I keep trying but....

elantan

i just cant seem to get my shopping bill below £250 a month for two adults,

i have tried shopping in Aldi, and yes i saved some money there, but not enough to warrant the diesel money to get there, i have tried Asda, Saninsbury's, Morrions ( we dont have a tesco near us)

i have tried buying my meat from the Asian supermarket as it is much cheaper than even costco ( yes i tried there as well but wasnt saving enough money to warrant the £30 a year charge) i'm ashamed to say but we cant even afford to buy free range eggs and that bothers me alot, we have to buy caged eggs due to the price ( £1.50 for 15 in asda) we also buy our milk from farm foods 2x4 litres for £1.60 so we are trying

i use coupons as often as i can ( just used a £5 off £40 shop at Morrisons today) and we try to get things as cheap as we can, we have swapped down brands and looked at the discounted food ( 20p off tomatoes today ... really not worth it as they go out of date today)

we dont eat processed food and we do try to batch cook whenever we can, we eat as low carb as we can so wont be filling our food out with pasta or rice etc as that wouldnt suit us but willing to listen to any ideas

can anyone suggest anything i may be doing wrong or anything i should try,

thanks in advance

el

FairyPrincessk

That sounds like it could go lower, at first glance, to me as we feed two adults on between £160-£200 a month. We used to do supermarket orders every few months but not shop almost exclusively at Ald!.

What is included in your total? Does that include toiletries, alcohol, cleaning supplies or pet food? How many days a week do you eat meat, and would you consider going veggie a few days a week? and by veggie, I mean pulses rather than pre-prepared meat substitutes.

I think we only eat meat or fish 2-3 days a week, and for health reasons I try to make that fish rather than meat most of the time. We aren't vegetarian the other days, just meat free, by which I mean we still use stock etc. that isn't officially veggie. We don't buy free range eggs, for a variety of reasons, nor is any of our meat "ethical" in the strictest sense. We buy very few cleaning supplies--perhaps a bottle of bleach once a year, a bottle of spray twice a year and a bottle or so of disinfectant periodically. I use vinegar when i can find it cheaply, but not when I can't. Our wine etc. is not included in our grocery budget. Our toiletries are, but we use the cheapest range of Ald! stuff for all of that. Anything else, such as cosmetics comes out of our pocket money budget--so if you're including these things, then your total might be about right.

Do you meal plan? How much food do you regularly throw away? If you're regularly throwing away a quarter of a loaf of bread or mouldy veg then maybe try to eliminate waste--sometimes focusing only on the money means you miss opportunities to save.

scaredy_cat

have you got your last 3 or 4 receipts? separate in lists the food, drink and household items and how often you are buying them. Then perhaps keep an eye on any food wasted.

do you buy for 2 or more - ie 500gm of mince when 250gm will do?

meritaten

I can easily spend £250 a month in Aldi for us two! it isn't all on food though. I can pick up a pair of PJs or shoes, OH gets all excited over their tools and our last TV came from Aldis - so did the DVD player, and the freesat! oh and lately its been plants - honestly, my garden is courtesy of Aldis!
We can afford this - but, if I was shopping on a strict budget I am sure that I could get it down to about £35 or £40 per week. (tho I do have to budget for feeding grandkids over the weekend and for one three days a week who insists on their sausage and beans for breakfast).
during a cash crisis I did a weeks shopping in Aldi for my son (his wife and three kids) and spent just over £50 which included nappies etc). you can spend very little or you can spend quite a lot - but against most supermarket prices I don't think you can beat Aldi or Lidl.

elantan

FairyPrincessk wrote: »

That sounds like it could go lower, at first glance, to me as we feed two adults on between £160-£200 a month. We used to do supermarket orders every few months but not shop almost exclusively at Ald!.

