Getting Weekly Shop Down

Wannabesaver_4

Hi All - just wandering if anyone has any tips for getting their weekly shopping total down. Spent £75 last night and it hurt! Although it will probably last us 2 weeks.

Any advice or just tip sharing would be great!

ktb

ok...how do you go about doing your shopping? Do you make meal plans and then only get exactly what you need to make those meals? I have found that having a strict shopping list and sticking to it has got my food budget down by almost a third!

cattie1

it depends on what you buy really,
when we were completely skint I was buying £18 worth of shopping to last 2 weeks.
most of it was tesco value-but you know what? most of it tastes just as good as the other stuff.
also get yourself over to "moneysaving oldstyle"
they will tell you how to cook cheap easy meals from scratch-you can also tell them some storecupboard ingredients and they will give you a meal to make from it!!!:T
If you are buying lots of cleaning products they will tell you the wonder (and cheapness!) of stardrops.
can't think of much else for now but hope this/they help.
oops, forgot to ask how many people are you buying for?

coxj2901

Wannabesaver wrote:

Hi All - just wandering if anyone has any tips for getting their weekly shopping total down. Spent £75 last night and it hurt! Although it will probably last us 2 weeks.

Any advice or just tip sharing would be great!

Hi There,

We used to spend over £100 a week and it was mainly due to impulse buying whilst we were in the store.

We now do our shopping online and we make sure we only buy stuff we need.

Rgds, John

livinginhope

The best way to get the shopping down is plan,plan,plan!
Write a list of ALL meals that you will eat for the next week,check your cupboards before you do this so you can use those lost packets at the back,then write a list of what's needed and only buy that,watch out for seemingly good offers,they sometimes work out more expensive.Go shopping on your own if possible,so that there is no pressure to buy what you don't need and lastly,don't buy ready meals and convenience foods,very expensive.
Good luck.

Wannabesaver_4

Hi - thanks all. I am buying for two people - have just got the reciept out and highlighted all the stuff we didnt REALLY need. BUT i do think i have started buying food for lunch in the main shop rather than every day which is why the bill seemed wuite high. but i am going to challenge myself to get it down next time!

x

lillyboo

I agree with coxj2901 we've cut our weekly shopping by doing it online - you definately only buy the things you need and don't get tempted by all the special offers on things you don't usually buy or need!

lady_fuschia

Have you tried looking at the old-style board for tips yet? Sometimes you have to do a bit of digging for stuff that is relevant to you, but I picked up loads of good tips there.
I'm vegetarian, and OH is mostly veggy at home (apart from the odd tin of tuna!) and I find that means I spend a lot less on food than my meat-eating friends- if you don't already replacing some of your meat meals with pulse-based ones (even if only a few days a week) would probably help a bit. And generally cutting right back on processed foods and buying the raw ingredients instead (although there are a few exceptions to this). And invest in a handheld blender! I got one for Christmas and have made loads of soup! It's really cheap to make, you can make bucketloads at once and it freezes well so you've always got quick lunches in storage.
And of course, check you're using the cheapest shops- ifyou've got time to do mor ethan one big shop you can cut your bills- I tend to buy my veg from the market (cheaper and generally better quality), basics from Lidl (cheapest for most things) and anything I can't get from Lidl from Tesco (using my Clubcard Plus account obviously!) It's a bit of a pain but I reckon we save about £20 a month than we would doing the whole shop at Tesco.

raq

We use to be like this. £80.00 in a week and look and think , "what's here ".

I now have learnt my lesson. I write down on the board in the kitchen what I need for the week and also PLAN my meals for the week. Okay I got to buy nappies and baby food but some weeks I know only spend under £50.00 and that's a family of five.

I do my big shop in tesco and also go on the whoops counter , lots of bargains there for the freezer then onto lidl for a few tins , this is for the kids.

Once you do this for a week or so you will find it much easier.

greytdog_2

ooh keeping an eye on this one! - we used to spend about £800 to £1000 on groceries (ok i have seen the error of my ways) pre our lightbulb moment for a family of 5 a month. I have now got it down to about £500 - any tips would be gratefully received. I already use Aldi's and Asda and use their value ranges. For info there are 4 of us that need packed lunches most days. Heres hoping for some cunning plans!

SamPriest

Would definately recommend online shopping as a means of keeping costs down and only buying what you 'need'. To further reduce the costs, use promotional codes when ordering. There are loads for Tesco and can be found either on these boards or at

<http://tescovouchercodes.blogspot.com/ <javascript:ol('http://tescovouchercodes.blogspot.com/');>&gt;

We find that the ones for extra points are usually worth more in the long run than the money off but both are good for shaving off a few quid a time (usually more than cover the cost of delivery - the only real drawback of shopping online)