Saving on my weekly shop

Trinny

Hello Jim

Glad you have managed to find the Old Style Board. YOu can post a grocery SOA over there - and folk will tell you what seems expensive and where you could cut the price but not the quality.

A lot of good advice has been given here already.

1. I would join the grocery challenge on Old Style. You get to set your own target spend, and then cut it to suit you. I managed to get from over £200 to under £140 per month this way. Its not a quick fix - this price drop has taken a year to achieve.

2. Not sure if anyone has mentioned markets - but they can be good and a way of getting cheaper fruit and veg.

3. Also didnt see anyone mention the reduced to clear section. If you know the time foods are reduced, then you can get some really good bargains - and fill your freezer, we do.

4. Stardrops - this is a favourite with Old Stylers - most on there use it regularly for cleaning. You can buy it in Wilko's - its concentrated disinfectant that is watered down and used for general cleaning. Zoflora is another such brand. You can clean most things with it - it lasts ages and costs well under a quid for the concentrated stuff.

5. Otherwise for us its shopping around - B&M / Home bargains for dry goods, pasta and tins, reduced to clear aisle for perishable goods, ALDI and LIDL for cheap good fruit, veg, milk and baking stuff.

For us it has taken a while to get into the right mindset. Its a new way of thinking about spending really. but once you get into it - you wont be sacrificing quality and good food and you will still save £££.

Best of luck

Trin

catlover47

This is wonderful, some great tips on here. I'm trying to budget more since being off work with a bad back. Just a few of these tips has saved me pounds on my last shop. I love the dishwasher tab one, these things are so expensive!

catlover47

I've been halving the dishwasher tabs since i saw that post and can honestly say i haven't noticed a difference in quality of clean - great!

xxrab

Hi Jim, some really good ideas here, I used to shop at waitrose but found that i've saved a fair amount by switching to tesco. Initially I wanted to try aldi but there isn't one close enough for me to get to. Something that I recently started doing which you could try is buying discounted gift cards and putting them towards your weekly shop. I started off with ebay but ended up going through an app I found called savvee because the postage is free. I got a £50 tesco gift card for £40. Easy way to save on supermarket shopping and all other shopping as well. My husband thought that I was a genius

HappyMJ

xxrab wrote: »

Hi Jim, some really good ideas here, I used to shop at waitrose but found that i've saved a fair amount by switching to tesco. Initially I wanted to try aldi but there isn't one close enough for me to get to. Something that I recently started doing which you could try is buying discounted gift cards and putting them towards your weekly shop. I started off with ebay but ended up going through an app I found called savvee because the postage is free. I got a £50 tesco gift card for £40. Easy way to save on supermarket shopping and all other shopping as well. My husband thought that I was a genius

Really....you found a thread from 5 years ago and brought it back from the dead.

New user...must be friendly...sorry.

Forum etiquette says you shouldn't bring back old threads.

DawnW

HappyMJ wrote: »

Really....you found a thread from 5 years ago and brought it back from the dead.

New user...must be friendly...sorry.

Forum etiquette says you shouldn't bring back old threads.

It was an interesting thread though, and I for one, didn't mind revisiting it

pelirocco

I am surprised to hear the Op saying you cant get all the basics in Aldi and others agreeing you couldnt do a full shop there

I am the first to admit I am a bit of a food snob , but I am trying to mend my ways . But I am positive you could do a full shop in Aldis as a child growing in the 60's and 70's when there was little money and food was expensive , it was very easy to feed a family on less choice ( and less food come to that ) . It would be interesting to hear what basics the likes of Aldis are missing

Our local Tesco's and Asda ( walmart ) are huge , and if I havent lost the will to live after the 2nd aisle I could easily spend a fortune in them

pelirocco

HappyMJ wrote: »

Really....you found a thread from 5 years ago and brought it back from the dead.

New user...must be friendly...sorry.

Forum etiquette says you shouldn't bring back old threads.

forum etiquette / rules says be nice to new users

northerner999

HappyMJ wrote: »

Really....you found a thread from 5 years ago and brought it back from the dead.

New user...must be friendly...sorry.

Forum etiquette says you shouldn't bring back old threads.

Who really cares, I just read through and found it really useful. Inspired me to revisit some good practices I had slipped out of, as seems to be a recurring theme when people are no longer on those first desperate but determined days. I'm grateful it was brought to my attention.

Petal88

Personally I'd skip the juice entirely as it's just full of sugar and horrible for their teeth. What's wrong with water?