Bit of Grocery Advice please?

lincsyellowbelly

Hi, I have been reading these posts for years but this is my first one. Money for groceries is my problem, as each month I seem to spend at least double the amount I have available therefore eating into my savings. We are a family of 5 and a dog. I do know all the theories, the mealplanning, etc, but in practice lack the will power to follow them through. When the kids go back to school I am going to make a real effort only to shop once a week, from a list and mealplan, as at the moment I seem to be popping to the shops most days.
The money we have left for groceries after all the other things are paid is £320 but would love to do it for less. I s this realistic? Do use online shopping quite often but becoming disillusioned by the dry bread and rotten fruit and veg they often send. We only have a small Morrisons here and a Coop which is very expensive.
I guess my main question to you experts would be, would it be worth my while driving the 32 mile round trip to an Aldi ir Lidl.
Thank you for reading this, feel a bit better for putting it in writing, hopefully this will help to focus me.

Soworried

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4116993

Hi
I would join the September challenge. It will help you keep focused and on track.
I don't use online shopping as I mainly buy what is reduced or things I have vouchers for. I would say that keeping an eye on the Lidl half price weekend offers are worth while. If they have an item on that you use then stock up. Like this weekend, 400g blocks of cheddar for just 99p.

valk_scot

It does all boil down to being organised with a meal plan, shopping list and sticking to it. But if you're spending £640 a month on groceries (!!!!!:eek:) there's plenty of room for very easy improvement I would say.

Start with the easy, predictable items like dog food, loo rolls, cleaning materials and laundry products. Just to buy these from Aldi/Lidl would be worth a trip once per month I would say.

Then you could add on all the dried and tinned foods you need in a month, like cereals (you can get A/L own brands that taste the same if not better) and bring these back too, to make the most of your trip. Assuming you've got storage of course. Their meat is very good and can be frozen, their deli stuff, youghurt and cheese is good too so you could buy that from the L/A shop for the following week.

After that I'd try to stick to your Morrisons for fresh stuff like fruit and veg, milk and bread. Going in every day pretty well guarantees you'll buy extras, try not to go more than twice a week. That will force you into thinking ahead. If you've got a good stock of all the basics for cooking your regular meals you only need to buy the last minute fresh ingredients after all and that gives you only three or four days to buy for. Before you go out though check the fridge, fruit bowl, veg rack and bread bin and make a point of using anything up that needs to be on the next meal or two.

And if you run out of something ask yourself...do you actually need to make an extra trip to the shops for it or can you manage without it? Bread or milk are worth going for, crisps and biscuits are not. Buy try not to run out, extra trips mean extra impulse buys.

But it all boils down to being organised, planning, shopping with a list and intent rather than just flinging things into the trolley at random and working to reduce wastage. It's worth spending the time over though, how long did it take you to earn that £200-£300 a month that you're wasting? I'd aim to keep it to that £80 a week at first though and only starting to try to push it down once you get more used to the routine.

greenbee

I'm sure there will be lots of people along with plenty of suggestions (and links!). As you will have worked out plenty of people on these boards manage to eat well for very little money. It gets easier once you have built a store cupboard, so think about what you have already got in and can use up, and then start to save a little from your budget each month towards stocking up your cupboards and freezer with bargains (either YS stuff or AF and similar sites)

But remember, they are only bargains if they are stuff you would normally eat.

Do you know when the reductions are done in your local supermarkets? Even if the coop is expensive, you might find that they have good reductions if you time it right.

Sambucus_Nigra

Get a white board for your menu planning and draw up a chart for the week.

And just buy milk for a few days and see what surprises you can make with your fridge and stock cupboard. Try running it down for a week or two and make a list on your whiteboard of things you NEED and when you do shop - stick to it.

cutestkids

Hi

We only have a CO-OP and a small Morrisons where we are also and the prices are high and the choice fairly limited.

I travel to the nearest large town for my main groceries.

I try to do this every two weeks as it would be too expensive to travel there every week, it involves a ferry and the fare to get there with the car is £15.00 (even taking the travel expenses into account I do save money on my shopping bill).

