My shopping bill is huge! Where am I going so wrong?

bossymoo

I also suggest growing your own lettuces, you can do this on a sunny windowsill, less waste, less cost, and quite satisfying. Lots of varieties that you can just take the leaves you need rather than cutting a whole plant!

Good luck, food prices are a nightmare lately...

GreyQueen

ohara09 wrote: »

Auntymabel –I’m not Old Style at all when it comes to cleaning products I’m afraid. At themoment use (Asda own brand) toilet bleach, all purpose cleaner, all purposebleach, cif, washing up liquid, kitchen cleaner spray and bathroom cleanerspray, and limelight.

Hi there OP.

Lots of good advice from the gang already which I can't better but a small suggestion which will save you a £1 or more each bottle; swop your Cif for Tesco Basics Cream Cleanser at 32p. It's just as good. I've had a lot of people disbelieve me, so much so that I've given a bottle to Mum and a few other people to try and they were instant converts.............

I'd ditch the kitchen and bathroom spray cleaners. They're not doing anything that you can't do with cream cleanser or washing up liquid. Limelight is overpriced and you can descale things with bog-standard vinegar. If you need to get scale off the ends of your taps, fold a paper towel length-wise and soak in vinegar, wrap it around the scale, secure a bit of poly bag around it with an elastic band and check every half hour or so.

I keep a very clean home with the following arsenal;

Washing-up liquid; the universal solution with hot water. Counters, floors, cookers etc.

Tesco Value cream cleaner: bath tub and wash basin, occasionally kitchen sink and counters.

Soda Crystals; The Big Gun for degreasing, in solution with very hot water, greasy pans, and dry down the plughole with a kettle-ful of hot water to back them up as a precaution against blockages. Use as a paste to clean difficult things like glass oven doors.

Bicarb of soda; in solution with warm water to wipe out the fridge and freezer.

Bleach; this is a danger to many surfaces and should be used sparingly. I use mine for the very occasional bleaching-out of textiles and a 2 litre bottle lasts about me a year.

Limescale WC cleaner (Tesco own brand at the moment or whatever is circa 65p a bottle). I'm in a very hard water area and the limescale in the pan is gross.

A lot of cleaning products are overpriced renderings of very basic chemistry. You can do fun things with your own laundry detergent and other cleaning products, and they'll be OSers who can tell you how.

Can't recall if you've mentioned paper products (t.p., kitchen roll, tissues)? Could you down-brand on these items or even ditch the kitchen roll altogether? I do have some on the premises but a twin pack lasts several years as I have very few needs for it. You can buy cloth napkins very reasonably in the c.s or new, and even hem an old tablecloth into squares. I also use cloth handkerchiefs so never waste money on tissues.

Also watch out for other non-food items bought at the s.m like foil and clingfilm. A lot of this is used unnecessarily when you can put things in containers and cover plates with bowls and vice versa when storing stuff like leftovers in the fridge.

On pack-ups, home made pasta salads are very cheap and very quick and a wide-mouthed Thermos flasks is great for transporting soups. If you're going to use a regular Thermos, dedicate one for this purpose and don't also use it for tea and coffee or it'll taint flavours. You can freshen a Thermos by adding a teaspoon of bicarb of soda, filling with boiling water and leaving overnight, but this would be a pain to do regularly.

Anyway, my brekkie calls. HTH.:)

ETA; Microfibre cloths (packs of 4 in Poundland) are great with plain water for cleaning glass, too.

Penny-Pincher!!

What I have started doing is, is doing an online order with Ocado every 3-4 weeks and use a voucher. Currently there is a £20 off a £75 order. I utilise offers and stick mainly to the main meat, poultry and fish items to base our sides around and after voucher its coming in around £60 for the 3 of us. This does include eggs once a week with chips and beans but all other items are chickens, lamb meat balls, chops, minced lamb, beef, fish, pork joints, sausages and burgers, but the 100% beef ones.

I also add anything on really good offer, bread, tuna and frozen corn on cobs, cabbage and broad beans.

Everything else will be bought locally with a limit of £15pw. So in total thats about £120pm. It sounds good, but will let you know:D

ajs88

Some of your meals are really great, squash and lentil salad, homemade pizza, but at the beginning of the week your eating two portions of meat/fish a day. I've gone completely veggie/pulses to keep costs down without scrimping on health, might be worth a go