New to OS board.. help me cut down our food shop!

immoral_angeluk

We currently spend around £180 a month on food/toiletries for 2 adults, a toddler who's 2 next week :eek: and a month old baby.... We split our shopping between tesco, iceland and our local fruit + veg shop and this is what we buy regularly and looking for ideas on how to cut down. The new baby is on formula and they're both in disposable nappies as I don't like washables... here how our shops usually work out.

Tesco shop

1 Tesco Value Orange Juice 1 Litre Carton 0.58
2 Tesco Value Tomato Soup 400g 0.46
1 Tesco Value Curry Flavour Instant Noodles 65g 0.08
1 Tesco Value Bacon Flavour Instant Noddles 65g 0.08
1 Tesco Value Ready To Serve Custard 396g 0.21
1 Tesco Value Rice Pudding 425g 0.19
1 Tesco Value Fruit Cocktail In Syrup 410g 0.22
1 Tesco Value Gravy Granules 170g 0.38
2 Seriously Oaty Golden Honey 5x40g 0.98
1 Tesco Value Sunflower Spread500g 0.38
2 Tesco Value Cooked Ham 125g 0.70
1 Tesco Ultra Softcarry Pack Mini 46 3.85
1 Tesco Super Fit Economy Pack Extra Large 44 6.97
1 Sma Gold Baby Milk 900g 5.98
1 Tesco Macaroni Cheese 410g 0.46
2 Don Mario Ravioli 400g 0.54
4 Tesco Value Baked Beans In Tomt/Sauce 420g 0.68
2 Tesco Value New Potatoes 567g 0.52
1 Colmans Casserole Mix Chilli Con Carne 50g 0.64
1 Tesco Premium 160 Teabags 500g 1.49
1 Tesco Value Rich Tea 300g 0.23
1 Tesco Value Custard Cream Biscuits 400g 0.27
1 Tesco Value Bourbon Creams 400g 0.34
1 Tesco Value Milk Chocolate Digestives 300g 0.27
1 Tesco Value Digestive Biscuits 400g 0.22
2 Tesco Value Fromage Frais 6 Pack 360g 0.88
1 Miscellaneous Granulated Sugar2kg Parcels 1.43
1 Uncle Bens Bib Long Grain Rice 250g 1.05
1 Hellmanns Real Mayonnaise 400g 1.38
4 Tesco Value Sweetcorn 325g 0.68
1 Tesco Tuna Chunks In S/Flwroil 4x185g 1.97
1 Value Potatoes 5kg 1.49
1 Warburtons Medium Sliced White Bread 800g 0.96
1 Tesco Frosted Flakes 750g 1.29
1 Dolmio Pasta Bake Creamy Tomato 500g 1.30
1 Tesco Conchiglie Pastashells 3kg 1.00
1 Tesco Value Spaghetti 500g 0.16


Guide price £40.31


I'll have to estimate iceland as they don't do online shopping but here goes..

Eggs - £1 for big pack
Frozen veg, 2 bags - £2
Milk (semi skimmed and whole) £2
Cheese (big block) - £2
Frozen chips - £1.25
Curcly fries - £1
Steak pies (6 pack) - £2
40 sausages - £2
Burgers - £1
Pork steaks - £2
6 Chicken breaststeaks - £2
Mince (big bag) - £2
Chicken sticks - £1
Bacon - £1.25
Crumpets - £0.50
2 x Syrup/Raisin pancakes - £1

Total - £24 (Unless I've forgotten something but that's most of it!

Fruit shopping from local fruit and veg shop normally comes to about £2 for apples, oranges and bananas bought as needed throughout the month (never in one go so we'll have apples one week, oranges the next etc.).

baby wipes, kitchen and toilet roll from home bargains (£4, 0.89 and 2.99) = £7.88


Total shop £74.19 twice a month = £148.38 leaving £31.62 for bread/milk/formula and nappies as needed. Sometimes we do go over budget but it's never by more than £10. Sometimes we don't need everything on the above lists so we often don't spend that much on each shop.

Here an idea of the main meals we have,

sausage casserole, spaghetti bolognaise, chili con carne, cheese and tomato pasta pake, tuna mayo and sweetcorn pasta, cheese and potato pie with beans, meat with potatoes and veg, etc.

for lunches/snacks our eldest has fruit, yoghurts, sandwiches, crumpets, macaroni cheese, beans on toast, etc. For her main meals we make an extra portion of our evening meal for her and either freeze it or put it in the fridge if it's going to be eaten the next day and just reheat them thoroughly.



Hope that all makes sense! Things like bin bags, cleaning stuff etc we buy as needed but always buy the cheapest. For our spray cleaners I buy a big tesco value multi purpose cleaner for 81p and dilute it into spray bottles we already have. A bottle usually last a good month or 2 cleans and just as good as the expensive cleaners with the advantage that you can use one bottle on everything instead of different kinds of cleaners, plus you can use the multi purpose cleaner on the floors as well when mopping.

