Advise on saving money food shopping.

pink_girl

I am serious about getting out of debt and curreny spend around £350 if not more on food each month. We have to pay for cat food which we buy from Lidl as it is cheaper. This money also includes our packing up for the month. We go shopping on a weekly basis and have to feed two of us.
Any ideas would be great.:D

black-saturn

You can look at my meal planner threads here:

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=237050&highlight=shopping+list

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

Hope this helps.

mah_jong

You already shop at lidl so a good bit ahead of the rest ..... plan ahead, make list and shop at Lidls!

I have my shopping down to around 80 for the month , one person no regular lidl shopping!!! Could be better but I buy plenty fruit and veg , and I do cook for 2 sometimes!

Shortie

Pink_Girl, what kids of things do you like to eat now? There are tonnes o recipies in here.
Plus, I found things like shopping in a local butcher and fruit/veg market as opposed to Tescos has really helped. Asda do 3kg bags of pasta for £1 which is the cheapest I have found so far to bulk meals out too

calleyw

I budget for and spend up to £100 a month on food for two.

Best to start with meal planning and plan all snacks and drinks. Before you do this go through the cupboards/fridge/freezer and see what meals you make with this and what you need to infill with. Write a list and only buy what is on the list and nothing else.

Once you start doing this it should cut back on what you buying and eating.

Also find out when they reduce to clear items. I have been lucky and got bread that retails at £1 a loaf for 10p a loaf.

Don't forget it is baby steps. So try and cut say £25 this month from the budget. And don't worry if you fail. Don't feel bad because a lot of us have been doing this for years.

All the best.


Yours


Calley

Pink.

Hi pink_girl,

Welcome to the Old Style board.:hello:

If you have a look in the Mega Index thread, under Shopping, there are lots of threads that should help you work out a budget. There are also some links in the Getting Started section that should help too.

Good luck.

Pink

pink_girl

Thank you all for your ideas, im going to make a meal planner with some of the ideas, and buy online for the month then just nip and get veg and fruit from Lidl once a week or as needed. Hopefully if i stop buying tesco's finest sausages, prepared pizza etc i can cut my bills down.
Its daft how much we spend really, we always run out before the next shopping day. I only spent £45 this week and that did include a bottle of vodka and 4 cokes! Im living of the stuff in my freezer and cupboards this week.

jcr16

i spend £50 a week generally. but i try not to spend more than £200 a month , so if it a 5 week month then i try to make the previous shopping last.

my money is for 2 adults , 2 children but in nappies and 4 cats. the cats prob cost the most tbh.

but with planning getting shopping bill down can be done.

there have been some fantastic threads of late which have excellent recipes in , which don't cost a great deal and can also be frozen down for later in month.

HTH

pink_girl

I have 4 cats and a dog too, so food bills for them are expensive, but i get there food from Lidl's each week as it works out cheaper that way.
Im working my way though the threads now and jotting down idea etc!

jcr16

i've never tried lidls for cat food. thanks for that i will.

my cats love morrisons my cat food. which is 12 tins for £3.7? the boy cats don't like anything in gravy and the girls are into their fishey type in jelly. but next time i go to lidl i'll get a couple of tins for them to try . ( just to make sure they like it )

pink_girl

WOO HOO, i helped someone! My cats love it, it comes in a huge tin for about 68p