Starting my MSE journey ...grocery budget tips welcome 😄

Pollycat

Some people disagree with this approach (or find it difficult to fund initially) but I'm a big fan of buying stuff only when it's BOGOF or half price.
Tinned tomatoes, beans, tuna, corned beef, wash powder, coffee, tea, loo rolls etc anything with a long shelf life - I never pay full price for these. But I'm lucky that I do have space to store all this stuff.

Also, if I buy packs of meat (also reduced or on offer) I won't use a full pack. For example, I recently bought 4 x 400gm packs of Hereford beef mince £4.19 reduced to £1.50.
Instead of putting the 4 packs straight in the freezer, I rebagged it as 4 x 3/4lb plus the remaing 230gm+ for burgers.

The_Only_Girl

HippyMum wrote: »

Oh and I've seen Checkout Smart and Shopitize apps talked about and have downloaded them but not used them yet.
Has anyone else any experience of them?

Hi ya I have also just discovered Checkout Smart and Shopitise (a couple of weeks or so ago) and last Sunday I found Clicksnap app. Like Moneymission I am careful not to be drawn into buying stuff on offer on the apps for the sake of the cashback unless I really need those items or I can definitely make a good deal. For example a couple of weeks ago I bought an ice gem lettuce for 35p and checkout smart gave me a cashback of 30p for it so I basically bought my lettuce for 5p. Some items are FREE meaning they will give you a cashback for whatever you paid for them. They also have offers of 5p cashback just for uploading any receipts. I now keep an eye on receipts that people leave on counters and on the floor for 5p cashbacks. You'll be amazed how the money slowly builds up.

As for other grocery tips. I mainly shop in @ldi because my money goes a long way there. I have also tried brand dropping (going for their own brand rather than the famous brands and have been pleasantly surprised at the better quality and much much lower price. The family's favourite brand drops we've made are the ketchup, coffee, mayonnaise and chocolates (occasional treats).

Have you heard of yellow stickers or whoopsies? I have just discovered that recently as well. I tend to go to the small @sda shop between 3-4pm on Sundays when they drop the prices of best before items to 2p, 5p or 10p. My best haul so far was 9 carrier bags of breads, cookies, quiches, cakes, flowers etc for £9.88 (original price would have been £43.70. Oh and I also called in to the big @sda supermarket after work at 11pm and found a crate of kingsmill white loaves for FREE. I then either batch cook what I bought or freeze.

I hope this helps. Enjoy your MSE journey.

The_Only_Girl

One more money saving tip from me, I tend to buy a big pack of onions (£3 for 5kilos). I chop them up and store in sandwich bags (one cooking portion per bag) and freeze them. It keeps them from either wilting, sprouting or rotting and being wasted. For busy mums like me, when I get home from work, I can get started with my cooking without having to chop onions. It also saves on cooking oil because the moisture from the frozen onions is enough to soften the onions for cooking.

I hope I make sense,

Skint_yet_Again

I now get most of my shopping in aldi, only use Asda to get things aldi don't sell such as ground almonds, jars of roasted peppers, almond milk (which I buy from whichever supermarket has on offer usually at £1 each) and DS uses Manchego cheese and sometime I get toiletries in asda.

We don't eat cereal so I cant comment on that but I buy Aldi meat and have always found the quality excellent. A lot is british and I also buy the frozen premium chicken breasts with no added water and find they cook really well with v little shrinkage. Their whole chickens are also great value.

I get all my cleaning products there and toilet rolls 9 for £1.99. I get their shower gel and shampoo, liquid soap and cotton buds. I use asda for savers hair spray and DS likes nivea men but he pays for these

What sort of "rest of the stuff" things are you buying in the main supermarkets ? there may be cheaper alternatives posters can suggest.

YORKSHIRELASS

Hi, my tips are:

Mealplan, work out what your main meals are for the next week and buy exactly what you need. Each to their own but I dont stockpile because to me it's just wasted money sitting in your cupboards and freezer.

