Normal Food Shopping

nfollows1982

We cut down by not getting sucked into the 2 for £XXXX if we only needed and would use 1 of them.

I also watched that programme about supermarket offers which was quite an eye opener and learned not to get sucked in by the offers.

I've been in Asda many times and they've got these big '£1' stickers on things, and if you look closely they have always been that price, you're just more likely to buy if you think you're getting a deal.

Tesco's favourite is advertising 2 for £2, when the items are a £1 each anyway.

Also, some of the 'family size' things in the supermarkets work out more expensive than buying 2 smaller ones. For eg, Flora big pack was on offer in Asda for £3, but the smaller tubs where only a £1 each and you got the same amount for less buying them.

TBH, I don't enjoy walking round the supermarket with a strict list, given a better financial situation I'd quite gladly spend a small fortune every month.

Like I said, it's all down to circumstances!

sam959

There are 2 adults in our house hold and we spend about £300 p/m. We do by booze most weeks but i dont think £380 is a lot on a family of 4. It really depends where in the country you live! I live in the south east of England so shopping is more expensive. We do a monthly shop, and then buy bits and pieces each week. We used to eat a takeaway each week but now we eat out the cupboards and meat that we have frozen and cook from scratch. I found we spent about £80 pm on takeaway without thinking about it. Have cut that down to 1 p/m now!!

vesper

There's two of us in our house, I tend to spend £110 a month on groceries, and £20 on misc (toiletries, bog roll etc).
I buy all my meat in bulk which comes to about £30 a month (our butcher has some fantastic deals on). We eat a lot of veg, which comes from the market at about £10 a week. Then I go once a month to the supermarket or some where like home bargains to buy the rest at about £30 a month. And then go to the local farm shop occasionally that sells off sacks of tates for £2.
I make my own bread and cakes. But I have time for this as I don't work. Hubby has a pack lunch. We don't drink very often so this keeps the price down. I don't try to keep the budget down that's just what it ends up as. We often are left with too much food so I freeze a lot, we don't eat takeaways, and I rarely eat convenience food at home, everything is done from scratch, but then I have the time to do so,
This weeks menu
Sunday- Lattice wrap, mash, veg
Monday- Bangers, mash, veg
Tuesday- Salmon and pasta
Weds- Home made pie, roast tates, veg
Thursday- Salmon and pasta left overs
Fri- left over pie
Sat- chicken bake

heretolearn_2

I probably average out to around £150 a month for one of me now, and used to spend about £250 a month for two of us, including basic toiletries and washing powder etc.

That is being fairly 'normal' middle of the road, I would think; not many ready meals etc most things cooked from scratch apart from buying salad packs (if I buy individual salad stuff most of it goes off) and a sandwich from Boots or Greggs 5 x a week. Quite a lot of variety in cost; I have a good dig through all the reduced foods, but also treat myself to a nice bit of salmon or steak etc once a week or so. But then I don't buy stuff like cakes and biscuits/crisps/cokes that others buy. I spend more than I need to, I know I could take that down to about £100 a month if I had to, but I had years of penny-scraping when I was younger and feel I deserve something nicer now!

It depends who you are feeding as well. Teenagers eat loads - my son used to cost a fortune to feed and was still always hungry!

podperson

I do think planning definately helps. For example, if I'm making something like chilli I'll make a huge pan full and then freeze a couple of portions. I go to a group one night a week and am usually late home so then I can just reheat it and have it with something quick like a microwaved jacket or as burritos (so in tortillas with salad and sour cream). I might also freeze portions just as the mince or just with the tomato sauce on it so then can do bolognese or cottage pie or something later in the week. Things like pasta I'll do a big batch of and take some for work lunches. For roasts I'll get a bigger one then we need and use the extra for sandwiches/salads for lunches etc.

rising_from_the_ashes

missprice wrote: »

