do you find it cheaper to buy groceries 'as you need them'?

keza

hi everyone,

so my question stems from the show 'back in time for dinner'. im only a youngish wife and mother (29) so have only ever known supermarkets and home deliveries etc.

I am just wondering from some of you more experienced old stylers (as im still learning), do you find it cheaper to shop like in the 50's - for groceries by the day/every couple of days as you need them, or weekly/fortnightly?

Im interested because i am about to embark on maternity leave in the summer and will have more time on my hands so wondering if shopping 'as we need' would work out cheaper as well as keep me busy? TIA

If you haven’t already, join the forum to reply!

[threadbanner]box[/threadbanner]

lrb_2

Daily works better, you get to check the deals and get more discounts in my opinion. But you must have the time.

Also, I would be wary of online shopping; supermarkets don't make all their products available ( especially the cheaper ones) and some I've found to be more expensive than in-store.

Mr_Singleton

keza wrote: »

do you find it cheaper to shop like in the 50's - for groceries by the day/every couple of days as you need them, or weekly/fortnightly?

I'm a single bloke so not sure if its relevant to your question but I split my shops into 3 types...

1) bulk buying store cupboards essentials that are normally on discount i.e I recently bought 30 cans of Napolina chopped tomato's at 50p/can rather than the usual £1+ tin

2) Saturday morning trip to the market for fresh veg/fruit, a trip to the Supermarket? (Whole Foods Market) for most of the general shopping and then some speciality shops for things like coffee, cheese etc

3) If I really want to eat something that I don't have the ingredients for or I've run out of something then I'd do a trip to the shops on the commute home.

I guess if you lived in the city then shopping everyday would be possible but I'd have thought it would have been more expensive/wasteful.
Am looking forward to what others have to say.

Skint_yet_Again

I find that I spend less if I stay away from the shops as much as possible !

If I "pop to the shop" locally I never seem to be able to come home with just the item I went for Plus our local store is a co-op which seems hugely overpriced compared to what I pay at Ald!

I check what we have left in our store cupboard, fridge & freezer on sunday night and then meal plan for the next 7 days around what we have in.

I shop at Ald! on my day off on Mondays and I tend to stick to my shopping list as they don't have such an array of tempting foods as many of the larger supermarkets

Mr_Singleton

Skint_yet_Again wrote: »

our local store is a co-op which seems hugely overpriced compared to what I pay at Ald!

It's hugely overpriced compared to anywhere.... Co-Op = Supermarket with corner shop prices.

smeeth

No I don't find it cheaper. I've compared shopping every day, to shopping 3-4 times a week, to just shopping once. Shopping every day turned out to be the most expensive, even before factoring in fuel.

pm2326

I try to shop every 2 - 3 weeks if possible, but I'm single and have a good store cupboard and stocked freezer. I buy UHT milk in packs of 6 at a time and buy enough bread to last and freeze it.

If I run out of something I make do without as shopping trips are planned once I have at least 10 things on the list, no point going before then.

I imagine with a family this won't be an option as you'd run out of things quicker but I would have thought daily would be more expensive unless you bought a lot of YS items

Hermia

I think shopping daily would only be cheaper if you are not the type to be tempted into buying more than you planned. I think you would also need to live very close to the shops and not work (or work in a town centre). I think when you factor in the travel costs it would not be worth it for most people. It would probably take me two hours to walk to town, go around the shops and walk back. So even if I had that time free I could probably find some more lucrative way to use it.

Rainy-Days

I find that meal planning takes allot of hassle out of it for me. Fresh fruit, I always have, and make use of, but the 'local' Aldi is 14 miles away so I have to make that a fortnightly visit. The most local to me is a Morrisons and Lidl and we have a Wednesday market, but it's a drive in!

In between the Aldi shop I try and slot in a massive monthly shop at Tesco. That means keeping a separate shopping list and putting it on there.

It's harder when you live rurally. I don't have a problem with it at all because it was a personal choice to do so, but you have to take into account fuel back and forth.

Realistically, if you lived close to the shops you would go towards the end of the day when they are yellow stickering produce down to make the most of bargains.

Interesting to note that Smeeth mentions it being more expensive shopping daily. I think she may have a good point because you would end up buying extra stuff that you would not necessarily need.

The thing is that in the 50's they needed to shop daily. They did not have the 'luxury' of a fridge or even a freezer. It was a larder/pantry with a couple of cold shelves and that was it. Stuff went off quicker and that meant the daily grind of shopping. Of course, factor in years ago you would have had a local bakery along with a greengrocer etc. Tesco were expanding for sure and Finefare as a supermarket was really kicking in along with Sainsbury's but other than that it was a fairly mundane task. I would not want to go back to that.

Even in the 1970's I remember my mum had a Mini Traveller (dad had the family Ford Cortina for work) but mum used to shop once a week on a Friday and that mini boot was loaded up for the weeks food. She used to have her trolley and a huge brown leather bag to go on top of it and she used to heave it all into the back of this mini - don't know how she did it looking back.

Loved that car sad when they got rid of it. It was their first car when they got married. Mind you the Mini and the Cortina made way for dad's Ford Capri now that's a different story and it was bliss!

PasturesNew

The fewer times you are in the shops, the fewer times you're lead into temptation buying things you don't need. Some people sling the same old things into their trolley every visit, so they've never run out of sweets, crisps, biscuits, cake, whatever it is that's their "treat". If you shop once a week you can be lead astray once every 7 days; shop daily and you're lead astray 7x a week.

elsien

I don't do a big shop, I call in every two or three days. There's only me and with a weekly shop I waste things or they go off before I eat them. I try to plan a couple of days ahead, but I also go at yellow sticker time of day and see what if anything is reduced. I don't think I spend more doing that way, but I certainly waste less.