what would be the cheapest solution

Spendless

winniepooh wrote: »

I want to cut back but hubby is a food snob and I'm not going to get away with swapping packaging lol I have tried.....didn't go down well.
Please help

How did he find out? Years ago I bought a cheaper brand of brown sauce which husband ate, until I revealed it wasn't HP. Thinking that he'd be pleased about the lower cost. From that day onwards he has insisted he didn't like it and thought the recipe had been changed. After that I learnt to keep my mouth shut! more recently husband bought some Aldi washing up liquid cos he'd read a report saying it was as good as Fairy. He agreed with the report when he used it, so as an experiment I bought some Tesco wash up liquid in the same colour and poured that into the Aldi bottle and he still insisted it was as good as Fairy. Haven't bothered telling him.;)

dylan2011

My partner was just like this a year or so ago, but now I am pleased to say he has been completely converted.
Showing him all of the reciepts and bank statements really helped to give him a boot up the bum. However, I suppose I am lucky that I have complete control over all of our finances. What I did was show him exactly what money we had left after the bills, and told him to go to tesco etc. and try and get a full weeks shop with the money we had. Needless to say he soon gave up.
We buy from Aldis, with no complaints:
Beef mince
Beef burgers (fresh ones, 4 for £1.99 usual price, but only get them as a treat when reduced, but these are proper meat burgers, honestly, try them, it's the first time I have ever got away with serving 1 burger for my major meat eating partner, and I have to cut them in half for myself because they are sooo meaty)
Chicken (whole chickens and also chicken drumsticks are good value)
Passata - 29p a carton
Corale Baked Beans (try adding a bit of extra salt or sugar to your tastes, see if this helps at all)
Fruit/Veg - whatever they have on offer - dig around a bit in the boxes to get the best freshness
Tortilla wraps (garlic and herb ones are delish)
Ryvita style crackers
Frozen tuna steaks, £2.99 a back of approx 5 steaks
Frankfurters
Ham
Milk
Eggs (unless I find a deal elsewhere)
Bread (the everyday value bread at 50p a loaf is the best cheap bread I have found for freshness)
Biscuits
Tinned fruit
sweetcorn
Smoked Salmon (a very, very occassional treat)
Baby nappies & wipes
I buy all of the above any find them just as good as te*co, sainsbobs etc. There is other stuff as well, but I really do think a lot of it is a case of your partner associating it as being cheap rather than really not liking it.
Good luck in changing it, but maybe try giving him the weekly food budget and making him do the shop for a week, and see if he gets on - point out what other sacrifices he would have to make if you don't stick to it (mine was simple - stick to it or we lose everything.)

[Deleted User]

I have used all of the big supermarkets over the years and now (when I do go to one ) I usually use Morrisons. Tescos I have found have raised their prices so much its not worth going there even for the points(which the customer has to pay for with raised prices ) I like Sainsbobs for their basic range,especially tea bags, which I think is excellant value
Asdas I'm not keen on as I have found sometimes their stuff is reduced for certain things, but higher in others It a case of 'you pays your money, and takes your pick'
I think.Morrisons have very good bargains I have found on cheese and meat, but like all shops they are there to tempt you in. Icelands is where I get milk from at £1.00 for four pints, its good value and I also buy a loaf of bread a week in there its the Burgen Linseed an soya one which is as good as Warburtons seedy loaf and only a pound, so again good value
I do like a decent egg though and enjoy M&S eggs which are really nice although a bit priceier.I am lucky enough to have a real greengrocer locally for fresh fruit and veg although if Aldi has certain stuff on offer especially during the winter for root veg I will buy it there as the turnover is very quick, so its not been sitting on the shelves for long I also have a very good wet-fish shop locally and he is very reasonable for decent fresh fish.
Wilkinsons are good for toiletries and soap,detergents etc so I suppose its a case of finding out which shops locally to you are the best for bargains I am lucky as I am retired that I have a bit more time to shop selectively, as a person who lives alone I can easily manage on £60.00 per month to feed myself a third of which goes on fruit and veg and I do cook from scratch.I don't buy ready-meals as I can usually cook more for less money, and my freezer is always full of stuff I have cooked and frozen .I also use the marked down stuff and in my freezer at the moment I have 4 250 gms packs of grated carrots that were marked down to 3p a pack they will be used at various times to make either soup or to go into casseroles or shepards pies .Its possible with a bit of juggling to get your food bill down but like the others have said on here just don't tell him what he's eating and bin the wrappers.
Snobbery over food is absurd, food at the end of the day is a fuel which is used to give you energy and wasting money on a fancy labelled food stuff is just throwing it away.
I eat Sainsburys basic bran flakes for a cereal at 88p a box I am not paying three times that just to eat Kellogs I am not eating the box just paying for the advertising. That is what it really is when you buy a high valued item e.g.Persil, you the customer are paying for the fancy advertising and the content is no different than Aldi's Almat detergent apart from the price.

