how to reduce my food bill [merged]

Steph_Collins

I seriously suggest buying online. I have managed to cut my shopping bill down by £20 a week by buying all my foods online, which has given me more freedom to buy better quality products.

You can find most things online now: groceries, meat, bakery products etc, and you don't have to shop at your supermarket to do it.

I recommend looking around the web and seeing what deals are on offer. Also, if you have got the freezer space I recommend buying in bulk. It may take up space, but it definitely helps with the pennies :j

bootman

I am really struggling with my spiraling food costs. I decided to visit the farm shop as I wanted to make Steak and kidney pie for tea. Total cost for my trip £10.48 . The break down does look good value, but it's still expensive, how on earth do you manage to only spend £20 - £25 a week for everything? I've used half you budget just on 1 meal!

2lbs of stewing steak - £7.95
1 large kidney - 30p
few mushrooms - 43p
few french beans - 50p
1/2 dozen eggs 1.30 - not for the pie

Cheeselady

bootman wrote: »

I am really struggling with my spiraling food costs. I decided to visit the farm shop as I wanted to make Steak and kidney pie for tea. Total cost for my trip £10.48 . The break down does look good value, but it's still expensive, how on earth do you manage to only spend £20 - £25 a week for everything? I've used half you budget just on 1 meal!

2lbs of stewing steak - £7.95
1 large kidney - 30p
few mushrooms - 43p
few french beans - 50p
1/2 dozen eggs 1.30

I'm a vegetarian so don't eat or buy meat, but just wondered how many people that was to serve? You would probably be better just buying a ready made pie in the value or supermarket own brand range, it would work out cheaper than that I would imagine?

Just had a look for you and Tesco Deep Fill Steak And Kidney Pie 800G (I would imagine that serves 4) is £2.97, or on offer two for £4, valid until 6 September. Sometimes buying ready made works out a lot cheaper than making it yourself.

andrewmp

bootman wrote: »

I am really struggling with my spiraling food costs. I decided to visit the farm shop as I wanted to make Steak and kidney pie for tea. Total cost for my trip £10.48 . The break down does look good value, but it's still expensive, how on earth do you manage to only spend £20 - £25 a week for everything? I've used half you budget just on 1 meal!

2lbs of stewing steak - £7.95
1 large kidney - 30p
few mushrooms - 43p
few french beans - 50p
1/2 dozen eggs 1.30

How many pies did you make?? Nearly 1KG of meat for a pie? 6 eggs for a pie?

Tesco value stewing steak is £5 per kilo, you could make a load of pies with that!

Most people trying to get by on £20-25 per week wouldn't make a pie with nearly a kilo of steak in it.

bootman

Steak and kidney now cooking. It will make 2 pies now it's bulked out with the onions and mushrooms. So perhaps not such a bad price after all.

babyfruitella

I've just cut my shopping budget from £500 a month to £400 a month, so I can use the extra £100 to add to my snowball debt plan. I've started doing a meal plan as well, so I only buy what I actually need. I was doing my shopping online with Tesco, but I refuse to pay delivery when i'm only ordering a small amount, so instead I "do" the online shop, & print it off & take it instore with me & shop that way. I then know in advance how much my shopping is going to come to. I work out whats on offer food & plan our meals around that. One thing i've noticed is that most of the offers aren't displayed in my local Tesco. I only know about them because I saw them online beforehand. For example Bloo Toilet Cleaner is currently 3 for £2. However my local Tesco was displaying it at £1.45 a bottle. Fortunately I know the prices are input nationally so I got my 3 bottles for £2, but how many people are missing out on good deals because stores arent displaying them?? Anyway, my point was more that i've started being a bit more frugal & I feel so much better for it. My weekly shop today will cost £65. Thats to feed 2 adults, & 1 ravenous 19 month old. That includes cleaning products, baby products etc. I'm really rather pleased with myself! Lol!

