Cheap food shopping tricks please

nurse-money

How do people manage to get the grocery shopping so cheap?

We are a couple, no children and can easily spend £300 per month.

maman

nurse-money wrote: »

How do people manage to get the grocery shopping so cheap?

We are a couple, no children and can easily spend £300 per month.

I suppose it depends on where you live, how much time you have and what you like to eat.

I cook for a couple and probably spend closer to £200 a month and we eat extremely well IMO and that's most meals unless we're eating out socially.

I shop weekly mainly at Aldi with an (increasingly) small top up at Sainsbury's. Plus I have the time for a bit of shopping around in Lidl, Farmfoods, Wilkos, £shop and Iceland (just occasionally for a freezer/storecupboard top up).

P.S. Alcohol not included.:o

Mrs_Rachel_Trelfa

Wow £300. It's just me and the hubby and we have a budget of £100, max of £80 to spend on 'every day shopping' and at least £20 per month on buying home grown meat e.g a whole lamb, half a pig etc.

Do you cook meals from scratch or ready meals etc? Finest brands or value brands? Also where do you shop?

VfM4meplse

May I direct you to the OS board as there must be hundreds of threads just like this one....

dellrossy

Great tips...thanks

surfsister

yes there's a huge thread on this somewhere on here!

but a few tips: shop when the supermarkets reduce items - around 4 to 5pm. we bought xmas dinner for 24p in waitrose this year, using £20 of vouchers from online surveys (pinecone etc). we shopped at 3.30 on christmas eve and came out with a trolley full; had a free latte and read the free papers - in fact the £2.10 bus fare cost more than the meal!!people were buying 3 or 4 fresh turkeys for £4 or £5 reduced from £25 or more! always use a shopping card for each store - especially waitrose as they often take another 10 or 20% off reduced stuff!

buy veg/fruit at the market, don't buy brands like hp, buy bogof deals and read special offer lists through the door. buy loo rolls/kitchen trolls/bread/milk/ tinned toms at farm stores and only go when passing to save petrol. we employ the if you're passing pop in to any shop to check the reduced area and special offers.

buy 5lb of mince, cook it at once with tins toms, herbs etc and make shepherds pie/spag bol etc and freeze in large marg/ice cream containers. buy whole chickens when they are £2 and have roast chicken, cold chicken then soup. A slow cooker is ideal here as you cook the chicken in stock then use it to make the soup.

read the food thread on here for tips on specials, recipes etc.

good luck!

Edwardia

My budget is £100pw for two people but that includes all disposables eg garbage bags, loo rolls, vitamins, shampoo etc. My husband eats wheat free and I low carb and both of us eat organic.

My top tips would be:
1. https://www.mysupermarket.co.uk to look for offers on brands you can't give up and bulk buy.
2. To use own brands for things like home-made sauces and baking where the end result won't taste any different.
3. Investigate stores you wouldn't normally use provided you don't have to go out of your way to get there (9p saved on tomatoes but £2 more on fuel/fares is a loss).

Burgen bread in Iceland is 50p less per loaf in Iceland than Waitrose. Buying one loaf a week in Iceland would save £26 a year on the Waitrose price. Hayward's piccalilli 460g is 1.89 in Tesco, £1 in Iceland. Those aren't offer prices, they are regular prices for the same brand and weight.

4. Go for yellow stickered meat, poultry and game and freeze it to use later.
5. Kitchen roll 6 rolls for 99p, 99p Stores, 4 rolls for £1, Iceland.
6. Use Lidl like a deli if you have one nearby.

Arlandria606

I don't have the luxury of being able to shop every few days for current bargains, and I don't like to freeze raw meat, bread, or milk, so I have other ways of keeping costs down. We shop mainly with Ocado (~£50 per week), but top-up at our local Tesco (~£10-£15 per week). That includes food, drinks (including alcohol, but we don't drink much), cleaning stuff, some toiletries, and some cat food.

1. Learn to cook cheaper cuts of meat well. A small pork belly for a couple of quid can do a lovely roast for a couple. I'm looking into a slow cooker at the moment to increase my options here.
2. Stock up on long-life stuff when it's on sale. DH has a Dr Pepper addiction, so I buy tons when it's significantly reduced.
3. Same for cleaning products, laundry products, dishwasher stuff. Buy in bulk when it's going cheap.
4. Buying in larger sized packets tends to be cheaper, so find versatile ways to cook staples. Switching up the herbs and seasoning on roasted potatoes, for example, can add variety when the two of you are working through a 2kg bag. Even better if you get spuds that are versatile enough to roast / mash / fondant (I love Albert Bartlett Rooster for their versatility).
5. Perfect some cheap meals: toad in the hole, shepherds pie (I have a recipe that averages about £1 per portion), scrambled eggs on toast, that sort of thing.
6. If something is on special, buy lots, cook lots, and freeze the leftovers. Mince is a good one; when that's on special, you can bulk buy and make vats of shepherd's pie, bolognese sauce, and chili con carne, portion it up, and freeze it.
7. Grow your own fresh herbs. It's easy enough to do and will save you from buying the fresh or dried stuff.
8. Try out supermarket own brand versions of things you buy regularly. I find that I'm just as happy with own-brand lemonade (17p for 2L from Tesco) compared to Coke and similar (£1.98 for 2L from Tesco).
9. Re-use leftovers. A pile of roasted veggies will usually make a good soup; leftover mashed potato with shredded veggies makes a nice potato cake; leftover meat is good for sandwiches and soups; leftover bread makes pain perdu, bread and butter pudding, or croutons, etc.
10. Plan what you're going to eat and stick to it. Don't buy anything that isn't on the plan, especially if it's fresh and has a short shelf life.
11. Learn your substitutes so you can take advantage of unexpectedly great deals without changing your meal plan.
12. Learn to make your own simple sauces, glazes, rubs, and marinades so that you don't have to spend more on packet stuff.
13. If you do most of your shopping at 1 or 2 supermarkets, it's worth investigating their loyalty cards and schemes. I'm quite impressed with Tesco - their vouchers are always for things I actually buy, to the point where if a friend looked at them, I think they'd know they were my vouchers rather than anyone else's!
14. Don't be afraid to try new things - but don't try them all in the same week! Be sure to surround anything adventurous with old favourites in case of a misfire.
15. If either of you are currently buying lunches, add your lunch budget to your grocery budget and take a packed lunch - it's much, much cheaper. Even doing it a few days a week is helpful.

Hopefully one or two of those are helpful!

dlusman

Arlandria606 wrote: »

and I don't like to freeze raw meat, bread, or milk,

Sorry to be curious - but why ?

Steve059

Shop from a list. You only buy what you need and don't buy what you don't need. Of course, if you find a bargain, then rules are meant to be broken.

Now, if someone can find a fool-proof way of remembering to take the list with you ...

maman

Steve059 wrote: »

Shop from a list. You only buy what you need and don't buy what you don't need. Of course, if you find a bargain, then rules are meant to be broken.

Now, if someone can find a fool-proof way of remembering to take the list with you ...

And I'd add to that, make the list against a meal plan and 'shop' from your cupboards, fridge and freezer before you buy anything else.