how much is weekly shop??

mrs_baggins

All of a sudden I am finding that I have to find a lot of money pretty soon and one of the areas I can cut down in is the weekly shop. I admit that I am the laziest person in the world when it comes to cooking and most days I just dont do it at all really. There are only the 2 of us and I know we do waste stuff and buy lots of conveniance foods so i can just microwave them. Including cleaning products and such like what would you reckon would be a reasonable weekly figure? At the moment its between £50 and £60 but I'm sure I can get that a lot less if i actually cooked . My hubby takes sandwiches to work and i just generally have either wraps or cereals or supernoodles!

Queen.Bess

I have to say that OH and I manage quite well on about £25-£30 a week. We take advantage of BOGOFs and special deals where we can and that suits us fine! I'm sure we could actually cut it down more if we really thought about it. Have a look at a typical shopping list you have (if you do one!) and see where there could be savings. Then maybe sit down and plan a meal menu for a week or two and then next time you go shopping you can stick to the list to help you make the meals on your menu!!

BrandNewDay

Well, the first thing you're going to have to do is to learn to enjoy cooking. I'm a newlywed AND new to the UK. I just wrote the following in the thread about cookery books:

I've only lived in the UK for six months...I sometimes get a little lost with British cookbooks, but I find that American recipes just give me grief because the ingredients aren't the same over here. I needed something that would explain BRITISH food to me: one book that has REALLY helped me is the River Cottage Family Cookbook (I think that's the title. It's River Cottage and it's for families.) I just LOVE the way he explains food: he gives really readable histories of various foods like sugar and chocolate, and then he tells you how these foods react to heat or one another. Even during his recipes, he's telling you the WHY of what you're doing, and explaining things. He does this in such a way that you can vary the recipes. I took his ice cream recipe and was able to make chocolate raspberry ice cream just by interpreting what he was doing.

It's not so great as a reference for when you want to know how to cook a particular dish - he doesn't try to cover every dish - but it's fantastic for learning basics.

(Copied and pasted.)

I really suggest starting with this book because he makes food really fun and easy. It will give you a foundation to explore and experiment... really helpful compared to the chi-chi cookbooks by celebrity chefs that really seem to intimidate me more than help. Then, get something like a Good Housekeeping basic cookbook for reference and you're pretty much all set.

Once you understand how food works, I think it gets easier to know what to cook. There's no need to make fancy-schmancy stuff. But, it truly is very easy to make a decent spaghetti sauce with a tin of chopped tomatoes and a chopped onion. I keep a couple of herbs on my window sill - you can buy them cheap at any supermarket. Little things like that make cooking really fun and rewarding, and it's still pretty easy.

VickyA_2

Hi there mrs baggins :hello:

DH and I spend about £25 - £30 each week on food and cleaning products. I know that we could get it down even further if we tried a little harder. We both take sandwiches/packed lunches to work (sometimes this is leftovers).

We've managed to get it down to that by menu planning and making the most of the reduced items in the supermarket and incorporating those into our menu plans. My town has a farmers' market once a month, so we try to buy a fair bit of meat and veg from there. When I'm cooking, I make a large batch - generally - and freeze the rest. My "specialities" for freezing are things like chilli con carne, bolognese sauce and a vegetable sauce (which uses up all the veggies that are left over at the bottom of the fridge...).

BrandNewDay

You can save a LOT of money if you buy all your stuff at Tesco/Asda/etc. But, I'm trying to get into eating more local veggies. (I don't care about organic, so much - got no beef with pesticides, but these things tend to go hand-in-hand...)

Frankly, buying tasteless tomatos and rock-hard-to-rotten-in-a-week peaches at Tesco is a false economy, as they just go uneaten.

Yes, I read "Shopped" and I am now a convert.

Linda32

Hi, we used to have alot of ready meals as well, I just couldn't see the point when it was already done for you.

But since cutting them all out, our health has improved greatly, and its true, cooking from scratch is alot cheaper.

Regarding your shopping bill, on a spread sheet make out a list of the things you've bought taken off your receipt and keep a note each week for a month.

