My shopping bill keeps on going up and up!!!

phoebe03cat

Hi SD, could you pm that to me as well pls...sounds interesting. Have been making up stuff for the cats recently and it certainly agrees with them. Many thanks.

ALIBOBSY

There are 2 adults, 3 kids (soon to be 4) and a cat in our house and we manage on around £50-£80 per week depending on if we need to stock up or are on a quiet week.
Some weeks I may only spend £20 for the fresh bits such as milk.

BUT and its a big but I am a SAHM. So I have the time to cook and bake most stuff from scratch and to shop around. I have certain items which I get when on offer and stock up for the rest of the time.
EG we use a wholesaler card (we have one from Oh's SE work) to stock up on cat food/detergent/toilet rolls when on a good offer- I currently have around 200 toilet rolls in store lol or we do a stock up in the pound store/aldi/lidl when offers are on.
Sainsburys do a baby promotion every few months where all the baby stuff (including value baby bath etc) is half price. So again I stock up. Tinned tuna goes on offer every few months say around £2 for 4 tins of john west/princes, so again I stock up.

I find Aldi and lidl offers are also good, and I have found their products are sometimes slightly more than say Tescos or asdas "value" brands, but as good quality as the big fours "middle" brands. Aldi';s super 6 fruit and veg is also fab.

I get most of our meat from local suppliers-we have a brilliant local farm who do their own beef and lamb (you can go see the animals as well to see how they are treated), plus FR chicken and outdoor raised pork/sausages/bacon from other local farms. Local cheese and theior own FR eggs which are £2 a tray for about 24-26 eggs.

We have another local farm who do fruit and veg/farm butter/cottage cheese/ice cream etc etc etc. The vast majority is locally produced.

I find the local suppliers give you far better service and quality for either the same price or actually cheaper than the big supermarkets. There is also less chance of impulse buying in smaller places and you get to know the owners by name and its all around a nicer experience, But as I said its having the time to travel around and make the best advantage.

I also am into growing my own and bought very little salad last year. Going for it even more this year. Plus cooking and baking everything from scratch and trying to avoid any waste (as well as taking advantage of those "whoppsies" or cheap offers.
Eat more veg and less meat (better quality meat is tastier and more filling anyway). Pulses are fab ways to pad out meat dishes as well, plus they are good for you.

Food plan and always take a list shopping, if its not on the list unless it is a fab offer you can freeze/store for another week and is within budget it doesn't get bought. I prefer to budget by taking cash so limiting myself as the other poster said.

Overall I don't feel we are spending much more than we did 12 months ago, but I am time rich and cash poor so shopping around becomes a lifestyle lol.

Little steps are best really and do what you can in the time you have.

good luck
ali x

moneypanicker

Wow - just got in and found all these replies thanks!

My shopping today consisted of

• 2 pack of nappies (don't usually get these with shopping but was a third off - i even bought sainsburys own to use in the day I will only use pampers at night!
• 6 baby meals (to keep in cupboard)
• 3 x 4pints blue milk (didn't have any 6 pinters)
• 1 x 4 pint 1% milk (usually get skimmed but this is cheaper)
• broccoli
• carrots
• apples
• grapes
• lots of bananas
• onions
• chicken breasts (on offer)
• diet coke
• chicken joint (on offer - to do a roast)
• sainsburys own shreddies
• squash
• cous cous
• basmati rice
• salami
• lots of rolls £3
• yoghurts
• Baked beans
• cheese (2 packs)

That is about it i've prob forgotten some. It doesn't even include any bread, washing powder or cleaning stuff. Generally i buy loo rolls and cleaning stuff in bulk when they are on offer in costco.

I did used to have a fab store cupboard but its stocks have gradually been depleted especially as have being on mat leave. I did get a shock when it came to £75 especially as i thought it would be about £40.

£75 doesn't seem to go very far:(

Sunnyday

Alibobsy - I also do the big stock ups when offers are on, usually enough to last untill the next offers some months away. I shop at as many different places as i can and check on the offers online before i go to save wasted journeys.

I`m struggling for storage space atm as the kitchen has been ripped out so i have stashes of things in boxes and in carrier bags all over the house. I knew i`d gone too far when we had to empty the kitchen cupboards before christmas and we had seventy six tins of tuna having said that its all got long dates on it saves me a fortune and on the leaner weeks/months i can find everything i need without shopping so we don`t go without.