Buy lots of containers and start decanting stuff.
For years I would decant basic lemonade into a Schweppes bottle as my late OH would only drink it if it was schweppes Bless him he never knew but I did and the price differance was quite substantial :):)

hazzie123

I'm quite interested as to what you buy for 3 breakfasts,3 lunches and 3 dinners what would total £100 for just the 2 of you.What do you eat?

winniepooh

hazzie123 wrote: »

I'm quite interested as to what you buy for 3 breakfasts,3 lunches and 3 dinners what would total £100 for just the 2 of you.What do you eat?

Morning are usually cereals or porridge and for me scrambled eggs

Lunches are sandwiches, crisps, fruit, salad

Dinner is usually meat based.

I also have to buy lots of fruit juice and squash

Eighteen pints of milk

Cat food

Ameyturtle

Honestly it sounds mean but not telling him really is the best way and if he does find out and kick off show him how much money you are saving, used to be the same in my house my dad is a brand snob. He spotted one day that we had been buying baked beans from Sainsbury their premium own brand, he kicked off saying he only liked Heinz so next shop we did we bought Heinz and he hated them and got very quiet after that we now buy beans from aldi

The trick really is start slowly try the odd thing, if you have to supplement from other shops then so be it's what we do. We spend around £40 a week on shopping for 3adults and that tends to be for 3 meals a day and snacks and some detergents.

maman

winniepooh wrote: »

Morning are usually cereals or porridge and for me scrambled eggs

Lunches are sandwiches, crisps, fruit, salad

Dinner is usually meat based.

I also have to buy lots of fruit juice and squash

Eighteen pints of milk

Cat food

hazzie123 wrote: »

I'm quite interested as to what you buy for 3 breakfasts,3 lunches and 3 dinners what would total £100 for just the 2 of you.What do you eat?

Sorry if I missed a reply but are you really catering for just 9 meals a week or did you mean 3 meals a day for two people minus the Sunday roast (so 20 meals)?

winniepooh

Sorry I meant breakfast, lunches and dinner for three people

maman

winniepooh wrote: »

Sorry I meant breakfast, lunches and dinner for three people

Thanks. So if we take the roast out that's 60 meals.

Based on me doing much the same for two people for around £50 then I'd say you could come in at about £75 and so shave some off your budget.

People have given various bits of advice on how you can shop more cheaply and the biggest block seemed to be your DH and his 'food snob' habits. I'm curious as to how committed your DH is to saving money. Is this shared family finances or are you just trying to save on your part of it? The reason I ask is that (I think) you said DH funds the Sunday roast so it didn't count. So presumably that's not from the family budget.

Don't mean to be nosey or preachy but it seems unfair for you to be doing the proverbial 'scrimping and saving' if DH is refusing to embrace change or even see the need for it.

trulymadlydeeply_indebt!

Congratulations on giving up smoking - massive savings there straight away :T

As has been said above, you really have to tell a few little white lies, or even better, say nothing at all.

My OH used to have Named Brand teabags (doesn't drink coffee, so he likes a decent cuppa) and I mentioned everyone on here was raving about the Sainsbobs Basics teabags (27p for 80) and bought some. He instantly said they were rubbish and asked if we could go back to the others. I gave him another 2 Basics ones and he said how much nicer it was. Once he'd had his 2 cups I kindly pointed out that he had been drinking the cheaper ones. He flushed with embarrassment and started laughing. He is now converted and would be horrified at paying £2+ for the same amount of premium brand ones.

Baby steps for now - good luck, you will get there. Just remember to keep schtum. :rotfl:

The idea of decanters mentioned above is a good one too.