Do you get all groceries in one shop? [merged]

Mrs_Tradition

Hi All

I am finishing work for maternity leave in 5 weeks and in need of some advice please.
Currently I shop at T£sco's as it's just down the road from me and it is one of those huge extra stores with everything I could need in it. The thing is, i have noticed the prices fluctuate dramatically week by week (even though not special offers etc) and I cannot find the common reason why. Currently shopping once a week in Tesco saves me petrol so i only shop in one spot and it fits in around my full time job, plus petrol station there so it kilss a few birds with the one stone.
Anyway - the thing is I hear people saying they go to the supermarket when the yellow stickers will be out and I know this changes as to what time it will be per store - it just never seems to be when I am there! Also I hear people saying "oh I wouldn't get X from there, they charge a fortune" etc etc. When i have time on maternity leave I will be able to walk to the same shop to get my lighter items (will get bulky items on free delivery when it's on/vouchers available etc) but I don't know if I should be planning a certain day of the week, time of the day etc or should I be looking to make a trip into town once a week where there's all the other shops I can benefit from.
Do you think N£tto / @LDI / IC£LAND / WILKIN$ONS / MARKET etc are workth going to for individual bits or just getting the said items at Mr T's for as cheap as possible? By the time I have had chance to go round them all to compare I will be finishing maternity so was hoping for knowledge from everyone here

Do you do all your shopping in one place? When do you go?

Thanks all
Take Care.....

Mrs_T

wssla00

I used to shop weekly, but found I would just pop things in the trolley I didn't need. So now I order monthly. I order my meat from an online butchers and my dry/frozen/fresh goods from a supermarket online delivery. I then go out and get my cleaning stuff from savers/homebargains somewhere like that once a month, so I only really go out once. I have found it really reduces my shopping bill!

I also get fresh milk and juice from a milk man so worth doing it so I don't have to go to the shop.

Enjoy the baba

Mrs_Tradition

Aww thanks for this.

So where do you get any other fresh things from, fruit and veg, yoghurts etc?
I can walk into the village where I live to get bits and pieces too, I suppose I need to make sure I have an idea of how much things cost generally so if I see it somewhere else I know if it's a good price or not lol.

zippychick

Hi Mrs Tradition

I think it very much varies from person to person - a bit like OS really. There is no right or wrong way to do it and you have to do what suits your circumstances and your family.

I am single living alone so my choices will be far different from yours. I only buy meat from the local butchers which is 5 minutes walk up the road. I don't really go to it very often to be honest - i buy maybe £15 which is a lot for me , and that breaks down into lots of meals and most of it is frozen. I buy fruit and veg - sometimes from the fruit shop and sometimes from tesco. It largely depends. I don't drive so reply on foot for shopping, or my trusty pushbike. Some days I can only go so far so if I am in tesco and need some fruit and veg, i will buy it there as a labour saving measure. (otherwise, i will have to get all the shopping home, put it away, then head out in the other direction to go to the fruit shop)

I do try and get the best deal and have an iceland beside my tesco so i tend to know which of the two is cheaper for which product and take advantage of that.

I buy my Free range eggs from the fruit shop - never a shopping centre.

I don't have a plan for shopping as in set times - i buy when i need to. I try to get fresh milk from the fruit shop as it is cheap too, but milk lasts me ages anway. I don't really buy shop bread (apart from whoopsied in tesco) , or i bake my own.

Anytime I pass a supermarket i will go in and look for whoopsies or reduced items. Can pick up some real treats. Sometimes I will take a dander up to tesco (nearly a mile?) just to see if they have any good whoops. There is the bread whoops, fridge whoops and the fruit and veg whoops. I think it really takes you to go in at different times and see how they do their reductions as each store will be different.

I think this topic woul be better suited to the Shopping and groceries board, so I'll leave it for some OS input, then move it over later:D

Martin’s asked me to post this in these circumstances: I’ve asked Board Guides to move threads if they’ll receive a better response elsewhere(please see this rule) so this post/thread has been moved to another board, where it should get more replies. If you have any questions about this policy please email .

