How on earth do you do it???

Mrs_Sparkle

I'm reading through everyone's posts and keep seeing budgets of £80-100 per month for food. How do you do this? I've managed to shave £s off my bill by planning meals in advance, buying from the reduced section and keeping an eye on BOGOFs but... £80 a month??? I'm seriously over the top with my budget and there is only me, Mr Sparkle and 2 cats to feed.

Please share your words of wisdom as I am confused

Queenie

By going to the Moneysaving Old Style Forum

Queenie

Read these in Old Style ...

Welcome to the Old Style Forum

The Mega Indexed Thread

Monthly Challenges (The grocery/storecupboard one would be especially helpful to you I think)

And also Indexed Collections - you'll find lots of recipes there

Good luck, Mrs Sparkle. Hope that helps.

Donedoingdebt

I must agree with you Mrs Sparkle, some of these weekly/monthly shop bills are amazing. I can now understand why I'm always skint & about 1 1/2 stones overweight.

Mrs_Sparkle

Wow... the June grocery challenge thread is amazing. Thanks Queenie (love your avator BTW!), I definitely need to have a good look at this info.

Mrs_Sparkle

Donedoingdebt wrote:

I must agree with you Mrs Sparkle, some of these weekly/monthly shop bills are amazing. I can now understand why I'm always skint & about 1 1/2 stones overweight.

Me too! Now if I could pay off all my debts and lose this extra 1 1/2 stone then life would be perfect :rotfl:

lynzpower

Mrs S,

Ive done a basic menu plan in my update thread, for an idea. We are managing 100 a month. We did try 20 a week, but kept gonig over, so we upped it to 25 a week, and things are going swimmingly at the mo

Meal planning, no waste and plenty of views on the OS board are my tips!

Mrs_Sparkle

Well done Lynz... I feel humbled by the amount of info on the OS board! I need a whole evening just to read it all.

PS Who'd have thought soya mince was so useful...

luckylukey

I am spending £64 a month on just me. I am hoping to cut this down a bit as even now i buy some junk like pizzas. But I used to spend this or more every week! One of my main things is that I bulk buy when essential items are on sale. But if I do this, then I reduce the spending elsewhere in my budget! BUt it has taken a while to get here! Good luck, as someone else has already said, baby steps!

Mrs_Sparkle

luckylukey wrote:

I am spending £64 a month on just me. I am hoping to cut this down a bit as even now i buy some junk like pizzas. But I used to spend this or more every week! One of my main things is that I bulk buy when essential items are on sale. But if I do this, then I reduce the spending elsewhere in my budget! BUt it has taken a while to get here! Good luck, as someone else has already said, baby steps!

Blimey! I am so impressed with you guys. I will get there one day, just need to keep reading the OS board and your fantastic success stories.

Queenie

Mrs_Sparkle wrote:

Blimey! I am so impressed with you guys. I will get there one day, just need to keep reading the OS board and your fantastic success stories.

Just bear in mind that could get so carried away reading, that you won't have time to spend, cook and eat :rotfl:

Try not to get overwhelmed with all the info though. There are lots of ways to cut the cost of cleaning materials with home made cleaners too, but the trick is to take "baby steps". On the food front that could simply be, shopping in your cupboards first. Take stock of what you already have. Are you being over generous in your portions? Could you buy any of those products sitting in your freezer/pantry cheaper? How many meals you can make from your freezer/pantry? Which brings you to step two - menu planning.

Menu planning will cut out the need for those "just need to pop out to get X" and end up buying not only X but Y and Z too.

Baby steps is the way forward successfully. If you try to take on too much too soon, you run the risk of feeling overwhelmed and reverting back to overspending.

Wishing you all the very best