Can someone help with my shopping bill?

JennyW_2

halloweenqueen wrote:

The sainsbury's dried milk is good and so are quite a few of their value range, I would give their own brand malt drink a try if they do one. If you are going near a tesco they are doing a 5 for 4 on their fruit and veg, buy 5 get the cheapest free.
I would give the bags of salad a miss, they look lovely but there was a discussion on here a while a go about how they wash them, they go off quickly as well, i haven't touched them since! Try romaine lettuce, hey are really nice. Are there own brand bagels? Although the NY ones are nice!!!
I would consider getting a bread maker, I use it to make bagels and bread rolls, obviously if you have time. Brilliant for pizza bases as well! although I dont think you bought cheese!
if you have a julian graves, health food shop or similar try to get spices from there.
It looked like a careful shop really though, you're not doing so bad!

ditching the bags of salad would be good as they do go off quickly so will look at buying a lettuce. Did look at own brand bagels (about 25p cheaper) but they had no ingredients listed.

We don't have a Julian Graves or Farmfoods shop. I'm obviously in the wrong area!

JennyW_2

Heth wrote:

That doesn't look too bad to me, but then I'm definitely not one of those people spending 20 pounds a week on food (more like 50 for the two of us).
You could stop buying spread and save money there! We never have spead on sandwiches, saves money and far more healthy.

well when I was shopping last night I was trying to be really careful and only buying what I needed - you'll see no wine or chocolates and just wondered how people manage on £10/15 per week - assuming F&V is included? As I said before though, perhaps it would be different if we had asdas or lidls?

rchddap1

Another thing that you should consider is taking a look at your meals. Are there different meals that you can try that might be cheaper? What about jacket potatoes for example?

I have to admit to be one of those spending very little...and still eating well.

Toilet rolls....you've listed 89p, but do you go for large packs, or the small ones? There are only 2 people in our house, but we always go for the best 'value' (usually largest) pack available. Then store the rolls in a cupboard until we need another one.

Bags of salad....expensive in my book. You can get more salad by buying a lettuce and washing and preparing it yourself. Far cheaper too.

Grapes and strawberries for us are treats and we will only have them when they are on special offer, or when we deserve a treat. Otherwise the fruit I stick to are apples, oranges / satsumas and bananas.

However, those are some of my habits. What is right for one person isn't right for another. It all depends on what you eat, what you like and what you can afford.

Edit: As a note my partner and I are meat eaters and we spend £100 per month on groceries...which works out to £12.50 per person per week.

lady_fuschia

I would definetely start buying your veg at a market. I did an experiment a while back where I bought veg at my supermarket (tesco) one week, then the same stuff at the market the next week. The total price of the market shop was just over half of the supermarket one. Market veg is usually fresher too, and more likely to be locally grown. Even if you have to drive a bit to find one you could still save enough to make it worthwhile (you can always freeze some if you don't want to go every week). If there's really no market at all within travelling distance try going to the supermarket later in the day (I find 3pm on Sundays, or just before closing on weekdays are best) when they start manically reducing the perishables in order to get rid of them- I got a box of strawberries in Sainsbury's for 25p last week. You take the risk that they won't have everything you want and might have sold out of bread, but still save a bomb.
Also, if you can't do the herb growing thing (or are just impatient) try Julian Graves or Holland & Barratt (massive bag of mixed herbs from Holland & Barratt for 99p) healthfood shops are generally worth checking out for things like herbs, they often have good deals.
Also, cereal, even branflakes, is really expensive for what you get (about 4 -5 bowls a box), buy a massive bag of porridge oats and have those for breakfast instead (sweeten with honey- really nice!)- you can get a bag for around 50p that will last you about a month- its fine mixed with water, although milk is nicer.
It also occured to me that you buy an awful lot of bread and bread related products- have you thought about making your own if you have the time?(I don't know much about how this works out financially as I'm not a bread fan, but I'm pretty sure its cheaper- check whether your local baker is cheaper for bread rolls and bagels too. Also I'd consider getting one less bag of quorn and buying some pulses such as lentils or aduki beans instead- they're a great low fat vegetarian source of protein, not nearly as hard to handle as you'd think and go a lot further. Kwik Save and Tesco both do enourmous packs of red lentils for £2 (I bought mine three months ago and I'm about halfway through it, I eat them twice a week) Sainsburys do smaller packs of pulses for between 40p and £1, still better value than quorn- if you have wholefood shops or market near you, they may be even cheaper. If you like it (I don't, but each to their own!) dried TVP chunks are also cheaper than buying frozen quorn. Quorn is rubbish value-wise, as you generally only get 2 meals out of a bag, you may as well buy meat. Try getting into stews made with pot barley (about 30p for a 250g bag), vegetables and dried pulses- really cheap filling meal. If you must buy frozen veggy stuff, Vegemince is better value (its in a big green bag next to the quorn) as you get more in the bag. You can make it stretch over more meals by adding lentils or oats to the mix.
Instead of Horlicks you could try chamomile tea for a relaxing bedtime drink- cheaper and even less fattening (although not everyone likes it admittedly), you can get two cups out of one teabag easily.

