Food costs. DMP suggests £100-£222pcm What do you spend?

Dannii75

Ebe_Scrooge wrote: »

Good for you !


That's what we do - plan a menu for the week, check what's already in the freezer / cupboards, then write a shopping list. That way you don't end up buying stuff that's not needed. We tend to cook from scratch pretty much most of the time, which is always a heck of a lot cheaper than buying ready-meals - much tastier as well. And we don't have to scrimp on the nice stuff - we'll always buy a decent amount of meat, loads of fresh fruit & veg, and "treats" as previous mentioned.


Toiletries / cleaning stuff / toilet paper / kitchen roll / washing powder etc. - their own-brand stuff is every bit as good as the branded items, for much less cost.


Also, keep an eye out for the special offers. If they've got stuff like toilet paper or washing powder or tinned goods on a special-offer discount - stuff that won't go off - buy in bulk ( as long as you've got room to store it all ! )


Really, for the budget that most people are talking about in this thread, you should be able to eat very well indeed - and there's even room in the budget for the odd couple of bottles of wine or beer


I did mention Aldi - don't forget Lidl, I tend to alternate between the two depending on how I feel on the day, they're both really good if you happen to have both nearby.

This is a really useful reply! thank you! :T I want to spend less so your information is really helpful! & I might get a bottle of wine out of it too!

z1a

3 adults 1 teen, we spend about £120/week on main shop, then maybe £10-£15 on top ups. That includes toiletries, cleaning stuff, and lunches for 2 of us at work.
Maybe £30/week on takeaways.
We could easily spend less, but as things are we're happy with that.

OnTheLadder

Hi Dannii75, we are a 2 adult and 2 cat household. We spend £150-£180 per month, that's without scrimping too much but keeping an eye on good deals/buying the supermarkets own brands on lots of items. It includes toiletries, cat food & litter, cleaning products as well as food and drink. We plan each evening meal for the week on a Saturday morning and have leftovers/ham sandwiches for lunch with crisps and an apple! Works well for us. Online shopping also helps us keep the spend down because we're not tempted/hungry when we shop! Good luck x

pmk741

£92.50 per week - 2 adults including lunches, toiletries household products and a couple of trips to the butchers.

I switched to tesco from aldi earlier this year as I felt the prices were creeping up at aldi but i'm thinking about switching back to aldi and seeing what savings I make.

haras_nosirrah

2 adults, 2 kids, 2 cats - typically spend £60-£70 a week so about £250-
£300 a month. includes toiletries, cat food, alcohol, nappies etc

EssexHebridean

This thread seems to have turned into higher spending than the OP's already high shop, rather than realistic spends for those trying to make savings! :rotfl::rotfl:

Dannii - well done on taking up the suggestions. It most certainly is doable. Over time you'll start to get in mind "target prices" that you want to pay for particular items - so maybe the unit price for loo rolls, or packets of crisps. You'll also get familiar with the sorts of offers that cycle round - and believe me - they DO cycle round! Take a look at the MySupermarket website to give you a good idea of offers available on the products you buy frequently, and also for anything in particular that you want to stick to a branded variant of. (For example we only buy Nescafe instant coffee as MrEH prefers it - but we also only ever buy on special offer!) Remember if you can't afford to take up an offer it WILL reappear somewhere else shortly thereafter though.

NekoZombie

Just want to add to all the comments to say: you can’t feed one person as cheaply as two or three, so don’t feel guilty if you find you’re struggling. Lidl, on paper is cheap. However everything is packaged in very unfriendly sized amounts for a single person who likes a varied diet. Carrots in pre-packed bags, spinach suitable for four but a nightmare for a single person.

I’ve given up with supposedly cheap pre packaged food. I would buy three peppers for £1 rather than one for 50p because the larger packet was cheaper. And then I’d find with the best will in the world I couldn’t eat that much pepper. So now I go to Tesco, where I can buy one or two onions, two carrots and one head of garlic. Overall, it’s helped me stay on budget, even though on paper it’s less cheap than Aldi or Lidl.

elljay

NekoZombie wrote: »

Just want to add to all the comments to say: you can’t feed one person as cheaply as two or three, so don’t feel guilty if you find you’re struggling. Lidl, on paper is cheap. However everything is packaged in very unfriendly sized amounts for a single person who likes a varied diet. Carrots in pre-packed bags, spinach suitable for four but a nightmare for a single person.

