weekly shopping !!!

katglasgow

I have a template shopping list Indrew up on the computer to remind what the things are I buy every single week (milk, cereal, yoghurt, cheese etc...) it also has costs next to it. I then have boxes for categories so I try to but I toiletry and 1 cleaning product every week. I rotate whether I buy cat food or juice and cereals. I spend a set amount of vegetables every week. Once you account for all of this thats actually most of my weekly limit (£35) gone. By writing down costs of everything on my standard list it soon became clear to me I dont have a lot of "unaccounted for money" but by seeing this is black and white I am able to keep on track.
PS. £4 of my budget goes on "bargains" - I use this money to buy yellow stickered food for the freezer for the following week's meal plan. I have found a local Asda that reduces down to 25% at 6pm on a friday so this has become my weekly entertainment - trying to see what I can get!

taplady

I have to echo what everyone else has said really and that is to meal plan and write a list, sticking to it is another matter!:rolleyes: I enjoy food shopping unfortunately so i have decided to try a 2 week menu for the first time to try and stay out of them so much:D I have got everything I need for meals so will try and manage by just getting milk and fruit/veg but get these from our local greengrocers and not the supermarket so I am not tempted!
At the moment I allow £70 a week for the 4 of us but would love to cut this by at least a tenner if possible.

EagerLearner

I do one big monthly order with Tesco online and these are the sort of things I get, because they are heavy, or I really can't be ars*ed buying them every week (boring items)...:

- Long Life Sem-Skimmed milk x 12 litres - 2 x packs of 6 (tastes same as normal milk and is cheaper, plus no wastage as lasts ages)
- Plum tomatoes (tinned) x 10
- Red Kidney beans x 10
- Sweetcorn tins x 5
- Tuna tins x 5
- Pasta x 3 packs - multicoloured for fun
- Spaghetti x 1 pack - with egg
- Tortilla wraps x 2 packs - healthy range
- Cheap rice pudding x 2 tins
- Greek vine leaves (tinned) x 2 - great acompaniement to any meal
- Ginger beer bottle x 2
- Tonic water w/ lemon x 1
- Chick peas x 2 tins- Cous Cous packs (mediterranean flavour) x 8
- Washing liquid if needed
- Washing powder if needed

Then on the weekly shop I can focus on whatever I need for my meal plans and my batch cooking. I go to the butcher and get pork/chicken/beef, veg market for all veg and also eggs etc.

Hope this helps get ideas x

Beanietdc

I tend to do a meal plan, work out what I need to buy and then do an online shop at Tesco... but I don't place the order. I then make a note of the total price (less Bogofs etc) and make it my personal challenge to go to Tesco and spend less than the online total came out at.

I don't always manage it but it keeps me heading in the right direction.

katecheshire

Quite often (if you don't get milk delivered) you end up 'popping in' to get milk and come out with more stuff than intended. If you have room in your fridge the Cravendale or Tesco's 'Pure' milk really does last longer so you don't waste it. It has a long use by date. They only do it it 2 litres in most stores although I have seen 1 litre bottles once. I can't stand long life milk myself.
Also if you have a loaf in the freezer that gets rid of another 'popping in' reason.
As other people have mentioned, taking a minimum amount of money helps so you have to be disciplined about what you buy.

Just remembered - 3 kilo bags of pasta can be got for £1 in Tesco.

craig777

katecheshire wrote:

Quite often (if you don't get milk delivered) you end up 'popping in' to get milk and come out with more stuff than intended. If you have room in your fridge the Cravendale or Tesco's 'Pure' milk really does last longer so you don't waste it. It has a long use by date. They only do it it 2 litres in most stores although I have seen 1 litre bottles once. I can't stand long life milk myself.

I'm sure milk is ok to freeze. So you could always buy extra bottles and freeze them - this would stop the "milk only visits, come out with 3 bags!".

apple_mint

Milk is OK to freeze. At work we use the 1 pint plastic bottles. I've brought some of these home and I sterilise them before use. I buy 4 pint bottles and pour them into the sterilised bottles to freeze in one pint amounts (which is enough for OH and I).

moggins

I buy all my milk and bread for the month and freeze it. That's about 15 loaves of bread and 10 4 pinters of organic milk. Luckily I have an extremely large freezer

As soon as the milk is down to about 1 pint I just pull another 4 pinter out of the freezer.

lil_me

I get my milk delivered as no room to freeze, 10x4 pint cartons would probably fill my fridge on their own! Costs a little more but what it costs I probably save in 'just popped in for milk' shopping trips. I make our own bread so don't need that bit, but used to buy enough for the week and as I used stuff from freezer I would freeze the other loaves.