Monthly food shopping over £350!!

fattyamal

Help!
Right, bite the bullet time, I really want to try and save cash on our monthly shop (which is circa £350!) but have tried for months now to no avail.
I've read lots of threads on here which are useful, and the meal planner idea was quite good, but none have seemed to help so far sadly!
Just a normal family of three in London, quite prudent in my opinion, but...

I've even gone to the length of analysing the last three months' spend to see where the problem is! To be sad, I will list them as follows (average) ;

Milk £12.70
Bread £7.15
Fruit/Veg/Salad £63.32 (lots of apples/banana's & ready-salad!)
Cheese £16.12
Ham/Bacon/similar meat £10.37
Yoghurts (mainly for 3yr-old!) £6.71
Tea/Coffee/Juice £9.56
Meat (mainly chicken) £23.66
Eggs £3.20
Cleaning produce £17.59
Cereal £8.12
Tinned food (beans, sweetcorn etc) £13.63
Frozen (pizza's, ready meals, pies, veg, chicken etc) £54.16
Sundry (too many other silly items to mention, eg. wet-wipes) £31.07
Kiddy food (eg. sugar free cereal bars, peperami, bread-sticks) £13.10
Jars (pasta sauce, marmite, sweet/sour, mint sauce etc.) £19.06
Toilet/kitchen roll £11.65
Total - £325

God, this is so anal ! (Perhaps this is not too much after all, I don't know?)

What immediately strikes me is the ridiculous cost of fruit/veg in Tesco's!! And perhaps I need to visit Iceland more as I seem to be buying lots of frozen gear! (It does actually vary a fair bit from month-to-month, these are just averages.)

Anyway, needed a rant more than anything.
But please, any ideas at all are welcome. Laziness is also a culprit of course and I do loathe Aldi's etc....!

ooobedoo

Hiya,

I have just started using stardrops and it's fab, I don't think I should but I mix it with tesco purple disinfectant that smells of parma violets. The mix is sooo clean and so cheap. The 600ml stardrops is 58p at tesco and the tesco own disinfectant is 94p and is really big.

The blue clothes are reusable when washed, si inital expense is a little but bung in the wash, get another colour for the toilet.

rainbowrisin

TBH I think it depends on what you want to cut back on and by how much - if you look on the Old Style Board there are some excellent meal planners and shopping lists ranging from about £7.50 pw up to £30-40 pw. I would suggest that you look at some of those then begin to implement some of the ideas one at a time.
For example, it might be cheaper for you to look at getting a £10 organic fruit and veg box each week and seeing if that's enough for you all - still cheaper than your current f and v budget, but really nice quality and the variable contents gives you a basis to try different recipes - again Old Style has an enormous recipe index.
Essentially I would think you either have to change what you eat (perhaps less freezer stuff more cook from scratch for example) or buy the same things but more cheaply - sorry if that's stating the blindingly obvious -I know you've said you're not keen on Aldi, but they are more reasonable than Tescos - my personal favourite for supermarket shopping is Lidl, as i think the quality is good and it's cheap- TBH I think the Tesco quality is quite poor at times.
There is a lot there that you could cut back on, but I think it would be more helpful if you looked at the Old Stylers and took the suggestions that you liked, rather than us all looking at your list and saying what we'd change.
That said, my two golden rules are "never buy anything with more than one ingredient or it's a rip off" (ie no processed food), and "never get your fruit and veg from a supermarket" - I find a greengrocers / box of fruit/veg, the market, farm shops (i know there aren't many in london!!) cheaper and better quality.
Hope some of that helps.

