Can you help me reduce my weekly shop?

sillygirl73

Hello, a little bit about me.........
I am a stay at home mum with a 16 month old boy, and my husband works full time. I used to work for the 'posh' supermarket , and my husband works for the other posh retailer that has an & in its title;)!!

Soooo, we spend way too much on food, and are potentially facing bankruptcy so really need to change things. I cringe when I type this but up until May this year (our LBM for our debt) we were spending over £600 pm on food, doing big shops and small daily shops in the above mentioned retailers. I have managed to cut back to between £350-£400 pm (includes nappies etc) but know that I could be aiming for £200. I do my shopping at Asda and buy value items, but somehow always spend more than planned.

We only have a very little freezer which is always full, and I do cook from scratch 80% of the time.

Any thoughts and comments would be great, so please be gentle with me, as I am very new to this:o.
Thank you in advance

Sunflower1227

Hi :j

Check out all the good advice and help on the grocery challenge at the top of this section, they are all very friendly.

Make a list of what you have in your cupboards/fridge/freezer then meal plan and only buy what you need ie fresh fruit & veg etc.

Also bulk out meals eg grated carrots in mince, extra veg on plate.

Some where on here is a thread called "Rubber Chicken" it shows how people can get many days worth of meals out of one chicken and then use the bones to make stock to use for soup.

Hope this helps a little

slummymummyof3

Have you tried Aldi or Lidl? You will find that even if you only buy the staples from these shops, you will save a significant amount of money. The quality of the items is fantastic and cannot be compared to tesco or Asda basics/value ranges. You are effectively buying 'taste the difference' ranges or similar for realistic prices with amazing quality.

Try the fruit/veg, hams/salamis etc and toiletries at the very least; once you have confidence in their brands, you will expand on what you purchase from them!!

pigpen

I find online shopping helps as I am not tempted to buy those unnecessary extras that bump up the total.

A breadmaker to bake bread saves some money.. once it has paid for itself of course.
Buying bigger cuts of meat/bags of pasta etc saves a little more.. and lasts longer too!
Don't buy clothes unless they are needed
Bake your own cakes/biscuits/desserts.. they are often better for you and taste much nicer and can be rustled up in a few minutes.. I have a cake from cupboard to oven in about 10 minutes.. inc clearing up time.
Buy 1 cleaning product for all surfaces.. I am lazy I buy a huge bottle of bleach and use a dribble in a sink of water to clean the entire house.. nothing fancy.

Try mysupermarket.co.uk ... it gives ideas on where you can save a few pence on your shopping and alternative products to try.

I always find tesco cheaper than asda anyway.. I rarely visit lidl as I don't know what is in half the products as they are not english labels and the pictures don't always look like what they are (a tin of fruit cocktail looks very much like a tin of pizza!!) I have asked polish people what the jars and packets contain on a few occasions! Aldi I NEVER go too as the one here usually has drunkards outside often fighting.. :eek: despite this I do manage to feed 10 of us, 6 cats, 2 rabbits and 3 fish.. and whoever else pops in, for around £500 a month (down from the £600 it used to be!!)

I buy value tins and loo rolls but everything else is usually own brand but not super-cheap.. read the shelf labels see which works out cheapest .. it isn't aways more cost effective to buy bigger packs!

BitterAndTwisted

Are you really serious about cutting down? In which case I suggest you do a complete inventory as Sunflower advised and then design your menus using up as much of it as you can. I'd also consider acquiring another or a larger freezer, perhaps on Freecycle if you can't afford one new.

Think about meal-planning around special offers and most definitely start batch-cooking for the freezer.

Do Martin's famous "drop down a brand" strategy.

Acquaint yourself with the times your local supermarkets mark down their meat, fish and other produce and stock up on bargains and freeze them for your batch-cooking sessions.

Trawl this part of the forum for tips as there's a huge amount of fantastically helpful and useful advice to be had.

Check out this website to see how you can feed a family on £100 a month. There are some fabulous recipes on there:

https://www.cheap-family-recipes.org.uk

But the very first thing I would do would be to buy yourself cheap little note-book and write down every single penny you spend on the housekeeping for a month, keeping the receipts. Then, later review it and see what could be cut out completely and what could be bought cheaper.

telboyo

pigpen wrote: »

I rarely visit lidl as I don't know what is in half the products as they are not english labels and the pictures don't always look like what they are (a tin of fruit cocktail looks very much like a tin of pizza!!) I have asked polish people what the jars and packets contain on a few occasions! packs!

I think you will find that more of the stuff in lidl has english translations on them than ASDA. Our ASDA has a whole Aisle of Polish food and half an Aisle of Polish bread with most of it in Polish- where as our Lidl has english labels on Everything- except for the tea and that is in Welsh.

pigpen

telboyo wrote: »

I think you will find that more of the stuff in lidl has english translations on them than ASDA. Our ASDA has a whole Aisle of Polish food and half an Aisle of Polish bread with most of it in Polish- where as our Lidl has english labels on Everything- except for the tea and that is in Welsh.

I haven't been for a long time.. unless I've run in for milk when I've been passing.. though it may depend on where you live what they have in too.. but it was mainly tinned goods I had problems with.. I bought baked beans and they were actually tomatoes lol..

BitterAndTwisted

Pigpen, you're missing out! Fantastic smoked ham and other cold meats, cheeses, biscuits and cakes.
I'm particularly fond of their custard-filled brioche (a rare treat) and their ground coffee is the cheapest I can find anywhere by a very long chalk.

Their fruit and veg is cheap, too.

Butterfly_Brain

I am another one who can vouch for Aldi, their stuff is on the whole very good quality plus they always have offers on fruit and veg, this week it is Green apples, oranges, vine tomatoes, green beans, potatoes and kiwis all packs are 69p
A large chicken only costs £2.99 and they usually have a meat offer on every week and their tuna is better than any of the big brands and a lot cheaper.

Meal planning is a must and then check what you already have in the house then write a list and stick to it.

I only take cash with me and whatever is left at the end of the week goes into a pot to put towards bills. I also put £1 a day in a sealed tin for Christmas.

There are lots threads on cheap meals on here

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/235198

Plus feed your faamily for thirty quid a week

http://thirty-quid.blogspot.com/

ubamother

It might be helpful to spend a bit of time working out what exactly you're spending the money on - how much on cooking basics - meat, veg, flour etc, how much on 'easy' cooking - cook-chill meals, how much on lunches - pre-made sandwiches and wraps and how much on snacky stuff - crisps, smoothies, nuts, chocolate. If you do this, you might be able to define some of the spend as 'wasted money' - for me that would be bought sandwiches - for you it could be something different, and make a start by cutting out this waste. I would also think about how much food you end up throwing away, and what it is so you can buy less and have an instant save.

weezl74

One of the first things that saved me lots of money was to make my own bread. The cheapest value loaves are around 50p and homemade is 17p a loaf, so I make it in batches of 4 loaves. This currently saves us £100 a year (even if we only bought value bread, which isn't really that nice! :rotfl:)