How often do you shop?

applepad

I need to stop spending as much and would rather have money in my purse than as food in my cupboards.

I allocate £70 cash a week, but do tend to get my card out towards the end of the week.

Also buying too many treat things, which is not good as I have put on 3 st in the last 9 months, down to eating crap and also because I am not as active as I was due to illness

CT19720

I shop once a week on a saturday morning to get fresh fruit and bread from nearby town. For christmas I bought myself a shopping trolly, so I now walk to the local town (3 miles there and back), and now only buy what fits in the trolly, and what is comfortable to pull in the trolly on the way back.

For general shopping I go to lidls or aldi/butchers once every 2 weeks, but I am able to do this because I have good storage and 2 freezers, so can always make a meal out of what we have, as I do always cook for scratch and batch cook for 2 adults/2 kids.

I used to shop every week in tescos, but got fed up with the prices rising, and realising that their special offers weren't so great, that I switched stores for my shopping, and only now go to tescos to get a couple of bits that lidl/aldi don't do, once a month.

meritaten

I go on Thursday for a weekly shop to Adli as that is when the offers are in! I don't meal plan until I get into the store and then brain goes into overdrive and I plan the weeks meals as I go round (does sometimes mean I have to backtrack but that aint a prob). for example if I spot a bargain I may have to go back and get the veg I think will go perfectly!
I have doorstep milk and unless grandkids drink it all I rarely have to pop out to get more - I do go to local shop to get bread as OH doesnt half get through it!
I think shopping every day is very expensive - you are always tempted to get other items!
my nan and mum used to do it - back in the fifties early sixties - but there were no supermarkets then and the local shop was always pleased to sell you one or two slices of ham or two ounces of cheese. or butter! but that was just the way it was.

YORKSHIRELASS

How often do I shop? As infrequently as possible. As someone else said unless you have really strong willpower you will pick up things you dont need.

I mealplan and shop once a fortnight. If we run out of something I try and manage without or use something else instead, unless its essential.

And I tend to ignore special offers too. Again I just find you end up buying things you dont really need.

Sequeena

I have an ASDA shop delivered every Saturday (last week I spent almost £70 stocking up this week I only spent £36). My OH is a manager in a major supermarket so if I need milk, eggs, bread etc I get him to pick them up.

Today I spent £7 in lidls on 1kg of pork (2x 500g pork joints), 10 chocolate bars and 2 kiwis. They have good deals on this weekend!

I've started meal planning and whilst I haven't stuck to it 100% it has helped a lot!

lushlifesaver

we have a weekly budget of £30 for the two of us, I work full time (though that only started last Monday!) and bf works half days 5 days a week and trains all afternoon on two of those days!

The budget included any take aways/fast food (bf has tea from the chippie every Wednesday and we may have one other take away a week) but doesn't include Saturday nights as those are our 'date nights'. I take my lunch with me Mon-Fri (don't work weekends) and make bfs everyday too as he takes it with him Mon and Fri or eats it at home on the other days. I have breakfast daily, bf takes Belvitas/Go Aheads to work (bought on offer) and we both eat tea at home.

We bulk buy: chicken breasts, mince, laundry detergent, fabric conditioner and toilet rolls based on offers in Makro every 8-12 weeks but leave it as long as possible before stocking up again. I have wondered about adding cheese to this as we are using a fair bit sometimes (would slice and freeze)

Everything else I meal plan (right down to snacks) and shop for. I have usually been shopping once a week on a Saturday but I am tempted to now either change that to once a fortnight (as every other week I go to visit my parents) or do it on a Friday after work before I get the bus back (or on my lunch hour if I get chance).

Interesting to read how others do it. I have contemplated doing an online 'stock up' once a month then just buying milk, bread and fresh fruit weekly but want to see if this works for others first!

vasseur

Once a week and I go to A1di on Friday evening after work - ours is nice and quiet then. I meal plan and go with a list and can be in and out of the shop in less than 20 minutes. There is just dd and me so our budget for the week is £40 but I usually come in under this - any remainder is spent on buying anything that I couldn't get in there - admittedly becoming less and less these days - at one of the big4. Apart from milk, if we run out of anything during the week we will make do until the next Friday.

I actually quite enjoy doing the food shop and seeing how low I can get it. Must get out more...:o

ragz_2

applepad wrote: »

I need to stop spending as much and would rather have money in my purse than as food in my cupboards.

I am the opposite, money is more valuable to me as food to feed my family... price rises on food can happen shockingly quickly and the savings I make having it all here when I need it are better than money sitting in my purse!

lovesabargain123

I need to get in control of this myself...

Finding I'm going to at least 1 supermarket a day and spending an absolute fortune! This week I am determined to find the bottom of my freezer and use everything in the cuboards to start a fresh, then hopefully next weekend when my freezer is empty I shall be going to the farm and stocking up on meat for the month, meal planning round that and shopping accordingly!

charlies-aunt

I find the local market is really good for meat, veg and fish - better quality and much cheaper than supermarket pre-packed and there is less waste as you can buy exactly what you need - for example -if you want 5 sausages rather than a pack of 8, you can buy just 5 (easier on the waistline too as you stop being a human swingtop bin for all those too good to throw away left overs!)

Try going when its not too busy and don't be shy of asking the butcher how to cook things either, they are more than happy to explain - things like oxtails are very cheap and make really tasty stews & soups.

I used to buy ready cooked pigs feet as an occassional treat for our dogs for 99p from pet stall but the butcher will sell you 10 uncooked ones for £1 - I freeze them and simply dry roast a couple of them at the end of cooking Sunday lunch.

Go regularly to the same fruit and veg stall - they get to know you and you get better deals & they often throw an extra item. Buying a selection of salad stuff will often prompt them to give you a free bunch of spring onions, box of cress etc