Cheeselady

babyfruitella wrote: »

I've just cut my shopping budget from £500 a month to £400 a month, so I can use the extra £100 to add to my snowball debt plan. I've started doing a meal plan as well, so I only buy what I actually need. I was doing my shopping online with Tesco, but I refuse to pay delivery when i'm only ordering a small amount, so instead I "do" the online shop, & print it off & take it instore with me & shop that way. I then know in advance how much my shopping is going to come to. I work out whats on offer food & plan our meals around that. One thing i've noticed is that most of the offers aren't displayed in my local Tesco. I only know about them because I saw them online beforehand. For example Bloo Toilet Cleaner is currently 3 for £2. However my local Tesco was displaying it at £1.45 a bottle. Fortunately I know the prices are input nationally so I got my 3 bottles for £2, but how many people are missing out on good deals because stores arent displaying them?? Anyway, my point was more that i've started being a bit more frugal & I feel so much better for it. My weekly shop today will cost £65. Thats to feed 2 adults, & 1 ravenous 19 month old. That includes cleaning products, baby products etc. I'm really rather pleased with myself! Lol!

Well Done! I've recently started doing the same, printing off my online order then going to the store, and I noticed a couple of items on offer online weren't on offer in the store, I didn't buy them, I didn't realise that you would still get the offer at the checkout. did you have to ask for the offer, or did it just automatically go through? I've done my last two shops at a similar price, down from the usual £110, that's for 2 adults, one 20 year old and one 16 year old boy, who is always hungry, lol, so another one here feeling pleased with herself! :rotfl:

babyfruitella

Cheeselady wrote: »

Well Done! I've recently started doing the same, printing off my online order then going to the store, and I noticed a couple of items on offer online weren't on offer in the store, I didn't buy them, I didn't realise that you would still get the offer at the checkout. did you have to ask for the offer, or did it just automatically go through? I've done my last two shops at a similar price, down from the usual £110, that's for 2 adults, one 20 year old and one 16 year old boy, who is always hungry, lol, so another one here feeling pleased with herself! :rotfl:

Some of the things i've just bought. For example they had hotdogs on BOGOF, & I wanted 2 tins anyway so just bought them & they went though at offer price. With the Bloo stuff, I wasnt willing to risk spending almost £4.50, so I pulled a member of staff over & got her to price check for me. It took a while for her to understand what I was asking, but eventually she scanned the bottle I had in my hand 3 times & the offer was applied so I stuck 'em in my basket. I've now reached the conclusion that if its on offer online, its on offer in store whether it shows or not, & so far thats worked for me! Its a great feeling isnt when you realise you're saving money! :T

Steph_Collins

andrewmp wrote: »

How many pies did you make?? Nearly 1KG of meat for a pie? 6 eggs for a pie?

Tesco value stewing steak is £5 per kilo, you could make a load of pies with that!

Most people trying to get by on £20-25 per week wouldn't make a pie with nearly a kilo of steak in it.

You can get a lot cheaper than that! I get my steak from Westingourmet.co.uk, and per kg, their steak is a lot better value for money. Plus it doesn't taste cheap!

Cheeselady

babyfruitella wrote: »

Some of the things i've just bought. For example they had hotdogs on BOGOF, & I wanted 2 tins anyway so just bought them & they went though at offer price. With the Bloo stuff, I wasnt willing to risk spending almost £4.50, so I pulled a member of staff over & got her to price check for me. It took a while for her to understand what I was asking, but eventually she scanned the bottle I had in my hand 3 times & the offer was applied so I stuck 'em in my basket. I've now reached the conclusion that if its on offer online, its on offer in store whether it shows or not, & so far thats worked for me! Its a great feeling isnt when you realise you're saving money! :T

Thanks for that, and the hot dogs were actually one of the items I wanted but didn't buy, so will know in future to buy the goods anyway, and hope that it goes through on the offer price. Thanks for your help! :T