Alleycat

Milk £12.70
Bread £7.15
Fruit/Veg/Salad £63.32 (lots of apples/banana's & ready-salad!) - Rather than buying ready salads, just get a lettuce, bag of tomatoes, half a cucumber which is much cheaper and really not much more effort. Plus it will be fresher for longer as you can cut it as and when. Also, try to eat fruit that is in season, rather than going for the same thing all year round. You will probably notice that different fruit costs more if it is not the right season. Try the market and definately not Tesco. I have found that it goes off ridiculously quickly.
Cheese £16.12
Ham/Bacon/similar meat £10.37
Yoghurts (mainly for 3yr-old!) £6.71
Tea/Coffee/Juice £9.56
Meat (mainly chicken) £23.66
Eggs £3.20
Cleaning produce £17.59 - Wow! Thats a lot of cleaning products!! A bottle of Stardrops (as has already been mentioned) for 58p, starclen for the oven and a bottle of anti bac spray if you want to use it is certainly a lot cheaper. Easily less than £4 per month if that.
Cereal £8.12 - How about a big bag of porridge oats for breakie? Dd has that for breakfast every day almost and it is so cheap and really good for them.
Tinned food (beans, sweetcorn etc) £13.63
Frozen (pizza's, ready meals, pies, veg, chicken etc) £54.16 - try and cut back on the ready meals, there's hardly enough there to feed a gnat let alone a hard working adult! Also make your own pizza, much nicer than the frozen stuff.
Sundry (too many other silly items to mention, eg. wet-wipes) £31.07 - If you aren't already, try Tesco own brand wet wipes. We use these and they are just as good as the branded ones.
Kiddy food (eg. sugar free cereal bars, peperami, bread-sticks) £13.10
Jars (pasta sauce, marmite, sweet/sour, mint sauce etc.) £19.06 - Pasta sauce you can make yourself dead easily. Just a tube of tomato puree, value tinned toms (13p a can), some mushrooms, courgettes, onion, squirt of garlic puree and you are done!
Toilet/kitchen roll £11.65 - Blimey!! A 12 pack of Tesco own toilet roll is only £3.98. That should last the month I reckon, alternatively nick some from work if you are running short! Kitchen roll, try to use this sparingly. Get some j cloths that you can just bung in the machine when they get a bit minging.
Total - £325

Hope that helps!! I would also suggest checking out the old style board and also really considering what you are going to buy. Rather than going to the supermarket with specific meals thought out without thinking about the ingredients you will spend more but by spending an hour or so pre-big shop thinking about what you are going to cook, can you bulk cook it, make it yourself without needing a jar/frozen version you really can cut it down.

We are also a family of 3 and have found that we are comfortable with £200 per month.

Rachie_B

well first of all ditch the jars and make your own ! ( curry sauces,sweet n sour etc ,pasta sauces) much cheaper and healthier too

ditto for the frozen meals !!! make your own and freeze excess into single sized portions for HM "ready meals "

also try own brands of everything ,most of the time you cant tell the difference

thats a lot of cleaning products !!! im a bit of a cleaning freak lol but i use just stardrops ,essential oils,vinegar,soda crystals etc now

oh and buy a slowcooker !

Horasio

I have done a lot of things on OS but my food bill doesn't seem to change. I have a couple of old instant meals left, really to be used if we are really tired/unwell, not having bought any for months. I look for bargains and stock up (not to excess) but I am mystified at my food bills seeming unchanged.

There are three of us but our son is hardly here and tends to eat out, he uses his pocket money and we haven't increased it.

Our son is more fussy, so do buy a select few treat foods when he does eat with us, but nothing like we used to buy.

black-saturn

Have a look at my meal planner threads for some inspiration:

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?p=2340412&posted=1#post2340412


http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=157526&highlight=black-saturns+menu

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=236481&highlight=shave+soa

freda

Milk £12.70 If any of this is used in cooking, then try making some powdered milk up, it doesn't taste different

Bread £7.15 Try making your own - healthier and (often) cheaper

Fruit/Veg/Salad £63.32 (lots of apples/banana's & ready-salad!) Go to the market, esp at the end of the day, they are literally giving away fruit that they've not sold. Enormous boxes of bananas etc for £1 and so on

Cheese £16.12 Buy cheap 'value' brand cheese for cooking with. Use your normal brand for sandwiches etc if you'll notice the difference

Ham/Bacon/similar meat £10.37 Try your local butchers. Buy ham in large packets and freeze

Yoghurts (mainly for 3yr-old!) £6.71 Buy a large tub and just put it in a bowl. The kiddie yoghurts are well overpriced. Also with large tubs, you can add things like fruit, blackberries etc to make it even more yummy (and healthy)

Tea/Coffee/Juice £9.56 Try swapping juice for plain water every now and then. Healthier and cheaper.

Meat (mainly chicken) £23.66 Go to your butchers, ask for cheap cuts of meat that can be casseroled/stewed. Deeelicious filling meals for pennies.

Eggs £3.20

Cleaning produce £17.59 Not tried stardrops yet myself, but I find that a disinfectant spray used (occasionally) in the kitchen, bleach for the bathrooms, vinegar, bicarb, soda crystals and cream cleaner do everything perfectly well. Move to using simple soap and water for wiping surfaces instead of spraying them all the time with cleaning things.

