SOA Groceries, How do you do it.

DarkConvict

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Just a small note to avoid confusion. I am just wondering how you all cope with reducing the monthly groceries bill as based on past experience away from home for 12 months i didn't do to well. Currently back at home so will certainly refer back to this in the future.

Thanks for all the comments so far!

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Hello, Time for a bit of a relaxed chat thread

As many of you know I've been here a while, advised on a few things i have picked up along the way but i have never been great at advising on SOAs, because thankfully I've managed finances well and might be minority who is in an overall positive cashflow. Thus i lack the first hand experience so many of you have.

Onto the question. Groceries, I see the figures of 200-300 a month as too much for 1-2 people. But how do you really reduce this down. I am a student and i lived away from home for 12 months in Leatherhead (London) for my university work placement. Now i budgeted £10 a day for Groceries, ~£3 at work, ~£3 for evening dinner, ~£4 for misc expenses. This firmly puts me in the £300 a month category, now I lived fine on this but what can you do to reduce the costs is something i have wondered for the last few days.

I knocked down to lower brands, and 'sometimes' cooked (not a cooking fan) rather than have ready meals but it didn't really seem to change things, making sandwiches instead of buying lunch didn't seem to save much, neither did making lasagne for 2 days instead of buying 2 ready meals. Sure the proportions are slightly bigger when i made myself but food only keeps so long anyway.

I'm just curious to know about your experiences as one day, i will leave home on a more permanent basis.

linz

Personally, I have cereal for breakfast (Sainsburys own basics brand)

Sandwiches/home made soup for lunch to save extortionate work canteen prices,

Evening meal I normally cook large portions and have the same meal the day after or freeze a portion. One night a week I have 'something' on toast.

Good tip is to get to the supermarkets after tea when they start reducing stuff - I got loads of veg from Morrisons last week which made loads of soups/broths, (eg diced carrots/butternut squash from £1 to 25p)

in fact i'm off there again in a bit to see what I can get for the rest of the week !

Good luck

planning_ahead_2

Great question :beer: and I am waiting with baited breath for all the answers to put me on the right road with my budgetting for groceries:)

DarkConvict

Thinking about it linz, you can do a vegetable stirfry for about 10-50p in the evening. Sainsburys often reduce them down in the evening as you said. I did it once, but wasn't very filling for myself, or that tasty really, but my GF liked it.

I wonder if really basic cooking works, make your own sauces for a lasagne etc. My problem with that was
1) I don't like cooking much and am a poor cook anyway :P
2) Time, getting 2-3 hours to yourself in the evening isn't much if you have to spend 1-2 hours in prep and cooking.

linz

Get a slow cooker! One of my best buys - plonk everything in before work, turn on low, tea ready when you get in, freeze whats left/eat the next night.

JasX

+1 for the supermarkets tip, I'm fortunate to pass 3 on my way home at around 6:30-7 so if i'm at a loss for an evening meal I'll sometime just wander into a couple and see whats reduced.

also are misc expenses really necessary? if you've bought a travelcard in advance it should be perfectly possible to leave home, get to work and back again without spending anything more often than not.

another way to cut down is I found eating a decent lunch and evening meal tended to lead me to putting on weight so sometimes I'll just have a light dinner, eg soup and some bread or a salad (1/3 of one those salad bags with whatever i happened to have hanging around the fridge spare tossed in and a cheap olive oil, pesto and vinegar dressing).

also if you're making something pan based like spaghetti bolognaise or stir fry I toss in excessive amounts of vegetables to bulk is out more and that tends to cheaply stretch a pan that'd have made 2 meals stretch to 3-4 which can be frozen if necessary for future occasions

pink_numbers

I think the simple formula is that if you really want to save money on food, then you learn to like cooking. If you don't learn to like cooking, then you will not save money on your groceries. Your grocery bill is scarily high from where I am (I spend £10 per WEEK per person and get change enough for a nice meal for two!) but then again, I HAD to learn to like cooking. A few years back, I too was like you, relying on ready made meals all the time. My grocery bill used to be £100+ for two people per week. It was only due to health issues, that meant I had to cook everything from scratch that I actually learn to like cooking. It IS worth the effort though, because I now spend that much per month, if that!

