What do you cut out/down on when reducing grocery spending

luminated

tessie_bear wrote: »

hi...i focus on trying to use up leftovers and having no waste....i also have a list of cheap meals that i use such as
quiche
chilli
sheps pie
spag bol
jacket pots
hm fish cakes

hth

We have fish once each week, mince once per week & something like a pork chop once each week. The rest of the weeks meals are vegetarian to include Chilli, Sphag Bol, Shep Pie.

luminated

YORKSHIRELASS wrote: »

Mealplanning is what ultimately stopped me overspending. I only buy what I need and waste very little food.

I have absolutely no problem in buying the cheapest of anything. Meat included. I am too poor to be proud about it!

I try to stick to the rule that I wont buy anything ready made if I can make it myself.

But ultimately there is a level for everyone and I do wonder how some people who quote really really low food shopping figures manage to eat much fruit and veg. If you really have to then thats different I suppose.

We both like vegetables but not too keen on fruit apart from grapes every few weeks. My wife usually makes everything from scratch unless she wants an easier evenings cooking then it's whatever is easy.

HappyMJ

luminated wrote: »

True I do need to watch what I eat as I have suffered many Cardio incidents & am under the Cardiologist & Endocrinologist.

Our average spend to include groceries as well as the Superdrug type of items (shampoo, razors, hairspray, etc.) is around £320.

That's fine....I'd just concentrate on making sure there is no waste. Yes you could reduce to supermarket brands on some items to save a little although really I woudn't be buying anything processed at all. Processed food tends to have high levels of salt and fat and the cheaper it is the more of it there is and that is the last thing you want....but really your budget is reasonable.

luminated

HappyMJ wrote: »

That's fine....I'd just concentrate on making sure there is no waste. Yes you could reduce to supermarket brands on some items to save a little although really I woudn't be buying anything processed at all. Processed food tends to have high levels of salt and fat and the cheaper it is the more of it there is and that is the last thing you want....but really your budget is reasonable.

We did try all supermarket own brands & worked back up a level when we found one to be 'ugh'!

Interesting to hear that you feel our budget isn't too bad which is comforting. We may be lucky as we are both just claiming our pensions. Each our state and small occupational pensions & I get DLA but believe me the DLA soon gets swallowed up with the extra costs of being unwell & not able to walk more than a few yards.

catshark88

Our biggest shift was going to all home cooked food and meal planning. I now buy what I need, rather than what looks useful or tasty.

I'm a bit limited in shops as I live in the sticks, but I'm finding that I do a mr M shop 2 out of 3 weeks and then pick up bits in Herr A as I need them. My only altnative big shop is W@itrose. I know they say that they price match branded goods, but a shop there always comes out almost double my average one at Mr M....

Mrs_Veg_Plot

I found meal planning and home cooking were the best way of reducing my weekly shopping bill for the 3 of us. I keep a small store cupboard and have a chest freezer that is well stocked with YS meat.

Soup and pudding once or twice a week, veggi once a week, fish once a week and a roast at the weekends.

I stretch mince with veg and lentils. 500g of mince this week has made a spag bol for the 3 of us (added lentils, a handfull of oya mince, lots of onion and peppers), tonight it has had chilli and kidney beans added and has made chilli for 3 of us and there are 3 portions waiting to go into the freezer. I also stretch stews etc with lots of veg, lentils and a handfull or two of porridge oats.

I bulk buy lentils, rice and dried beans from the Asian section of the supermarket.

I do my main shop at Aldi but also go to Home and Bargin, Poundstretcher and Tesco for the few bits I can not get else where.

I stopped buying fizzy pop, fruit juice and most branded products. I make my own bread, pizza bases and nann breads but i do have a bread-maker for this.

I am not proud and checkout the YS sections every time I go shopping. I can not remember the last time I bought sliced meat for sandwiches that was on YS. I portion it up and freeze it so that there is enough in each portion for sandwiches for OH and DD.

I Bulk buy toilet rolls, sanitary products and soap powder. In fact i bulk buy quite a lot of things.

In the autumn I buy a big bag of carrots and potatoes along with a net of onions and store them in the garage under a blanket to use over winter

We also grow our own veg and salad stuff. Another favorite is forraging. I make my own jams and chutneys. we have found apple, plumb chestnut and cobb nut trees local to us (although the squirrel always beat me to the cobb nuts.

I know my Oh and I are in reasonable health so are able to do all of these things . I think that even small changes are worth it as the pennies all add up. Try buying non branded goods or growing some salad leaves on the kitchen windowsill.

Lots of threads on here have good money saving tips. Today one poster shared a recipe for ginger cordial made for pence. I love ginger beer and will be trying this out this weekend.

It is always worth looking at your cleaning products as well. A bottle of stardrops and one of vinegar will cover most cleaning needs.

The key is to keep chipping away at it. You will not change it all in one go.

luminated

Thanks so much Mrs Veg Plot all really good stuff.

It is true that I reckon it will be a case of chipping away at it rather than having a big effect in one go.

dawn_rose

for me i do a reckie of what i have in and try to be inventive coming up with meals based upon what i have in. I use frozen veg rather than fresh coz it limps after a few days. I base my 7 main meals around what i have in already, bread and filling for lunches, fruit, milk. i buy yellow stickered meat and freeze it and i do a vasic brand shop on most items ect nappies and cola (dh says its battery acid) also we will forgo the bottle of wine.

I manage to trim my shopping bill down from £130 a week family of five to £60 a week. the allotted budget is £85 max.

sjprmc01

Or week my OH and I decided to do an experiment and bought all 'value' stuff (and shops own of what want avail in value). We actually stuck with quite a lot of it!

Value yogurts, fromage frais, garlic bread, chocolate, midget gems, oven chips, custard, rice pudding, batter mix, cakes and biscuits and crisps all went down well, value shower gel is fine, pittas, pasta and other things I think most things you don't actually know the difference or its not different enough to justify the extra pennies

Josslette

What has been working for us is meal planning, it makes sure I buy things that I actually need and I try and use up things that I already have rather than buying other stuff because I fancy it. We've also been freezing leftovers like bolognaise sauce rather than going back for seconds.

We do still buy snacks, fizzy drinks(only a couple of bottles for the weekend) and treats. We can afford it and don't want to deprive ourselves, we work hard for the grocery money so need a treat!

Here's our meal plan for the week to give you some ideas...
Tonight - Thai red chicken curry, egg fried rice and prawn crackers(a homemade takeaway)
Saturday - Homemade pizzas and salad
Sunday - Stuffed pasta and tomato and cream cheese sauce
Monday - Beef casserole, veggies, yorkshire puddings, mash
Tuesday - Chicken tikka masala, rice, naan bread
Wednesday - Chicken fajitas, salad
Thursday - Beef pie(leftover casserole and HM pastry), crispy potato cubes, veggies, gravy
Friday - Chicken/Salmon BLT baguette, chips, salad
Saturday - Chilli con carne, rice or wraps

So yeah, we eat really well for about £200 a month. We go to Makro once a month and buy chicken breasts(they work out about £1 for a 250g breast and 1 serves 2 of us), sometimes bacon and crisps for OH's lunches. For everything else we go to Lidl and get the odd thing from Tesco/Booths/Sainsburys.

We do still live with parents(we spend the week at mine and the weekend at OH's) so do use some milk/cheese and veg from them but not a lot.

I would like to cut down a bit but not really sure how as I really like good food and can afford to eat like this but would just like it a bit cheaper I suppose.

Hope that helped