Re-prioritise I need help to change my supermarket budget for next year.

Towser

This is what I have spent in the last 32 days on four people. Please crit it, shoot me down. Re-prioritise for me I need help to change my supermarket budget for next year. I could probably do with advice as to where to buy all this stuff too eg market, meat wholesaler ect. I can see now I was definitely spending on what I like rather than what I should. Sometimes you need people to point out the bleeding obvious. I definitely will be reorganising my lifestyle choices. That’s why I started my spreadsheet and hopefully in 12 months time it will look a whole lot more sensible.
meat 98.6
alcohol 65.9
drinks 59.79
groceries 54.64
fruit & veg 36.54
biscuits 35.34
butter &oil 27.59
nuts 24.8
sweets 22.65
choc 20.1
crisps 19.23
pizza 17.94
puddings 14.13
diary 13.47
condiments 13.33
cheese & eggs 12.85
bread 9.48

As always cutting back not cutting out.

Towser

Hi I should have explained I put my fresh olives into oil and butter category as well as houmous and goose fat.

I have an Autistic son which skews the budget somewhat too he likes certain crisps, pizzas, processed food because they are always the same. Trying to get him to eat homecooked food is virtually impossible. We throw a lot of food away especially when he insists on cooking- can’t stop him he has no idea of quantities ect. We have got a lock on a cupboard now for the stuff he usually goes for.

I have not got the foggiest when it comes to meal planning is there a good idiots guide, website or thread.

Horseunderwater

The first thing I'd do is plan on ways to save the foods that your autistic son likes - Only you know the brands types etc. Shop around for bulk deals on those first and foremost.
Then concentrate on real food for your family. Cooking in batches and freezing some of it - save time and money - but that is where you need to organize a bit more. Perhaps buying reduced food in bulk, when you find it. If you had a pressure cooker, you can make batches of stew/ soups to place in freezer fairly quickly. But you'll need containers to store it in. I find ice cream tubs from the carte dor range better than the cheaper 2ltr ones. So if you are buying that, save the tubs. Appeal for some on freecycle/freegle groups.
Once you have stocked the freezer up - make a list of freezer stock and pin it up. Tick off each time you use one of something, then you will know when to make more and so on. It can be quite a flexible way to save money and provide interesting meals cheaply. And you never know, you autistic son may wish to try a little now and again.

geordie_joe

Horseunderwater wrote: »

If you had a pressure cooker, you can make batches of stew/ soups to place in freezer fairly quickly.

You also use a large ordinary pan, a stock pot or even a slow cooker.

Horseunderwater wrote: »

But you'll need containers to store it in. I find ice cream tubs from the carte dor range better than the cheaper 2ltr ones. So if you are buying that, save the tubs.

You don't need a lot of containers, just put a poly bag in the container, pour the soup in, and when it's frozen remove the bag from the container. Then you can use the container to freeze another batch.

I use a soup bowl, put the bag into the bowl, add the soup to the bag then seal. I then put the bag into a 1kg marg tub and freeze it. Then I remove the marg tub and have a nice square shaped portion of soup/stew that stacks nicely in the freezer.

Treevo

Towser wrote: »

This is what I have spent in the last 32 days on four people. Please crit it, shoot me down. Re-prioritise for me I need help to change my supermarket budget for next year. I could probably do with advice as to where to buy all this stuff too eg market, meat wholesaler ect. I can see now I was definitely spending on what I like rather than what I should. Sometimes you need people to point out the bleeding obvious. I definitely will be reorganising my lifestyle choices. That’s why I started my spreadsheet and hopefully in 12 months time it will look a whole lot more sensible.
meat 98.6
alcohol 65.9
drinks 59.79
groceries 54.64
fruit & veg 36.54
biscuits 35.34
butter &oil 27.59
nuts 24.8
sweets 22.65
choc 20.1
crisps 19.23
pizza 17.94
puddings 14.13
diary 13.47
condiments 13.33
cheese & eggs 12.85
bread 9.48

As always cutting back not cutting out.

You spend a lot on alcohol and drinks - I'm shocked at how much actually, and I too have four adults to feed. I think £20 is a ridiculous amount to spend on chocolate too! £20! And the same on biscuits as you spend on fruit and veg!

It's impossible to give you proper advice because we don't know what your aim is and what you're buying and in what quantities. You could be buying 30kg of value ketchup and four organic chickens for all we know.

Edwardia

To me, that the fact that after meat, you spend most on alcohol is a tad worrying. Those are empty calories as alcohol has zero nutritional value.

£20 in a month on sweets and £35 a month on biscuits does seem a lot, I'm thinking of all that sugar !

The idea of looking for special offers is a good one as is bulk buying for the regular things and https://www.mysupermarket.co.uk would help. If you have a Home Bargains, 99p Stores, Poundland or Poundstretcher near you, you might also be able to save on sweets, biscuits, cakes, tinned food and toiletries.

geordie_joe

Edwardia wrote: »

To me, that the fact that after meat, you spend most on alcohol is a tad worrying. Those are empty calories as alcohol has zero nutritional value.

There's more to life than nutrition.

Treevo

geordie_joe wrote: »

There's more to life than nutrition.

Not when you need to cut back and clearly can't afford to drink more than you spend on most other foodstuffs!

ska_lover

Gosh that IS a shocking amount to be spending on such things for a 32 day (one month?) period on certain bits - but I am sure we can put our heads togehter and help sort it out

If it were me, I would be looking to massively reduce the below bits:-
alcohol 65.9
drinks 59.79
biscuits 35.34
nuts 24.8
sweets 22.65
choc 20.1
crisps 19.23
pizza 17.94

geordie_joe

Treevo wrote: »

Not when you need to cut back and clearly can't afford to drink more than you spend on most other foodstuffs!

Yes there is, it is there whether you can afford it or not.

There are other things the op could cut back on, she spends more on sweets+choc+crisps+puddings than she does on alcohol.

geordie_joe

Towser wrote: »

Re-prioritise for me I need help to change my supermarket budget for next year.

To be honest we can't re-prioritise for you as only you know what is important.

We could tell you to stop buying sweets as they are not essential/not nutritious/fattening etc. But sweets might be important to you or your family and you may not be able to stop buying them.

What we should be doing is helping you get what you need/want as cheaply as possible, not deciding what you should or should not be eating/buying.