How do I lower my food bill?

wagboteddy

I noticed that some ppl on the forum have said they can live on £12 per person for food a week, yet I worked out that milk, bread, fruit & veg, toilet roll & kitchen roll costs for me, my partner & baby £22-£28 a week and that's not even including meet, sandwich stuff etc.
we are both dieting at the moment so are eating a lot of fruit and all meals are home cooked.

How do I reduce the cost of our shop ? I worked out it costs £150 a month for food plus shampoo, toilet roll, detergent etc ....is this good ?

cheepskate_2

Get rid of the kitchen roll for starters. Use washable cloths this will reduce your bill without missing anything.

Put a list up of what you buy, I am sure then people could tweek it.

Ken68

Reconstituted powder milk (25p a litre) will go a long way to filling your protein needs.
And growing your own fruit and veg but if you can't do that go for frozen mixed veg.And if you live near the countryside, elderberries and blacknerries are free.
Keep away from the alcohol aisles and confectionery and processed food. Use basic vinegar for cleaning (less than 20p a bottle).
Radio and free books from the library instead of TV etc. Clothes from a charity shop.
No end of savings if you aint too proud.

krlyr

You might want to check out the "Old Style" section on the forum - fab for moneysaving tips relating to household stuff, from homemade cleaning products and laundry "gloop", to MSE recipes, how to prevent food wastage, stretch meat further and so on.

Do you buy lots of branded stuff? Think about where you could cut costs without noticing too much. For example, at home we just have a fairly cheap loo roll - no Charmin or anything. Yes, it's not quite the same but its used for all of 5 seconds and then flushed away, does it really need to be triple-layered, covered in refreshing balm, with pretty flower patterns on it? We don't use value stuff - false economy, with how thin it is and how much extra you have to use, but generally I'll go for a 9-pack for £2, e.g. Tesco's Daisy range, whatever Iceland regularly stock, etc. Sainsburys is no good for cheap loo roll, I've found - even their own cheapest one isn't that cheap.
Sometimes I've found some even better deals and stocked up - for example, a while ago there was a deal with milk&more a while ago, a £10 voucher then a further £5 for everyone you referred who placed an order. So I got several packs of Regina toilet rolls for about 10p, and then a further pack when my £5 from referring a friend came through - bargain! Or recently, Iceland have had a jumbo pack with extra free rolls, I think it's £3 rather than the £2 but with the free rolls it worked out cheaper. We have a little cupboard in our spare room that's half full of multipacks of loo roll we've bought on deals!

Shampoos - we tend to use Tesco own, they do a coconut one which smells lovely. I haven't used conditioner since I moved - don't know what it is about the water at the new house but I just don't seem to need it! For a cheap version of these deep cleansing/clarifying shampoos - add a spoonful of bicarbonate of soda to your dollop of shampoo before lathering, it achieves the same thing!

HM bread can work out cheaper if you have to time, but often I'll just stock up on the 2 for £2 brands (normally includes a few, e.g. Warburtons, Hovis, etc.) and freeze either a loaf or a loaf and a half. Frozen bread doesn't make as good fresh sandwiches in my experience, but it's absolutely fine for toast. So we'll often buy a couple of loaves at the weekend, have sandwiches for lunches, and then freeze the remainder for toast/toasties. Use up the crust ends for HM breadcrumbs, so there's no waste (and an awful lot cheaper than those tubs of Paxo breadcrumbs!). You can use the same principle with reduced-price short dated bread, it'll be fine whacked in the freezer. Again, probably better for toast than sandwiches, but still perfectly edible!

