I spend far too much on groceries! Please help me get it under control!

PandoraTundra

Hi,

I'm new here! I've been doing some reading around the forums and I'm amazed by the tiny amounts people are managing to spend on groceries each week.

My household is two adults (me and my partner) and our 1 year old son. We cook everything from scratch, rarely have any treat foods (like multipacks of crisps, biscuits etc), alcohol is usually (but not always) budgeted to our pocket money instead of groceries and we don't rely on brand name foods or toiletries. But somehow we still manage to spend enormous amounts on groceries every month!

I use budgeting software (YNAB) so I know exactly how much we're spending. This year has been an average of £553 a month on groceries (including toiletries, cleaning, nappies etc). What with having a kid, maternity leave, going back to work part time, enormous nursery bills and my partners redundancy and subsequent unemployment while looking for a job (he's got one now, hooray!), money is really tight. After our rent and nursery, groceries are our biggest expense.

I really want to bring it down but I'm at a loss and a bit overwhelmed by all the threads etc. I don't know where to start!

Partner does most of the cooking and does tend to make large portions, but he does a lot of exercise and has the appetite of a horse. He's not a great fan of meal planning and my plans have been largely forgotten about in the past. I've tried cooking smaller portions, following budget friendly recipes, but he's still hungry afterwards and makes something else! We shop at Lidl/Aldi for the big shops, but we do tend to do a lot of popping to the local Asda for bread and spending £25 by accident.

It's all probably really obvious, but does anyone have any tips? I just don't see how we can cut down to the small budgets people here seem to have but I really want to try! Any advice would be most welcome!

Thank you!

candygirl

Join the monthly grocery challenge, where we all share our spends n tis on saving cash. There's also a brilliant selection of recipes at the start of the thread

-taff

Are you spending a lot of it on meat? Are you buying the 'best' versions of stuff? Are you buying ready foods like salads that are already washed in bags, coleslaw or that type of thing?
What kind of thing does he cook? Things like mince can be padded out with lentils or chickpeas or beans....
Take the nappies and cleaning products out of your budget to see what you really spend on food, because I can imagine the nappies are a massive part of that. For cleaning, a bottle of stardrops ad one of bleach should be plenty [ except if you are in a hardwater area].

Working_Mum

My advice would be to take an amount for food each week, stick it in an envelope and use that money and when it is gone it is gone.

I banned myself from using my debit card and only used cash when I had no money about 10 years ago - it worked as you get creative, shop when you need to and don't out anything extra in your trolley.

I still shop with a hand basket even now (unless I doing a big shop) and this has curbed my spending.....

You seem to be aware of how much you're spending. Can you break the figures down a bit further - even on a sheet of paper i.e. food/cleaning/nappies/baby food etc?? You may spot some really glaring issues there.

For me it was about drilling down until i got the gist of what was actually going on (and not what I thought was happening!!).

Oh and do an audit of everything in all of your cupboards and freezer including your cleaning cupboards as that may show areas you don't need to buy!!

tessie_bear

sounds like u have a lot going on xx

I think it might be possible to take small steps to bring it down don't try and go from £500 to £65 its too hard ...when u say he cooks a lot does it get eaten ? if so maybe u need to look for cheaper ways to eat suh as buy a big sack of potatoes and make your own chips/wedges/mash/roasties and don't buy ready made chips etc...if meals are going in the bin make less to avoid the waste...if there are bits left u can make nice lunches with the leftovers

to stop the we need bread and milk shop put some bread in the freezer and get some uht milk...fwiw my top tips would be
@ make cheap meals...anything with eggs in such as quiche or with chips

@don't spend on alcohol easy for me I'm tea total but something to think about

@waste nowt find ways to use everything u have purchased

@buy the cheapist u can such as brands aldi do brilliant copies of stuff like twixs which we find nice...I am no fan of cheap meat or eggs but go for the cheapest of most stuff

let us know how u get on xx

tessie_bear

ps check out frugal blogs...you can get some brilliant ideas

PandoraTundra

Thanks for your replies! It's all really helpful.
We probably do have too much meat, but it's mostly chicken thighs, beef mince or sausages. We've started eating more lentils, rice and pasta, and have jackets with beans once a week. The bagged salad needs to stop! Everything else is homemade though.

I'm going to make the effort to split out the receipts and see exactly what's going on.

Small steps is a good idea! I always try and fail to cut drastically which is quite demotivating.

I've got some reading to do!

Thanks again! ��

grunnie

No top up shops! Meal plan and buy all foodstuff milk bread etc for the week. Sort out your cupboards and list what you have. Do you have a freezer. I shop every 8 days instead of 7 days and that means every 8th week I have a whole weeks money to save for holidays. I buy my meat mostly from Asda their 3 for £10 is great for us. I have been known to fill the freezer with about £50 worth last for weeks. For instance the pack of 8 chops I split into 2s and freeze. Their cook in the bag chickens can be frozen and I get 3 days meals from that. Roast chicken chicken curry then a pot of soup with the bones. I would say I spend about £160 a month on food cleaning stuff loorollls etc. for 2 of us.
The secret is meal planning.

Wraithlady

I would second the meal planning - it doesn't have to be restrictive, it's just a way of ensuring you've got [important ingredient in recipe]/taken the [main ingredient] out of the freezer in time for it to thaw!

I may be misreading but it seems your partner is not at all enthusiastic about this - it may be worth finding out why. Are they not involved, do they think it cramps their style, would they be more enthusiastic if you both sat down and did it?

It does help with the 'popping out for 1 item, coming back with 2 full bags' scenario

elsien

Delegate the planning and the budgetting to the other half if he's the main cook.
Little point in meal planning etc if he's not on board.
Have you tracked the receipts for those "pop the shop" spends to see where it's going and how it can be cut back.

YORKSHIRELASS

We are a family of four adults (kids still at home aged 18 and 20) and I have averaged £440 a month this year. I am in awe of people who feed their family for tiny amounts but I know that I could do it for less. We dont eat takeaways or go out to eat and I can afford my current budget.

When the kids were little we had a time when money was tight and I used to spend £350 a month maximum. We ate well but a lot of things were rare treats (blueberries, raspberries, salmon, steak, lamb etc).

My advice would be to mealplan, only buy what you need, avoid anything ready prepared and try to avoid "top up" shopping. Also really take the time to really look at the prices of things in the shop and think about the choices that you make. Its so easy to walk round with your trolley and throw stuff in.

Its hard because supermarkets are designed to make you spend money but even small changes can help. Good luck.