What Am I Doing Wrong

welshie1973

New to this and been reading a lot on this site but can someon help me my weekly shopping bill for 4 is about £120 per week! (not month weekly!) plus i also "top up" throughout the week. I cook meals from scrtach and don't use too many ready made prodcuts but can't seem to cut it down.

Any ideas or suggestions?

Thanks

shell2001

Do you meal plan?? Is much of that £120 ending up in the bin??

welshie1973

I don't meal plan ( I know thissounds stupid but don't know where to start with it). The food is utilised and not a great deal ends up in the bin - I spend about £50 of this on furit and veg a week and don't want to cut back on the amount as I feel its important for the children to have a good variety within their diet and don't want them reaching for junk as opposed to the fruit bowl.

Three_Dancing_Dragons

Are you spending it all at the supermarket? These places are spending black holes. I have a similar problem spending around the same per week on ONE ( ). So far I haven't developed a meal plan but have recorded all my spending daily on an Excel spreadsheet I have set up. This shows I spend as much on my 'fast food' designation (includes prepared foods like sandwiches and hot dog at flicks) as I do on 'groceries'. My goal for next month is to spend 0, nada, nil, zero, zip, the-big-goose-egg on fast food. Of course that has also been my goal for the last TWO months .... :wall:

shell2001

£50 per week on fruit and veg - wow! I bet quite a few more £ goes on loo roll!! lol

Where do you shop? Sorry if it seems like I'm shining a light in you eyes just trying to get the big pic. Maybe you could list say last weeks shop and we could give you ideas to cut back.

I agree fruit and veg are important and are not an area to be cut back on BUT maybe look at the prices where you are sourcing them from?

joannasmum

Meal Planning is definately the key IMO.

This is how I do it.
1. Make a list of main meals for the week
2. Check what ingredients you have in to make these meals
3. Write your shopping list around what you need
4. Plan whats for breakfast and lunches and add whats required to the list
5. Add in things for snacks ie fruit and anything else.
6. Add in any general store cupboard needs (tea-bags, soap powder etc).

I've not done this for a couple of weeks and my freezer is filled to the top and I've had to throw away some bits and bobs which I not happy about so I'm going to find the store-cupboard challenge thread in aminute you may want to join in with that. Also there is a thread Here started on food waste, you may be suprised about what is actual getting wasted.

HTH

Here is the store cupboard challenge thread

Uniscots97

Why don't you list what you get in a typical week and we'll see how we can help?

lynzpower

Meal plans are essential to start saving money.

We try to eat 7 portions of F&V a day as per OHs specialised diet, its tricky to get them all in. However, frozen veg is equally as nutritious, so frozen peas & sweetcorn in partic are cheap, and last more than a day.

Can you grow your own, way cheaper, esp salads are v easy to grow from seed & nows the time. We have mangetout racing along, climbing beans, sweetcorn, spinach ( easy) rocket and lettuce leaves ( easy )


Do you have a recnet reciept- could you list what you bought and we can help with cheaper alternatives?

welshie1973

do my shopping at Tesco as its on my route home from work - for the top up throughout the week use the local corner shop

my shooping usually:

