Normal Food Shopping

missprice

Grumpygit wrote: »

There's that saying again "we eat well" when the poster says I spend £100 per month for a family of x many and loads of pets

I've asked this before but there is no way that I would be able to buy fresh meat, fresh veg, fresh fruit pet food and cleaning stuff/toiletries for that (or 200) and we are two adults and a twelve yo!
!

depends what you buy and where from
toiletries come from the pound shop/poundworld/poundland etc
but most of our food is from one supermarket (morries)
we get yoghurt's from a place called jack fultons (possibly an oop north place)
but I can buy 40+ yogs from there which will last all week.(for £10)
branded we get
Heinz beans, andrex or similar, chicago town pizzas and a decent fabric softner comfort or lenor also has to be on offer
these are the only branded items we buy and there are reasons. (mainly some will not eat or use any other kind
everything else we get has to be on offer branded or is unbranded.
the massive savings you can make are astounding
washing powder is morries own at £1.79 for 2kg
the next nearest is daz at £3.99 for the same that less than half the price of the cheapest washing powder
no idea what the likes of fairy et al cost
morries dry cat food is £1.90 a box which lasts the cat about 4 weeks ish much cheaper than the go cat equivalent.
and lastly cos I cant type all day there are competitions to enter ya know:)
weetabix, morries own brand is more than a quid cheaper per same size box (48)

on there own none save much but if you do the same with nearly every item you buy you can save a fortune

Mr_Toad

Ah Guensey, that explains a lot. My ex's parents lived on Jersey, St Brelades Bay. After we separated the ex went to Guernsey on a two year contract, she's a psych nurse specialist.

Grumpygit

Mmm good place to live but hidden costs (holidays/freight etc)

Would rather have had Asda come over rather than Waitrose

littlesnuggy

I was fascinated to see how much we spend after reading this thread, so I've just downloaded my bank statements and added up what I've spent in Sainsburys for the last 6 months. We buy everything here (I go almost daily as it is next to my office and I walk home) and everything is bought on the same debit card, so this was easy to calculate and definitely includes everything. We're two adults (the dog is fed raw food bought elsewhere for under £10 per month) and this includes breakfast, lunches, dinners & snacks. It includes things like loo roll and cleaning things, but I've probably only bought one bottle of laundry detergent and one cheap bottle of shampoo in this period (I think some people must spend huge amounts of cleaning products!)

Oct: £130
Sept: £131
Aug: £128
July: £87 (we were on holiday for part of the month)
June: £115
May: £153

I've never bought a takeaway and the only "ready meals" we buy is frozen pizza once a week. Everything else is made from scratch, with the occasional jar of eg pasta sauce used if it's on offer and cheaper than the ingredients to make fresh. In that period we probably ate out at restaurants about 4 times.

Taking out the month we were on holiday, that averages £131 per month. Last time I did this excercise about 3 years ago, it was about £100 per month and we haven't changed our eating habits, so shows how much food has gone up in price.

Sally_A

Wow, good going littlesnuggy.

Without full recipes, can you give an indication of the meals you have please. Hubby is a fussy bogger and likes to have something meat related everynight - I might get away with an omelet with maybe some chopped ham or bacon in there along with onion and mushrooms, and probably cheese.

PS. Re the pizza, I'll buy the basic cheese and tomato - and add my favourite topping - tuna, jalapenos, mushrooms and black olives

littlesnuggy

Sally_A wrote: »

Wow, good going littlesnuggy.

Without full recipes, can you give an indication of the meals you have please. Hubby is a fussy bogger and likes to have something meat related everynight - I might get away with an omelet with maybe some chopped ham or bacon in there along with onion and mushrooms, and probably cheese.

PS. Re the pizza, I'll buy the basic cheese and tomato - and add my favourite topping - tuna, jalapenos, mushrooms and black olives

Of course.

I don't eat much meat purely because I'm not fussed on it so I tend to make sure OH has portions with the majority in.

