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

FireWyrm

Gosh. thats a hard one to answer and I guess it would be impossible to achieve without some fundimental shifts in beliefs.

1) Cut down the meat. 3 oz per person is adequate.
2) Get lots more veg in your diet, almost anything can be bulked out with it
3) Buy ingredients, not 'food' so ditch the supermarket ready-mades such as chips, ready meals etc and buy the ingredients instead.
4) All cakes and biscuits and bread are homemade. No exceptions unless it's doughnuts on offer.
5) Buy spices and herbs in bulk. My spice cupboard is 6 feet tall and 2 feet wide. It is stuffed with cous-cous, spices, herbs, dried ingredients of every description
6) Buy flour in bulk and make it
7) Veg boxes are delivered via a local supplier, so I dont buy nasty stuff from the supermarket that is rotten by mid-week.
8) Snacks are made - so sausage rolls, muffins etc...all home made at weekends or evenings.
9) Brew your own alchahol. I brew wine and beer routinely. I have some mead maturing and will be ready about March. I never buy commercial alcahol anymore except shorts from low cost supermarkets
10) Go early to local shops on a Sunday and look for the meat bargains. Never pass up an offer on meat and fish from the markets. You can freeze it if needs be.
11) Pulses are your friend, learn what goes where and how to use them. We have jars bought in bulk from ebay, there is a thriving market out there, use alternatives to the big few supermarkets.
12) Never set food in a supermarket. All my food is bought locally or from Aldi.

[Deleted User]

I cook from scratch as I don't like processed food and I'm far too frugal to waste cash on something that I can make for half the price. I spend about a quarter to a third of my budget on fresh fruit and veg I love veg and am just as happy with a veggie curry as a meat one , although I do enjoy meat,but have cut back on the portion sizes. This week for example I got a YS chunk of rib eye steak from the freezer it had cost me £!.50 before Christmas reduced from £3.60.By the time I had given it a good wallop with the rolling pin there was more than enough there for two nights meals. First night was with salad and wedges and the second night was with boiled new potato's and cabbage and carrots.So twice this week I have eaten steak which sound really posh but at 75p per portion per night its no dearer than eating some sausages.So it is possible to eat well at a reduced price.

Tonight I am going out to dinner with my sis-in-law (her treat) as we only see each other about once every couple of months and take it in turn to buy dinner.We will go to the local chain pub where they do two meals for a tenner, so its more than enough for us as an occassional night out treat.

Tomorrow I go to my DDs for dinner, I usually take to pudding as I go every week on a Sunday afternoon.I will make an apple pie tomorrow as I have some sliced apples in the freezer that I cooked a little while ago as they too were YS and I think 39p for a bag of bramleys.

I live alone and I think because I cook most of my food and don't buy 'pinging meals ' (instant stuff) I eat very well, and certainly don't spend over much at all. I cook a vat of soup weekly and this too is portioned up and frozen In the evenings I will either have a soup starter and main meal, or main meal and a pudding.This is how my late Mum always fed us as children if she could during rationing.It means you are always full when you got down from the table and the main meal doesn't have to be a huge one.

I never turn my nose up at reduced or YS stickered food and use pulses and oats to'extend ' things like chilli's curries or sheps pies.
I can comfortably eat healthily and amply on £60-100 per month and if as this month I have £60.00 put by into my 'food purse' I know I will with luck have some cash left over at the end of the month as I often shop from my food stores and freezer and do my best to stay away from the big supermarkets..

I am lucky that I have both a fresh butcher,greengrocer and fresh wet fish shop near to where I live and the greengrocer will even cut a cabbage in half for pensioners. He is a lovely chap who often sorts out yesterday stuff, and reduces it to almost half price.I bought a big bag of wonky out of shape carrots in his shop last week that weighed up at 2lb and cost me 15p.With some coriander that I had indoors it made me a couple of litres of soup.I try to utilise what I have and make every scrap of food count.
I cannot bear to throw food in the bin and I'm afraid that BBF and sell by dates go out of the window with me I use the nose and eye test if it looks edible then it will get cooked and eaten.:):)
This morning I am making a veggie lasagne with some past their best brocolli and carrots, a few mushrooms and some peppers that need to be used up and a tin of tomato's a bit of celery and some chopped onion.I have plenty of cheese in stock to make the cheese sauce so I cost my veggie lasagne at around a pound and I will get at least three portions out of that which will go into the freezer.three meals for a quid I think is a pretty good bargain

Lilyplonk

When things are 'tighter than usual', I go almost completely 'SmartPrice' and cut out bought biscuits/cakes of any type. I will NOT go as far as SP tea/coffee, but it does go down to 'own brand' from our 'good favourites'. It's also when I tend to do a 'freezer hunt' ....................

However, I really do need to a full Freezer Inventory and get to grips with the contents. When I transferred everything to a new one recently, I found three large deli-counter pizzas (bought on whoopsie) when I was only aware of there being one in there; I'm also aware that there's a couple of 'joints of meat' that could do with being used up . As I've got some apples that need using up (apple sauce), think I'll rescue a piece of pork for tomorrow . Got some carrots and leeks in fridge drawer that would go well with those .....................

