how on earth do people live on £20-29 per person per weekly shop???

I live alone, so I can't share the cost of some things across multiple people... but still? £20-29? How is that possible? I mean, that has to cover toilet rolls, cleaning products, pet food, hygiene, food and drink... it can't be done I tell you! It CAN'T! 48% of people who took this poll LIED!!

It honestly isn't that hard. Last financial year I spent £50.96/week on groceries for 3 of us (me, husband and daughter aged 11-23 months. Previous year £48.23 and year before that (when I was pregnant and very ill and OH did everything for half thne year) was £34.69 for two of us. This year to date is £48.22. I can post a screen shot of my spreadsheet if you like. It's not like I even go for the most moneysaving option all the time as other things are more important to me so for example I choose organic milk and I buy extra virgin olive oil rather than the mechanically produced stuff or vegetable oil and I don't always put the effort in to maximise moneysaving so it's not like it couldn't be done cheaper. Last year included weekly organic fruit/veg box deliveries too but sadly the farm folded so no longer have that.

SusanC_2

nzseries1 wrote: »

My problem is that I live by myself and don't cook. I am a hard-core money saver in many aspects, just not food. For some reason I feel like if I want that punnet of raspberries or that bottle of soft drink or coffee and muffin from starbucks, then I don't feel like I need to justify it to myself.

I don't see anything wrong with that - everyone makes different choices about how they spend their money and what is a priority for them.

Dustykitten

I have no problem taking any of my boys shopping (7,13,15).

It is nice for them to say can we try this and for them to see how much things cost eg those little yoghurt friendly bacteria drinks. I guess I don't have a problem with saying no and they don't argue probably because that has always been the case since they were toddlers.

If they had a hissy fit in a supermarket we would go back to the car and sit there until they stopped and then return to the store and start the process again - it didn't need to happen more than once for them to learn how long the process could take.

Cuteybabe8

I have a husband and two young boys to feed and I cook 4-5 times a week, lunch and evening meals. My weekly food shop is around £80. I feel it's alot, even though I have been able to use alot of my veg and fruit from the garden and the chicken lay our eggs. However, meat and a few treats really add up and this includes my bottle of wine and some beers for the husband. With the toiletries and other essentials it really takes the costs up. I'm just worried if it continue to rise my salary just does not cover the food shop!

OxfordMark_2

nzseries1 wrote: »

What an eye-opener this poll is... I had no idea that spending over £75 per week on groceries was bad (that's an average week for me - £50 per week if I'm really scrimping and saving). I'm very into money saving but I don't see how on earth do people live on £20-29 per person per weekly shop???

I live alone, so I can't share the cost of some things across multiple people... but still? £20-29? How is that possible? I mean, that has to cover toilet rolls, cleaning products, pet food, hygiene, food and drink... it can't be done I tell you! It CAN'T! 48% of people who took this poll LIED!!

Been tracking spending for 6 months now and we spend on average £330 a month on food and household stuff, and £130 on booze. So that's about £55 each per week for the two of us, which puts us in the "top" 20% of this poll. Do buy lots of organic and lots of Co-op premium brand, but also use the local butcher and always cook from fresh. Not sure we could get down to £20 if we had to, short of (gasp!) giving up drinking.