Our typical weekly menu is this & I've tried to include list of ingredients

Mon - Pasta bake (half & half basics pasta & wholewheat pasta, onion, pepper, carrots, mushrooms, peas, 4 rashers bacon, passata, basics cream cheese & herbs)

Tues - Chicken curry (1 chicken breast, onion, pepper, basics pineapple chunks, curry powder, creamed coconut, basics yoghurt, cream, wholegrain brown basmati rice)

Wed - frozen pizza, whatever's on offer, sometimes with added toppings. We've tried the Basics ones but they were too doughy for me

Thurs - Risotto (risotto rice, onion, garlic, leeks, peas, mint, chicken or bacon, parmesan) or sometimes a pie (chicken breast, onion, leek, mushrooms, stock, ready made puff pastry)

Fri - Slow-cooked beef casserole (diced beef, potatoes, carrots, leek, onion, pearl barley, dumplings, passata, stock)

Sat - Lasagne or bolognese (mince for OH, puy lentils for me, with lots of veg

Sun - Sausages or roast chicken (if get a reduced one!), roast potatoes, parsnips, yorkshire puds, carrots, peas, broccoli, gravy)

We pretty much have that menu every week, but with the Thurs & Fri meals changing between a few different things. Sometimes we'll have egg, beans & chips on a Friday if I can't be bothered to cook, sometimes I'll make a big batch of thick soup and we'll have that with part-baked baguettes.

Hope that helps!

onlyroz

Anyone who wants a low cost meal should consider making their own quiches. All you need is some shortcrust pastry (either buy it ready-made or do it yourself), a few eggs, a bit of cream, and whatever leftovers you have in the fridge (e.g. sausage, bacon, cheese, tomato, mushroom, peppers, peas, sweetcorn...). I made some today for the first time and they turned out pretty well. They're now in the freezer for whenever I want an easy low-preparation meal.

Kantankrus_Mare

They look really good onlyroz!!!

I need to have another go at shortcrust pastry.

Its the one thing in baking I cant seem to get right.

Was watching Gordon Ramsey last night, he was making quiches as well, and its inspired me to have a go.

Ive never let my pastry rest before in the fridge so Im hoping thats the bit where I go wrong.

So confusing about what fat to use as well.

My nanna used to use half marge and half lard...........Gordon uses all butter........and where I work they use all marge ? ? ?

onlyroz

Well I cheated and used this:
http://www.tesco.com/groceries/Product/Details/?id=252632373
I got three quiches out of one 500g block.
I "blind baked" the bases before I put the filling in and didn't bother resting or chilling because the pastry had been refrigerated up until I rolled it out.

freyasmum

I agree, I absolutely love quiche - my favourite at the moment is a mushroom tart which has mushroms, thyme and parmesan in it. Served with a green salad, it's delicious either hot or cold so perfect for your main meal and then for lunch the next day.

Kantankrus_Mare wrote: »

They look really good onlyroz!!!

I need to have another go at shortcrust pastry.

Its the one thing in baking I cant seem to get right.

Was watching Gordon Ramsey last night, he was making quiches as well, and its inspired me to have a go.

Ive never let my pastry rest before in the fridge so Im hoping thats the bit where I go wrong.

So confusing about what fat to use as well.

My nanna used to use half marge and half lard...........Gordon uses all butter........and where I work they use all marge ? ? ?

When I make pastry, I use all butter - to me, it's the superior flavour - but you can use any combination that you want to.

Lard gives a better workability but compromises (to my tastes) on flavour, but you could try a few batches of pastry with each combination and you'll be able to see which you prefer.


I probably spend an absolute maximum of £200 a month (less than £150/60 if I remember to buy stuff for packed lunches instead of having school dinners ).

That is for two people (one of whom is a 6 year old who can eat a main like an adult - I honestly don't know where she puts it :eek:) and includes breakfasts/lunches/dinners, 2 monthly magazines for me (hers come from her pocket money), and any meat I buy (got a few rolls of beef from sainsburys on offer for just over £4/kilo last month. My mum cooked them for me and sliced them all. We all had two dinners for 5 people and loads of sandwiches for £10). I buy corn fed, FR, organic chicken which does the two of us a few meals and then for soups, and I like the steak from M&S. I also love a skulk around Waitrose - the condiment aisle alone can keep me entertained for ages :A

I don't buy alcohol/cigarettes and am too tight to buy lots of chocolate and rubbish :rotfl:

We could happily spend much more, but I too prefer to keep the money in my bank to spend on other things, such as days out ice skating and things like that