saving money shopping for family of our - please help

sarahc44

we currently spend abou £80 - £90 a week! I think this is too high we don't buy alcohol as don't drink, just food and stuff for 7 days can anyone give some meal ideas or ways to cut my bill?

Olliebeak

Have you looked at Martin's 'downshift challenge'?

http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/shopping/cheap-supermarket-shopping

It's more or less what Martin did on the TV programme a couple of weeks ago when he took a woman shopping and showed her how to cut her costs at the supermarket.

dlb

The best thing to do is carry on as normal for a few weeks and keep a spending diary, of EVERYTHING you buy and the cost.

Then sit down and look through it, is there anything you have thrown away not used?

Then make a list of all the meals your family like, i now have a list of about 30 meals we all like plus a list of special meal myself and dh like but not the kids.

Then make a meal plan for the week ahead before going shopping, from this meal plan make a detailed list of everything you need to complete them, down to herbs spices everything.

Then cross off what you already have in.

Then the hard part, shopping only buying what is on the list, nothing else.:rolleyes:

I include a seperate list for lunches and snacks, and find baking treats rather than buying then cuts down on the bill loads.

I limit the goodies by only putting so much in the cupboards and hiding the rest and refill when needed, that way it stops the kids just eating because its there.

Add veg to as many meals as possible and offer bread and butter with the meal, i personally buy nearly everything from the value range, veg,fruit,meat the lot.
It tastes just as good and its what you do with it that counts.

Iv cut my bill by over half in this past year and im a family of 6, i spend between £50-£65 per week.

Good luck its can be good fun reducing your shopping bill and watching the savings mount up.:j

Donna

mrs_pokemon

How many are in your family? What ages are the children?
Does this include food for packed lunches etc?

belfastgirl23

It's worth spending a good bit of time surfing supermarket websites to see if/where you might cut back. Gives you time to check the cost of value items vs regular items. Also worth looking here http://www.mysupermarket.co.uk/FirstTimeHome.aspx
they make suggestions for how to cut costs if you do a 'shopping' with them.

Good luck! I've managed to cut a third off what we used to spend on food without feeling at all deprived.