Shopping-Monthly vs Weekly or daily (merged)

MrsRogers

I like many have tried lots of different ways. Here is what we do

Thursday Night
See if I have any supermarket offers. Compile Meal Plan using anything have in the freezer. Open MySupermarket.co.uk see what offers are available finishing the meal plan. I then create shopping list in my supermarket. I do the grocery challenge so know exactly how much I have to spend each week. If my basket comes in under budget I use the difference to bulk buy anything running low on that is currently on offer eg Mince & Lurpack was on offer last week so picked up a few extra packs

I then print off and go shopping after work on a Friday.. (unless have any codes of online shop which we some times do to deliver Friday/ Sat)

Washing Powder is all bought in B&M's usually 90 wash box:T

Cleaning stuff is Bleach & Star drops. Buy dishwasher Tabs only when on offer

vgstar44

I was very interested to see how people do there shopping to help keep a low budget shopping lifestyle.

Do you buy everything you can at the start of the month and the fresh stuff do you top up every week??? For things like washing powder and diluting juice ect.....i buy enough to last us the month but obviously theres certain things that cant keep the whole month

I seem to have a dilema in that i try hold off as long as possible to go to the shops when i need something (saving petrol of course)
But it seems i can never get good enough dates on things to sometimes even last the week. It seems a bit pointless going all the way to the shops for very few items....the shops are pretty much out my way.

Do the majority of you scrimpers buy in bulk and cook in advance and freeze?Or just freeze what you can when you buy it and defrost when you need to use later? Im really struggling to find something thats gonna work for us better than it currently is at the moment so was hoping to be nosey and see what everyone else does so i could possible steal a few ideas :A

rosalie-lavender

I shop online and until my husband was taken ill and taken to hospital, shopped monthly and just topped up. While he was in hospital I started shopping online weekly and have stuck to weekly ever since. I find I can take advantage of more offers than I used to and have built up my stock. I also find it easier to judge how much fresh stuff I need and so don't waste as much. This easily offsets the cost of the delivery.

I find it easier to stick to a budget if I am shopping online because it totals up as you go and I take something off if I need to, and no husband throwing extras in the trolly. Mind you he gets round that by taking his mum shopping and buying extras then, but then she happily pays for that so it doesn't have to come out of my budget. We could manage without his extras, although he might fuss about it. Spoilt 60 year old is in for a shock when his mum is no longer here.:rotfl:

I can buy more of an offer of larger things like cereals because I am not having to physiically carry it all home. My son is coming home soon from uni and eats a huge amount of shreddies so I stocked up on enough shreddies while they were on buy one get one free. Over two weeks shop I had about 20 boxes delivered but I couldn't have carried that lot home from the shops if I had gone to the supermarket myself for them. I also find it easier to look through the offers as they are all listed together on the Tesco site and some come up as a list on my favourites file. I can pretty much rely on the standard of the produce and the dates from my local Tesco delivery warehouse though, but I gather it is pretty hit and miss in other parts of the country.

I am lucky that I do have quite a bit of storage space although some of it is in odd places like my wardrobe. I use my freezer a lot and any meat etc goes in there and things like cheese gets grated and bagged up and frozen.

freudianslip

By shopping weekly you can really pinpoint what it is exactly that you need, no popping to the store to top up and buying those things on 'offer'

I buy washing up washing stuff one week, cleaning products next, toiletries and then flour and baking ingredients. I rotate in other words buying the expensive budget hogging stuff.The rest is meal items, snack ingredients, dairy and fresh fruit and veg.

I have tried doing it for a month but works out so much more expensive for me and my zest for meal 24 when I don't fancy it becomes tiresome and I lack motivation.

beemuzed

Currently we're shopping twice- weekly - but being retired we've time on our side. It's helping me to keep a really tight rein on what we actually need just for a few days, without "guessing" what we might get through as was the case before. This was particularly noticeable when I used to do a monthly basic shop (fruit & veg were bought weekly). Now I can be really accurate in what goes on the list.

taplady

we do about 2 small shops a week, this is partly because DS works in a supermarket and we have to go there to take him to work so we pop in and keep an eye out for any special offers. I have a list going all the time and just add stuff onto it when I've run out of anything.

I dont have the storage space for a months worth of shopping anyway.

I_luv_cats

I prefer weekly shopping as I eat/cook according to 'what's on offer' and refresh my choice of what to eat.

Shopping less frequently I would have got bored before my next trip and spend more ££ by having to get something to tickle my taste buds !!!

I would miss out on bargains and any top up shopping is more temptation to buy stuff.

Weekly it is!

redlady_1

When I had £15 a week to shop with I used to shop weekly. That way I knew I would always have some food at the end of the month. I think with monthly shopping you throw alot of stuff in "just in case" Now I tend to shop when I need to. I have just been this weekend and probably wont need to go for another 2 weeks.

CH27

I do a monthly online shop for pasta, rice, washing powder etc.
Buying in bulk is often cheaper than buying enough for a week & I have a set budget that I don't exceed.

I then go to my local farm shop weekly where I buy all my meat, cheese, fruit & veg.

I_luv_cats

CH27 wrote: »

I do a monthly online shop for pasta, rice, washing powder etc.
Buying in bulk is often cheaper than buying enough for a week & I have a set budget that I don't exceed.

I then go to my local farm shop weekly where I buy all my meat, cheese, fruit & veg.

When I see bulk items on offer I'll buy a few so no two months are the same. I might have a year of toothpaste, 3 months of loo paper, 6 months of washing powder, 14 months of cat food, 2 months of wul, year of shower gel and so on!