your shopping habits please?

thriftwizard

Somewhere just over £500 per month for 6 adults (one of them vegetarian, but happy with basics like chick peas & fresh veg rather than Quorn & L!nda McC*rtney stuff) 3 cats, 2 cockatiels & 9 chickens. That breaks down to £80-odd per week at our local market on nearly all the fresh food for the week, and meal-planning is done weekly, based on what's best value there each week. (I may well spend another £5 on "bendy" fruit & veg as they're packing down; great for soups etc. for those of us who work or study at home.) About £80-£100 goes on supermarket bits; non-perishable groceries, cleaning & washing stuff & pet food. And the rest is spent at local shops for top-ups of fresh food, & the farm shop, for poultry feed, bird food etc.

Because there are so many of us, I can take advantage of buying in bulk; we buy sacks of potatoes (25Kg, currently £7 for Desiree, our favourites, but around £5 for Wiljas and less for locally-grown nameless spuds) and share them with our neighbours. A sack will last the two households about 4 weeks. I also visit a local mill a couple of times a year & stock up on 8Kg bags of flour; we bake a lot (loads of eggs to use up) and make a fair bit of our own bread. Plus I buy oats by the sack too; it's no cheaper than the supermarkets' value ranges, but it suits me to have them available whenever I need them as we go through lots. They're kept in a defunct old freezer out in the garage. We'll also visit Asian supermarkets whenever we're near them, and buy big bags of rice etc.; no worries about using them up before they go out of date! Milk is delivered, although it's more expensive - keeps me out of the supermarket!

It could be a fair bit lower, but best value doesn't always equate to cheapest, in my eyes. And I'm lucky enough to be self-employed & work mainly from home, so can usually arrange things to have time for food prep. and long, slow cooking. I also know lots of "leftover" recipes & we'll eat "recycled" main ingredients at least twice a week, often 3 or 4 times; I'm happy to try out new ideas too.

It wouldn't work for everyone; too much time spent shopping, prepping, cooking, not appropriate for smaller households or homes with less storage space, but it does work for us.

Butterfly_Brain

On average I spend £70 a week £280-£300 a month.
That is for five adults including a vegetarian and a fussy eater.

We grow a lot of veg and fruit which keeps shopping costs down.

Under the sink stuff is white vinegar, washing up liquid, washing soda, Bicarb, cheap disinfectant, brillo pads, and a bottle of barkeepers friend.

I buy the bags of car rags from wilkinsons to use for cleaning, much more economic than the standard cloths and I buy car sponges and chop them up to use as washing up sponges.

I use Aldi washing powder stretched with washing soda and I use white vinegar as a softener. If I see a special offer on branded washing powder or liquid in Wilkinsons then I buy it.

The white vinegar keeps the machine clean as well so it is a double bonus

18 toilet rolls in farm foods for £3.95 and a 3kg bag of fuselli for £2.50.

I buy rice in big bags from the world food aisle in Morrisons and they always have an offer on, I also get 3kg of red lentils for £3.49.

I see what the super six is every week and decide what meals I can make around them.
Everything else comes from the greengrocer or the market.

I use the nearest butcher and Farmshop for meat and eggs, it is a little more expensive, but it is fresh and actually tastes like meat so I don't need to use a lot for a meal.

We eat veggie a couple of days a week, which cuts costs.

Horace

It might help you to start writing a shopping list of what you need and decide in the shop what you think you want.

Go through your cupboards, fridge and freezer to see what you have - note down what you have in those areas (keep the information on the door of the cupboard, fridge/freezer). When you use something cross if off the list and add it to a shopping list.

With your shopping list - if an item is not on the list then you don't buy it and if you forget to buy an item that is on the list then you don't go back and buy it (along with a load of stuff you don't want), you put it on the list for next week.

I spend £100 a month max but then I am only shopping for me. From that I buy all my cleaning products and food. I shop in places like Aldi and what I can't buy in Aldi I will buy in places like Morrisons. I can make a large box of washing powder last 12 months because I use a smaller scoop so I get more washes out of the box than it recommends on the side of the box yet I still wash clothes every week.

I rarely have takeaway food and cook from scratch but I do sometimes have pizzas in the freezer so if I fancy one then I can just bung it in the oven, same goes for chips.

LameWolf

I allow £220 per month, and keep a record as the month progresses of how much we've spent.

I can't do weekly, because we spend a lot in one hit at the monthly farmers market, where I get all my cheese (we eat a LOT of cheese), eggs, bread flour and the occasional jar of honey.

Thus far this year, we've come in under budget almost every month, and at present the cumulative "credit" for 2014 is just over £400.

I don't do a regular SM shop; we just have an ongoing shopping list - either of us can add to it when we identify a requirement, and we shop when there is enough on the list to make a trip to the SM worthwhile.

SpikyHedgehog

I've slipped into bad habits & am trying to pull myself out...

I used to have a master shopping list on the computer that I printed (double sided or on the back of junk mail/school newsletteretc) broken down into fresh fruit/veg, frozen & chilled, store cupboard, non-food, pet, clothes, toiletries. But I've changed computer so need to make a new one.

What I'm doing at the moment is menu planning with DS2 - he's overweight, & we're using recipes his Livewell Consultant gave him, & he's autistic so I do need to provide what we've agreed. They're not therefore the most cost effective, as we're not going to touch the pasta mine this week, & are using more imported fruit & veg than I'd like. But they are cheaper than grabbing impulse stuff from the far too convenient t3sc0 express on the corner...

