Cutting down our Grocery Bill

demonrat

OK.
we currently spend between 500 and 700 a month on Groceries.

That may sound high, but there are 8 of us, 6 kids (1,3,7,9,12,14) and two adults oh and two cats.

We like to cook pretty much from scratch. Our shopping basically consists of:-

Cereals
Bread
Typical Dairy stuff
Sandwich fillers (kids school lunches)
typical household cleaning stuff
Loadsa Fruit
Loadsa Veg
Salad
Tinned toms and beans
Loadsa (non red meats)
the odd treat for the kids!
Herbs & Spices
Pasta & Rice


Idea to get this down would be appreciated, some people inthis community have remarkably low Grocery bills!!!

Thanks

LJM

why not try cutting down on the household cleaners and making/using some of the ideas in this section for natural cleaners,i know its not alot but it cut my shopping bill by a least £15 a month.where do you get your veg/fruit our local grocers is cheaper than the supermarkets,butchers have some bargains on with the meats.we also have a shop called easy way where you can buy all kinds of things herbs/spices/sweets/rice and pastas all rather cheaply that you weigh up yourself,cheaper also than the supermarket,hope this helps a little

angchris

hiya :hello: def give the homemade cleaners a whirl, when i ran out of cleaners i kept the squirty bottles filled 1 with a 1/3 white vinegar and topped up with water and i now pretty much use that daily for dusting and cleaning glass/mirrors it also works fab on my kitchen/bathroom tiles. i also have a bottle with a bit of stardrops in, tiny bit of bleach and water and use that to clean as a general cleaner for kitchen worksurfaces/units my bathroom and washing window sills down.
washing powder must cost you a fortune with all those dirty clothes, try making your own heres my recipe...

1 mug grated soap
1 mug washing soda crystals
1 mug of borax

mix it all up, throw it in a sealable tub and use 1 tablespoon per load 2 if its mega dirty, this is dirt cheap to make, only takes 5 mins of grating a cheapo soap bar, and lasts for agesss also i dont use a softener as the soda crystals make everything lovely n soft.

where do you go shopping? i used to shop in sainburys and have become an aldi convert! try to do the main of your shop in aldi the quality of their food is very good and very cheap. i went there this week and got large trays of lean minced beef for £1.49 thats at least £1 cheaper than elsewhere, packs of bbq ribs were £1.04 and they had more meat on them than any others i have bought in a supermarket, large chickens were £2.99 you`d pay that for a small chicken elsewhere. i eat alot of wraps they were selling garlic n corriander wraps for something like 60p if i remember rightly :j

why not try batch cooking and freezing meals? the more you make the cheaper a dish is it also saves on the washing up. i have trays of lasagne, tubs of curry/spag bol casseroles, trays of baked spuds scooped out mashed with onion + cheese in my freezer. i also batch cook traybakes like lemon drizzle cake and choc brownies/muffins, i slice them up into individual portions and wrap in tin foil then freeze so for my sons lunchbox i just take 1 out the previous night to defrost that way my son doesnt devour the whole cake in a day :rolleyes:
keep all goodies out of the way of the kids as these cost the most, when they raid the cupboards it has disappeared in 5 mins in my house :mad: so what i now do is keep a ready supply of yoghurts/fruit on tap for them to munch on if they get hungry and hide the rest ie crisps n choccy under my bed (hope my teenage sons not gonna read this :rotfl: ) i dole it out in small quantities when deserved, it is a treat after all and not for daily consumption, that is what i make tea for!
bulk out meals with a handful of lentils and beans, these are cheap and turn a 4 person meal into a 6.
i buy whole milk but what my oh doesnt know is that when a 1/4 is gone i top it up with water give it a shake and voila more milk it really does make it last that little longer as my son drinks it by the pint sometimes, nobody has noticed yet and what they dont know wont hurt em :rotfl:
have you got a breadmaker? if not this is well worth investing in, loaves of bread cost about 30p to make, im sure you will get through quite a bit of bread in your house. i set mine before i go to bed on the timer and wake up to the delicious waft of fresh bread every morning. i also use it alot for making homemade pizzas,my oh thinks they are delish
a friend of mine has 7 kids, when she buys clothes for them (mainly off ebay) she buys clothes that are pretty much unisex, the same red gap sweatshirt has been worn by 5 of them and will undoubtably go onto the other 2 when they grow into it.
i`ve been hinting at oh to get an eglu http://www.omlet.co.uk/products_services/products_services.php?view=Chickens for me for xmas for the bottom of my garden to keep 2 chickens in, they look really easy to clean and you get 2 fresh eggs every morning for free :j , this might be worth looking into its a bit expensive to start with but over the years you will more than recoup the cost and im sure the kids would love helping out.
there are plenty of ways you can cut down if you try, i hope i have given you a few ideas to get started on. lets us know how you get on id be interested in an update angchris.

Spendless

By sandwich fillers do you mean the tubs of deli stuff eg egg/tuna mayo, coronation chicken? It would probably work out cheaper to make your own batch up to last a couple of days.

Penny-Pincher!!

