Eat Well for Less...Live on MSE

PennyGSD

I know this is the wrong site to make a comment like this, but personally I wouldn't beat yourself up about £250 a month.

If the national average for solely food and non-alcoholic drink is £30 per adult per week, you're well under this already, as your budget covers household and pet products too.

£30 per week x 2 (people) = £60 x 52 (weeks) = £3,120 divided by 12 (months) = £260.

That average no doubt takes into account a considerable number of people spending over that, and some by a long way, so it's obviously balanced by a considerable number spending under that. Which includes you

And obviously any money saving is good, but I would do it from a challenge point of view rather than starting off believing you're hugely overspending...

C_J

Stardrops is an all-round cleaning liquid, with so many uses. I find it brilliant.

http://www.wilko.com/multi-purpose-cleaners/stardrops-all-purpose-cleaner/invt/0080402

I dilute it to mop floors, wipe down work surfaces, clean the bathroom, even wash windows. I ran out of laundry detergent the other week and needed to wash the dog's blankets, and put a small quirt of Stardrops into my washing machine. It washed them fabulously.

Handbag59

One of the key things from the programme is swapping brands to save money. Sometimes we think we only like a branded product because that is all we buy. I switched to own brand mayo after watching the last series it is almost half the price of Hellm*ns and the taste is ok. Once I had tried that I am now up for trying all sorts of different brands, eg Aldi do a shower gel for about 65p.

When I try something new I think that I will have saved the money on that initial purchase and if I like it I will continue to make the saving and if it is no good at least now I know.

C_J

My husband used to be terribly brand-loyal, but we've gradually swapped almost all our stuff for Aldi own brands now. I asked him recently whether there was anything he really disliked and wanted to change back to, and he said 'no, these are our brands now'. Bless him

suki1964

Oh and when it comes to toiletries etc, lidls shark razor system is as good as gillettes at a third of the cost

And Penny is right, don't beat yourself up about what you spend. We all have different constraints on our money and as long as you can afford what you spend, and aren't wasting food, there's no big problem

For some on these boards, they really do have to cut to the bone. Myself I could easily spend more, but I choose not to because I like to have money around for things we like to do- like last weekends party where we fed and watered ( read booze) 30 people and didn't have to penny pinch, spoiling the grandkids and kids, having nice cars etc and not be worried that I've only managed about 60 hours paid work this year

So we share what we know or have learned. It's not compulsory to wear sack cloth and ashes and to heat and light a home by a single candle. You take the bits you want from here, those that suit you and your lifestyle and leave the rest behind

Just small steps that you can incorporate into your lifestyle will save you money. Money that can be saved for emergencies, a holiday, whatever

Frugal_gem

frugal_gem...is your shopping really only £150 a month? I would love to be able to achieve that. That'd be an extra £100 a month, which is huge.

Yep, it is!

Remember that this is just for 2 adults, our dog food money is separate and we don't put alcohol in this budget.

I must say as well, that I spent a long time in a ridiculous amount of debt and I am very cautious about spending and so have worked to get this down. It was higher than this until recently, but I have really tried to keep it at £150. A lot of it is making sure I batch cook and going yellow sticker shopping at the right time. The Morrisons by me reduce all their bread to pennies about 5.30pm, so when I can I will go and stock up the freezer. They put all the single bread rolls / bagels etc into bags of 6 and sell those for 5p!!! That's bread for soup sorted, or sandwiches. I also buy larger packs of crisps (the sharer ones) when on a good offer, and split them into smaller portions, tasty crisps (I'm a crisp snob), for cheaper. It's taken a long time to get here and I know it seems pretty extreme to some (particularly in my workplace :rotfl:), but it means more money for other things, whilst still eating well!

With cleaning, I know stardrops are the one, but another tip is to try bicarb and vinegar for cleaning. Plenty of posts on this so I won't go into it here!

ETA: I agree with others here, don't beat yourself up about your grocery budget. It's not an extortionate amount and by slowly reducing it whilst trying different foods, the changes are more likely to stick

ani*fan

mirry wrote: »

We make spicy bean burgers at a fraction of the cost.

In a frying pan...
Fry one sliced red onion
And a teaspoon of garlic
Then add a tin of mixed bean.
MASH TOGETHER
then add any spice you fancy (chilli/cumin)

Then add a load of bread crumbs to the mix ....
I make my own breadcrumbs, and use about five slices of wholemeal bread.
Stir it all together and shape into 8 burgers.
Let them sit on a plate in the fridge for a hour.
Then either cook them,
or place them in parchment papers for the freezer.

We worked out they cost 10p per burger which is a big saving, we serve them in a bun with homemade sweet potato fries and salad.

This sounds great. Definitely on the next meal plan.

Thanks. :A

ScotinLondon

Margaret_ wrote: »

Keeping receipts is a good idea- as it is you know how much you are spending (which is a good start) but not what you're spending it on. Avoiding branded items is probably the quickest and easiest way to save so I'd start there.

I'm also a vegetarian and you seem to use a lot more quorn than I do (just going on the meals you've mentioned) I know it's good for protein but it's not cheap and I'm wondering if a couple of quorn-free days a week might cut some money off your food bill.

Good luck!

I agree - keep all your receipts, so when you go shopping with the money taken out of the jar - receipts and change go back into the jar. That is what my parents do.

I am veggie too, DH isn't in the main - frozen veg is just as good as fresh. Do you have any indian grocers near you? they can sometimes be cheaper for veggies, olive oil. It is worth a shot.

Also, i am sure other people have already said this - but keep a list of what you need and do an inventory of what you already have in your freezer and cupboards. It took us a bit of time to get our food bill down and I would like to get it down even further, but it is hard and a work in progress for us.
SIL

mirry

I missed off one egg in that Spicy bean burger list.....
But I bet it would work without it, mmmmm

catkins

Me and OH are both vegetarian and although we do shop in Aldi and Lidl, I find we just can't do a big shop in either of them. We usually do a big shop in Sainsbury every 4 to 6 weeks and top up fruit and veg, bread (unless we make it) and anything else we run out of weekly or two weekly if we can (we both hate food shopping). I put my big shop list into "mysupermarket" and for the things we buy Sainsbury is often the cheapest. If another supermarket is cheaper by much we will shop there. We have all the large supermarkets pretty close by.

Top up shops are done in Lidl, M&S, Tesco, Farm Foods, Iceland, Aldi occasionally (not that keen on them) and even more occasionally Asda and Morrisons.

We eat a lot of lentils, beans and chickpeas. I usually buy big bags of these from indian supermarkets which are a lot cheaper. Also buy big bags of rice and onions from them. I never use tinned just because they are dearer. I soak a big bowl of beans, chickpeas or whatever overnight then the next day cook them and then freeze in batches.

We do eat things like quorn mince and Linda McCartney sausages but only buy them when on offer - usually in Farm Foods, Iceland or, occasionally Sainsbury or Tesco.

If I use quorn mince to make chilli, bolognaise or shepherds pie I also mix it with green or brown lentils. I also make lentil bolognaise, sheepherds pie with lentils and lots of veg and bean chilli (no quorn in any of them).

I buy frozen veg in Farm Foods - by far the cheapest and fresh veg in my local market or whatever supermarket I am doing my shop in.

I cook almost always from scratch. Some of my meals are:

Vegetable curry (we both love curry)
Vegetable chilli
Shepherds pie with sweet potato topping - as I said above I tend to either use quorn mince and lentils and probably veg such as peas, sweetcorn or lentils and loads of different veg - peas, sweetcorn, carrots, cauliflower, brocolli, runner beans, mushrooms
Mushroom stroganoff
Lentil and sweetcorn or courgette fritters
Nut roast
Chickpea burgers
Bean burgers
Chickpea curry - I vary this by adding potato or spinach or cauliflower
Paneer and spinach curry
Paneer tikka
Frittata with lots of veg in
Mushroom omelette
Lentil and egg curry
Spicy chickpea pasties - cubes of potato fried with onion and chickpeas, ground cumin and coriander and made into pasties
Sausage and bean bake topped with mashed potato
Vegetable stew and dumplings
Bean chilli

Beans, chickpeas and lentils are fairly cheap especially if you can buy big bags of them. Look up recipes online - you'll be surprised how many there are.

We eat a lot of eggs - they are fairly cheap - I buy 6 free range from M&S for 80p and we both really like them.

I would echo other posters' recommendations for keeping a spending diary, also trying own brand of items as they are often as tasty as the branded items if not more so.

I buy my cleaning products in Wilkinsons or Pound shops but only really use 1 cleaning spray in kitchen, 1 cleaning spray in bathroom, polish (it's about 5op in Wilkos), bleach for the loo (Wilkos). I buy rubber gloves and washing up sponges in Wilko also things like handwash (about 59p).