I will for e.g. buy stuff on offer even when I may not need it for weeks yet so last week were tinned tomatoes at 30p each so I bought 4 tins
Douwe Egberts coffee on offer so bought 4 jars (which will last us 8 months)
Heinz beans (I don't eat but others do) 8 tins on offer so bought 8 tins.will probs last 6 months
loo roll on offer so bought 2 large packs
so last weeks shopping came to £80
but next weeks we will struggle to get to £40 as we have all the basics

My overall budget is ridiculous compared to some and I really struggle to try to keep a lid on it - down to having Crohn's Disease and a very restricted / expensive dietry needs:

eg milk is £1.31 / litre :eek: x 7 / week = which equates to a staggering £480 / year or £40 month alone!

Compared to being able to buy "normal" milk at 44p / litre which would come to £13.50 / month ..... a big difference:(

I shop in a very similar way to the above - in a bid to try to keep overall costs down.

quantic wrote: »

So does anyone who spends less fancy detailing the kind of meals they typically have during a week? I would really love to save if possible, not out of necessity, just hate being overly wasteful. I feel its more our planning of meals that is our trouble.

Just now I'm on a very limited (and unfortunately proving to be expensive diet as just out of hospital) which is mainly chicken / fish ..... however, when well, I try to balance costs out by batch cooking and can manage to get meals like Bolognaise sauce for £1 / serving which helps even things out a bit.

I'm also limited with choice here - Mr T is an 18 mile round trip, Mr A 18 miles in a different direction (both small stores) with A*ldi, L*idl and big SM all over a 40 mile round trip ..... no trips for YS or offers at different stores for me I'm afraid as not worth the fuel on the off-chance.

I would love to be somewhere where there were different SM all beside each other!

Any

There is 2 adults in our house, plus 1 more person for roughly once/twice a week for T (sometimes less, sometimes more, depends on how friends come and visit, but generally we do feed extra person at least once a week). Breakfast, dinner and lunches for me for work, occassionaly OH who can work from home.
I have £350 left over in our joint account budget after the bills and I spend it without fail every month:-)
I reckon I spend about £220 on groceries, and then once in a while I buy home stuff like bedding, sheets, pans, vouchers for dinners out, airport parking for holidays, take out.. For example last week I ordered 12 bottles of wine for Christmas. Somehow it always dissapears..
And while I do try to buy at cheaper places (I shop just about everywhere, I go to Costco, B&M, Tesco, M&S, Lidl, Aldi... you name it) and I just buy whatever is on offer (real offer, not what I am told is an offer), I don't think I skimp on either quality or quantity.
We have 1 "good" meat meal a week at least (steak, rather then stew) and I try to put in 1 "good" fish a week (such as salmon steak or whole white flat fish, from fresh counter/market rather then frozen/prepacked stuff) and some "cheap" options.. such as spag carbonara (2 eggs, couple slices bacon, pasta and parmazan) or corned beef hash, or chicken soup with baked bread.

Overall I don't think we eat badly, I think we have a balance and I think we spend reasonable amount - I am not saving on this budget or even trying to, but then I also do not feel the need to overspend either even though we can afford it..
I just like the way we are. I hate paying more for something without seeing benefit behind it (shopping corned beef in Tesco when at B&M is 30% cheaper) so that is why I shop at different places. But I can see benefit on spending £5 for lasagne from M&S (for emergencies/when I can't be bothered) or buyng a free range chicken.

Buttonmoons

It's me & my 6yr old, and 3 cats (that are particular) I must admit I haven't dared add up what I spend in the supermarket as I know fine well it's loads. Im in there alllllllllll the time - Could probably survive a nuclear explosion with the amount of grub in my cupboards......

Ive got a bad habit of buying in loads of coke zero though, im utterly addicted too it

vectra90

Family of 3, 2 adults and a child.

We spend around £320 a month and we plan before we go what meals we are going to make. We do however get lazy 1 day and save something like pizzas and swap that day for a take out.

System

Just two of us and hubby who comes home weekends and we spend about £75 a week that includes everything other than dog food.