Shopping-Monthly vs Weekly or daily (merged)

Curv

I set my budget for the month, plan meals for the month and do an online shop for as much of it as possible i.e. anything not perishable or that can be frozen, including fresh milk. Then I take the remainder of my budget out in cash and use that to top up on an ad hoc basis where necessary. Works like a dream for me.

dorry_2

I get paid weekly on a friday, so I always do a weekly online food shop from tesco. I have got into a routine with this now, I place the order on a wed evening to be delivered friday tea time after work.

my cupboards would not hold enough for the month and we use about 14 pints of milk a week, oh drinks it and ds2 is crazy on cererals. we spend about £60 a week on everything, toiletries, household stuff, dog food etc.

I always get the money off vouchers from here and have only ever paid for delivery twice in 3 years.:money: If I went to the shops I would spend much more than this.

chocolatechipcookies

We do weekly shops. We make a list of meals we are going to have from Sunday to Sunday, we don't count Monday or Wednesday because my husband works until 8pm, so we have leftovers those nights. Because we know what ingredients we need, we aren't buying loads of things that you can't make anything out of. Before we would spend £50, but we would have to go back to get those little things. We spend so much less now.

Fozz

I was doing weekly online shops, but found that too often. The last lot wasn't really big enough to warrant the delivery charge. (Couldn't find any discount codes).
I think I am going to try a 3 weekly or monthly online shop for the basics and heavy stuff, then buy fruit & veg, bread etc in between.
I also like going to different shops for different things, ie Lidl for jam and cooked meats, Farm Foods for frozen stuff,cheap market stall for biscuits & crisps, so can still do that.
As I don't have a car, it's great not to have to lug all the heavy stuff home, and I can just browse for the more interesting stuff which I quite enjoy!

chunky79

I get paid monthly but shop weekly, i know my budget and stick to it, also the brill part of doing it online you can see the rising costs so i keep my eye on it, if i go over i go through my list and see what can wait another week.

Softstuff

I shop every few days, just by popping in the supermarket after work (it's in the same mall). I'm finding this works best for me. Having said that, I'm never one to be "tempted" by items I don't need, but shopping every few days allows me to get bread and fresh items reduced as and when they come up.

My food budget since I've been doing this has dropped even lower, I'm now at around $50 a week for the both of us for everything including toiletries and cleaning (that's about 22 quid).

Pink.

Hi Looby,

There's an earlier thread on monthly/weekly shopping that should give you an idea of what others do so I've added your thread to it to keep all the replies together.

This thread may help too:

how much do you spend on your weekly/monthly shop?

Or take a look at this month's grocery challenge:

April 2008 Grocery Challenge

Pink

saffronflowers

I am used to menu planning a month at a time, and have realised that I plan for about 25 meals out of 30, for the unforseen times, the kids are not around OH is working etc. It works well but is quite limiting as I do the BIG shop on the 25th of the month.

Well I need to buy a new camera for work approx - £300 so it would work this month to plan and shop weekly (due to the way our finances workout) and buy the camera at the beginning of the month and pay back into the account of ther the next four weeks.

So what are you thoughts which is better monthly or weekly?

SFx

foreversomeday

I think it's very much personal preference and circumstance to be honest

In our house DF gets paid weekly and my maternity pay comes in weekly as well, so I usually work out a budget for the month and then split it between each payday.

However if all the family income was at the start/end of the month it would be easier to budget monthly.

Shopping wise I think it depends how much storage you have, we can shop for about 2 weeks maximum before we run out of room in the fridge, freezer and cupboards. I think you spend less the longer your main shop lasts though, because you can plan meals around leftovers and buy in bulk.

bertiebots

I think most people do a combination of both. We have had a monthly income for years so I have a monthly outgoings budget for all our bills etc and then split the rest into weekly amounts for grocerys etc. I tried this month to do one big shop and then do weekly little shops for fresh milk etc. But I am not saving any money this way and think I will stick to my weekly shop in future as I know I can really cut down if need be. Its all what works best for your circumstances I suppose.