how to reduce my food bill [merged]

meg72

noynoy wrote: »

wow this afternoon i went to my local co op and decided that im going to be a lot more eco and frugal about food ..so i vowed to buy only reduced food if i can help it..Today is the first day ive done this and i found 2 x half doz crumpets , 2 bags of mixed veg , 2 special angus beefburgers, a packet of kiplings lemon fancies, pack of 4 sweet chiilli chicken kebabs to cook, should have come to £9.80 but it was reduced to just £2.30 ..so ive decided every moring im going to get into the habit of popping in..very pleased! oh and ive just done my second appoved food order got £90 of food for £27

Great idea I have only bought reduced or very good offers for a long
time now , keep stocked up and now never need to pay full price
for most things.

XxXfashionqueenXxX

Do check on the prices each week they either go down or up one week oreo's were 50p then then next 83p (in asda) same for other products like strawberry ribena (yum). In my asda they have a bread bargain cart where they do bread reduced(I've found chocolate croissants there before) also try going later more bargains

Cheeselady

I've been reading tips on this website for the last few days, and today have been to Tesco and Morrisons and have done my weekly supermarket shop for £50! :beer: That's for 4 of us, 2 adults, one 20 year old and one 16 year old boy.

I normally spend around £100-£110 a week, so it's a big drop, and I know that some weeks it is likely to fluctuate a bit, but I feel like I'm on my way to becoming a frugal shopper! Some of the tips I used from here:

Going down a brand, did this for a few items, so we shall see what they taste like!
Special offers, milk for 50p and bread for 30p, both from Morrisons. Also from Morrisons buy one pack of pasta, get two free, and the same for Dolmio sauce. For Tesco I checked offers online before I shopped, and found the offers that we could use, so I knew exactly where to find them!

I am also going to read up on the 'clean your whole house with stardrops' idea that I've heard about, so I no longer need to buy all the different cleaning products that I have in the past. Also will be looking for recipes and will stop buying ready meals which cost a fortune!

Just wanted to say thank you for all the hints and tips, and I'm looking forward to becoming an active member on these forums!

sarah1972

Cheeselady wrote: »

I've been reading tips on this website for the last few days, and today have been to Tesco and Morrisons and have done my weekly supermarket shop for £50! :beer: That's for 4 of us, 2 adults, one 20 year old and one 16 year old boy.

I normally spend around £100-£110 a week, so it's a big drop, and I know that some weeks it is likely to fluctuate a bit, but I feel like I'm on my way to becoming a frugal shopper! Some of the tips I used from here:

Going down a brand, did this for a few items, so we shall see what they taste like!
Special offers, milk for 50p and bread for 30p, both from Morrisons. Also from Morrisons buy one pack of pasta, get two free, and the same for Dolmio sauce. For Tesco I checked offers online before I shopped, and found the offers that we could use, so I knew exactly where to find them!

I am also going to read up on the 'clean your whole house with stardrops' idea that I've heard about, so I no longer need to buy all the different cleaning products that I have in the past. Also will be looking for recipes and will stop buying ready meals which cost a fortune!

Just wanted to say thank you for all the hints and tips, and I'm looking forward to becoming an active member on these forums!

how did you do it?

I dont buy different cleaning products (i get wipes from my friend who works in a hospital) and they clean everything.

I only buy shop brands and dont buy extravagant stuff and I still spend twice your shop for 2 adults :eek:

Cheeselady

sarah1972 wrote: »

how did you do it?

I dont buy different cleaning products (i get wipes from my friend who works in a hospital) and they clean everything.

I only buy shop brands and dont buy extravagant stuff and I still spend twice your shop for 2 adults :eek:

Just a matter of having to really, DH lost his job so have to really cut it back, we still have enough food to keep us going all week. Go down a brand, Tesco value brand is fine in some items, just buy one to check it out, check on here for special offers, use your freezer to store cut price bread etc etc Stop buying ready meals and cook more. The tips on these forums are brilliant.

sarah1972

Cheeselady wrote: »

Just a matter of having to really, DH lost his job so have to really cut it back, we still have enough food to keep us going all week. Go down a brand, Tesco value brand is fine in some items, just buy one to check it out, check on here for special offers, use your freezer to store cut price bread etc etc Stop buying ready meals and cook more. The tips on these forums are brilliant.

Sorry to hear about the job loss, it seems the recession still isnt over even althogh the papers keep saying it is

Thanks for the tips, I will give it a try next week :beer:

speedy2056

This may be a bit off topic, depending, but I've cut out buying fast food from outlets such as pizza hut, chip shops, chinese etc.

Instead, I make my own.

Normally a beef curry cost me £4.50 but if I buy the ingredients myself (using tinned beef curry from tesco) it cost me around £2.40 and that includes buying Tesco Value long grain rice.

I now do my own burgers (used to order half pounder with chips that cost £5.40 a time, I believe) and the total cost with chips now is around £2.20.

I calculated the yearly saving and it was around £280 (if I order from Pizza Hut, the saving is even more) as I made it a point to eat fast food on a Fri and Sat and was spending a tenner a week just eating rubbish.

sarah1972

speedy2056 wrote: »

This may be a bit off topic, depending, but I've cut out buying fast food from outlets such as pizza hut, chip shops, chinese etc.

Instead, I make my own.

Normally a beef curry cost me £4.50 but if I buy the ingredients myself (using tinned beef curry from tesco) it cost me around £2.40 and that includes buying Tesco Value long grain rice.

I now do my own burgers (used to order half pounder with chips that cost £5.40 a time, I believe) and the total cost with chips now is around £2.20.

I calculated the yearly saving and it was around £280 (if I order from Pizza Hut, the saving is even more) as I made it a point to eat fast food on a Fri and Sat and was spending a tenner a week just eating rubbish.

Why are you 'making' a beef curry with a tin of Tesco beef curry :eek:

I went to an asian supermarket and got all the herbs and spices for pennies and now I really make my own with stewing beef or brisket which is cheaper, healthier and homemade.

Winter_Jasmine

The best tip I can give is to invest in a chest, or other large, freezer (or ask for one on your local Freegle). That way you can take full advantage of whoopsie meat, fish and bread and other mega-offers.

We usually spend (two adults and two cats) around £20-£25 a week. A standard weekly shop is just fruit, veg, bread, dairy and cleaning products if needed. As we've got the freezer, when we see really reduced meat and fish we buy as much as we've got space to store - we probably spend an extra £25 on this stuff each month. We also buy cat food in bulk if there's a good offer - haven't bought any since Asda were doing 48 pouches of Whiskas for about £6 instead of £15-ish months and months ago, when I filled the garage with it!

We could definitely cut down further if we wanted/needed to...we eat a LOT; OH loves meat, sweets, crisps and Pepsi and I'm a minor foodie with a penchant for salmon (reduced though!) and strange new foods but shopping like this means we can afford to have what we want.

One other thing is that we have very few brand loyalties (only Pepsi, Warburtons and HP sauce for him, branded chocolate for me and Horlicks for both of us). With everything else we chop and change depending on what's best priced that week. We're not loyal to any one supermarket either - mysupermarket.com is a great resource for checking where your favourite products are on offer (we're lucky that we've got Tesco, Asda, Lidl, Aldi & Co-op within a few miles and Morrisons are building across the road from us too!)

speedy2056

sarah1972 wrote: »

Why are you 'making' a beef curry with a tin of Tesco beef curry :eek:

I went to an asian supermarket and got all the herbs and spices for pennies and now I really make my own with stewing beef or brisket which is cheaper, healthier and homemade.

I don't have a hob and, also, I can't see how that can work out cheaper when you have to buy the meat.