Cereal £8.12 Buy cheaper brands and move to things like porrige, weetabix (supermarket version), home made moooosli etc

Tinned food (beans, sweetcorn etc) £13.63 Sweetcorn is in season at the moment and is really, really cheap to buy fresh

Frozen (pizza's, ready meals, pies, veg, chicken etc) £54.16 Ouch! Learn to make your own pizzas - great for using up things in the fridge and really tasty. Ready meals - bulk cook loads of casseroles/lasagne/shepherds pie etc and put in portion sized tubs in the freezer. Pies - dead easy, I make using leftover casserole as the filling (bulk it out with beans or veg) and a simple (ready made) puff pastry top. Buy cheap fresh veg and freeze it if you really need frozen veg. Chicken - you seem to eat a lot of chicken! As above, look for cheaper cuts of other meats as an alternative

Sundry (too many other silly items to mention, eg. wet-wipes) £31.07 Wet wipes - buy lots of 30p flannels from tescos and just wash them. Itemise your sundry items - it may be you are spending money that doesn't need to be spent. £31.07 pcm is almost £400 per year on 'stuff'!

Kiddy food (eg. sugar free cereal bars, peperami, bread-sticks) £13.10 Make your own cereal bars/flapjacks. Ditto bread sticks and other kiddie snacks

Jars (pasta sauce, marmite, sweet/sour, mint sauce etc.) £19.06 Learn to make your own sauces - you can make a gigantic batch and freeze it, although it doesn't take long to make. WAY cheaper, considering a tin of toms is, what, 20p?

Toilet/kitchen roll £11.65 Use jay clothes instead of kitchen roll, they can be washed over and over again so save lots of money.

Eels100

I would echo the sentiments of others regarding ditching the frozen meals/jars. There is nothing, I repeat NOTHING that can't be achieved with onions, own brand tinned tomatoes, paprika and black pepper! Not in my house, anyway.

One thing which I have found is helping us cut back is eating less. Sounds ridiculous but I'd buy a 4 pack of Tesco chicken breasts, and cook the lot with the intention of storing half for another meal, but they shrivel up and lose so much water we'd end up having the whole lot in one go! Bad for the waistline, worse for the wallet. So I started buying my meat all from the local butcher, where it's a bit cheaper and it isn't full of water. What's more it tastes nice. I now buy 2 chicken breasts in place of 4, and they're so big and tasty I always have plenty to keep back for the freezer. That's on weeks when I don't have time to do a whole chicken ... but that's a whole other story!

Also, by adding lots of vegetables you can bulk out recipes and reduce the amount of meat you use. For example, I now use half the amount of mince I used to when making a chilli. I just finely chop a couple of carrots, add an extra pepper and a tin of some sort of beans, even baked will do. Plenty mushrooms, old reduced ones are cheap and fine for this. It's so much healthier and costs far less.

Another crazy idea - starters! They have starters in restaurants to buy you some time while they cook your main course. In my house they're to trick OH into thinking he's had a huge meal! If I'm making a batch of soup I keep a little back and serve small portons as a starter. Garlic bread, leftover ham, chicken or prawn with salad, melon, you name it. Even some crackers or breadsticks with salsa. It means you can get away with much smaller portions of your main course and it's a good way of using up leftovers.

John7619

Hi,

If you are prepared to shop around for bargains, visit http://www.madaboutbargains.co.uk/offers/Off_Your_Trolley.htm

I approach my shopping two ways, I look at the offers at madabout, identify what I need, go and buy the items, do not be tempted to buy other offers and then do the main shopping via internet shopping.

I have pulled back approx £2100 per annum on shopping alone.

ailuro2

Go to the pound shop and buy your shampoo and cleaning stuff- Poundland has stuff that you will recognise, Sanex deodorants, dove shampoo etc. and also men's stuff.Then you won't buy it from the supermarket.
I couldn't actually stop buying bum wipes for my dh, but I buy them when they are bogof, especially own brand ones on special offer.
Water down kitchen and bathroom sprays, they are always stronger than we need them to be (unless we don't clean very often in the first place)

Cut out the peperami- it is a bit of an animal, and not the parts you'd eat yourself given a choice. Cheese sticks cut from a block of cheese are healthier, and I wouldn't be surprised if they had less fat than peperami.Kids like cream crackers with a filling they have put on themselves too.

I buy shop brand cereals, except for cornflakes, which I find don't taste as good.Tesco organic porridge is only 99p for a kilogram bag, lasts for ages.

My biggest tip to save money at the supermarket? I take my dh who wants out of there quick time so I don't have time to browse.:rolleyes: