starting to budget food shop

[Deleted User]

I have always bought a complete clucker and usually put it in the slow cooker and can get upmteen meals from it.I live alone so I like to think that I can eat fairly well on less than £100.00 per moth.I budget for that and whats left over goes into my holiday fund for next year.So far this month I have only spent just over £11 odd but I have been 'shopping' from my freezer as I am trying to run it down a bit.Lots of home made soups and crackers for lunch cereals or porridge for breakfast and tonights evening meal will be a sheps pie from my freezer.I always make a large amount of mince and bulk it out with carrots and onions and a handful of lentils or porridge oats then when cooked portion it up for the freezer and top each portion with mashed potatosIts suprising how many portions you can get from a lb of mince. sometimes I will stick some chilli powder in and some kidney beans so I can have instant chilli and only have to boil up a bit of rice for a nice meal.Some reduced price pitta breads from the freezer in the Remoska for 10 minutes and I have a hearty meal that cost me around 50p
Inventing different way to streeetch food is a challenge and I love doing it and using every scrap of food in the fridge that I can.No wastage in my house.

LisaLou1982

pinkskyatnight wrote: »

hi everyone
ive just started to keep a very tight reign on all of my spending and i just wondered what you would think a 3 adult household should spend on food shopping a week? or whats the least we could spend etc?
we have been lidl shoppers for over a year now and are now scared to go into any other supermarket as the prices seem so high, we do however sometimes have to go to sainsburys to get things that you cant get in lidls.
i think we spend about £300 a month on food, do you think this is high for 3 adults or should i carry on with what im doing?
also any cheap meal ideas would be fab! we are trialing a wheat free diet at the moment so please bare that in mind with your ideas.
many thanks

Hi PinkSky, just a quick note about you being wheat free - are you coeliacs or just trying to keep a wheat free diet?

Have you registered with Juvela and Coeliacs Society? They will send you some free samples of food - pasta, bread, crackers etc which are great and i got a big box of goodies from Juvela!

HTH x

LunaLady

We are a family of 4 (1 adult, three children).

I spend about £60 a week. I get fruit and meat from our local Deli which can be a bit more expensive than the supermarket.

It would be more but one of my boys is a very fussy eater, so his things bump up the shopping bill considerably.

Edwardia

OP I think you're doing well myself. Good food aids health and my grandma always said if you don't have that you don't have anything - she lived to be very nearly 90.

maman

I think you're doing fine OP, it compares well with my budget. We spend about £200 on 2 adults so that's roughly equivalent to your £300 for three. That's eating very well with loads of fresh fruit and veg and almost no processed food. I do my main shop in Aldi or Lidl with the top up stuff in Sainsbury's. Bargains I'll buy anywhere I notice them!:rotfl:

You could bring it down by eating things that aren't so healthy but I'd say no to that unless you're desperate to save a bit of money in the short term. I'm also a big fan of using leftovers for meals, so much so that I create them deliberately by cooking extra veg or taking out a portion before the dish goes to the table. I use these for lunches or to save myself time next day (bubble & squeak/ fried potatoes etc).

louby40

My partner lost his (well paid) job last week. We earn a similar wage so our income has been halved. Big shock!

We have some savings which will last 2 months or so but we sat down and realised we needed to make some big cuts regarding our spending. We can't change our mortgage but we can change a lot of other stuff.

We have 4 kids between us (2 teenagers only stay with us at weekends). I used to budget £400 a month for food and shopped online with Tesco. Usually plan our meals, more to be organised than to budget. Most weeks I tended to spend close to £120 than the £100 allowed.

This week we've planned our meals/lunches etc and went to Lidl, never been in there before. We stuck to the list and spent £61!!!:j

There are a few bits we couldn't get from there but I was really surprised. Even if we spend £10 elsewhere we are quids in.

Obviously we still have stuff in our freezer/cupboards that we are relying on and I didn't buy any cleaning products or alcohol.But Lidl is the way forward!

Louise

grazzzz

Since my situation changed due to illness and losing my job i have changed completly the way i shop i have now after speaking to the supervisor of my local supermarket found the best time to get the food which is reduced ! i have a large freezer so most of the bargains are frozen and have over the last month bought a leg of lamb for £1.42 fillet steak, £1.11 a joint of pork 90p 2 corn fed chicken crowns £1.75, and smoked salmon 45 p x 2 packets
and 4 yes 4 shoulders of lamb in mint sauce gravy for 18p each , i just payed 10p for a pre bagged pack of 6 bananas(still green just going yellow) and also last night got a punnet of grapes for 15 p and a stone baked pizza with sundried tomatoes or 28p all the stuff had expiry dates on the day i bought them and have saved a fortune whist eating a better diet than i have had for years !
i have bought over £200 o meat in the last 6 weeks for less than £16 i am set for xmas there is no fast and hard rule of when to get the best stuff however i have discovered certain days are better than others to find a bargain and if you are prepared to wait you will be rewarded !

camNolliesMUMMY

I must admit the 5kg bag of chicken lasts us a Month but I do buy a whole chickens and stretch to 3 or possibly 4 meals..we love good old stews/casseroles soups etc

European_Citizen

camNolliesMUMMY wrote: »

we love good old stews/casseroles soups etc

Stews and casseroles are great: mop up the juices with bread and you're full quickly; almost always have leftovers for the next day

miss_edith

I spend about £40 a week to feed 2 of us. We don't scrimp as we like good food but we're pretty much veggie and cook everything from scratch so the money goes a long way. I get some fruit from the market, the odd tin from B&M and everything else from Waitrose.