Help and Advice Needed

Charlies_Girl

I've just discovered this site and its brilliant. I need advice please.

I'm a single female with an average monthly food bill of about £120.

Is it cheaper to do one big shop? I used to do one big shop at Asda and it lasted me the whole month.

Is it cheaper doing my shopping on line ? (I have severe neck and spine problems and carrying more than one light bag kills me for days afterwards)

All advice greatly recieved.

Linda32

Hi,

No I don't think its cheaper to do shopping online, (although I can see you have difficulties) one of the reasons is, I used to shop online and I asked for 200g of Red Leicester. They didn't have 200g so sent two packs of 100g, well obviously this is more expensive and if I'd have been there I'd have just bought another sort.

You can buy dry stuff in bulk such as loo roll which normally works out cheaper, although of course you have to have bulk money as I call it, to do that.

Fresh things obviously go off quick so you have to be carful with having to chuck stuff out.

Its abit of a fine balance.

whistler-alison

Hi - I find doing my shopping online works out cheaper despite the delivery charge. I can see what is on offer and work out my week's menu from that. I can also see how much it is going to be before going through checkout (no nasty suprises) and take things out or look for cheaper substitutes if I am over budget. There is also less temtation for impulse buys.

If you are thinking of shopping online then a monthly shop would certainly be cheaper - only one delivery charge. however, you will need to think about storage. Personally this wouldn't work for me because I wouldn't have the freezer room and I don't think I could think that far ahead. But if you have done it before and were happy, then why not go down this route?

Pandora123_2

Charlies_Girl wrote:

Is it cheaper to do one big shop? I used to do one big shop at Asda and it lasted me the whole month.

Is it cheaper doing my shopping on line ? (I have severe neck and spine problems and carrying more than one light bag kills me for days afterwards)

I don't shop for groceries online... prefer instead to see what's marked down when I get to the store. I shop every couple of days... it's about a 20 minute walk to the supermarket so I look at it as bit of exercise and not as a chore (also, I like grocery shopping ). Things like salad and some fruits don't keep more than a few days anyway, so an absolute minimum for me would be twice per week!

I could see buying things like flour, pasta, tinned tomatoes, passata, frozen veg etc online, provided you have the space to store it. Maybe you could buy things like that online, enough for the month, then buy fresh fruit & veg at your local store. If you can't carry heavy bags, perhaps a shopping trolley would an option?

You shouldn't have a problem cutting your grocery bill in half and still eating nutritiously (including generous amounts of fruit & veg... I personally think that five portions per day is WAAY too little)... just a matter of planning ahead and making things from scratch instead of ready meals etc. Beans and lentils are cheap and nutritious, so if you don't use them already, that may be something you'd want to consider.

HTH!

luckylukey

Hi - I am also a single female and I do two shops a month online.
I like it because i can budget very strictly and include the delivery charge as part of the budget.

I also live in a flat complex on the third floor and there is no lift and they deliver right to my front door so no struggling with heavy bags!

I do the two shops so that I have fresh veggies and fruit every two weeks

Re the substitutions - you can always return them if they go over your budget - the money is then refunded.

Paige

I always internet shop with Asda every month. By taking a hour online I can get my shop much cheaper as I find it easier to meal plan whilst being able to check in my cupboards st the same time.
I get all my cleaning stuff, packet stuff, bottles, jars,juice,cheese , bread ,every thing I need really for the month online for about £160.00. As I live in the country I get organic eggs, veg and fruit delivered twice a month, with careful organisation this lasts. I then just pop to the shops for milk and sandwich meats,grapes and toms.
I am feeding 2 adults and 2 hungry teenagers 3 meals everyday for about £55 per week. I am still trying to improve on this but this is loads less on what I spent before OS, less than half. Hope this helps. Paige

squeaky

Charlies_Girl wrote:

Is it cheaper doing my shopping on line ? (I have severe neck and spine problems and carrying more than one light bag kills me for days afterwards)

I don't carry shopping any more, and I found this thread to be a great help

OS Chic Shopper club (ex Wally trolley)

Pollybear

If Asda online send you a dearer substitute, you only pay the price of the item you ordered. But if they send you a cheaper substitute you pay that price.

It pays to order cheap stuff and then sometimes you get the "posh" stuff for bargain prices