how to reduce my food bill [merged]

Katgoddess

I use Milk&More and as it is all done online, I just order as and when, and pay by direct debit once a month. It's made my life so much easier, just for a few extra pence for bread and milk. And no extras. The bread is very fresh as well, unlike my local small supermarket which could be a couple of days old.

https://www.milkandmore.co.uk/

seabright

I love dairy crest/milk&more. I defiantly spend less by buying via the milkman even though the individual items cost a little more.

I also like it from an "Eco" point of view - bottle reuse, electric vehicles etc

kitschkitty

I guess this may partly be dependant on where you live, only I can walk to a number of shops within 2 to 10 minutes and pick up fresh bread from between £1.00 for 2 loaves of Hovis to £1.60 for 1 loaf. If I don't want to be tempted to spend/buy more I only take the cash I need with me and not any cards.

Luckily we aren't fussy and I almost always have bread or rolls in the freezer and the ingredients to bake a loaf if I'm in the mood (must admit I don't bake bread very often though as I have to do it all by hand).

Nicoll

hannahO wrote: »

You may be right on the money there. Everytime I go to the supermarket I end up coming home with extra bits that was not on my list.

How about start baking your own bread. It's easier than you think and its very tasty!

I did have a breadmaker for a while but it seemed to be very much hit or miss with me, one day bread would be lovely and the next it would be like chewing a sponge! I probably didn't measure the ingredients carefully enough, I'm a bit slapdash about things like that!

gratefulforhelp_2

DH wouldn't eat bread at all if he didn't eat frozen...

Nicoll

gratefulforhelp wrote: »

DH wouldn't eat bread at all if he didn't eat frozen...

Trouble is, if I make his pack up for work with frozen bread then he won't eat it and will just stop somewhere and get a takeaway. At the end of the day he's an adult so who am I to tell him what he must eat? I just try and be subtle with getting him around to my way of thinking. He never used to take a pack up to work and would always stop and get a takeaway or sandwiches so now I've managed to get him doing that I'm not going to put him off it by giving him what he doesn't like. That definately wouldn't be MS

LandyAndy

Tell your OH to go and buy the bread himself and only give him enough money for the loaf. It's surprising how much less fussy people are when it involves them making an effort.;):D

keldac

I'm only just getting to grips with the forum but I am loving this thread! My £550 a month budget for a family of 5 and a dog now seems rather extortionate!
I am going to start planning lists from this week and try and see how much I can save

Nicoll

LandyAndy wrote: »

Tell your OH to go and buy the bread himself and only give him enough money for the loaf. It's surprising how much less fussy people are when it involves them making an effort.;):D

He wouldn't bother buying bread he would just go and get a takeaway and the major takeaway places all take debit cards now! And I wouldn't try and take his debit card off him, he's not a child:rotfl:

I'm quite happy getting him bread just need to restrain myself from buying other stuff we don't need at the same time

orangesmartie

Nicoll wrote: »

He wouldn't bother buying bread he would just go and get a takeaway and the major takeaway places all take debit cards now! And I wouldn't try and take his debit card off him, he's not a child:rotfl:

I'm quite happy getting him bread just need to restrain myself from buying other stuff we don't need at the same time

Think that's quite a sensible approach!

I don't like frozen bread either - by that i mean shop bought loaaves, I can always tell the difference, the texture becomes almost soggy. So to avoid that I found i was buying just a small loaf on Fridays (for veggie sausage sarnies over the weekend) and still ended up chucking some away. So wasteful. And even a small loaf is about 80p.

Then i got hold of one of the bargainous breadmakers from currys a few weeks ago and make my own. Stick it on overnight on Friday for fresh bread on a saturday. I've also found that home made bread freezes better than shop bought, so I freeze the last couple of slices on a Sunday night, then there's always some for scrambled eggs in the week.