Can't get my shopping below £70.00!!

nicky1306

Can't get my shopping below £70.00!!
ok posted this in the wrong place at first , but have been informed this is the place to be!!

Please be Gentle with me this is my first post!!- also feel free to move if i've posted this in the wrong place!!


title says it all really!! There's me dp and lo (7.5 months) that includes formula, nappies, wipes etc, has anyone tried aldi or Lidl, what is the quality like??
I'd like to spend £50.00.:mad:
I cook everything from scratch all sauces and LO's food, but i'm sure it's all the fresh stuff that bumps it up, we buy one pack of buscuits (sp) a week and the rest is dinners, for lunches I make soup which lasts me and dp all week, any ideas anyone????
Thanks!
xx

saveaholic68

Hi, and welcome! I go to Lidl regularly and the quality is OK, main problem I find is that they don't sell everything and I sometimes have to pop to Somerfield to top up. The veg there is VERY cheap and they often do discounts where it is reduced prices for the week.
This thread may be useful as it shows what things are worth buying from Aldi/Lidl and which arent. http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=110684

angchris

hiya, what kind of meals do you normally cook? can you drop down to a cheaper range in the supermarkets? try going to your local market and picking up fresh fruit/veg its much cheaper, instead of buying packets/tins/sauces can you make your own? try buying/making things in bulk and freezing rather than buying and cooking for 1 meal and always keep and use your leftovers. this year i have been picking fruit from hedgerow and have made enough jam to last me (and the neighbours :rotfl: ) for agessss
i spend about £25 a week for me oh and my 15 year old son, you can cook/live on a budget if you organise yourself. £50 should be more than enough to live on for the 3 of you. have you ever tried online shopping...i find it great for keeping to my budget..i have a shopping list and i get only what i need from mr t`s it saves me wandering around tescos throwing stuff (choccy ) in my trolley and if you look in the vouchers/codes section on here you can normally find money off codes and free delivery, last month i found a £10 off a £50 shop :j i buy enough milk to last me the month and freeze it, i also always have bread flour in so there is no need to pop to the shops for bread and spend £20... i use my breadmaker and the loaves are delish and cost about 30p each, have a look in the recipe indexed collections on here its always useful for inspiration. good luck im sure you will manage fine...angchris xx

beemuzed

I can't seem to get our bills down much lower then yours - we;re just two adults plus two dogs and a cat. Mind, we only have a choice of Tesco or Waitrose here, and our weekly shop includes a few bottles of wine, so I probably do know the answer really! I don't think you're doing too badly if you're including all the baby stuff as well (tiny people seem to cost more than adults!), but if you have an Aldi or Lidl I think that would help - I'm always green with envy at my sisters who have both nearby and spend loads less than me.

JenniO

Sainsburys basics baby wipes are on half price at the moment for 44p per pack. stock up???

Consider cloth nappies???

Formula is very expensive, I do feel for you!!!

There is a whole campaign about using up leftovers, not wasting food etc. I found since I have tried VERY hard not to throw away any food, I don't go through near the amount I used to and therefore don't buy as much every week. try www.lovefoodhatewaste.com Its' a new website on food. HTH

jen

thriftlady_2

Hi Nicky, welcome to the OS board.

There are many strategies you can use to spend less on groceries. The more you use the greater the cumulative effect.

Here are some ideas:

1) Don't buy food when you already have it in your cupboards/fridge/freezer. This is one I find quite hard as I like food shopping, but when I'm saving money I make an inventory of my cupboards and freezer. Make up a week's menu plan based on what you already have before you buy any more. It is particularly easy to think that you always need to buy loads of fresh fruit and veg every week. Obviously you want to eat lots but do you already have a good stock of frozen veg, dried fruit, tinned fruit in juice and tinned tomatoes ? These are often more nutritious than the veg flown in from Kenya or Guatamala, which brings me on to number 2)

2) Try to eat seasonally and locally. If you have a farmshop near you check it out. They aren't just in rural areas, look here for your nearest one. Bargains to be had are 25 kilo sacks of spuds for £5 -£6 -way cheaper than value spuds at the supermarket. Store in a cool place, garage is ideal. They work out cheaper than value rice and pasta too. Look out for other seasonal goodies, my farmshop still has locally grown tomatoes and lettuce as well as apples, pears, root veg and fab British celery. Even if you don't have a handy farmshop the supermarkets do stock British grown produce and it should be cheaper than imported stuff.