As per the loo rolls - stocking up on offers helps, if you have storage. It does rely on you having the funds for the initial splurge, it's difficult if you're on a tight budget without the ability to put down the extra at the start, but if you can do it, it can save a lot. If baked beans are half price, I'll buy 3 or 4 4-packs as we'll get through them. If meat is on offer, it's bought and frozen. I bought loads of cartons of passatta the other week because they were about 29p. A couple of days later they'd gone up to a regular price of about 69p - just a fortunate coincidence they were priced up so cheaply when I had popped in for some tomatoes! Also on that note, making a note of potential substitutes in recipes can help, like I know we're not that bothered about chunks in our bolognese so I'll happily flip between buying tinned tomatoes and passatta depending on what's cheapest at the time. Adapt your meals to what's on offer - if we're having jacket potatoes and tuna is on offer, there's the topping. If it's not - are the beans on offer? Is there a good deal on cheese? Or do I have a portion of chili in the freezer we can whack on top? This could help with your fruit and veg too, tailor your meal plans to what's on offer. We tend to only have something served with salad, e.g. lasagne, when the salad is reduced. Between the supermarkets available to us, most of the stuff we want is on offer in at least one at the time we want it - but if it's not, we just have something different to eat. Some fluidity in plans can help with saving money.

Other tips..well, you mention detergent. One tip I've done for quite a while, is use half as much as the box recommends. The clothes still come out absolutely fine, just as clean as usual, but you get twice as many washes out of it. Quite a saving there really - we buy the jumbo 65 washes or whatever boxes of powder when they're on offer at about £10 (we have to buy branded here unfortunately as OH was allergic to the own brand ones I used to use) but that then lasts us 130 washes - so 7/8p a wash isn't too bad! This logic can be applied to other things, manufacturers are often overly generous on recommended amounts because it makes them a profit!

As cheepskate says - post up a list of your usual groceries and I'm sure people will give more specific advice

quintwins

Have you tried shopping online? even if you don't do it just to wht you can get without impulse buys.

I think £150 is ok if you have to to spend, if your babys on formula then thats acually really good.

I clea with fairy (alyways bought on offer) value bleach and cream cleaner, we keep a bottle of antibacterial for the benches and it lasts us about a year as i just skim over them after i cean them with hot water a fairy, i dust with a damp cloth it's better for yoru furniture, i do my mirrors with hot water and a dry cloth and buff them clean.

Laundry liquid i buy in bulk, i get a whole years worth for about £20 from makro (they always do half price or bogof just before xmas)

Toilet roll we buy cheap on offer stuff, lidls or sometimes my mil will give us a packet of crushelle when makro do it on bogof.

Fruits a big one for me aswell as i have 3 kids, i look for offers and shop around, we get apples from the market, bananas from tesco's and then whatever on offer reduced stuff we can, i also buy big sacks of spuds, milk again i shop around and never pay more than £1 for 2 litres, a new asda has opened here and they reduce there milk way down to 20-30p in the mornings it has that days use by date but it's still in date for 4 days!!!

I try to get lots of reduced items, yesterday i got £65 of shopping for £22 and the only full pirce thing in it was the child sweets, i got whole chickens for £1.60, finest meatballs for £1.45 ect i prob got enought meat for 2 weeks and enought fruit and veg for just over a week, the day before i got veg reduced, i got 2 seasonal packs (swede,carrot, parsnip, onion) a pre-prepared carrot and parsnip pack, and 2 pre-prepared casarole mix packs for £1.60, so really i have 2 weeks worth of food for less than £25 all i'd need is a bag of porridge for breakfasts.


Saying that my food budget is £200 so not far off yours, we have 2 adults and 3 children, my youngest is only 3 but he's a grazer and regularly eats alot more in a day than me or hubby.Our budget includes takeaways tho, we spent £25 on pizza a few nights ago so it all adds up.

eric_blair

I've been trying to lose weight and someone said a common mistake is to eat too much fruit. Plus I find fruit can be expensive this time of year and you fell you have to eat it before it perishes.

Have you thought about using oats and cereals to keep you going through the day? A bulk bag of oats can go a long way and is great for loosing weight without feeling hungry. I have porridge for breakfast with a little sugar on and last until well after lunchtime. Make flapjacks as snacks if needed. Its a good and cheap way to bulk up your food intake.

wagboteddy

Thanks for the replies.