I’ve given up with supposedly cheap pre packaged food. I would buy three peppers for £1 rather than one for 50p because the larger packet was cheaper. And then I’d find with the best will in the world I couldn’t eat that much pepper. So now I go to Tesco, where I can buy one or two onions, two carrots and one head of garlic. Overall, it’s helped me stay on budget, even though on paper it’s less cheap than Aldi or Lidl.

While I agree with this about some items, (I'm frustrated by whole cucumbers in Aldi!) all of those you listed above can be frozen or can even be bought frozen if you prefer - often cheaper and no waste. Onions and carrots keep a long while, garlic too, but if I buy a bargain multipack of something like peppers I'll slice and freeze all but one which will do for salads. The rest can be chucked by handfuls into soups, stews etc. I make up my own stew pack from carrots, celery, garlic and onions and use similarly. But again, a couple of sticks carrot and celery kept out for salads. The only exception I can think of is lettuce beside the aforementioned cue, but Aldi little gems seem to keep well too.

Different things work for different people. I found when I meal planned I ate and spent more than before so now I 'ingredient-plan'. As long as I have a good collection of ingredients I open the fridge door, look at what I've got and cook up a stonking meal! Work lunches can be soup you can heat up, last night's leftovers similarly, sandwiches as mentioned, pasta/rice salads. Loads of recipes and ideas on the o/s board.

Sorry, this has gone off topic a bit but it just shows how there are as many ways of clobbering the food bill as there are people! I do think that keeping accurate records of what you spend is a big part of it though, so no more hiding that bar of chocolate in the petrol bill - or is that just me.

Good luck - EJ

Timetopullmysocksup

£50 pw here for 1 adult and a teen athlete. This is for everything, toiletries, cleaning & lunch stuff and inc top up shops, they come out of this money so no 'forgotten' spending. I take the money out in cash and when its gone, its gone.

I shop 'long life on a Friday after work as Tesco is on the way home.
I shop 'fresh' on a Sunday at Lidl/Aldi as near daughters training and the stuff is in a better state ready for the week ahead. I used to buy everything Friday but you could forget having strawbs or blueberries on a Tuesday or Wednesday then I would be going out for more & spending on stuff I didnt' need. I think how you shop also has an impact on how much you spend, it's alright shopping from a list but if you do little lists that takes you into a shop daily then you are a braver soul than me.
I allow one top up and that is normally bread, milk and some more fruit on a Wednesday.

I have also on occasion gone halves with my parents if something is bigger and cheaper but I wouldn't necessarily get through it before it perished. Swedes last week were huge for 49p half each and I still only used half of that, the rest went in a freezer bag with some carrots and an onion ready to bang in the slow cooker for the next casserole.

Cleaning wise you do not need 6, 7, 8 different bottles of stuff, I only buy bleach and stardrops. I have a spray bottle that I dilute a couple of drops of both into and this lasts ages. Bleach tablets are great if you can find them, one in the bog before bed, jobs a good un. I do have some killrock limescale gel that has a brush in the lid and I do the shower head and round the taps once a month but I swear the tub is 2 years old and still got some in. There is loads to be saved in this area if you don't buy into the marketing.

Toiletries, I don't buy the cheapest products but I do go for the cheaper way, so I decant branded bubble bath (1L Imperial Leather £1 from pounlandyshopworld) into radox shower gel hanging bottles so get 2 for the price of one.

If you can shave an amount equal to your hourly wage off your shopping you are effectively giving yourself an hrs overtime.

Cassox

However much I plan I can't get my shopping/household/ toiletries below £25 per week. My nearest Aldi is quite a distance but I tried it for a month. What a waste of time. Everything constantly went off after a couple of days so I had to re buy and ended up spending more as well as the additional petrol costs involved. A bolognaise/chilli etc costs me around £4-£5 to cook depending on how cheap and fatty the mince is ☹️