Jojo_the_Tightfisted

I cut out as many carbs as I can. Whilst this sounds counterproductive, I find that this means I'm not looking for fillings, for toppings, for butter, for treats. Plus the more I eat of them, the more I crave them, whereas if I don't have them, after a couple of days, I don't think about it much.

This also instantly cuts out the vast majority of ding dinners and other processed foods. Which again, cost more than they are worth.



I largely eat meat, fish, fruit and vegetables. I use a Turkish grocer for most of it, as the items are invariably much, much cheaper than the big supermarkets - two perfect lamb chops cost £1.87 in there, compared to the best part of a fiver elsewhere. And the butcher split them in half to reduce the cooking time.

I'll pick different fish according to which is cheap, and again I avoid the supermarkets for this. As I only have a tiny freezer, it is full of meat, fish and the occasional bag of peas/fruit rather than have more processed carbs taking up space. Everything, including mince and other meats are divvied up into individual portions as soon as i get home and frozen in bags.

Were I to have a larger freezer, I would batch cook jacket potatoes, individually bag and freeze them and increase the amount of fruit and veg in there.


On the rare occasion I have to use the supermarket, I do not walk down the microwave meal, the crisp or fizzy drinks aisles. That way I can't even be tempted. I buy red label tea bags when Twinings isn't on offer, basics bleach and large boxes of detergent only when they are on offer, using an eggcup to measure out the amounts into the machine. Dishwasher tablets were bought by doubling up on a special offer and a bunch of coupons and my usual attitude is unless it is a spectacularly fantastic offer that I genuinely need, I can probably get by without whatever it is.

I do spend quite a bit by comparison on fruit, as I will get exotics by preference - no point buying it if you don't really like it, after all - but that usually deals with any cravings for sweet things.


So I feel that I don't eat too badly. And I've lost some weight, which can only be a good thing.

Going4TheDream

Meal planning and having a good store cupboard has helped me, also really looking at portion sizes, weighing and measuring food was an eye opener to what a portion of rice/pasta/meat (or whatever) really was.

When cooking if a recipe says it feeds 4 we eat half and freeze half (where possible) whereas we used to find we would over eat and throwaway a lot, also we now using up left overs and throw virtually nothing away. This and down sizing and trying other brands has helped.

Having a good store cupboard means I can knock up a pudding from the cupboards, often meals from the cupboards cheaply.

I make a lot of soup for taking to work for lunch, and often make bread (OH still like white shop bought though) which is why I don't make more as it is definitely nicer and cheaper home made

icecreamdogpark

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.

As HappyMJ said re the levels of sugar,salt,fat can be through the roof with cheap processed own brand goods,not all of course but some,it's good to get savy with reading and understanding labels. We eat top quality meat/fish but just buy less of it,stretch it in recipes or eat it less often,or ideally but it when on offer or reduced.I to do a lot of meal planning and will change the plan if I buy something reduced that needs to be eaten ASAP .I have found you find more bargains in the evenings on week days ,but Friday and Saturdays are quiet on the bargain shelf. Also learn to eat what's in season !

sweetilemon

When I cut down (which is alway the aim!) I mealplan around what food I have in then adapt if prices are better on something else instore. I cut back on 'extras' like cheese, garlic bread...any kind of meal accomplements that are unnecessary. I make sure im stocked up of value juice and crackers so have always got juice and a snack stopping my nipping out to buy something pricey.

luminated

Again thank you all so much for giving your time to help me with this one. So many valuable tips which we must now try and put in hand.

We already do many of the ideas but know we can do more & (hopefully) without feeling too much of a difference :T

pennynestegg

Saving those leftover pennies helps if you can get into a habit.

A habit makes saving easier you already know what to to do and when and where you are going, almost automatically.Then its just a question of how much you save but even here the same amount every time makes it all that much easier to stash the cash, whether to your pennynestegg money pot, under the mattress or straight to the bank.
Setting your Goal can make saving fun when you know you are on your way you can feel the weight building up.
Not getting to your cash can help even the small change will build to those pounds in no time at all if left to grow.
So get the happy habit and start putting away those pennies to grow to pounds.
Happy saving.

maman

luminated wrote: »

Any help would be really good as me and my wife really need to get out grocery spending down once and for all.

You've been given some excellent advice but sadly I don't think any of us can sort it 'once and for all'. I feel I'm in a weekly battle with the shops on prices, it's a full time job keeping on top of it! There was a time when people kept a price book or had a figure in their heads that was good value, no more.:)

CT19720 wrote: »

I do buy our bread in iceland though.

I used to go to Iceland for Burgen bread (£1 instead of £1.50 in Sainsbury's). Our local store was refurbished a couple of weeks ago and bread shelves have shrunk and no Burgen any more (unless sold out but couldn't see a space for it). Is this general across the country or am I just unlucky? I asked an assistant about this 'improvement' and she said they now had more freezers which is what Iceland's all about. The trouble is the freezers are mostly full of cr*p! No wonder that poor people are fat! (JOKE, just paraphrasing government minister;))