*
- 2 + Bold Crushed Silk Powder 10 Wash/950g 5.00
*
- 1 + Huggies Pull Upscarry Pack Boy Large 15 4.98
*
- 1 + Tesco Luxury Soft Toilet Tissue White 12 Roll 4.36
*
- 1 + Mr Muscle All Purpose Cleaner Frozen Lime & Vinegar 750ml 1.98
*
- 1 + Mr Muscle Shower Shine 500ml 1.28
*
- 1 + Mr Muscle Window Cleaner Spray 500ml 1.35
*
- 1 + Kelloggs Rice Krispies Multigrain 350g 1.32
*
- 1 + Kelloggs Rice Krispies 450g 1.89
*
- 1 + All Butter Croissant 6 Pack 0.99
*
- 1 + Tesco 4 Homebake Half Baguettes 1.20
*
- 1 + Tesco Cornish Ice Cream 2 Litres 1.35
*
- 1 + Birds Eye Steamfresh Broccoli Sweetcorn Peas & Rice 680g 1.98
*
- 1 + Birds Eye Garden Peas 907g 1.49
*
- 1 + Mccain Homefries 1.5kg 1.75
*
- 1 + Green Giant Niblets No Added Sugar Sweetcorn 198g 0.47
*
- 1 + Princes Tuna Chunks In Brine 4x185g 3.18
*
- 1 + Tesco Fusilli Pasta Twists 1kg 0.62
*
- 5 + Tesco Italian Chopped Tomatoes & Garlic 400g 2.35
*
- 2 + Diet Coke 2 Ltr Bottle 2.92
*
- 2 + Tovali Orange Sugar Free Drink 1 Ltr 1.18
*
- 2 + Tesco Boil In The Bag Basmati Rice 4 X 125g 1.56
*
- 1 + Tesco Fresh Double Cream 284ml 0.59
*
- 1 + Tesco Smoked Thick Cut Back Bacon 250g 1.99
*
- 2 + Tesco Fresh Egg Tagliatelle 500g 2.18
*
- 1 + Welsh Lamb 4/6 Prime Loin Chops 6.59
*
- 1 + Tesco Fresh Whole Chicken Large 2.20-3.00kg 3.88
*
- 1 + Beef Lean Braising Steak Medium 300g - 500g 2.89
*
- 1 + T Healthy Living Skinless Chicken Breast Fillets 580-800g 6.28
*
- 2 + Finest Ground Beef Mince 440g 4.88
*
- 2 + Tesco Finest Wiltshire Cured Ham 140g 3.98
*
- 2 + Flora Light Vegetable Low Fat Spread 500g 1.94
*
- 5 + Braces Xxx White Thick Bread 800g 4.40
*
- 1 + Tesco Healthy Eating Semi- Skimmed Milk 3.408ltr/6 Pints 1.68
*
- 2 + Nescafe Alta Rica Coffee 100g 5.96
*
- 1 + Really Welsh Leeks 500g 1.99
*
- 6 + Tesco Onions Loose Class 2 0.96
*
- 1 + Tesco Red Onions 3 Pack 1.17
*
- 1 + Finest Asparagus 125g 1.99
*
- 2 + Tesco Strawberries Class I 2.96
*
- 3 + A Bag of Red Seedless Grapes Class 1 Loose (approx. 500g - 650g per bag) 3.84
*
- 6 + William Pears (soft) Class 1 Loose 1.14
*
- 1 + Kids Easy Peeler600g Pack 1.49
*
- 1 + Satsumas Pack 1.48
*
- 1 + Closed Cup Mushrooms 500g 1.15
*
- 1 + Tesco Carrots 1 Kg Pack Class 1 0.68
*
- 1 + Really Welsh Cauliflower 0.74
*
- 1 + Tesco Swede Each Class 1 0.79
*
- 1 + Tesco Parsnips 500g 0.78
*
- 1 + Baking 2.5kg Pack Potatoes 1.69
*
- 2 + Maris Piper Potatoes 2.5kg Pack 3.56
*
- 2 + Charlotte Potatoes 1 Kg 2.56
*
- 10 Bananas Loose 1.50
*
15 Braeburn Apples Class 1 Loose 3.00

Guide price £123.91

done this online so you can see roughly what I buy each week

thanks

welshie1973

The garden we have is all maintenance free as we both work full time and are out of the house from 8am until 6pm and we wouldn't have the time (or energy) to be tending a garden but in the summer do get some veggies from my father it just riles me everytime I go shopping think that I will reduce my bill but comes to about the same each time!

mo1_2

50 quids a lot on fruit and veg,bet you could half that,thats 200 a month wow,have you tried aldi fruit and veg i find it a lot fresher than asda or tesco?