I then have the option of Lidl, Tesco, B&M bargains, poundland , wilkos etc.

It does take some time to get into the habit of shopping like this, I have to be very organised and because of the distance and costs in getting to the larger town I try and make sure that I get as much as I can,

It helps that I have a large chest freezer as I can stock up on the things like bread and meat etc.

I generally only have to get fresh salad stuff, top up fruit and milk locally.

You do have to be disiplined though with meal planning and get into the habit of trying to make twice as much as you wll use at a meal and freeze half, this will build up to give you a good choice in the freezer of meals without having to cook from scratch every night.

Jojo_the_Tightfisted

There's advice to be had over on the pets board about feeding the dog more economically/better quality for the same price. For the rest, it basically involves eliminating ready meals as much as possible and making sauces from scratch instead of opening a jar at £3 a pop.

Welcome!

BOBS

Hi - we are a family of five and usually spent £110 per week on groceries. I am trying to reduce by £10 a week - have it down to £80 now - not sure if I will be able to maintain it as toiletries running out - its def hard going but hopefully will be worth it. My bill includes all toiletries and cleaning products.

badger_

Hi LYB from a little bit up the road :hello:
Do you have any greengrocers nearby or a market where you could get fruit & veg from? Our GG costs a little bit more than the SM but everything seems to last a lot longer

jackyann

the problem with being too careful about planning is that you can then miss bargains & offers.
I definitely agree about the monthly shop for basics.
I would then top up at local shops: definitely use a market & buy seasonal produce as much as poss. I am horrified by the cost & quality of supermarket fruit & veg.
And look carefully at local butchers - as meat can stretch much further when it is high qaulity; or consider a freezer batch from a farm.
I miss the "Asian quarter" of my old town where rice, pulses & spices were much cheaper.
Go straight to the "reduced" section at your local store and store / freeze what looks useful. Yesterday I got 3 x 4pints milk @ £1 each and put them straight in the freezer.
Go to the thrift board to look at all the other good ideas - my own favourite is porridge made with cheapest dried milk.
And of course, look very carefully at what you can make: cake, biscuits, bread, all cheaper if home made if you have the time. I got passed a breadmaker and love it for the quality & cost of the bread I now make.

quintwins

Wow we're a family of 5 and i would greatly struggle to spend £640 on foods and if i did we'd have nowhere to put it, even shopping in m&s i couldn't manage that. We spend £200 a month on food, we have a tesco near us and a lidl, however i only really shop in lidl for deals my main shop is tesco, i only do an online shop if they send me a £10 off code and i've never had issues with my bread or fruit, but then it never last s very long.

Try meal cards/lists with set meals for the month but flexible, and buy all the meat/rice/pasta/frozen veg to go with you meals so all you need it fruit, veg and dairy, then only take enough money to buy these things plus slightly extra incase something you need is oos, so if you need milk and bread and some fruit only bring £10 with you and leave your purse at home.

Try down shift brands, we use alot of ownbrand/value brands other than rice crispsies and beans.

Bulk buying from amazon of aprroved foods will help you bulk up stocks, i bought 24 bags of pasta for 45p each from amazon but there soooo much nicer than the normal cheap supermarket ones.

Batch cook, now if i'm honest i don't do this i only batch cook pasta sauce.

Freezer bread to reduce trips- milk, fruit and veg lasts a week easy but bread doesn't so i freeze my bread so i only have to go shopping once a week.

Try whoopsie shopping,ok this isn't for everyone but if you ehad to your Mr M's an hr before closing you may find they have greatly reduced the stuff out of date that day, this week i got 3 lasagnes for 38p each down from £3.80, and i got 4 chicken breasts for 44p, i also got a packet of these last week.

Keep a sepdning dairy or join the grocery challenge nothing makes you think more about spending your money than if you have to confess your sins after.

It could be worth moving your savings to an isa if you can't acess them as easily your less likely to drip into them.

If you run out of something have a look threw your cupboards/freezer and see if theres anything else you can use before you run to the shop.