Trying to reduce my grocery bill, any advice please

Mayflower10cat

You could make the meat mince go further by adding some Quorn mince and some green lentils for your spag bol. (To be honest, you could leave out the meat mince and I'll bet no-one would notice!) We don't eat meat but we do like our fish and seafood. We make a meal planner every Sunday based on what we have in the freezer (usually homemade veg stews/soups/pasta sauce etc) and a few new dishes that I will make in bulk for the freezer. So everything is homemade, just not necessarily that day. Based on the meal planner, make out a shopping list ONLY buying what you actually need. You'll be amazed how empty your trolley is. We plan a veggie main meal one night then a fishy meal alternately. But we always have more veggie than fishy. There are so many tasty meals that use fish - but not a lot of it! For instance, a paella or risotto. Fresh mussels are ever so cheap in season and sustainable. A favourite of ours is Arnold Bennett omelette, with just one fillet of smoked haddock between the two of us. Seafood pasta, again doesn't need much seafood and with plenty of chilli is very satisfying. Fish is lovely in a creamy, Malaysian type curry and again, you don't need very much and it doesn't have to be cod or haddock. I try to only buy British grown veg and ignore say, expensive packs of asparagus or mange tout from Peru or Egypt. Again, some old favourites here are cauliflower and macaroni cheese. Or broccoli & macaroni cheese.

Since we've been meal planning and watching that we waste nothing - I estimate our weekly food bill for two adults and three cats (with cleaning products and booze) is an average of £70. Occasionally this rises over and above if we have a party or have friends for drinks & nibbles. Yes, we could spend a lot less if we were stricter and had a bigger freezer.

Mayflower10cat

phizzimum wrote: »

Eg a veg curry but serve with homemade chapattis !

Can vouch for how damn' delicious homemade chapattis are, husband is now the 'flat bread maker extraordinare' in this house. You would never imagine that flour and water could be so delicious when cooked properly. Really good. He's got his own little Tava and we use the camping gas stove outside the backdoor - gives our guests a real giggle! We (sorry,the Royal We there!!!) make our own Nan and pitta bread, too.

[Deleted User]

Meal plan and decant cheaper stuff before they see what you've bought.My late OH was convinced that the only lemonade worth buying was R.Whites.I used to buy a cheaper brand and decant it into an R.Whites bottle for years and he never cottoned on bless him.
Failing that send him shopping for once and maybe the price of food will shock him into thinking twice.Fresh fruit and veg account for probably about a quarter of my food budget I live alone and allow myself £100.00 per month for my 'food purse' I usually have cash left over at the end of the month I also have a 'need list' by the kettle so if its not on the list it doesn't get bought.
Do a stock take of your stores both in the cupboards and freezer.You maybe suprised at how much stuff you have in the cupboards already.Your home and family are a 'mini business' so stocktaking is essential to make sure you haven't got too much stuff already in store.
utilise you freezer don't bin left overs turn them into something else (but don't tell them there left overs)Its often a case of 'what the eye doesn't see etc'
On monday night my friend and I had a lovely chilli and rice for dinner and I had enough left over for two more portions which are in the freezer for a later date.I too don't eat 'ping ' mals' or convenience food but my freezer stuff is left over home cooked food which I know exactly what went into it
Good Luck and try it slowly with maybe a tenner a week at first to see what economies you can manage without any moans and groans

sitcom321

Mayflower10cat wrote: »

Can vouch for how damn' delicious homemade chapattis are, husband is now the 'flat bread maker extraordinare' in this house. You would never imagine that flour and water could be so delicious when cooked properly. Really good. He's got his own little Tava and we use the camping gas stove outside the backdoor - gives our guests a real giggle! We (sorry,the Royal We there!!!) make our own Nan and pitta bread, too.

how do youmake chapattis? I would like to give this a go

meritaten

JackieO wrote: »