Thanks:)
Zip

MancMillyMolly

I do a little bit of a mix in terms of where I shop: I often find that if I go into Mr T's I end up going in for something that would cost maybe £5 but actually spending £50 :eek: So for my regular non-perishables, I get it delivered fortnightly. Shopping from my meal plan helps alot as well, and I've trained DH and DD to write on our dry-wipe board if they need something (toothpaste, toiletries etc). Obviously you don't get the advantage of any yellow-stickered items, but I never seemed to manage to get any of these anyway!!

I do a weekly shop in my local village where we're lucky enough to have a small family-run grocers that does all the fruit and veg we need plus they have cold meats, fruit salads and some other yummies to treat ourselves! There's also a butchers that I use - that said a couple of weeks ago I went to Co$tco and bulk bought chicken fillets, beef mince and the like, which I have portioned off and froze. That should see us through the next couple of months at least.

And then for odds and ends that we may find we need, we just nip to the nearest shop - be that the corner shop or Mr T (although with my shopping habits, if it's the latter I'll send DH :rotfl:)

Doing this has certainly saved quite a bit of money for us, but I suppose there's almost always cost savings to be made by shopping around. Unfortunately limited time with children and work dictates that sometimes it just can't be done!

I do agree with Zippychick, it really depends on each individual and their particular circumstances

MMM

wssla00

Mrs_Tradition wrote: »

Aww thanks for this.

So where do you get any other fresh things from, fruit and veg, yoghurts etc?
I can walk into the village where I live to get bits and pieces too, I suppose I need to make sure I have an idea of how much things cost generally so if I see it somewhere else I know if it's a good price or not lol.

I make my own yoghurt (easiyo), my fruit and veg either comes from the garden or comes in my online shop. I use a lot of tinned fruit, decant it into fruit salad and it's delicious. Potatoes carrots onions etc last a long while if you store them properly. Salad comes from the garden. The rest is frozen and used from frozen or dried. Bread is made in the bread maker. Milk and Juice comes from the milkman

It took a while for me to get there though, but I think I am slowly getting there. I used to spend about £100-£150 a week :eek: on food but now I can do all my shopping for the month for around that, and that includes the cats!

I certainly don't feel like I am missing out on anything, and definitely feel like I am eating healthier.

If you take it slowly, you will get there!

zippychick

OH! One more thing I forgot - i don't deviate from my list (unless it's a serious whoops or something I do need but wasn't on the list )

wssla00

Thats very true! My list is sooo important!

HappyinSpain

Hi Mrs_T,

While you're on maternity leave I'm sure you'll have much more time to be able to shop about. When we lived in England and worked full time, our food bill was sky high as I always shopped in Tescos or Sainsburys as time was very limited. Then, when we both gave up work (and the salaries!), we discovered that Lidls and Aldis were so much cheaper and also that on a Wednesday after 6pm all the yellow stickers on meat, veg and bread would be on display and often picked up bargains to freeze for later. I would buy cleaning stuff and toiletries from Poundstretcher/Instore or Poundland and often found things like Oxo cubes and T bags were so much cheaper there.

We still do the same here, buy certain things from Lidls, other bits from the market and then also the larger supermarkets.

Enjoy!

wallbash

First of all this is a male posting!

While you're on maternity leave I'm sure you'll have much more time to be able to shop about

Would have thought you were better off , walking around Tesco , one stop shopping
getting it done , back to get your feet up.

You could go to half a dozen shops save a couple of pounds , but think of the stress involved .

But don't take notice of me , what does a mere male know about being pregnant or even more importantly shopping. :rotfl:

frugalqueen_2

I buy cleaning materials in bulk from a farm store and that's way cheaper. I buy meat from the local supermarket but check prices online first. I buy the bulk of my shopping from Lidl/Aldi which work out cheapest. Plan your menu first, if you have a deep freeze then cook in bulk and stash it away. We spend £3 a day on all our food each and we allow ourselves a spending budget of £40 a week for the two of us, so if we need new knickers or socks then we have to eat out of the cupboards or freezer and use what's in store