What is included in your total? Does that include toiletries, alcohol, cleaning supplies or pet food? How many days a week do you eat meat, and would you consider going veggie a few days a week? and by veggie, I mean pulses rather than pre-prepared meat substitutes
.it's for food and toiletries and like you very very little cleaning stuff, i use stardrops, bleach, soapnuts etc usually i buy 6 months worth at a time at a cost of around £5-10 max, toiletries i tend to buy deodrant in bulk when it is on sale but it lasts me a long time, i use a mooncup for that time of the month most months and towels to back me up. but they are cheap always ones ( £1 a pack) as i am allegric to the more expensive perfumed kind

we eat mainly vegetables, i was a veggie for years so make most meals vegetarian with just a little bit of meat, and not every night, i would use 400g of mince for 4 meals ( 2 each) and stock up on veggies, i would say we eat veggie maybe 3 nights a week. not so much pulses though tbh, more just vegetables cooked in various ways

I think we only eat meat or fish 2-3 days a week, and for health reasons I try to make that fish rather than meat most of the time. We aren't vegetarian the other days, just meat free, by which I mean we still use stock etc. that isn't officially veggie. We don't buy free range eggs, for a variety of reasons, nor is any of our meat "ethical" in the strictest sense. We buy very few cleaning supplies--perhaps a bottle of bleach once a year, a bottle of spray twice a year and a bottle or so of disinfectant periodically. I use vinegar when i can find it cheaply, but not when I can't. Our wine etc. is not included in our grocery budget. Our toiletries are, but we use the cheapest range of Ald! stuff for all of that. Anything else, such as cosmetics comes out of our pocket money budget--so if you're including these things, then your total might be about right.
that isnt including our alcohol either. we dont tend to drink an awful lot tbh, and when we do we buy the wine when it is on special ( we like the £7.50 a bottle but wait till its £5 then buy a few bottles at once ... which lasts us months)

Do you meal plan? How much food do you regularly throw away? If you're regularly throwing away a quarter of a loaf of bread or mouldy veg then maybe try to eliminate waste--sometimes focusing only on the money means you miss opportunities to save.

i tried meal planning and it works in the extent we know what we are eating and can plan around my shifts etc, it didnt seem to save us money though, i maybe just not inventive enough with the cooking ,

we dont throw away much ( if anything) at all as we both hate waste, we use the veggies up in soup, dont eat bread etc

i just cant seem to pin point exactly where we are going wrong grrrr

elantan

scaredy_cat wrote: »

have you got your last 3 or 4 receipts? separate in lists the food, drink and household items and how often you are buying them. Then perhaps keep an eye on any food wasted.

do you buy for 2 or more - ie 500gm of mince when 250gm will do?

i tend to buy the mince in Kg portions then freeze it into 400g portions which i try and make us last 4 meals

will have a look at reciepts though that might help a bit

thanks

elantan

meritaten wrote: »

I can easily spend £250 a month in Aldi for us two! it isn't all on food though. I can pick up a pair of PJs or shoes, OH gets all excited over their tools and our last TV came from Aldis - so did the DVD player, and the freesat! oh and lately its been plants - honestly, my garden is courtesy of Aldis!
We can afford this - but, if I was shopping on a strict budget I am sure that I could get it down to about £35 or £40 per week. (tho I do have to budget for feeding grandkids over the weekend and for one three days a week who insists on their sausage and beans for breakfast).
during a cash crisis I did a weeks shopping in Aldi for my son (his wife and three kids) and spent just over £50 which included nappies etc). you can spend very little or you can spend quite a lot - but against most supermarket prices I don't think you can beat Aldi or Lidl.

Aldi is cheaper of that there is no doubt, it just wasnt cheaper enough for us to travel there and back, i didnt buy anything but food when we were in there although hubby did have a look at the various bargains, we just didnt get any, i did also find with aldi the food wasnt as tasty, their rocket lettuce wasnt as nice so i would have to go elsewhere to buy that, and they didnt sell spinach so i would also have to go elsewhere for that also ... their eggs and milk were cheap enough mozarella cheese was the same as asda etc ... onions just slightly cheaper ... not a great deal cheaper though

scaredy_cat

i found that an uneconomical buy is value or cheap toilet roll, cos it's thin i used more rather than buying the quilted one (4 rolls) and it lasting a month.
so some of the value things might be used up quicker than a more slightly expensive brand.

elantan

thanks so far everyone i do appreciate it

scaredy_cat

i buy washing up liquid 2 for £1.50 as it's cheaper

elantan

scaredy_cat wrote: »

i found that an uneconomical buy is value or cheap toilet roll, cos it's thin i used more rather than buying the quilted one (4 rolls) and it lasting a month.
so some of the value things might be used up quicker than a more slightly expensive brand.

i too have found this .. not only with toilet roll but with things like rocket lettuce ... yes some places might be cheaper but its not as tasty

my last lot of toilet tissue i got from costco when it was on sale, but i have heard good things about Nicky toilet roll will need to try it out and see