Grocery Shopping

Clarie_2

DebtfreeBY40 wrote: »

I spend £50 a week on shopping in Tesco, including cat food and they only eat whiskas, little blighters! ...
And I know I can still reduce mine but it seems to take a little more time than I have to give! But I will get there... Good luck

Time for the cats to join in the family sacrifice methinks :-) Our moggy eats tesco brand* biscuits every meal. If he wants meat, there are plenty of mice and pigeons outside! He turns his nose up at it periodically, especially after Christmas when our relatives buy him tinned food, but he soon realises that's what he's offered and it's that or fend for himself.

*ok, hands up, I can't bring myself to go down to value biscuits after I read their ingrediants.:o

tessie_bear

im a recent convert to my supermarket...its great for typing in the food u want and totting up how much its going to cost...u can also compare the different products in the relative calm of your front room...not at the shelf in the mele of the supermarket where it seems to me some peeps are buying the shop

ceejaydee23

Well my big thing has been to take out £60 cash each week for weekly shop, When i see things on a really great deal i buy them, a while ago i saw a 50 wash box of surf for under £5 in morrisons, its still doing well! I shop in morrisons as it is the closest one to me, we buy value biscuits (i never thought id see the day!) but most of the time you cant tell much difference. I do buy a lot of packet/jar sauces tbh, alot of it being from i dont wanna mess up 4 peoples meals from trying to cook sauces from scratch, I buy big bags of pasta (we use alot of pasta) I now buy bags of frozen chicken and fish in Iceland. I quite often go into Home Bargains for things like toilet paper! sometimes i find it hard, other times its easier, depends how empty the cupboards actually are at the time lol

moo2moo

How about approaching this from the opposite direction and posting what you ate last week and what you bought for this week and how you intend to use it. Thats more applicable to your lifestyle than someone telling you hat they live on dried soya mince when your family prefer joints of meat.

If you want to eat cheaply then there are obviously things you can do ranging from not eating meat, since pulses are considerably cheaper, to not buying between meal snacks or alcohol.

teeni

i tried for along time to reduce my shopping after the kids left home but i still spent over a£100 per week on just 2 of us, arguing that i couldnt get it lower no hard i tried.
Then came the risk of redundancy, and by god that gives you a kick up the backside alright . within a fortnight i had reduced my weekly shoping bill to lesss than £40 and changed over gas . electricity , insurances telephone etc got rid of unwanted subscriptions, and reduced monthly outgoings by nearly £500 per month as well, a total saving in excess of £700 pound per month.

thank god the risk of redundancy is a distant memory as it never happened but the reduction in outgoings caused by the shock has lasted and my debts are clearing nicely as a result.

tanith

Foggster wrote: »

Very similar to tanith - although I am interested in the "green bags" what are they?

The slow cooker means you can use cheaper cuts of meat and use up vegetables.

Are you using "cooking sauces/packets" or are you cooking from scratch. I find a good stock of tinned toms and pasta will underpin most of my meals. I have built up a good range of herbs and spices so cook alot from scratch now.

I also freeze bread and milk when it is on special offer (Tesco).

Get Tesco to come to you! I have saved easily 25-30% by shopping online and not being tempted.

The green bags are keep fresh bags I buy packs of 15 different size bags from Wilkinsons or £1 shops . You decant your fresh vegs into the bags for storage in the fridge , they really work at keeping fruit and veg fresh for much longer . I hardly ever waste any fruit and veg nowadays where as before I threw away loads of limp and overipe stuff...

fluffed

I struggle with the shopping - I usually go to Morrisons and spend about £70 (2 of us) for the month however, I popped to the local co-op yesterday as I needed a couple of things...... 2 carrier bags worth (not even full!) cost me £46!!!!

I studied that receipt when I got home because I've NO idea why it cost so much!!! I'm still none the wiser :-)

dancingfairy

I have a list of meals that I choose from to go on the meal plan - you could probably work out which ones were cheaper and split the list into cheaper meals and slightly more expensive ones if you were really organised though
I believe people go through their cupboards and try and use up all the things lurking at the back and see what they can turn them into by just buying a few fresh ingredients - knowing my cupboard that would probaly last me a while
I buy things like toilet roll , coke (yes I know), quash, etc when on offer and in bulk if possible - things like pasta, rice and tinned stuff keep so if you can get them cheap - oh and toothpaste, wsahing liquid etc.
I've also recently wondered whether it's worth going through the special offers at Tesco or Sainsburys on the internet before you go shopping for the fresh produce and then trying to cook a meal around that - for example if parsnips are on offer perhaps you could make parsnip soup or have roast parsnips etc.
I think the things that cost the most can be biscuits and luxury items, squash,coke etc and by cutting these down/eliminating would save a fortune but then I haven't got that far yet!
df

sickasachip13

I do a monthly tesco / asda shop (depending on who's given me vouchers / free delivery). We spend £150-170 on this. We then spend £20 per week on fresh fruit, veg, bread, milk and meat. This is for three of us plus several dogs and cats. We buy our meat at the co-op as I won't eat battery farmed chicken and want to eat british meat wherever possible. The co-op does three for a tenner, which is great, and the chicken is barn-reard.

I am doing a lot more cooking, more soups and sauces particularly. For example - one pack of sausages could do us one meal if we had it with veg and potatoes. chop them up and fry them a bit with a couple of onions, add a tin of tomatoes (chopped yourself in the tin to save the 3p difference between chopped and not), some value mixed herbs, any bits of veg that need using up, a bit of chilli (sauce / flakes / ground), a drop of red wine if there's any hanging around. Cook it up. Serve with pasta / baked potato. Or cook pasta, mix it up with sausages, make a basic bechamel or white sauce (milk, marg, flour whisked up over heat). Tip the pasta and saus mix into a baking tray, pour the white sauce over the top (add cheese if you have it) and bake. Three meals for three adults right there.

jinky67

tanith wrote: »

The green bags are keep fresh bags I buy packs of 15 different size bags from Wilkinsons or £1 shops . You decant your fresh vegs into the bags for storage in the fridge , they really work at keeping fruit and veg fresh for much longer . I hardly ever waste any fruit and veg nowadays where as before I threw away loads of limp and overipe stuff...

I am going to look out for them, I am terrible for throwing stuff away

I buy it when I am in the mood to eat it, then go off the idea:o:rotfl: