Help with cutting down food shop £££

lknights1987

I am currently spending £80-£90 a week on food shopping for myself and girlfriend. We normally shop at Sainsburys but looking to try and cut down our weekly food bill down to at least £60 a week.

Can some one recommend meals that cost little money.

We love to cook and the only thing we don't eat is fish.

Nargleblast

If you look on the Old Style Moneysaving forum, you will find a number of threads on eating economically, plus a full index of recipes at the top of the forum.

Also check out Frugal Queen's website, and Cookingonabootstrap (Jack Monroe)

redfox

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HappyMJ

lknights1987 wrote: »

I am currently spending £80-£90 a week on food shopping for myself and girlfriend. We normally shop at Sainsburys but looking to try and cut down our weekly food bill down to at least £60 a week.

Can some one recommend meals that cost little money.

We love to cook and the only thing we don't eat is fish.

Avoid anything pre-prepared.

Minimize the meat portion.

Avoid branded anything. You can make your own pasta sauces from scratch very quickly there's no need to buy a jar of sauce for £1.

Buy in bulk. When buying rice buy 15kg at once. Do not buy small 500 gram packs and certainly don't buy microwave or frozen rice.

Hedgehog99

Go veggie for a few meals a week.
Cook from scratch.
Eat seasonally - wait for UK food to come into season instead of buying expensive air-freighted imports. Tastes better too!
Cook a recipe for four & refrigerate/freeze two portions for another day.
A little fried halloumi is very filling.

meritaten

Do you have to shop at Sainsbury's? I find them frighteningly expensive!
and I don't think the quality is any better than our local Aldi or Lidl but better than Tresco or Adsa.
try to stick to own brand, as said minimise meat portions and have more 'meatless' meals.
avoid ready meals - make your own by doubling up on portions of say, 'Chicken curry' and freezing half.
Shop 'mindfully'. even if you don't do a full meal plan - have an idea of what you could serve each day.
Don't be tempted by 'offers' - do you really need three pots of double cream? it may 'look cheaper to get 3 for £3 but if you only need one and its £1.25 - overall you save. (generally the other two pots don't get used).
make a shopping list! mainly to stop yourself 'duplicating' stuff you already have! do a little 'stockcheck' of your cupboards and freezer. if you have enough to last a couple of weeks - then don't buy more.

BrassicWoman

Use a list app so you know what you have in - I use "our groceries" - downloaded it once I realised I bought passata every time I went shopping, thinking I had run out...

Siebrie

Whenever I shop for fruit and veg, I try to pay not more than €2/kg, which usually means 'local and in season'. A lot of apples and carrots at the moment, but dds like them and I do not mind.

[Deleted User]

I have a list for shopping and unless its really urgent (and few things are ) I wait until I have at least 7-10 things on the list.Its so easy to pop out for the five pound loaf,you go to buy a loaf and end up buying a whole lot more

Make your own stuff if you can. I have a pretty reasonable budget for myself of £60 per month and every 1st of the month I put £60,00 in my separate food purse and only use it when buying food

I only ever use cash and its the same way I used to shop back in the early 1960s when i first got married. Never ever shop when you are hungry as you will see stuff and think you want/need it and you really don't

Make a list of what you have indoors and try to menu plan with it at least once a week


I always menu plan on a Sunday morning so I know what, if anything, is needed.This month I have actually only shopped twice and I'm halfway through the month .Why not see what you can use up first before buying extra.Sounds daft but imagine for some reason the shops suddenly closed or you couldn't actually get to a supermarket

What would you eat that you already have in stock You bought the stuff to eat in the first place so don't leave it just sitting there, use it up.

Most of us on here are in the process of using up maybe left over Christmas stuff, or our stuff we have in stock already .

My freezer is full at the moment and I couldn't get anything else in there,a lot of it is left overs from my DDs, or stuff I have made myself and portioned up.I never buy junk food or ready to eat stuff I would rather batch cook and make my own.

500gms of mince will easily make for the two of you a decent chilli and a shepherds pie and probably a beef curry which can be portioned up and frozen.

Eat seasonal stuff as its cheaper that out of season Who wants to eat strawberries in January ,they are not home grown and probably taste pretty awful.
Why buy frozen chips (if you eat them ) when a bag of spuds cost a fraction and you get four times the amount..A decent bag of potatoes will, if you look at them carefully probably yield several decent sized ones for baking.Why buy a pack of four 'bakers' when you can probably get the same from an ordinary bag or even bought loose.

I spend about a third of my budget on fruit and veg Home made soups are cheap as chips to make take very little effort and I make up around two litre's of them every week which I either freeze in pouches or store in my fridge for lunches during the week Best tip of all read through the posts on here and if in doubt ask a question Nothing is to daft or silly to ask and there is always someone on here who will answer and help you if they can.
Good luck
JackieO x

Goldiegirl

I shop at Sainsburys, and spend between £50 -£60 a week for two, whereas a few years ago I'd be spending £80 -£90, so it can be done

I prefer to shop at Sainsburys as it's convenient and at a location I like visiting. The other supermarkets are either not so convenient, or at locations I dislike, so I didn't have any interest in shopping elsewhere.

I've achieve the reduction with things like

Only cooking from scratch
Meal planning
Using a shopping list based on the meal plan
Eating vegetarian a couple of nights a week
Taking advantage of offers on branded goods
switching to Sainsbury's own brand products
Don't be afraid of the Basics range for some items.

It takes a while to get in the swing of it, so don't expect overnight success, but it can be done.

Rather_Cynical

If you've got a large freezer, I'd always suggest wholesalers like JJ Food Services or Bookers. If you live in London, you've got Smithfields meat markets. If you need variety, then half a pig could work out quite economical for you. If not, then places like Iceland and Farmfoods will have to do unfortunately. If you look closely, chicken prices hover around £1.50/kg and pork around £2.00/kg to £2.50/kg.

I'd recommend looking into non-European cuisine, Indian and Arabian and authentic Chinese cuisine are excellent at making best use of what's available. Thai curry or chicken schawarma with salad on rice is quite a nice meal, costs about 2.00 for the both of you. Pork belly, lamb shoulder, etc make really excellent stews and chilis. Chinese stir fry with lots of vegetables and flavourful pork is filling and delicious. Biryanis are pretty great, as well as anything that uses eggs as a major protein source.