If you feel you really can't get to grips with cooking, maybe you need to cut all other costs in your life right down. Refocus your saving effort elsewhere.

DarkConvict

Misc expense in my cash was anything but food, you know like washing powder/ kitchen rolls. Although i include milk&cereal as they are spread over a week.

I was lucky and was able to walk to work, skips the edge of town but i could go into the centre by a 10min detour.

My GF is trying or does when she is here anyway to try cooking more. I prefer making the unhealthy desserts the best so far



Here is what i did the other day, just for giggles so you can see.

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p.s. Gingerbread men did go wrong, it said 1/2 a cup of suger. I work in grams so my GF said a cup is 250g. So i added 250g, opps that's a full cup. Plus a cup of sugar is actually 190g so much too much it was fun though.

Me - Snowman, Angry Man, Cyclops, Naked man
GF - Hoola Girl, Footballer, Affro Man, Clown

fakeplastictwee

Interesting thread, I have been wondering the same myself.

My bf and I usually spend pretty much about £135 when we go shopping, (which I get for about £120 with my staff discount). Not entirely sure how often we go, just when we run out, (probably about every 5 weeks) but I do end up buying top up stuff in between. Included in the £130 are a few quick easy freezer meals, so I'm wondering if I can cut it down even more.

Do people find it cheaper to do a weekly shop instead of a monthly shop, thereby being able to avoid going into a supermarket to 'top-up'?

Sorry not really any advice in my reply, more just thinking out loud!

savingmummy

There is 4 of us in our house - me, hubby and 2 under 4`s.
We spend approx £150 a month sometimes a little more but never over 200.

I meal plan, use BOGOF, use vouchers/coupons for money off, drop a brand on many items and tbh noone notices at all.
Smaller meals BUT soup for starters.
I have halved my main meal and the other half goes to my children.
I grow salad items and am attempting to grow veg this year.
I make bread, cakes and biscuits, yoghurts.
NO lunches to pay for as my hubby takes food to work including a flask of coffee.
We eat at my parents once a week which also helps.

Most important for us is we stick to a list! The list is what we NEED not what we want. We only buy what is on the list and have stopped just scooting round bunging things in lol!

Once you start to reduce you will find it easy and then it carries on reducing.

gilligansyle

DarkConvict wrote: »

Hello, Time for a bit of a relaxed chat thread

As many of you know I've been here a while, advised on a few things i have picked up along the way but i have never been great at advising on SOAs, because thankfully I've managed finances well and might be minority who is in an overall positive cashflow. Thus i lack the first hand experience so many of you have.

Sorry, just had to comment on this bit - 2,000 posts in 4 months is more than 'advised on a few things' I have found most of your comments really useful, but generally only 'lurk' on the main board as am focusing on getting rid of debt.


Key to grocery shopping is definitely cook from scratch, you will never save lots if you buy processed food, even if you do cut down to own brands.
Make things like chilli and spag bol, but make more than normal and freeze it. Cooking from scratch needn't take hours. You can prep everything at the weekends. Or buy ready chopped onions and peppers, mushrooms from Iceland £1 a bag. Throw in as much veg as you can to bulk it out. I put lentils in mine to make it go further.
Slow cookers are a good idea if you work. I take 5 minutes frying a bit of mince, throw it in cooker with whatever takes my fancy and then when I get in only have to cook pasta or rice to go with it. It takesnno longer than a ready meal and is so much tastier and better for you

Omelettes are quick to make.

Make sandwiches, take your own drinks in, this will save at least £3 a day.
Doesn't sound much but its £60 a month.

Cut down on soap powder etc. by mixing the good stuff with cheap own brand and washing soda.

The 'Old Style Board' is full of useful tips, not all of them will suit you.

I have a 'budget' of £50 a week and generally underspend it now by a tenner, so in a month or so will reduce this down to £40 and could reduce it further if I needed to. That's for 2 of us, plus taking meals to Mum.

I sound a bit evangelistic, sorry. But I have always liked cooking so its easier for me.