Grocery Bill

doelani

Ok I have to admit it, no matter how hard I try just cannot get my grocery bill down. I lift £80w from bank for groceries every week and usually end up spending every penny of it.

Every Friday I go to bank and withdraw £210

Ex wife £70
Petrol £20
Hubby £20
Daughters lunch money £10 (hope to save this over summer to help towards her new school uniform )
Kids holiday fund £10 (until october, they are going this year with their mum and we are giving them spending money as she did it last year when we took them )
Grocery £80

This week for example I went to Lidl and spend £42 (this did include a botle of vodka @ £7 naughty me was feeling depressed )

I kept the balance of my £48 and have just given hubby £10 of it to go get a new usb cable and get car washed (told him to wash it himelf but NO his time is to precious )

But it does not end there. Also went to Tesco to get a few thigs I could not get in Lidl and ended up spending £54. I used my electron card for this as knew hubby was getting overtime this week so that covered Tesco.

Every time I go to Tesco I do the same, usually spare money in bank to cover it so thats ok but just cannot budget for groceries. At the start of our IVA I used to only spend £50-£60 per week and at the end of the week any money left went into emergency fund. After spending a 5 months in hospital I just cannot get back into the habit. I NEED HELP.

We are 2 adults, 2 teenagers and 3 more teenagers part-time 2 days and nights a week. So on a Saturday and Sunday for example we are making meals for 7 people and a dog.


I have tried to be strick but by about a Wednesday if I do have nay money left usually end up getting a carryout.

Any advice would be appreciated.

wigginsmum

Have you tried planning your weekly menus? I've learned not to go food shopping until I know exactly what I'm going to get and how I'm going to use it. I put a meal plan on the fridge door.

lynzpower

Are you doing a menu plan? Go through your cupboards and start again.
Then you wont end up with takeouts and you wont end up with that staring at the cuipbards going "we have nothing to eat"

I also am a bit worried by the statement, you bought vodka as you were feeling depressed. I dont want to be too instrusive with this, but there is a self help thread in the health section that you might want to look at, if this is a problem

Love
lynz
xxxx

Emmzi

I was dubious about this, but I listed everything in my cupboard and posted on oldstyle board, and they gave me some great meal ideas. And it's stopped my re-buying things I already have.

You probably have a month worth of food already..

On tesco receipts.. how much is non-food?

tru

Check out our Squeaky's Mega Indexed Thread on the Old Style board

lynzpower

Good point Emmzi

the other thing you can do is go through your recipt as everything with a star next to it is a luxury item, meaning a proportion of what you are buying is VATTED, ie going to the taxman direct.

doelani

lynzpower wrote:

I also am a bit worried by the statement, you bought vodka as you were feeling depressed. xxxx

Yes I know whrong thing, first drink I have had in 8 months and I was acually so ill I ended up throwing hlaf the bottle out, won't be doing that again in a hurry.

I have tried meal planning, but it just never seems to work, I make meals then my kids say they do not want what I have prepared, hubbys kids especially are good at that, I made bolognese yesterday with chips, in came his kids and one decided after eating this for years he did not like it, SO HE GOT CHIPS. I have decided either they eat what I make or they wait to next meal, I know that sounds cruel but one son will not eat meat, but wll eat sausages or burgers. Another will not eat real chicken , but will eat nuggets!!! another does note at sandwiches, no cooked meat or cheese but will eat pizza!!! The kids are just so fussy. I would eat beans on toast or a can of soup for lunch but hubby thinks this is not a proper meal.

One other gripe while I am on a roll here, hubby has to have fresh bread EVERY day, and only will eat certain types of bread. Son went to get me a loaf earlier £1.03 for a loaf!!!

I guess this is whay I end up at Tescos, buying ready meals for when they won't eat but so much foosd is wasted, 2 weeks ago I threw out about £10 of food from fridge.

wigginsmum

Quite right - you need to be strict. They should eat what's on the table or go without. I used to ban my stepchildren from having other stuff, given that I went to an effort of finding out what they liked. They came round to my way of doing things in the end! One trick was to not keep luxuies like crisps in the house. You simply can't afford to indulge their 'wants' on a budget. And I hope they do the washing-up.

tru

doelani wrote:

I have decided either they eat what I make or they wait to next meal

:T

Stick with it, they'll moan to start with but they'll get used it.

If fresh bread is a must, can you stretch to a breadmaker? Maybe save up for a few weeks out of your budget. You can make bread the 'proper' way, but it's far too messy for me and I can't be bothered

Emmzi

How old are the kids? Would they enjoy cooking with you?


Re: bread - sounds like you need a breadmaker (and to teach hubby to use it!)

skylight

You have gotta get tough lady!!!!

I now meal plan with the whole family. EG - DD4 wants burger on Monday, but DD3 wants sausage - not a problem. I do "split meals" only twice a week.

The other 4 days (cos Sunday is either BBQ or Roast depending on weather!) is a whole set meal - but again, I search through recipie books and cut stuff out of old mags to make meals and we all chose them.


To be honest - it has taken MONTHS of this. I finally have a core of about 20 meals that I know everyone will eat, including home made burgers, chicken nuggets and stuff.

But get tough. If they don't eat it, they don't get anything else.