Then you will see for example how much you've spent on loo rolls and see if it would have been cheaper to buy in bigger packs rather than packs of four.

A simple start to move away from ready meals, do you like Pasta and Tomato type dishes?
If so you can buy a packet of pasta very cheaply, cook this as per instructions. I usually allow an hand full per person, it goes along way. Then a jar of pasta sauce. Actually you can get other flavours but we usually have tomato.

Heat this up, stir pasta into this once cooked, maybe add some sweetcorn and there you have it. A meal nearly from scratch

Thats the sort of thing I started with, and you come to realise that its actually a much more satisfying meal than a ready made. There seems more to it somehow.

Lets us know how you go.

mrs_baggins

Queen.Bess wrote:

Have a look at a typical shopping list you have (if you do one!) and see where there could be savings. Then maybe sit down and plan a meal menu for a week or two and then next time you go shopping you can stick to the list to help you make the meals on your menu!!

Hmm. think thats half the problem. I have never ever shopped with a list. Dont get me wrong I can cook and I have cooked all kinds of fancy meals but was put of when (now ex) husband came home drunk every night and threw it either at me , up the wall or in the bin!!My loverly new husnabd and me have totally different eating habits. He is a meat and 2 veg type of man( and the veg have to be done to the death and the meat burned) and i am more stir fry person. He now does eat kegeree (which is cheap) and stir fry but misses his sunday roast which i really loathe!

I find that at the supermarket I can think what i need to get for the weekend but after that i just dont cater for. We either have loads of bread anf nothing to put on or loads of filling but no bread. I will try very hard to think more than 1 day in advance and maybe sling everything in a slo cooker that way its not really cooking!

BrandNewDay

You will get better with practice!

Tell you what: make a deal that you won't buy ready meals or eat out for a week at a time. Try to cook from scratch. Give yourself permission to run to the store when you realize you've forgotten/run out of something. If you do this for a while, you'll find that meal planning and shopping will come more naturally to you.

mrs_baggins

I guess that laziness is the stem of my problem!! I own up to it. But its a hard thing to break.

I am just trying to get some recipies together that are a) really easy, b)very quickly prepared C) cheap d) have ingredients in we both like!!! Its going to be a battle as hubby doesnt like tomatoes, I cant cope with garlic, I would rather have veg, he would rather have meat!! Am going to start off I think with some slow cooker soup type things at least we can both take to work. I get home much earlier than he does and as he goes to gym 4 times a week its awkward as he doesnt want anything b4 he goes and i'm not going to make anything at 9.30 when he gets back! Will even try a list this week and see how it goes. I have sneaked in tesco t bags instead of teley and he hasnt said anything yet!

gingin_2

Although I cook for a family I still try to stick to a strict budget. I find that by shopping online I can take my time and not by as many unneccesary items that perhaps I might buy if I am in a rush at the supermarket. There are always online vouchers about which normally cover the cost of the extra that you spend on the cost of delivery. I actually shop for the whole month and write out a meal plan before ordering. My deep freezer was one of the best things I have bought as I never have the excuse to buy an expensive ready meal if I am feeling ill or tired as I always make sure there is plenty of homemade "ready meals" (chilli and spag bol are good). All I really need to buy during the rest of the month tends to be milk and fruit and veg and I can do that locally without having to set foot inside a big supermarket.

My big problem is that my husband is a huge meat eater. He sticks to a high protein diet (i.e 3-4 chicken breasts in a sitting) and so it can get really expensive so I desperately try to bulk things out with mushrooms and pulses or an extra tin of tomatoes or buy cheaper cuts of meat.

Friday nights (yay!) we treat ourselves and either get a really nice ready meal or a take away, it's nice to have that to look forwards to.

Good Luck!

patchwork_cat

How much do we spend - too much! Despite being an avid MSE'r for 2 years+ we still spend £70 + extras on 4 I would be happy if it was £65/£70 inc. extras, but we are not perfect and every week i throw away a lettuce, tub of coleslaw and then some. I fully intend not to , but the path to hell is paved with good intentions. I think that meall planning and sticking to it is the way forward. I am just too impulsive!