To Delivery Saver or Not Delivery Saver, That is the Q

Fredula

I've been using Tesco's delivery saver for 3 months and my plan runs out on Friday. I've been constructively dismissed from work and am not entitled to JSA so we're on £900 per month. My budget is worked out including the £12 delivery saver per month, but I'm wondering, do you think it would work out cheaper if I got bits and bobs here and there up the shops? I'm not very committed though and I find it difficult to have the motivation to go out unless I've got an appt. Our budget for food is £50 per week for three of us.

Does anyone have any hints or tips on how to stretch my food budget and any advice re shopping around/finding the best deals. I have a 2 year old who is not the most patient in supermarkets, and I only have use of the car when my husband is home as he uses it for work.

themarsbargirl

I used to find i saved money getting groceries online as it stopped me impulse buying-so if you factor that 12 into your grocery budget and just spend 47 you'll be the same iygm. eating cheaply-make everything from scratch, if you usually buy cereal bars make flapjacks instead, make your own biscuits or buy value (i can't make biscuits cheaper than value but i think hm are nicer) bake your own bread, make your own pizza, see how many meals you can get out of a chicken. most of all have funwith it!

themarsbargirl

I just want to add, I grew up in a very poor household and my fondest memories are baking cakes with my mum as a small child. we also only ate meat at weekends when i grew up cuz we couldn't afford it more often than that. We also had weekday cereal (cornflakes and weetabix) and weekend cereal (coco pops and frosties and honey puffs) same for biscuits, rich tea on weekdays and bourbons on weekends. man we loved weekends!

johanne

If you would shop in Asda instead (not sure if you would or could) their delivery pass is reduced to £15 for 3 months at the moment so £5 a month.


We swapped to asda after 6 months on a Tesco delivery pass, and are noticing were spending less. We save 84p just on bread and milk!

JIL

What about having one delivery per month at the cheapest time, and getting all the big things and then getting the fresh things in each week?

Make the best use of Aldi and their super six, or Lidl and their half price weekend offers (this week was sausages 8 for 79p) Look out for the coupons in newspapers or on face book spend £40 get £5 off.

Meal plan and you will be able to cut your budget down even further, theres loads of threads on here with some great advice.

Good luck.

Fredula

Yeah my son and I have lots of fun baking in the kitchen. Baking your own bread though, doesn't it work out cheaper to buy it? I do enjoy making bread, but I don't make it the same as I don't grow my own veg, because to start it all up, I'd need to spend more than I would save from it.


Thanks Johanne - I've had bad experiences with Asda's online shopping but there is one about a 20 - 30 min walk from me. I had a friend who always shopped there because it was cheaper - he wouldn't shop anywhere else.

Fredula

JIL wrote: »

What about having one delivery per month at the cheapest time, and getting all the big things and then getting the fresh things in each week?

Make the best use of Aldi and their super six, or Lidl and their half price weekend offers (this week was sausages 8 for 79p) Look out for the coupons in newspapers or on face book spend £40 get £5 off.

Meal plan and you will be able to cut your budget down even further, theres loads of threads on here with some great advice.

Good luck.

That's a good idea about a big delivery and then buy things individually. I meal plan a month ahead anyway so I could easily start doing that straight away! Thanks

krlyr

Are you near enough to a Tesco to make it worthwhile? Sometimes I'll sit and do the shop online, then go in-store and shop from my basket (print a copy or take my phone to run through it on there). Means I don't have to hunt high and low for the offers I need as I've found them all online, and I'm far less likely to impulse buy if I'm sticking to the list. Not much point if the petrol/parking costs more than the delivery slot though, especially if you can time it to get the £2 slot.

Or as a twist on that - do your shop online and send OH the list from your basket, if Tesco is on the way home he could drop it to collect it (either click & collect, or just whizz around and grab the bits himself), saving petrol, time, and the issue of the 2 year old tagging along!

I'd maybe look at ordering a bigger shop less frequently too - find stuff you can freeze, if you have the room, and maybe alternatives to fresh food that will keep e.g. tinned tomatoes instead of fresh, if you're just going to cook them into a meal, frozen veg, frozen fruit or fruit that can be frozen (for example, bananas can be frozen - might lose texture slightly but fine to use in a smoothy!)

Lilyplonk

If you make room for a 'budget allowance' for weekly fresh foods (fruit/veg/milk/bread) you could find out the best times for 'whoopsies/yellow stickers' and do a swoop at the same time.

If you can stock up on whoopsied bread, and then freeze it, you can make a HUGE saving. Wouldn't bother freezing the 'fresh bakery stuff' though - as it's not as good as the normal sliced bread when defrosted.

poppyjane

It's just me and my daughter (both vegetarian), and 4 cats. I've tried shopping around, and I've tried Tesco delivery saver. (Asda delivery here is terrible, so not an option). On balance, I think the Tesco delivery saver is better for us. We've just renewed for 6 months peak delivery, at £10 a month.

Because we are such a small family in human terms, the massive bags of fruit and veg you can buy cheaply aren't that helpful to us. I prefer my veg fresh And because we eat a lot of Quorn (to be sure to keep my daughter's protein intake up) we need at least a weekly visit to a supermarket other than Alid or Lidl. And cat food is (usually!) a lot cheaper in Tesco because you can buy larger packs than Aldi/Lidl.

And it's quicker! If I'm being organised (!) I book my shop well in advance and can add bits to it as I run out. And it's a lot easier to make sure that coupons get used, and for stocking up on items which are on offer. The time I'm not wasting at the supermarket, I can use to make us a bit more cash. (Market Research, competitions, ebay).