SammyD_2

It looks a pretty reasonable list for what you got. I think the problem is that it looks like some of the meals you make are quite pricey. For example, two lots of quorn is £4 (even though I assume this covers more than one meal per pack).

You can get "beany" things like lentils, kidney beans and cannelini beans at sainsburys for 3 for a £1. Also, your fruit and veg spending is quite high - not so much because you buy too much, but because some of the things are quite expensive - like melons for example.


And agree about ditching Horlicks - it has hydrogenated veg. fat in it, plus is expensive.

I disagree about shopping at local markets - I have found the quality to be fine on day one, but deteriorates very rapidly...

When I am trying to save money on the shopping, we keep it very simple - beany meals every day (eg chilli, lentil sheperds pie etc) - so I stock up on beans, tomatoes and onions and rice. Then vegetables (usually brocalli, frozen beans, carrots, peas) to go with the main meal. Keep to the basics with fruit, so apples, bananas, citrus then maybe one extra.

Breakfast is strictly porridge only.

But then, last week I spent a really horrendous amount at Sainsburys, so I am not one to talk!

Floss

Maybe you could find out if there are any farmers markets near you? Try the local council website or "farmers market" in google. F&V will be cheaper there & fresh too.

sophiesmum_2

Your shopping list doesn't look bad to me at all.
Perhaps you just need to menu plan your meals to take advantage of better value foodstuffs. As you live alone you should be able to batch cook and freeze extra meals - this will save you money as you could probably cook enough meals in one go for a couple of weeks and then you would only have to buy fresh veg etc weekly.
I am feeding 3 adults and have nearly completed the whole month of May by using up storecupboard ingredients and stuff from the freezer.To date I have spent approx £13 this month and I could probably still do another 2 - 3 weeks yet on what is left.
Looking at your list you seem to be having cereal and orange juice for breakfast - a box of bran should last more than 7 breakfasts for one person so you would not buy this every week.
What do you have for lunches? maybe bagels,sandwiches and fruit. Buy bread products in big packsand freeze until you need,or use breadmaker.
That only leaves you with 7 meals to think of for the week - should be easy to double up and freeze.
that would leave you only having to buy fresh F & V and toiletries etc. Buy toilet rolls etc in bulk so you only have to spend occasionally.
Why not post a sample weeks menu it would probably be easier for us to see where you could save from that angle.
Good luck with shopping bill.
sophiesmum:D

sophistica

Looks like a normal one person shop to me. To save money you need to think outside the box. Look to doing some of the following
-plan meals based on what you have and write out your estimated costs
- shop in ethnic shops/areas for cheaper foods
- make a price list and go where the goods are cheaper even if you use different shops
- shop at the end of the day when reduced
- batch cook/bake

jazzyjustlaw

Yes vege mince either shops own or releat and veggie chicken styple pieces shops own.

Good luck

Chell

Surely that amount of veg feeds you for more than a week? Do you waste a lot?
We have two adults and two toddlers in our house, we are veggie. I make sure that nothing goes to waste. If veg is going off then I make something which will use it up and freeze any excess. A veggie chiil is cheap to ake with fresh veg and tinned pulses. I am lazy and buy the expensive tinned pulses with no salt/sugar added but dried would be much cheaper.