Thanks in advance!

taplady

Hi! you seem to be doing well already but theres lots of good advice available from the good people here!:D In regards to the cleaning stuff a lot of us here recommend Stardrops as its cheap, last ages, can be diluted, is safe for kids and animals and its an excellent all round cleaner!(there is a whole thread devoted to this)

You could try making your own biscuits, cheap and tasty and its nice to know whats in them!;) perhaps getting your toddler to get involved eventually( messy but worth it!)

The other bit of advice I can give is to menu plan from what you already have in your cupboards before going shopping.

As I said you seem to be doing really well already:T

hazzie123

Personally I`d scrap the Uncle Bens BIB rice and buy a small bag of long grain rice what you can get for under a £1 and you will get more meals from the one bag.
Also scrap the serious oaty stuff and buy the big bags of oats,less than a pound for 1KG and will last ya weeks.Good thing with these you can blitz them in a blender and it goes like ready brek.
Possibly make your own bread,this saves a lot in the long run and tastes miles better.
Also the same with biscuits.Plus the pancakes,really cheap and under 10 mins to make from start to eating.


Do you have a slow cooker/Bread maker?

hazzie123

What are chicken sticks?

spiddy100

It does look like you're doing well already.

Only thing I can see from your lists is maybe replace some of the convenience foods with HM - biscuits, meat pies, pasta sauce, custard, rice pud etc. Is 'Seriously Oaty' like ReadyBreak, and would porridge oats be an alternative?

I know it's hard though, it sounds like you cook most of your meals from scratch and there's limited time with two LOs in the house. And sometimes it's cheaper to use the Value ready-made stuff than make your own from scratch!

immoral_angeluk

hazzie123 wrote:

What are chicken sticks?

Some kind of breaded chicken concoction from iceland. LOL.

craig777

£180 a month is doing pretty good IMO.

Our household consists of 2 adults, a 3 year old and a 1 year old, so not too different to yourself. I'd a consider £180 a cheap month for us.

With having a month old baby to look after, I'm surprised you had time to type out a long post like that!

janb5

First of all congratulations on your new arrival! I think you are doing really well surviving right now!

Maybe later on you could tweak some of your meals such as cook chilli con carne from scratch and swap the sugar cereals for Weetabix/ready brek /porridge for longer energy.

mikeywills

TBH, we spend more than you do, but probably don't buy as many convenience items, packet sauces, tins, frozen foods etc.
It all depends how much time you have on your hands, I like to make things like baked beans in batches and freeze them for DD. My DD isn't quite two and still sleep for around 1.5 to 2hrs in the afternoon, so this gives me time then to do some cooking, so I tend to batch cook.
I Will generally have a fish pie, a cauliflower cheese or broccoli bake, and biscuits in the oven at the same time. With spag bol, or shephards pie mix, and veg soups going on the stove. I don't have to do this too often as a good blast cooking will normally produce about two weeks worth of food for DD, along with some handy standbys for OH and me.
This may be one way of reducing costs, while making healthy meals for your family. Have you tried making your own chips, or doing a tray of roast veg instead, this doesn't take a lot of prep just clean veg cut into chip size portions rinse and dry and place on a tray (foiled is easier) with some oil and a little salt and pepper.

Good luck I am sure you will manage it.

angchris

i think you are doing really well! :T :T baby`s milk might work out cheaper if you bought them direct from the health clinic also i find asda are really cheap for things like casserole mixes 39p or something like that and also own brand pasta bake sauces etc so i normally stock up when im there. it might be worthwhile buying a sack of potatoes (or even 1/2 sack) from a local farm shop it works out much cheaper and they last for ages and you could make your own chips/mash/roasties/fishcakes/dauphinoise etc. also i buy the cooking bacon misshapes from tesco`s you get absolutely loads of bacon in the pack great for bacon sarnies/pasta bakes/fried brekky and making quiche with and i always have a pack or 2 in the freezer as my oh is far too quick to go out and buy perfectly packaged 8 slices for £3 :eek: milk and bread i havent paid full price for since before xmas :money: i have picked up all the reduced cartons of milk and bulk frozen and just drag it out to defrost when required.

MrsTinks

definitely spuds! And also keep an eye on when your local supermarket normally reduces their food! On Thursday I was in Mr T's for fruit for work (company pays for us to have fresh fruit at work) just as they were reducing lots of organic veg! So now have mushrooms, spinach, courgettes and lots of bits to cook and eat! Am hoping for a cooking session tonight to go through stuff in the freezer and use it up where possible and then stock the freezer with my new finds