I do my shop at Aldi andanything I cant get there Ill get from Sainsburys.My problem is thatI start off with good intentions and I write a menu plan for themonth with a budget of £150 , this last about a month and then Iforget whats on the plan and make up different meals.I dont stick toa certain weekly amount and Id hate to think what I actually spend onfood/household etc.

So I sat and wrote out thebasics I need every week ( I have a 16 month baby she she has BlueMilk).Then I wrote a meal plan for next month (I need less ingrediants because I'll have a bit of food left from this month)

Below I week 1 and week 2basics (which rotate each month).

Week 1 Quantity Total

Bread
3
£1.00
£3.00
Blue Milk
3
£1.00
£3.00
Green Milk
2
£1.00
£2.00
Apples
2
£1.00
£2.00
Pears
2
£0.80
£1.60
Plums
1
£1.00
£1.00
Tangerine/Clementines
1
£0.69
£0.69
Melon
1
£1.50
£1.50
Grapes
1
£1.89
£1.89
Bananas
1
£1.00
£1.00
Cucumber
2
£0.80
£1.60
Lettuce
1
£1.00
£1.00
Red Onion
1
£1.00
£1.00
Radish
1
£0.59
£0.59
Peppers
1
£1.00
£1.00
Potatoes
1
£1.50
£1.50
Tomatoes
1
£1.00
£1.00
Kitchen Roll
1
£0.99
£0.99
Toilet Roll
1
£1.99
£1.99
Eggs
1
£1.35
£1.35






£29.70

Then after writing my foodplan I write down what I need for the tea's plus lunches andbreakfast.

Wk 1

Mushrooms


£0.78
Green Beans


£1.00
Lemons


£0.59




£2.37

Week 2

Burgers


£1.00
Breadcakes


£0.65
Tuna


£1.09
Mince


£2.69
Trout


£3.60
Cous Cous


£0.50
Tin Tomatoes


£0.31
Whole Chicken


£2.48
Carrots


£0.27
Parsnips


£0.66
Mushrooms


£0.78
Garlic Bread


£1.00




£15.03

Week 3

Buns




£1.00
Smoked Mackerel




£2.00
Cous Cous




£0.50
Chicken






Green Beans




£1.00
Sweet Chili




£0.89
Spinach




£1.00
Sweet Potato




£0.69
Whole Chicken




£2.48
Mushrooms




£0.78






£3.26

Week 4

Passata




£0.40
Mozzarella




£1.50
Ham




£1.00
Mince




£2.69
Carrot




£0.27
Sausage




£2.00
Veg




£1.00
Smoked Mackerel




£2.00
Tomatoes




£0.31
Whole Chicken




£2.48
Tuna




£1.09
Canneloni Beans




£3.88






£18.62




Mymeals for the month are


Beef Stew Beef Stew Chicken Casserole Chicken Casserole Lamb & Colcannon Pie Spaghetti Bolognese Spaghetti Bolognese Sausage & Mash Beef Burger & Chips Chicken Tikka Masala with Rice & Naan Hotdogs & Chips Trout & Cous Cous Haddock, Roasts & Veg Pizza & Chips Scampi, Chips & Peas Fish Steak, New Pots, Sweetcorn/Fish Fingers, New Potatoes, Peas Lemon Chicken & Garlic Potatoes


I then get the following each month

Black Bin Liner 1.5 Foil 0.9 Wash up liquid 1 Detergent 3.32 Conditioner 0.6 Cat Food 3 Toothpaste 1 Shampoo 1 Conditioner 1 deodrant 1 deodrant 1
£15.32

So in total its £165.62, then in top of that I'll spend £15 on nappies/wipes.

• Making my own bread is out as I dont have time after working and looking after my 16 month old.
• Im not fussed about branded stuff and will always get the basics if in tesco etc
• Where do ppl get sacks of spuds from ?Iv had one in the past and it lasted me ages but i cant remember where it was from!

