How much is your weekly shop?

FireWyrm

greensalad wrote: »

How to you handle getting to/from Costco and also the storage of bulk purchases? I'd love to shop there more but our nearest is miles away and we wouldn't be able to store much meat in the freezer.

Our nearest Costco is 25 miles away by car. I go on the first Friday night of the new month and I can fit everything I want in a Fiat Panda...granted, I dont have any passengers unless you count the [STRIKE]dozen[/STRIKE] 11 chocolate muffins in the front seat with me.

I have a list before I go. I know exactly what I want to buy and how much I am prepared to pay - so, I know I need a joint at such and such weight for approx 'x' pounds. I know it is likely there'll be one there, but I also have a contingency if they dont have what I want. The first Saturday of the month is meal planning and I have a white board with 30 slots on the wall for the purpose.

We have a small [STRIKE]conservatory[/STRIKE] lean-to on the back of the house which has a standing set of 7ft shelves. Everything goes on there. The rice is put into a plastic cat 'kibble' bin as well as all the other dry and preserved goods. Anything else goes in the cupboard under the stairs. We have a fridge freezer, an undercounter freezer in the conservatory and a small chest freezer in the kitchen which doubles as another counter top. Our half pig filled the chest freezer and the other two are chock full of the other meat I already had on had. OH was complaining that his 'pizza' draw was now polluted with sausages.:rotfl: It usually takes about 2 hours when I get home to split all the meat into portions, but OH and I usually spend it talking and such as we weigh and label packets so not such a massive chore.

I think we probably have at least 2 months food on hand now but I'm not sure exactly because the pig was not batched in the way I would have liked if I had bought the cuts myself. There was 70Kg of meat all told, so it ought to last a while.

moohound

Getting half a pig is a great idea, my mum often used to do it, it would last us ages, my OH and my son love pork ( I am a veggie), My freezer needs a radical sort out/use up, will makes this my weekend task.

Fire Wyrm - we should write to the BBC and get on TV as the Trinny and Suzanna of not wasting money

FireWyrm

moohound wrote: »

Getting half a pig is a great idea, my mum often used to do it, it would last us ages,

My parents did it once, but for some reason, they never did it again. My colleague is going into lambs in the spring, so I'll have one of those off him as well. He does give me eggs from his chooks too, but sadly, he cant keep up with the demand in our household for 5 dozen a month.

moohound wrote: »

my OH and my son love pork ( I am a veggie), My freezer needs a radical sort out/use up, will makes this my weekend task.

And a defrost I should imagine. I have an electricity meter and when we last defrosted, it wiped 2p an hour off the meter.

moohound wrote: »

Fire Wyrm - we should write to the BBC and get on TV as the Trinny and Suzanna of not wasting money

I'm shy. I'm like Hooks in Police Academy...Last time the OH and I had a fight, I fainted with stress. But I do like to help people, especially when I can see that just little changes will help them out so much. I wish these sorts of skills were taught in school, but I'll have to settle for teaching all three of mine over the coming years.

MrsSave

Our last 3 weekly shops have been around £26. This is for me, dh and ds (13 months). This doesn't include nappies/wipes, which I tend to bulk buy when they're on offer. During the month, I do pop in around once or twice to see whether I can get yellow label meat to freeze.

judi24

I love Costco - but gave up my card this year -as it is just an evil place that allows things to jump into your trolley (huge trolley at that!) by accident - I admire anyone who goes there with a list and can stick to it!!!
My friend has a catering business and I do go occasionally with her - but I still can't resist buying things I didn't need!


I am currently just using Al*i - and try to not even go into the big 4 - as I am such an impulse shopper that I just can't help myself buying 3 for 2's etc - so going cold turkey - This month I have managed to reduce shopping from over £400 to £300 for me, DD2 (21 and very fussy) DS (12) (lives with me 50% of the time) and DD3 (10) - I am sure I could bring it down further with a bit more effort - but one step at a time!

FireWyrm

judi24 wrote: »

I love Costco - but gave up my card this year -as it is just an evil place that allows things to jump into your trolley (huge trolley at that!) by accident - I admire anyone who goes there with a list and can stick to it!!!

You too...holy crap, those chocolate muffins just keep jumping off the shelf into the trolley and heck if I know how. They are never on the list, but you know...they just end up there at the checkout.

judi24 wrote: »

My friend has a catering business and I do go occasionally with her - but I still can't resist buying things I didn't need!