Dont get sucked into buying cleaning products that you dont need. Bleach, soapy water, stardrops and maybe a tin of furniture polish should be enough.

Ignore offers. Buy what you need, not what the supermarket wants you to buy.

Forget brands (well with one or two exceptions!). 9 times out of 10 the supermarket brand is as good.

Learn to cook from scratch if you dont already. Always ask yourself "can I make this myself?"

Shop less often. Generally speaking the more you go to the supermarket the more you spend. If you run out of something can you manage without?

Never waste anything. Small portions of leftovers can be frozen and combined into one meal later. Be crafty about using up odds and ends.

Be realistic and shop to your budget, not what you would like to be able to buy. I cant afford organic, free range etc so I just cant worry about it.

And finally - try and get the family on board, not easy with teenagers but after a bit of resistance they will get used to the idea. Good luck!

PasturesNew

In order to save money you have to know what things cost. Each time you make a meal add up the cost of the component parts and ask yourself if any of the ingredients could've been dropped, or swapped.

Query the cost of everything in your basket. Do you need it, or can you get it cheaper.

Cooking from scratch doesn't save you money in itself. Price awareness and continual comparison saves you money.

e.g. making a chilli - you can just plonk your regular kidney beans into the mix, at 85p/can, or seek out the cheaper/own brand ones for 30p.

e.g. making a spag bol - adding wine? Did you open/justify that wine because "I'll save the last glass for the spag bol"? STOP buying the wine!

Look at portion size too. 400g of mince to make a chilli for the family - which others with a family of 5 would use/serve.... that means you're scoffing extra meat others wouldn't.

Make your choices to pay extra for the kidney beans, to buy that wine, to still have a meaty chilli ..... but be aware that's where you've spent the money.

Pollycat

^^^ Fab reply from PasturesNew. Wish I could 'thank' it more than once. :T

Pollycat wrote: »

Some people disagree with this approach (or find it difficult to fund initially) but I'm a big fan of buying stuff only when it's BOGOF or half price.
Tinned tomatoes, beans, tuna, corned beef, wash powder, coffee, tea, loo rolls etc anything with a long shelf life - I never pay full price for these. But I'm lucky that I do have space to store all this stuff.

YORKSHIRELASS wrote: »

Hi, my tips are:

Mealplan, work out what your main meals are for the next week and buy exactly what you need. Each to their own but I dont stockpile because to me it's just wasted money sitting in your cupboards and freezer.

Ignore offers. Buy what you need, not what the supermarket wants you to buy.

As I said, others disagree with my approach.
To me, it's about paying less (or getting something for free) by buying when stuff is on offer. But of course, only if I know I'm going to use it.
In the last 2 weeks I've done a big batch of both chilli & bolognaise.
I used 7 tins of chopped tomatoes that were in my stock, bought on half-price or bogof (I can't remember which).
To me, much better than popping up to the shop to buy some at whatever price they're selling them for at the moment, so I don't see it as wasted money.
On the contrary, it reduces the cost per portion of what I've cooked.

I'll wait until chopped tomatoes are on offer next before stocking up.

Neither way is right or wrong, just what you feel happy with.

HippyMum

Thanks all for the replies��
We don't drink alcohol so that's not an issue.
I use the basics beans/tomatoes/kidney beans etc and bulk out mince with grated carrot for spag Bol etc and all leftovers get utilised.
Even small portions of left over rice are frozen.
I will check out the meat at Aldi

suki1964

I use a meat slicer if I cba to put it together. Otherwise a very sharp knife and a steady edge for the meet works wonders. When ready to slice cut the joint straight down the middle so you have a good flat edge on the board then slice as thin as you like. Much easier then trying to control a rounded joint

It will be cheaper as you can make a small joint stretch for at least 9 portions. Hot gammon with veg for Sunday , ham egg and chips another day and a quiche another. Use the stock with lentils to make a hearty pea soup and there's at least another 6 portions