*sigh* this may take a while

[Deleted User]

Honestly, once you see the savings you can make in Aldi and Lidl, you'll forget about your pride! I find the baked beans from Aldi nicer than Heinz, for example. They have packets of spaghetti for 20p, nobody can tell the difference in spaghetti. Fruit and veg is extremely reasonable as well. And I find because there aren't as many brands to choose from, I'm actually doing my shopping much more quickly.
I tend to go to Aldi first and get as much as I can there, then pop to Asda for things I can't get in Aldi (in our case things like vegan yogurts). It makes a huge difference in price.

[Deleted User]

If your family are fussy about brands, there are still a lot of things that wouldn't even notice - flour, pasta, rice, detergent, fruit and veg, for example.

savingholmes

Perhaps try online shopping with Asda. If you do click and collect they may give you a free voucher for a month to try it. If you go on a cashback site you also may get some money back off your first shop. Mysupermarket.com can tell you where is the cheapest place to get stuff - I find Asda works best for what we buy. Buying online also enables me to put stuff back if the price is too much. At one point I did a #40 (min order level) roughly twice a week - that worked well for not wasting food etc. Perhaps deliberately under-buy but do the twice a week thing - and then you always know you can add it to the second shop. HTH

Drawingaline

I hvve changed how we are hopping this month. I have allocated £574. £65 goes on the milk and bread delivered by tee milkman, around £70 for the month in Lldl, Crisps, Cereal, breakfast stuff, oil, custard, Lunchbox stuff. It's all really random things, either big bulk packs, or generic things that I know we will all eat. Then two deliveries from the supermarket husband gets discount with, approx £250 total, all staples, fridge stuff, fruit and veg, branded things, cleaning stuff, loo rolls etc. Then £200 for local top up shops. I have meal planned for two weeks 14 meals. In my planner I have shopping lists on each page, so twice a week for fresh things and bits for any meals in those 3/4 days.

The plan is to get the overall figure down, but over the past year I have so struggled with food shopping, so I decided a new approach was necessary, with a decent budget to work with. And as I get use to shopping like this and properly planning in advance, then the overall bill should drop.

[Deleted User]

I struggle to recommend online shopping with Asda, I've had some horrendous substitutions in the past. Like spring onions instead of the avocado I ordered haha! But maybe that's just my local shop.

clearmydebts

Hi,

I've really enjoyed reading your diary. My goodness I don't know where you get your energy from with the kids and working a few jobs. It all seems so effortless.

I am looking forward to hearing more about your journey

ohdearhowdidthathappen

savingholmes wrote: »

Perhaps try online shopping with Asda. If you do click and collect they may give you a free voucher for a month to try it. If you go on a cashback site you also may get some money back off your first shop. Mysupermarket.com can tell you where is the cheapest place to get stuff - I find Asda works best for what we buy. Buying online also enables me to put stuff back if the price is too much. At one point I did a #40 (min order level) roughly twice a week - that worked well for not wasting food etc. Perhaps deliberately under-buy but do the twice a week thing - and then you always know you can add it to the second shop. HTH

Thank you, all good advice. I've done a food order tonight from Asda to last until Monday, came to £100, but we're hosting (again!) on Saturday so it includes a meal for 12

Drawingaline wrote: »

I hvve changed how we are hopping this month. I have allocated £574. £65 goes on the milk and bread delivered by tee milkman, around £70 for the month in Lldl, Crisps, Cereal, breakfast stuff, oil, custard, Lunchbox stuff. It's all really random things, either big bulk packs, or generic things that I know we will all eat. Then two deliveries from the supermarket husband gets discount with, approx £250 total, all staples, fridge stuff, fruit and veg, branded things, cleaning stuff, loo rolls etc. Then £200 for local top up shops. I have meal planned for two weeks 14 meals. In my planner I have shopping lists on each page, so twice a week for fresh things and bits for any meals in those 3/4 days.

The plan is to get the overall figure down, but over the past year I have so struggled with food shopping, so I decided a new approach was necessary, with a decent budget to work with. And as I get use to shopping like this and properly planning in advance, then the overall bill should drop.

Wow, you sound mega organised. I must admit to being a bit lazy and I like to get the bulk of my stuff from one shop. Up until this week, that's been from our mutually discounted shop , today it's been Asda . Will be interesting to see whether it makes a big financial difference...

Moguline wrote: »

I struggle to recommend online shopping with Asda, I've had some horrendous substitutions in the past. Like spring onions instead of the avocado I ordered haha! But maybe that's just my local shop.

Haha, we used to always shop there and had some shocking subs. The delivery guy used to be really embarrassed, but I found them funny. Can't think of one off hand now!

ohdearhowdidthathappen

clearmydebts wrote: »

Hi,

I've really enjoyed reading your diary. My goodness I don't know where you get your energy from with the kids and working a few jobs. It all seems so effortless.

I am looking forward to hearing more about your journey

Ah, thank you and welcome tot he inner workings of my confused little brain
I often don't feel very energetic and I think I overly complicated life after my 5th trying to minimise the time away from home and childcare costs. Hoping to make it more sensible over the next few months

ohdearhowdidthathappen

Last extra summer hols shift today (£120 earned), not working at the hospital for a couple of weeks while I settle my little one into school from tomorrow.....they have such strange, disjointed sessions the first couple of weeks, it seemed easier just to take the time off (I was secretly worried I'd forget to drop him off/pick him up unless it was my sole focus :rotfl:). I'm still slightly in denial... I'll either be a blubbering mess, skip off to do something childfree or take the opportunity to have a cheeky nap! All are as likely as the next, so will be interesting to see!

mark55man

very funny - all of the above would be my bet