How much on grocery shopping?

craigywv

i find home baking and cooking from scratch is the way to go for saving ,i have completly stopped all crisps ,and snacks and ab no fizzy drinks i have a large jug of shops own brand squash constantly in fridge also big bottle of ice water, i have substituted crisps etc with home made mini sausage rolls/ cheese rolls heat in micro 30 seconds reason i do mini ones is so they dont over eat. luckily my son (8 yrs) loves fruit so plenty of that in house but it too is soooooooooo expensive i try and get it whoopsied can usually get at least 2-3 types of fruit every week this way or local iceland have found them to be FAR cheaper than mr t not as much variety but a granny smith is a granny smith,if you dont already get yourself a slow cooker ab fab , can make even the toughest joint of meat soft . i make soup in mine every other day and freeze half so always that to snack on also home made bread, i have found we not too keen on the plain white in our house as its very dense but add grated cheese or mixed herbs sundried toms anything and they will eat it. hope this helps you, also make your own sweets ,marshmallow tophats a firm fav here and so cheap to make a big tin of good luck.xxx

missybay

We have a slow cooker and it is fab, doing some sort of casserole/stew thing in it tomorrow.. or maybe a huge shepherds pie to freeze some.

I'll have to look into making sweets.

What does Mr T mean?
You've all been very helpful.

maman

Penny-Pincher!! wrote: »

I only like Heinz beans (cheap ones are fine in Shepherds Pie and stews etc), Yorkshire tea, Branston pickle, HP, Heinz Ketchup, Heinz Tom Soup, Anchor butter, FR eggs, Warburtons WM loaf and a few other bits.

Also, Amazon sometimes do excellent prices on their DW tablets and washing detergent. I bought 6 months supply of Astonish 5 in 1 DW tablets for £11.50 inc delivery. Its still on special here and they are excellent.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Astonish-Lemon-Fresh-Dishwasher-Tablets/dp/B004YC3O62/ref=sr_1_1?s=grocery&ie=UTF8&qid=1336507609&sr=1-1

HTH

PP
xx

We've just switched to Sainsbury's Red Label from Yorkshire tea and it's very good. Also Lidl and Aldi do FR eggs at 99p for 6. HTH

craigywv

missybay wrote: »

We have a slow cooker and it is fab, doing some sort of casserole/stew thing in it tomorrow.. or maybe a huge shepherds pie to freeze some.

I'll have to look into making sweets.

What does Mr T mean?
You've all been very helpful.

mr is tescos

4weeladdies

I used to feel the same about grocery shopping a year ago but then we changed over to shopping at Aldi and now I look forward to it! Our budget has dropped from about £120 per week to perhaps £70 on a "blow-out" week (can do it for under £40 if we're skint!). We don't have meat every day now, perhaps 4 days out of 7 and I fill us up with plenty of frozen veg & mash. We eat plenty of whatever fruit is in the Super 6 offer and go canny on fruit/veg that isn't on offer (we all eat at least 3 pieces of fruit per day). Hubby is fussy about branded cereal so I will buy from wherever has big boxes on special offer, I really rate the smartprice washing powder, 60 washes for £3-odd (we get nearer 90 washes from it lol) and makes the clothes clean & fresh smelling. I make a weekly meal plan and go to the shops with a list so that I know I'm not forgetting stuff or picking up junk we don't need. The main shop will usually come to about £50 (including cleaning products, toiletries, loo rolls etc) and I'll "top up" during the week on fruit, bread and milk as no matter how much I buy on a Sunday we seem to run out by Wednesday lol.

Good luck and try to enjoy cutting back. I get a wee thrill of excitement checking my receipts now. Checking what you've bought on Mysupermarket is a great motivator too, knowing you've saved £20/30 on the same shop in a big supermarket feels great!

miasnanny

I have a family of muck magnets who bring their washing home to Mother GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR yes I really should put my foot down;) What I do and have done since my muck magnets were babies is I buy bargain basic washing powder (as cheap as I can get) and a bag of washing soda I use half my usual washing powder and half soda. My washing is cleaner, softer and as washing soda is under £1 a bag a lot cheaper too. This saves me about £7 a month and I do a lot of washing.

bargainbetty

Miasnanny, my mum would have clipped me around the ear for that one.... she let me use the washing machine if the laundrette was busy until I got my own machine, but I did the wash myself and was expected to bring detergent!

My spend varies a lot, but when I batch cook I always portion up the 'spares' first, or it just turns into seconds, rather than another meal. I get five or six large portions of Shepherds pie out of a small pack of mince. and have started baking again so no need to buy treats and sweets etc. Probably cut about £40 a month off just by stopping the sweeties.

maman

miasnanny wrote: »

I have a family of muck magnets who bring their washing home to Mother GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR yes I really should put my foot down;) What I do and have done since my muck magnets were babies is I buy bargain basic washing powder (as cheap as I can get) and a bag of washing soda I use half my usual washing powder and half soda. My washing is cleaner, softer and as washing soda is under £1 a bag a lot cheaper too. This saves me about £7 a month and I do a lot of washing.

I've found that Asda SP washing powder is the cheapest around. I'm perfectly happy with it and I use SP vinegar for softener too. In fact, I've got so used to vinegar that I find the smell of proper softener rancid and sickly. I've tried your soda tip miasnanny and it works but I found that the cost of the soda kept going up until it was almost the same price as the powder.

mummybearx

Hey missybay,

Another thing to add is soup! Soup is your best friend with lots of hungry children!

Buy up any yellow sticker veg, add a stock cube and voila! big pot of soup they can help themselves to for not a lot of money! Adding in some dried red lentils or pearl barley will make it more filling too.

Also, check out the voucher code threads, 50p off this, £1 off that all adds up. Check out the freebies threads as well, I haven't bought toothpaste for months now due to getting free samples, again it all adds up!

x

BitterAndTwisted

maman wrote: »

I've found that Asda SP washing powder is the cheapest around. I'm perfectly happy with it and I use SP vinegar for softener too. In fact, I've got so used to vinegar that I find the smell of proper softener rancid and sickly. I've tried your soda tip miasnanny and it works but I found that the cost of the soda kept going up until it was almost the same price as the powder.

I would have thought that a one-kilo bag of washing soda (which costs about a quid) would last for yonks. I suggest you halve the recommended quantity of detergent and add only one tablespoon of the soda. I doubt that you'd need more than that, really. Most certainly not a quantity equal to the detergent . For clothes that merely need freshening up and aren't actually discernably mucky I'd be using a quarter. If the clothes don't come out clean enough add a bit more next time. I suspect that you won't need to.