Meal plan and decant cheaper stuff before they see what you've bought.My late OH was convinced that the only lemonade worth buying was R.Whites.I used to buy a cheaper brand and decant it into an R.Whites bottle for years and he never cottoned on bless him.
Failing that send him shopping for once and maybe the price of food will shock him into thinking twice.Fresh fruit and veg account for probably about a quarter of my food budget I live alone and allow myself £100.00 per month for my 'food purse' I usually have cash left over at the end of the month I also have a 'need list' by the kettle so if its not on the list it doesn't get bought.
Do a stock take of your stores both in the cupboards and freezer.You maybe suprised at how much stuff you have in the cupboards already.Your home and family are a 'mini business' so stocktaking is essential to make sure you haven't got too much stuff already in store.
utilise you freezer don't bin left overs turn them into something else (but don't tell them there left overs)Its often a case of 'what the eye doesn't see etc'
On monday night my friend and I had a lovely chilli and rice for dinner and I had enough left over for two more portions which are in the freezer for a later date.I too don't eat 'ping ' mals' or convenience food but my freezer stuff is left over home cooked food which I know exactly what went into it
Good Luck and try it slowly with maybe a tenner a week at first to see what economies you can manage without any moans and groans

JackieO - True words hun - Wise words!
I have worked in retail for over 40 years now - and have seen that much of the success of a 'shop' comes down to wise ordering and stocking......pricing.........knowing your 'market' and above all - not being wasteful! You can apply the same principles to 'housekeeping'!
Treat is as your 'business' and apply sound business principles - you wont go far wrong!

meritaten

The only advice I have for the OP is - find a couple of very cheap recipes which you can cycle weekly - My OH doesnt even realise that he eats vegetarian one night a week and another night is Fridge Casserole (in other words - odd bits and bobs of veg livened up with either a curry based sauce or a tomato one)!
and my OH is totally on board with moneysaving on groceries - if it wasnt for me HE would be Aldi's biggest fan!
just to give you an idea - Its just me and OH living here - but most days 1 -3 grandkids have a meal here and our weekly spend on groceries is around £55 - and even OH says we eat like royalty!

If we HAD to - we could reduce that amount by £10 to £15. But, we dont need to.

maman

We're just two and eat royally for about £50 per week. I could probably reduce it but that suits us. Since I've been doing Slimming World we have all HM meals, a huge amount of fruit and veg and snacky stuff is kept to a minimum.

My best tips would be shop around. I buy all my fruit and veg at Lidl or Aldi plus all the other things I like in those shops and then top up at Asda or Sainsbury with anything else I can't get. I buy the best mince but add loads of veg. I make other meals with small amounts of meat like stir-fry or curry. By the time you've added the veg and the rice or noodles then the meat is just for a bit of flavour. For fish, you could try buying cheap stuff like frozen pollock and putting a sauce/topping on it to jazz it up.

Tell us the sort of meals you eat and we can advise how to cut back on price.

sitcom321

Big thanks to everyone especially JACKIEO re stocktaking, i have never really looked on household stocktaking. went throught Fridge/freezer/cupboard last night and i have loads of stuff that has been in there for ages so I am going to use that up this week. I took out some diced pork last night so that is going in the slow cooker with the remains of what is in my salad drawer ... onions/carrots/mushrooms and sad looking parsnip, will throw in the half tin of tomatoes in fridge and a bit of passata, garlic and chilli and that will be our meal tonight

I also found about 6 chicken legs OH only likes breast doesnt like to pick the meat off legs but i suppose i could cook the chicken legs and strip them and then do a similar dish to the above and that would be another meal. I also found about 4 pieces of salmon which i remember freezing as we had some with veg a while ago and he said the salmon didnt taste as nice as normal, i bought it from somewhere different (can you get different quality salmon???) so i need a recipe that i could make something with this if anyone has one.

the reason I want to cut down is I think I am wasteful in a lot of the things i buy, I always seem to throw away stuff before I go and do my 'new shop' like lettuce, cucumber, bits of peppers, so i must be buying too much although we do use these every week

tigerfeet2006

If you do the chicken in the SC then the meat will fall off the bones, saving you a job

bossymoo

Hi if you throw a lot of veg, try the green bags. You can get them from Lakeland and amazon. I think Debbie Meyers is the brand from amazon. My mum gave me these about a decade ago. And they keep veg fresh for ages! Not so great with bananas and eg spinach but carrots, spuds, cauliflower etc. apparently the lining absorbs the gases that promote spoiling helping the food last longer. I've used three week old carrots before with no difference to taste or texture. Lots less waste equals less spends!