3) Buy the cheaper stuff! Try the next range down. Many value items are fine, some aren't but they're worth trying. If value is too extreme for you try the own brands, they are always good. Remember, just because they taste different from a brand version it doesn't mean they necessarily taste bad.

4) Stock up on items you know you will use/need when they are on sale. You need freezer/cupboard space for this.

5) Waste nothing. There are loads of tips on this board but start with these - Don't cook more than you can all eat.
If you have cooked a huge vat of chilli for instance portion it up for the freezer when you're dishing up so that no-one is tempted to finish it off in one sitting.
Eat leftovers for lunch.
Make soup and stock from chicken bones, ham bones, leftover veg.
Save all your breadcrusts in the freezer for crumbs or croutons.
Eat every ounce of meat you buy. Look for 'rubber chicken' ideas on this board.
Find recipes for old fashioned frugal dishes like rissoles and bubble and squeak.

6) Eat less meat. Meat is usually the most expensive part of your diet. Dried beans and peas are the cheapest sources of protein around. Soak a whole bag of beans overnight, cook in the morning and bag up for the freezer. Use from frozen for chillies, veg stews, soups and curries. If no-meat meals are not popular try less-meat meals using a bit of chopped meat or bacon.

7) Buy cheaper meat and fish. If you have been buying steak, chicken breasts, pork tenderloin, lamb chops you will save money by trying shin of beef, belly pork, spare rib chops, neck of lamb. Slow cook them for delicious stews.
Cheap and healthy fish include mackerel, herrings, coley, pollack and of course tinned fish.

8) Cut out foods that have little nutrition like alcohol, chocolate, sugar....no, I don't do this one either But, seriously things like boxed cereal are far more expensive then porridge oats because you are paying for all the processing done to the grains, the packaging and the advertising campaign. There is nothing magic nutritionally about boxed cereals, wholemeal toast for breakfast is just as nutritious. Likewise packaged biscuits and cakes are a nutritional and economical rip-off. Not only is it a doddle to make them yourself you end up with a product that is far superior to even the supermarket's 'finest' line. Loads of baking tips on this board

9) Try growing your own fruit and veg. I grow with no effort whatsoever cultivated blackberries. I picked them from July right up until last week and my freezer is full of free fruit for pies, crumbles, ice cream, yogurt, jam.Tree fruit is also no effort if you have room for a small apple or plum tree. I also have raspberries which continue to fruit each year despite me doing nothing to them. Berries freeze well.

10) Consider preserving, baking your own bread and yogurt making. These are activities I love and get a lot of satisfaction from. They are not for everyone, you need time for a start. I haven't bought a jar of jam for years.

11) Shop around and take note of price differences. Lidl and Aldi do have bargains and the quality is OK. Sometimes though they are no cheaper than Tesco. Try shopping online to avoid impulse buying.

You may already be doing some or all of these, but if not give them a go and watch your bills fall.
HTH:)

PasturesNew

I thought I was frugal - until I started using http://www.spendingdiary.com

Try it, log everything - you might be surprised where your money IS being spent. I know I was and could make some changes.

My tips are:
1] The only meat I buy is sausages (you can get some lovely ones now) and mince. Usually when either is on offer.

2] ALWAYS buy by looking at the £/100g - it is surprising just how different two seemingly similar products are.

3] Use Spending Diary and log everything - then look at the reports after each week and spot an overspend and correct it by using something different

4] Cut back on the expensive ingredients in dishes. e.g. if I make a chilli I don't use garlic, peppers or wine in it. Mince/kidney beans/onions makes a chilli - the other ingredients would double (or more) the price of making it - so look for the hidden money burners in everything you cook.

5] Think about and KNOW the cost of every dish you prepare - and compare that cost with other dishes you make. Then eat the cheaper ones more often.

Good luck!

champys

PasturesNew wrote: »

I thought I was frugal - until I started using http://www.spendingdiary.com

thank you for sharing! i have been tracking my spending for many years now using my own elaborate spreadsheet system, but this takes all the hard work out of it.

to add another tip: always buy a whole chicken instead of parts and divide it into portions - the breasts make a meal, so do the legs, the wings i save up in the freezer till i have a barbecue quantity and the carcass goes for stock (i usually also freeze them first then make a large batch of stock with 2 or 3 carcasses)

brila

Re some of the baby bits, here are a few suggestions from my experience. I know that babies are very personal things and EVERYONE has an opinion and different tolerances. So these are not dogmatic You Must Do's. Just trying to suggest a few possibilities.

