Why is my food bill so big?

Towser

This is what I did for all my money and food.

Keep a spending diary for a month, then put all your different 'spends' into categories and work out the monthly or weekly amounts you spend on each, e.g. 'food', 'travel', 'entertainment', 'petrol', 'clothes', 'toiletries' etc. Then try and beat it by a set amount or percentage each month! Then you can set yourself a realistic and very specific budget to stick to!

For the food I put them in various food groups and used the same method.

Use a budget shopping list as a start - substituting things you know you won't eat.

Shop in Aldi it has cut my impulse buying right down.

Bulk buy things when cheap such as toiletries and coffee.

Cook from scratch. Meal planning. Chain Cooking.

LilMissEmmylou

meer53 wrote: »

I shop once a week. At Aldi.

Myself and 2 kids (one is 27, the other a teenager !)

My total shop (i do Slimming World, so lots of fresh fruit, veg and meat) comes to about £55.

How do you manage to spend £500 a month ????

We don't have Aldi but I would still be very interested in seeing your weekly shopping list! Thats an amazing feat. We are 2 adults, 1 child and a dog and spend about £80 - £100 a week on food when trying to be good :rotfl:

dlusman

Are you buying bottled water - one of the biggest marketing cons of recent years .

or any coke/fizzy drinks - which have increased in price quite a lot over recent years ?

fresian_cow

£500 a month is a canny spend, for me OH and 1 child aged 3 we spend around £60 a week and that includes all toiletries and cleaning stuff etc. This is for all my lunches, all but 1 of daughters lunches and about 3 lunches for my husband plus breakfast items and tea (and snacks as we are terrible for crisps and sweets). I cook most things from scratch but as we both work nearly full time I have to be pretty organised as we like to eat with our daughter and I don't have much time on an evening to make a meal. We tend to make things in bulk and freeze - bolognaise, chilli, meatballs, curry, stew. Also we go for quick teas on other evenings, jacket potatoes and salad, tuna pasta, homemade pizza on a ciabatta etc. I guess if you're buying a lot of convenience foods then that's where your spend is. Maybe it might help you to do an online shop, then you can watch where you are spending.

meer53

LilMissEmmylou wrote: »

We don't have Aldi but I would still be very interested in seeing your weekly shopping list! Thats an amazing feat. We are 2 adults, 1 child and a dog and spend about £80 - £100 a week on food when trying to be good :rotfl:

You need to find an Aldi !

My shop tends to be the same most weeks.

Whole chicken
6 chicken breasts
2 packs of back bacon
500g beef mince
Frozen pizza
4 pints of milk
Cereal
2 loaves of Bread
Rice
Noodles
Strawberries or blueberries
Lettuce
Tomatoes
Cucumber
Peppers
Onions
Carrots
Mushrooms
Bananas
Satsumas
Pasta
Ham
Cheese
Squash
3 x 2l bottles of lemonade
4 tins of tuna
Black Olives
Anchovies
9 pack of toilet rolls
Red wine
Foil
3 Packet pasta meals
Tinned tomatoes
4 tins baked beans
Sweetcorn
15 eggs
Chocolate biscuits
Cheese curls (quavers)
Crisps ( multi pack)

Sometimes i need to buy Aldi dishwasher tablets and washing up liquid (probably every 5 or 6 weeks) but i buy Ariel and Lenor from other supermarkets as i don't like the Aldi equivalents. I buy Muller yoghurts elsewhere too.

forgotmyname

Is it just me that thinks £80 - £100 a week on food is excessive? We are a family of 3 adults and dont spend anywhere near that. We like our food also and not anorexic. Or are we spending more than we think? We dont scour the isles for the bargains either. Same shelves for the same products even if there is a better offer on.

Ellsey

I work long hours too, when I get in I am Mum, so not time to cook. What I do is batch cook in large quantities for a whole day and freeze in tubs for the month. I place a tally chart of meals on fridge, each time we et one I cross it off. In the morning, I get that days meal out. When I get in I microwave it for us. It saves money, time and stress!

Murphybear

When we shop at Tesco (no Aldi or Lidl or Asda near) we use the scan as you shop. This is really useful as you get a running total of what you are spending while wandering around the store.

Something I found useful some years ago when I was on a microscopic budget for a while was to take cash and leave my cards at home. Couldn't overspend.

As others have said, make a list AND STICK TO IT! Not easy that, supermarkets are well versed in making us spend more than we want to.

Fromply

hieveryone wrote: »

We don't eat extravagantly or excessively (I am always on a diet!) so just cannot see why I spend so much!

I don't know how to ask this without being rude, and probably shouldn't ask, but need to ask if I am going to suggest that what you have said is a bit of a contradiction to me.....so please forgive me - I really am just trying to be helpful.....
- you say that you don't eat excessively
- you say that you are always on a diet (implying that you want to lose weight and maybe you have or do eat excessively)


Is it possible that you eat more excessively than you think?(causing two problems - cost of shopping and weight control). If you were to add up all of the calories for everything you purchased in your weekly shop, without being on a diet, it shouldn't be in excess of 14,000 or so calories. And that would be assuming that you never ate anything away from the home. I suspect if you were to count the calories in your weekly shop, it may be a bit of an eye opener.


When I was dieting, I used to do my shopping online, and so far as possible restrict the number of calories in total I could buy in my weekly shop. (It wasn't always easy as not everything has calorie information online).


If you were to post your last weekly shop receipt online, I'd happily try and tot up the total calories for you. (depending on how detailed the receipt is, and whether it would allow me to identify the items purchased)

hieveryone wrote: »

Meant to add that the bill includes all cleaning products and 'house' stuff i.e bunch of flowers for the kitchen, air fresheners etc.

I'm curious about the "bunch of flowers". If you're out 12 hours a day, and at home by yourself, who gets to enjoy/benefit from the fresh flowers? How expensive were they (they can vary in price massively)? To me, they sound like a bit of an expensive luxury, especially if you buy them regularly.


Also the air fresheners, how expensive are they? I used to buy the Sense and Spray air fresheners until one day I sat down and worked out what they cost me per year, and I was horrified (Cannot remember the figure, but it was a lot!!), and just so unnecessary.


You've been asked a few times to post a receipt, and haven't done that yet - I view that as the most important piece of information. I'm not sure how you can get much specific, rather than general advice, without providing a clearer picture of exactly what you are purchasing. Without the receipt, a lot of the responses are just guesses as to what you might be buying.....

firesidemaid

Some offers are good ie. if you will use them! eg. fresh soups on offer for a £1.00 in chillers would do 2 days each plus some nice bread and an apple or banana etc

i appreciate you have little time, but often toiletries, air fresheners etc are cheaper NOT from a supermarket.

good luck x