Anyway, what I'm doing as I get back into properly menu planning, writing a list & shopping, is writing my list in one colour, & leaving a section for impulse buys. They get written in a different colour so I can easily see & think - 'oh yeah, Marge 'cos it was on offer & I remembered DS1 has been baking', 'rubber gloves for cleaning the bathroom to go with the heavy duty cleaner that was on the list', yup, they need to be on the master list as prompts. Cake 'cos I fancied it - not so good... Don't look at it next time!

Debran

I spend about £50 per week. Two pensioners. Main shop done at Aldi. Not working to a budget.

katkin

We're 2 adults, 2 cats and sometimes too often 2 grown sons (who don't live at home) who like to "nip" in to see us a dinner, lunch or a stayover brunch.

I spend £160 a month tops and make do, stretch things as required. That includes all cleaning, household, toiletries, pet things and food.

We buy a lot of bulk things monthly, especially if we can get good prices in the cheaper shops in town and shop weekly for fresh supplies weekly at *ldi / *idl.

I rarely go to the major big supermarkets anymore. With careful planning I have cut my budget a lot this way. Menu planning is behind it all and centring my meals round the deals and lots of fresh veg and fruit. We eat better quality, all home cooked from scratch with little / no waste.

Brands are meaningless to me now - I go for taste, freshness and quality over a label. I even now prefer the continental shop toiletries, shampoos and face-creams. The cat's took a while to come round, but my big sons still keep coming back for mum's homecooking!

It takes a while to get used to but you do and you'd be surprised at how well, never mind cost effective doing things like this can be.

Best of luck flower x

kerri_gt

I budget £250 a month for 2 adults, OH is a fussy veggie. Used to do one big shop at asda a month then various top up shops. We recently had a lidl open locally and I now tend to do smaller weekly shops there (usually at the weekend if there's something on half price I will use. I then do smaller shops usually in sainsburys for things lidl don't have.

Since doing this I have deff seen my shopping budget reduce, partly due to lidl prices, partly because the choice is more limited so I pick up less stuff, and because it local to me (asda is a good 20min drive) I can pop in more conveniently. This helps me meal plan. For example, carrots on offer the other weekend for 50p per kg have now become carrot and cumin soup for dinner tomorrow and lunch on wed.

My budget includes some cleaning and toiletries althoguh toilet roll comes from savers currently (24 rolls £3.95), and I use a specific moisturiser than I cant deviate from very much (extremely dry skin).

I don't meal plan reigidly as sometimes we don't fancy what I was planning or a long day at work means I can't be arrised to cook, but generally have a few options that can be thrown together.

Shortypie

Hi again

I'm trying for £350 this month. I've only got about £110 left though. . . I can't figure out how to add a signature to my profile

I tend to shop every 10 days or so, with about £30 in L!dl and another £50 in Mr S.

I do need to be a lot more organised though with a proper meal plan to stop wastage.

One thing I've started doing is bulk buying things like bread and milk, eg 4 loaves when I shop. These are the kind of essentials that you have to restock and we all know what happens when you go into the supermarket to buy "one or two things" :rotfl:

Unfortunately hubby scuppers my plans as he nearly always returns from work via the shops to buy a bottle or two :beer: and usually picks up some other rubbish like crisps or a sandwich from the reduced section. He spends at least £80 a month just on stuffing his face in little bits during and after work :mad:

I'd love to be able to shop cheaper but can't do meat free meal (the fussy autistic one doesn't do veg, nor pasta with sauce anymore) and we seem to have got into having dessert every night (though I have discovered the supermarkets freezer clearance section - got some 10 packs of mini bobbly bobblys for 63p each!)

I've started bulking out mince meals with soya mince soaked in stock, say a cup ful to every 400g - they don't notice it and means I often get to take leftovers yo work. Recently made my own flatbreads to go with a meal, cost pennies to make! But of a pita though. Pasta and rice in the big bags, suss out what you can buy in "basics" - I currently buy basics tea bags (20p for 40) hot choc (can't remember exactly how much, maybe £1.20 and I decant into a jar for ease) pitta bread (25p for 6) butter (98p and we never use margarine) breakfast muffins (70p for 6) crisps for lunch boxes (65p ish) fish fingers. L!dl frozen chicken breast are under £4 and you get 4 or 5 quite big ones - and what you can't, basics jam is minging, L!dl chorizo is tasteless.

I tend to pick up lose fruit and veg as it's often cheaper than pre packaged.

That also usually includes cat food, a pack of pull ups, any toiletries we happen to need (which I get at the pound shop if I have time to get there). Actually if you gave time the pound shops are good for things like crisps, biscuits etc.

You can do this skint mum

Shorty

Airthrey

I'm trying the grocery challenge for the first time this month and am aiming for £150 for two adults and am broadly on target.

I tend to do a lot of small shops rather than several large ones. Having a T*sco practically as my corner shop doesn't help. Also use both A1di and W8rose regularly. They are conveniently close together and I often pop into one then the other, but they aren't nearly as convenient as T*sco and I use them when I'm in the neighbourhood at the right time, ie 6pm for W8rose. I prefer not to waste petrol on food shopping if I can help it.

Meal planning is sporadic but I have a vague idea of what we need to use up first and go with that. Tomorrow will involve mozzarella about to go out if date.