Try a cheaper brand of formula - as LO is over 6 months, it may be less of a trauma to change brand? I changed from SMA to Farleys and saved about £1.50 a tin. Also if you are using the "first formula" you could try a follow on milk as they tend to be cheaper and you use fewer scoops per feed so they last longer.

Try buying nappies, wipes, formula etc from boots online using codes for extra advantage card points. Then use the points in store to buy extra nappies etc. I found it worked out as approx spend £40, get a free pack of nappies.

Definately give washable nappies a go. I continue to save an absolute fortune using terries. You can get shaped nappies that are like disposables if you don't want to fold them etc. They are really, truly not a huge hassle. I flush the liner, stick them in a bucket and every couple of days I stick them all in the wash. And when the baby stops using them then I have a lifetime's supply of dusters etc.! I still use disposables when out and about or in hosp, travelling etc.

Try cheap flannels in a plastic box with water and a bit of mild liquid soap or lotion instead of baby wipes when at home? Particularly if baby is wet but not messy - I still tend to reach for the wipes when there has been a major eruption. Keep some flannels aside for drying - flannels get wetter than wipes and important to keep nice and dry to avoid nappy rash.

Are you buying special baby foods? e.g. Baby porridge in boxes, when you could use normal porridge. Don't underestimate how you can be manipulated. So many people buy baby this and baby that because naturally they want to do what's best and to have the best. But often if doesn't need to be a special baby thing. For example you can buy a tiny bag of little baby rice cakes for more than you can spend on a big pack of "grown-up" ones with no salt or anything other than rice in them and then just break them in quarters. Browse the baby aisle for ideas by all means, but then look elsewhere.

Also, I found at first I would buy specific fruit and veg for baby. But after a while I turned it around and gave baby part of the fruit and veg that we were going to eat for our meals. We really cut back our baby-specific purchases and tried to fit him into our shopping, if you see what I mean. I know that you can always freeze the rest of that strange vegetable in ice cube trays etc. but I found it tended to lurk at the back of the freezer and eventually I forgot what it even was. I decided that our goal with weaning was to get baby to eat the same meals as us so that I wasn't still cooking everyone different meals when he was 15. But I'm lucky that he is a good eater - if you have a picky pickle it may be harder to do that.

Everything's a bit harder when you have a LO, but you could try looking about where you live for cheaper sources of certain things. e.g. Some pound shops have good deals on dried goods or tins. Chinese/ethnic supermarkets for rice, spices, lentils etc. I found that by doing my main monthly shop online, I have a little bit more time each week to check out other places - so one week I go to the Oriental Supermarket, or the butchers, or pound shop, or Lidl etc.

Sorry it was so long. I hope your budget works out.

thriftlady_2

brila wrote: »

.

Are you buying special baby foods? e.g. Baby porridge in boxes, when you could use normal porridge. Don't underestimate how you can be manipulated. So many people buy baby this and baby that because naturally they want to do what's best and to have the best. But often if doesn't need to be a special baby thing. For example you can buy a tiny bag of little baby rice cakes for more than you can spend on a big pack of "grown-up" ones with no salt or anything other than rice in them and then just break them in quarters. Browse the baby aisle for ideas by all means, but then look elsewhere.

.

This is a very good point. The same applies to baby rice -just buy a bag of ground rice it is the same stuff as in those (not very full) boxes of special baby rice. Little bags of baby pasta stars were one of the things I used to buy for my first baby until I discovered I could buy a huge bag of stelline for less than a bag of the baby stuff. Those tick lists on the packets used to annoy me -wow 'no sugar, no salt,no nuts etc' I'd batter get that for my darling child, oh hang on it's pasta, the ordinary pasta doesn't have those things in either :rolleyes:

brila

I could write a book about the barmy things that people get sold for their baby. One of my favourites is a £9 pink wristband to wear on one wrist or the other so you remember which side you nursed with last. Erm, how about a safety pin in your bra, or an elastic band? Personally I could tell by which side felt more chewed...

Re the pasta, I use normal spaghetti. Just break it up into inch-or-so pieces before cooking (easier than trying to chop it once cooked!). And why anyone would buy rusks is beyond me - what is the point of a biscuit that goops everywhere (carpet, curtains, hair, the moon) as soon as a baby merely looks at it? Shredded wheat is good for breakfast, as no fancy ingredients - all those baby cereals have all sorts of gubbins in them. And I like to buy Sainsburys basics bananas - they are fair trade, just not standard sizes or shapes. You are supposed to get 8 in a pack, but I nearly always find one with 9 or 10 in a bag. I'm not fussed about the straightness or size of my banana, and if the baby ever expresses a preference he can like it or lump it!