I routinely needed sushi so much I had to make a place in the budget for it.

judi24 wrote: »

I am currently just using Al*i - and try to not even go into the big 4 - as I am such an impulse shopper that I just can't help myself buying 3 for 2's etc - so going cold turkey - This month I have managed to reduce shopping from over £400 to £300 for me, DD2 (21 and very fussy) DS (12) (lives with me 50% of the time) and DD3 (10) - I am sure I could bring it down further with a bit more effort - but one step at a time!

:T I'd say that was a really good start. Keep going. You know what your vices are and you are aware of them. You are already well ahead of most of the zombie consumers who frequent there.

Swampy3k

I'm probably around £90-100 a week, this is for 3 adults and 2 cats, some may seem this as excessive, I don't have an issue with it, I like a bargain same as everyone else and if I see a bogof offer or something similar I do tend to go mental and buy it in bulk (much to her frustration but she never complains when we never run out of toothpaste as theres 10 tubes of it in the cupboard).

judi24

Danish pastries and prawn salad are my costco weaknesses! (along with chicken wings, chicken nuggets and poppycock!!!) - ah I'm having withdrawls now!!! Seriously though - i know I coud get some things in bulk at a better quality than Al*i by shopping around -but it also has to work for me and If I have to go running around lots of places I will just not have time and end up running into As*a instead just out of convenience!


I will get better but at the moment I am happy to do a meal plan, list and a shop - I tend to be able to do a big shop once a fortnight with a little one for fresh bits in between- but I know its that little shop that is my danger point and can easily become just as expensive as the big shop! (oh i havent bought much I'll just get ...)


Might try to go go for a £275 budget for the month in October!

chrisfreelander54

We spend about £30 - £35 per week on shopping which is for myself, DW, DD(12) and DS(7). Our shopping is done mainly at Aldi, but we also buy bits from Farm foods, especailly their eggs which are £1 for 15, aswell as frozen chicken fillets, gammon steaks and lamb chops iirc they are 3 for £10.

We meal plan and also batch cook anf freeze, i also make bread and pizzas from scratch (must remove take pizza dough from freezer as DS has requested pizza tonight) aswell as make our own cakes and biscuits.

If we are to stock up on meat, then we visit our local abattoir which costs us about £50 every 2 - 3 months, for this we get a huge amount of mince, chicken fillets, steaks, pork and lamb chops and a 5lb pack of bacon.

We use local asian wholesalers for spices as they are very inexpensive and available in large bags, they also have very cheap fruit and veg aswell as alot of ingredients that are hard to find in most supermarkets.

FireWyrm wrote: »

I've just bought half a pig from a work colleague and I'll have a lamb off him spring next year.

This is something ive wanted to do for a while but DW isnt as keen on the idea so will be sticking to the abattoir for the time been.

Also like the idea of keeping chickens, but unforunantly have no one willing to hen when we go on holiday. (not even for as many free eggs they could eat during the time we are away.

vintagebrighton

We don't have a weekly budget but a monthly budget of £300 for 3 adults and 2 cats. This includes all toiletries and household products.

When we started this a couple of years ago it was hard. We don't have a car so don't go to costco etc but we are lucky that we have every supermarket possible near to us. Over the last couple of years we've built up a stock and often have money left at the end of the month that goes into the bulk buy.

So on payday (20th) we allocate £300. Check for cat food offers etc and do 2 online shops for basics. Asda deliver for a pound and usually Sainsburys has some sort of offer. We get the heavy stuff delivered for the month ie 30 litres of soya milk, cat food, tins of toms, butter and kidney beans, flour, oils etc.

What's left from those 2 shops goes into a 'jar', usually over £200. Then we buy ground coffee from the co-op, soya cheese stuff from tesco etc other bits from Aldi.

What's left then goes on fresh stuff (including eggs and cheese) each week. We make our own bread (free breadmaker) and yoghurt and cook everything from scratch (well, OH does)

Pound shops have toothpaste and other bits, Superdrug online (free delivery over £10) for most toiletries as their own brand is vegan. What's left in the pot at the end of the month goes into another 'jar' for twice yearly bulk buys of eco soap powder etc and nuts/seeds.

Taken a while to get to this point and the internet is invaluable for finding deals on what we need. I think it's also cheaper cos we don't eat meat/fish or any substitute products (unless theres an unmissable deal on quorn sausages!). We certainly eat well and could cut down if we had to