Welcome hun!!

Can I ask if you throw food away each week? How much food do you have already in?

I would probably start by making a list of all food/cleaning products/toiletries you already have in. Then make a meal plan for as many days as you can with this...you will probably have some weird concoctions but at least its free as you've already paid for it!

Then each week, write a meal plan and try to stick to this.

We are a family of 3 and spend about £35pw, but then you have 8 to feed etc...so in our budget that would mean £94 a week anyway. You also have cats and we dont, so thats a few quid...so I would say about £100pw. We eat very well and have our fruit/veg quota each day. I have to eat alot because of illness.

That in theory would mean cutting about £100 a month, which seems a huge amount but it really isnt.

HTH

PP
xx

Queenie

demonrat wrote: »

OK.
we currently spend between 500 and 700 a month on Groceries.

That may sound high, but there are 8 of us, 6 kids (1,3,7,9,12,14) and two adults oh and two cats.

We like to cook pretty much from scratch. Our shopping basically consists of:-

Cereals
Bread
Typical Dairy stuff
Sandwich fillers (kids school lunches)
typical household cleaning stuff
Loadsa Fruit
Loadsa Veg
Salad
Tinned toms and beans
Loadsa (non red meats)
the odd treat for the kids!
Herbs & Spices
Pasta & Rice


Idea to get this down would be appreciated, some people inthis community have remarkably low Grocery bills!!!

Thanks

You quote 'cereals' but I know from experience how quickly the cost of cereals add up. Are you buying brand name cereals? Are you eating porridge occasionally? (good for the health and budget ) Do you rotate cereals with toast, or a yogurt breakfast? (Homemade yogurt would make this economical). Homemade bread is cheaper than bought - but that does mean a bit of extra planning and time.


Have a read of the Welcome Sticky (towards the top of the first page) - http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=56929 that has a number of links to get you started, including The indexed save zillions on cleaning thread and Old Style recipe index plus How to shop and Menu planning. There is a wealth of information there that will certainly help you get your grocery budget down. You may well enjoy reading: Feed 6 for £1.32

Hapless_2

Find a farmers store, such as countrywide stores, cornwall farmers, mole valley farmers ( those are the ones close to us down here) for example. You can buy pet food, washing powder etc in bulk sizes.
We are a family of 6 and buy a big bag of persil washing powder that lasts us 7 months at 7-9 washes a week £29!!. A lot of the cleaning stuff is "professional grade" which means you would use about half what you normally do. I even got some jeans for eldest in one of their sales for £2 a pair (Lee Cooper ones).

lynzpower

is there a reason why you dont eat red meat? Mince, stewing steak and pork fillet for example are fairly economical cuts of meat as are chops ( sometimes!)

angie_loves_veg

IMO alot of saving comes from the premis of having time -

Loadsa Fruit
Loadsa Veg
Salad
are all significantly cheaper from the market than the supermarket, but you have to have the time to do the extra shop, have an accessible market, and maybe go twice a week.

Cereals
Bread
typical household cleaning stuff
Tinned toms and beans
the odd treat for the kids!
Herbs & Spices
Pasta & Rice

all sound like prime candidates for a 'cheaper supermarket' eg lidl/aldi

fetching what's left:
Sandwich fillers (kids school lunches)
Loadsa (non red meats)

from your fave supermarket/butchers etc.

BUT this will take more time that one-stop-shopping .... what you lose in convenience perhaps, you save in money.

demonrat

argghh my just typed a long reply and lost it.

So in summary: -

• From Monday we are going to keeping our receipts for 4 weeks and see how we can cut down.
• As for natural cleaners, we have tried Soda Crystals, and will most certainly look at taking this further.
• Home made bread may be worth a look at for us, 1 loaf a day would be ample.
• £29 box of persil how many washes does it say on the box? We spend £8 on a 50 wash box.
• Homemade Yoghurt?!?!
• Kids love their Cereal, they mainly eat Own brands like Wheatabix type stuff and smart price cornflakes. They do east toast or porridge if we are out though.
• The eglo looks ace, would take a while to make its money back though

Oh and thanks for all the advice keep it coming.

nearlynewbie

I have 4 kids (14,13,11,9)+DH and a dog. I'm sure receipts are the way forward + menus. I do 6 week rolling menus for us(summer ones and winter ones).I know I spend less if I do this. We spend between £320(good month) and £500(bad month) on everythign including lunches etc. Home made bread(form machine) and yoghurt(used for smoothies with cheap fruit from the market(very nice with blackberries free form headgerow via freezer!)+ everyday cooking )
You can get yoghurt maker from Lakeland- £19.99 may be cheap elsewhere. I make it with long life full cream milk, a small amount of bio yoghurt starter and thicken it with value dried skimmed milk to make it really thick and creamy. I inherited the yoghurt maker my mum had for us when we were children! I make a couple of litres a week.
We chicken sat for a week or two.- with an eglo. chickens are amazingly destructive so need to be in a run and if you are not very careful the food attracts rats(unless you have an excellent cat!) The eggs were wonderful however.