Phoebe - pm sent

Falady - I do the same with joints for sandwiches, i`ve just cooked a £3.99 bacon joint and it will easily do a weeks worth of sandwiches, the last bit i will chop and mix it into hm egg mayo to make it into a spread so that it goes further. When i think of what a weeks worth of deli ready sliced ham would cost i cringe. I`ve still got two of the Mrm`s pork loin joints in the freezer from before christmas

SD

OrkneyStar

moneypanicker wrote: »

[*]6 baby meals (to keep in cupboard)

Not sure what age baby is, but it is very easy to puree and freeze the same amount as you would get in those jars for pennies. Admittedly I did buy the odd jar (mainly in Boots to get points;)), but if you are trying to cut back.
Sweet potato, lentil and carrot, with the addition of a little meat (if baby old enough) was a fave in our house- easy to heat from frozen and very cheap to make, for example.

moneypanicker

Baby is 13 months - he generally has what we do. But sometimes he won't wait till tea when he's hungry he's hungry and no amount of rice cakes will fill the void! It's for emergencys really - i don't have time to make him food now (been there done that!)

OrkneyStar

moneypanicker wrote: »

Baby is 13 months - he generally has what we do. But sometimes he won't wait till tea when he's hungry he's hungry and no amount of rice cakes will fill the void! It's for emergencys really - i don't have time to make him food now (been there done that!)

Oh right I thought he was a baby baby iyswim, by 13 months my son did not have any jars and ate our food, or something that could be heated in the oven while I prepared ours (eg leftover slice of HM pizza, mince n tatties etc). Each to their own though!

jess1974

Butterfly_Brain wrote: »

Go to Farmfoods buy 2 x 2 Litres of milk for £1.50

Err no thanks its cheaper in Tesco 2 litres for 65p each, so £1.30 for 2

Biggeeangelpie

Hi Moneypanicker

I know exactly how you feel, the food prices started to go up as I went on maternity with angelpie. Seriously reduced income! We bought a second freezer and started to bulk buy reduced chicken, fish and red meat.

We coveted the supermarkets and worked out when the reducing of prices start, its usually the sell by date, and have never had any dodgy experiences or food poisoning.

My Oh cooks all our dinners from scratch, we batch cook, do a menu for each week and follow the shopping list religiously. Aldi is good for veg, fruit, cereal, jam, bread, water etc.

I also use stardrops, vinegar and water (third each for cleaning) try putting economy bubble bath in your hand soap dispenser for the bathroom.

Hope this helps
Gx

charlies-aunt

Not much to say that has not already been said ...but I do have a few suggestions...

Buy your meat and eggs from your local market - the regular market though, not at a poncey, upmarket, skyhigh priced 'Farmers Market' :rotfl:

Locally in Sunny Scunny, you can get two huge chickens for £5 for the two and a large Gammon Joint for £6 ... if you go at about 3pm on a saturday afternoon when the stall are closing down, you can pick up really fantastic bargains as the stallholders sell off all their fresh meat, fish, fruit and veg that won't keep over the weekend. Don't be too embarassed to haggle or to ask them to chuck in a free pound of sausages when you make a late afternoon buy....they'll call you cheeky and tell you that you are cutting their throat but they'll do it!

Supermarkets do have the occassional good deal but market meat is UK reared, fresher and cheaper. Ask the butcher on the stall if you aren't sure what to buy - they are usually very helpful and many will give you a handful of Meat Marketing Board leaflets to mull over.

Buy cheaper cuts such as rising rib, stewing steak, mince, pigs fry, rabbit, spareribs, belly pork, dry cured streaky bacon and make it go as far as you can by padding out meals with cheap fillers such as dumplings, pulses/rice, potatoes, pie crusts, batter pudding (for toad in the hole) savoury crumbles and plenty of cheap veg (Aldi and Lidl's Super 6's).

Ditto puddings - turn your Super 6's fruit into pies, crumbles, cakes and top with Sainsb*rys instant custard at 9p per packet - you can make a apple pie and custard -or- bananas & custard - poached pears - pineapple upside down cake (use Sains 13p pineapple chunks rather than more expensive whole rings) for 4 adults for less than a £1. Take a look at some cookbooks from the 1940's and 1950's - the recipes in these is all about making a little go a long way.

Try and resist buying 'empty' foods such as crisps, confectionary, premixed drinks - as a rule, if I can make it myself, I won't buy it ready made as the price difference is vast.