How often do you shop?

PrincessMort

Hi all,

Just wondering how often do you do your shopping + what works best for you?

I have decided to try doing a big online shop at the beginning of the month and then just top up with fresh stuff through the month (thats the plan anyway!). Spent £107 on my big shop yesterday and hoping to spend no more than £20 each of the top-up shops (2 adults + hungry cat:))

Does anyone else do this and do you find it works?

PM xx

rachbc

I try to do this - spend about 50-70 on the online shop then buy furit, veg and meat locally. However this month when i did my meal plan I discovered I didn't need enough to warrant the big shop so its all little shops this time - shall see how that affects the budget...

I tend to shop in lots of different places to get best deal and find I do shop more often some times but spend less overall than when I did a weekly shop. So this week I went to aldi yest, will go to homebargains today and then the market on saturday

I think it depends if you do you top ups at the supermarket or elsewhere tbh

Linda32

Hi, Trying to do weekly and actually buy enough for the week, sounds obvious, dosn't it what has actually been happening is I would indeed go weekly and buy two cartons of juice, when we probably get through four, so of course I have sometimes ended up going to Sainsburys for a big shop then co-op three times during the week :eek:

So trying weekly and to buy enough, also use what we have got first.

flipperOSN

I try to make it one weekly shop to last for that week, and maybe a bit beyond if there are offers that can be frozen stored. I've been quite bad at avoiding a single midweek extra shop, but this week I should actually manage one only, so I think that means I am getting more organised! I'm much better at sticking rigidly to my lists too

Nicoll

Try and get what I can on a big shop at weekend but always end up going back at least twice in the week. DH has sandwiches for work and I buy the small uncut loaves of bread as they are nicer than the prepackaged sliced plastic bread and the larger loaves aren't so fresh after a couple of days. They do two days of sandwiches then I have to pop back and get another one. We don't like frozen bread, think it tastes horrid so I rather do this than have DH buying himself a burger and chips because he doesn't like his sandwiches.

But of course I always find other things that we "need" whilst there, really trying to get better as did a count up of what we spent on food and cleaning stuff in June and July and it was just under £380 a month for 2 adults and 1 rottweiler. (hangs head in shame)

minerva_windsong

At university it was about every two weeks because I didn't spend enough to get online delivery otherwise, and then a 'top-up' of fresh fruit and veg, bread, milk etc about once a week from a combination of the local greengrocer and the Co-op round the corner.

When I move to London though it will probably be about once a week to do the 'big shop' for me and OH and (in theory) no top-ups, or very few.

carolinejane_2

Far too much the checkout girls in my local supermarket know me by name

Having said that I am not sure one big shop would work for me and I suspect I might end up spending more mm not sure really. Its similar to meal planning I suspect when I set it that I will not fancy x or y 4 days on but I keep persisting as it is clearly a better way to budget.

Fishcake_Random

We do a shop on a wednesday. If we run out of anything before the next wednesday we just make do. This doesnt include anything for our baby (nappies, formula etc) but the only item for us is medications or loo roll.
Works quite well for us and our budget.
x x x x

talulahbeige_2

I keep a list of what we are running out of and then do a big shop around once every 6 weeks, i tend to buy 2 packets of spagetti instead of just one tho as an example.
I then do fresh shops once every 8 - 10 days (fruit, veg, milk cooked meat etc)
I also pick up bargains to freeze whatever sort of shop i'm doing,

meanmarie

I used to shop every week and panic when the end of the week came up...I have now managed not to shop on a regular day, just when I need stuff...make bread and we normally use very little milk, have veggies in garden, not too difficult now that I've got used to it.

Marie

Kadeeae

Used to do an online shop every week and a trip to the butchers (no greengrocer here ). Then for April, May and June tried doing one big monthly shop online with trips to the shops only for perishables.

Found that too complicated for us and plus storage is a real problem here, so I'm now trying fortnightly shops online which just feels better, lol.

Only the first time so can't say yet if it is the one!