HELP - Shopping £335p/m 2 adults 1 5yr old

muddlemess

I've searched through some of the threads and it looks as though we are spending a small fortune on food each month.

Please can anyone point me in the right direction for healthy (I'm trying to loose weight) cheap food advice.

Many thanks in advance
MM x

artybear

HI muddlemess

You have come to the right place, the Old stylers have got some brilliant ideas to keep food budgets down.

Maybe a quick look at THIS will help?

I'm sure other more clever O/Stylers will be along soon.

xxxx

BitterAndTwisted

Artybear beat me to it, I was just about to post the link!

Muddlemess, check out the Grocery Challenge thread as well. I think it all depends on how much time you have and how determined you might be but I'd advise you to take things slowly and not try and cut your budget in half overnight or anything like that. Drop down a brand, check your supermarket for cut-price bargains and consider batch-cooking on the weekends if you work full-time.

Keeping all of your receipts and making a note of every penny spent on housekeeping for a couple of weeks might show where you're wasting money or could get better value from what you do spend. The best way I know of cutting down without feeling any pain is to stop being a brand-queen and give supermarket own-brands a shot. Most of the products are the same, just in different packaging.

zippychick

Hi Muddlemess :j

Pink Winged typed an excellent response to another user asking a smiliar question yesterday I think it was. It was in this thread and more specifically this post

Sorry if that's lame, jumping on the back of her response! [STRIKE]but I am really exhaustedly tired today and[/STRIKE] I just think it has so many great links and advice.:A

In addition to that, I'll do some work and find you some healthy eating threads and links

Back in a sec

I'll merge this later for you
thanks
Zip

zippychick

Healthy eating

Cheapest healthy meal ever

Feeding your whole family a healthy balanced diet - about a specific book which may interest you

Grocery shopping and extreme money saving and healthy eating

Cheap healthy snacks

Healthy snacks for kids (nothing to say you can't eat them too )

Cheap low fat recipes

Losing weight recipes collection

Weight loss the OS way - part 7 - a good thread to join for inspiration

I think that's enough links for now :rotfl:

Good luck!:j
Zip

kirsty822001

:joh fab links thanks Zip!!! I am starting a grocery spend challenge in june and will read these threads to help reduce our huge £470 spend at Mr Sains a month :-) Good luck Muddlemess

zippychick

Good luck with it Kirsty! Glad the links are of help!

katylou6180

Hi there muddlemess!
I see Zippy has already been to your rescue with the link things, I have learnt a lot since lurking on here and just thought I would share the way I (attempt) to do things.....it's not necessarily the right way but at the moment I have plenty of time on my hands, I have just had my budget drastically cut due to being out of work- and am now managing the monthly budget for food and cleaning stuff/toiletries etc on approx £150 p/m, there are three of us also- Me, DH and DS (10) I am also on the dreaded "trying to lose weight" bandwagon.....so try and keep to as little "rubbish" in the house as poss!

So...the Katylou way of doing things is:

1) Mealplan wherever possible, I can never stick to a monthly one, they are too long winded for me so I always scurry round the kitchen on a sunday and do a mental ( I can't be bothered to write it down) inventory of what I have in, and mealplan round it for 1 wks menu.
2) Weekly shop, when I go shopping (mondays) I make a list of all the fresh things I need- such as sandwich fillings, fruit and veg etc, and keep to my list UNLESS there are bargains that I KNOW I will use eg- half price marg, half price cheese, reduced fresh meat etc. I have found that by mealplanning only for a wk...I can take advantage of any whoopsies and they then go on the week afters menu if that makes sense.... I found some lovely chicken breast for £1.30 that will be enough for all of us for a meal, and ( I happened to be in Mr A that week...I go wherever..not loyal, whoever is advertising the best offers) bought 2 packets of 16 fresh sausages for £1 each ( not exactly diet friendly I hear you cry?! we always grill and let the fat drain off, and serve with veg..therefore the only calorific thing on the plate is the sausages) and portioned in the freezer- basically buy everything on your list as cheaply as possible and only buy a bargain if it is a bargain!
3) Utilise your local pound shop if you have one, we buy all our brand name toothpaste and certain cleaning products from poundland monthly, as it works out so much cheaper than using high st or supermarket, they do a great laundry/washingup/household range called Easy, made by jeyes- we have found the products to be excellent quailty, and use their laundry liquid which works out at £1 for 13 washes.
4) If you are not worried about best before dates, use approved food- they sell a whole variety of things for a fraction of the price of the supermarkets, I buy all DH's rubbish food (choc etc) and mine and DS's cereals/cereal bars and a lot of dried goods from there.
5) Always pay in cash, and allow yourself a certain budget each week and "when it's gone it's gone" I find if I have to physically hand over the cash out of my purse I question myself a lot more about "need vs want" and sometimes things go back on the shelves if I don't really "need" them.
6) Don't deprive yourself- you will just make yourself miserable if you can't have a "little" something....just make sure it is "little" lol If you have gone round the supermarket and saved yourself £15 on your usual food shop, why shouldn't you treat yourself to that low fat cake/magazine/face mask/insert fave little treat here!! I came galloping out of Mr A the same day as I bought my Sausages with a bottle of Introductory price wine for the weekend for £3 (again...not on the diet or o/s wagon really but normally priced out of my range at £5-6 per bottle)

I hope you get on ok, it's not an exact science- in fact far from it, I just wanted to show you that if a disorganised muddler like me can make it work....theres hope for everyone!!

zippychick

katylou6180 wrote: »

Hi there muddlemess!
I see Zippy has already been to your rescue with the link things, I have learnt a lot since lurking on here and just thought I would share the way I (attempt) to do things.....it's not necessarily the right way but at the moment I have plenty of time on my hands,........

ctd...

I hope you get on ok, it's not an exact science- in fact far from it, I just wanted to show you that if a disorganised muddler like me can make it work....theres hope for everyone!!

Katylou - just because I am a board guide, doesn't mean I always have life experience of these things or have all the answers. Far from it! I think you have made some excellent points, especially about buying whoopsies - i recently binned bag of reduced spinach much to my shame . It wasn't a bargain as I didn't use or need it so that's a really valid point!

Oh, and stop lurking! Don't be shy!

Love the term "disorganised muddler":rotfl:

katylou6180

Oooh Zip.....

Sorry if I sounded offensive....I just meant that you always do come to the rescue- cos I can never find links and stuff and quite often you end up posting them for me too

As for the Spinach.......even the whole bag you binned would've cooked down to not a lot.....so it wasn't really that wasteful lol

zippychick

katylou6180 wrote: »

Oooh Zip.....

Sorry if I sounded offensive....I just meant that you always do come to the rescue- cos I can never find links and stuff and quite often you end up posting them for me too

As for the Spinach.......even the whole bag you binned would've cooked down to not a lot.....so it wasn't really that wasteful lol

He he! Sorry if i sounded defensive - i genuinely didn't mean that at all! Just pointing out I faaaaar from know everything!

yes, good philosophy