We are doing slimming world at the moment so we are also buying low fat supanoodles, weight watcher soups etc .

santer_2

This has most but not all offers, maybe search for half price or better to save money or buy one get one free to build up a stock of items.

http://www.madaboutbargains.co.uk/offers/Off-Your-Trolley.htm

This is for searching for an item, use change store to suit

http://www.mysupermarket.co.uk/#/shelves/savvy_buys_in_asda.html

This is for own brands, tick the convenient shops and dietary requirements, tick to include tasting notes, set the score to 8+ then enter a search item

http://www.supermarketownbrandguide.co.uk/search.php?table=all

krlyr

For potatoes, I just Googled "farm shop near [town name]" and looked on the Maps section. Give them a ring and ask the price Some do general whites, some will do a choice, e.g. Maris Pipers, King Edwards.
If you don't use up a whole sack before it's done, see if a relative or friend will split a sack, my nan often has some of ours.
Also I prep them all in one or two goes if I can be bothered (I drag OH in to peel them!) and freeze, while they're still fresh/firm. I tend to make HM wedges (peel, chop into wedges, par-boil for 3-5 mins, drain, put in a bowl and drizzle with oil, then add seasonings - I tend to do garlic & herb wedges and a sort of fajita-esque spicy seasoning), mash potato (make up a little firmer as it goes a bit softer when microwaved), roast potatoes (chop, par-boil, drain and open-freeze on trays so you can bag up loose), hash browns (peel, grate - I often use the food processor with its grating tool if I'm doing loads - drain as much liquid as you can, add in chopped onion, then I partially fry them to just-before-golden stage and freeze. Shoved in the oven for 20-30 mins as per regular hash browns) and so on.

You could bulk out a lot of your meat meals to stretch them further. For example, lentils tend to dissolve quite well in bolognese and are barely noticable. Grated carrot is another good one. Adding extra kidney beans to chili, or various other beans for a change (e.g. aduki and so on). Add veg to the stews and casseroles, I add lots of carrots to things like cottage pie, steak pie, etc. as I cook them for a long period of time and by the end of it the carrots taste very meaty anyway. For chicken dishes I often bulk out with other veg, e.g. peppers, brocolli and cauli, etc. - I often buy frozen veg because once it's cooked in a casserole type dish you don't notice any real difference in flavour or texture anyway. Another 'trick' I do, usually with chicken dishes because the flavours mix well, is substitute some of the chicken for sausage. We buy bags of frozen sausages fairly cheaply, cheaper than chicken, so we're not losing out on meat content but the meal doesn't cost as much and the chicken we've bought lasts us longer.

Also, another mini tip - sometimes tinned tomatoes are cheaper than passatta, often the multipacks if they're on offer. So what I do if the recipe calls specifically for passatta (like a pizza sauce) - whizz the tin of tomatoes in the blender. Voila, passatta (practically, anyway)!

Would a bottle of lemon juice work in-place of fresh lemon for your recipe?
Could you buy larger bags of couscous, if you eat it regularly? OK, a 25kg sack may be overkill but it may be cheaper to buy, say, 5kg.

Edwardia

Washable cloths are a hygiene issue, it's pointless using anti-bacterial sprays with a germ laden cloth. 99p Stores sells 6 Flair kitchen rolls for 99p www.99pstoresltd.com

Fruit isn't actually non fattening btw as it's really just fructose + fibre. Fruit juices are all fructose without the fibre so even worse and fruit juice drinks usually contain added sugar on top.

If you're budgeting, the temptation is to fill up on cheap carbs like bread, spuds, pasta and rice but if you cut down on the carbs to diet and eat more veg and protein then that's more expensive.

I'd suggest cutting out takeaways and ready meals and cooking from scratch instead.

Also buying more own brands and bulk buying on special offers. Also check out Lidl or Aldi.

Many people on MSE buy reduced price food or use Approved Food to get short dated/out of date food.

tessie_bear

im converted to aldi...its great really good quality food at good prices i think....the super 6 veg is great....could you keep a shopping diary and record what u buy and spend...you could then see what u can cut back on
let us know what u buy and peeps will suggest things
good luck