Got to get my shopping bill down need help

Frags

Hi Guys,

I have seriously for to get my shopping down. Basicaly my partner is away all week (he is a lorry driver) he comes home Friday nite sometimes late and leaves very early Monday morning. We seem to be spending a stupid aount on shopping, this weekend i went shopping and spent £80 and feel like i dont have a lot to show for it. I have to buy quite a lot of stuff for him to take with him. He is limited to what he can take. I am not always in every note so meal planning is very difficult. He does get job lots of meat cheap which helps save money but all this has been used up for the moment. How can i get this bill down?? Also my partner is very fussy with what he eats, he only really eats, chicken, mince meat, sausages and bacon, he wont eat anything with cheese or eggs and he hates garlic!

Help!!! I serioulsy need to save some money!!

newlywed

Hi Frags.

Do you make a menu plan at all? I find this cuts down the shopping list lots (and makes me a little more organised in the supermarket )

Do you "pad out" the mince by using veg, eg grated carrots, peas sweetcorn, extra kidney beans in chilli etc? Can you smuggle lentils in?

Have you got an Aldi/Lidl nearby at all? Some of their stuff is really good value?

Can you plan to do lots of pasta meals (using less meat) or extra potato based meals?

Frags

Hi Newlywed,
Thanks for responding, I do bulk out meals where i can, i did a cottage pie on Friday nite and have got the left overs for my tea tonight and frosze one portion for another day. No chance on the lentils! i have a whole joint of pork and a massive beef jpint in the freezer, i should of cut them up before i froze it as i could of used these for stir fry etc in the week when OH is away. I dont understand where all the money goes! I try and meal plan when i can but i never know which nights i am going to be in. This also means quite a lot of stuff gets waisted.

newlywed

Why not work out a few standby meals that you can do if you're in but don't go off if you're not in - eg things that can be made, frozen and then reheated from frozen - take out of the freezer when you get home. Or Corn beef hash - tin of corn beef, tinned value pots, frozen sweetcorn, baked beans. Or omelette as eggs will keep a while?

That way less food gets wasted as it doesn't go "off" if you don't use it.

If you're always in on certain evenings then you can plan other meals for those days?

I always keep pasta, passata and smoked pork sausage for weekend days when we have the step kids and I can't be bothered to cook much

belfastgirl23

Hi Frags

First of all I think it's worth keeping all your receipts for a few weeks to see where the cash is going. It's also maybe worth listing some of your regular foods on here to see if people can suggest cut price alternatives.

Where do you do your shopping? Have you tried mysupermarket.com to see what is cheapest for you? Lidl is also good esp if you make a lot of sandwiches.

On your own eating patterns I now try to not overbuy on things I may or may not eat unless they can be frozen. I try to keep a stock of frozen *home* ready meals in the freezer that I can just fire into the micro if I arrive home hungry and don't have anything planned. I also try to keep bread in the freezer in case I just want a snack. Meal planning doesn't exactly work for me since I don't know what I'll fancy but I do try to cook one 'big' thing per week which we'll eat on the following two days and leftovers go in the freezer. I'd say start with trying to get to grips with your own food first and then work your way onto your DH.

Why don't you come join us on the December grocery challenge which will be starting soon?? It's a good way to pick up tips and keep yourself motivated.

Frags

Hi Belfast girl,

Definately up for december Grocery Challenge! I am the same as you, i dont find meal planning works because i tend to eat what i fancy. Problem with me is (i know i am gonna sound a snob) but im not a fan of leftpvers, i am having left over cottage pie for tea tonight but find i sometimes reheat it and then dont fancy it. I shop at Brianfords which is like Lidl but even cheaper which saves me some money but still managed to spend £80 in there and have now realised i still need more meat!

Doing one big thing per week sounds like a good idea. can u freeze macaroni cheese??

System

when i make cottage pie i double the qty and make individual portions and freeze them [you know what im doing this sat !]

skintchick

My oh is fussy too, but I'm afraid I don;t pander to it. When he met me he swore he wouldn;t eat loads of things - we are down to no melted cheese and no really really creamy things. Everything else he eats cos I have made him taste it and will only let him not have it again if it's obvious he genuinely hates it (like melted cheese). Perhaps you need to take a slightly harder line with him? For me, I said I wasn;t going to have fussy children so he needs to sort himself out before we have kids.

Will he eat fish? Pork? Lamb? Fish is fairly cheap and is good for you too.

bellaquidsin

Hi Fraggs. You will find all the hints and tips on this site brilliant for helping you to reduce your food bill.

I have reduced mine over the past 6 or 8 wks. Firstly because I am trying to do some belt tightening ready for retirement in 18months or so. Secondly because I went into mild panic when I heard round about Septemeber time that food bills were set to rise 30% by Christmas. Ouch! :mad:

I thought that with retirement looming this was not a good time to be needing more housekeeping money. My housekeeping money at the moment is fairly high because I have in recent years had to cater for special dietry requirements. I am now trying to modify this diet so that I don't spend so much.

There are only the two of us but I regurlarly have the family round for a meal and quite often have visitors for Sunday lunch.

I have always been old style really but a careful look showed me that I had slipped a bit. I was actually buying Auntie Bessies Yorkshire Puddings - well they are so convenient aren't they. I am NOT doing that any more.

First of all learn how much everything costs and check if it's cheaper elsewhere. Time was when I knew all the prices of everything because they had a price label stuck to them. Now you have to look at the price on the shelf AND remember, or forget it and isn't that just what the supermarkets want us to do? Now I write it all down.

By watching prices, watching what I buy to see if two meals could be made out of a reasonable alternative, making my own bread and biscuits as well as the cakes and pastries I have always made, eating more homemade soup instead of salad etc etc, I have managed over the past few weeks to put at least £10 sometimes £20 in the back of my purse each week after shopping. Taking into account the recent price increases that is not bad going and it has provided a fund out of which I have bought several household items e.g. plastic boxes for stockpiling flour (Doves Farm wholemeal bread flour @ 74p is such a good price at the moment but will it stay that way?) and several items of equipment to make my new job (MSE) more interesting. I have also been able to avail myself of special offers to stock up on toilet rolls (with three extra rolls free) and large joints of meat @ half price (for Sunday visitors) and anything that's going for a good price, so I am really well stocked up now and should be able to put even more aside each week. May even be able to tell DH that I don't need so much money. Now wouldn't that make me pretty rare?

Keep chipping away at it. You CAN do it.

Frags

skintchick wrote: »

Will he eat fish? Pork? Lamb? Fish is fairly cheap and is good for you too.

No he doesnt eat fish,, he wont eat any type of seafood. He very rarely eats pork, he wouldnt touch Lamb with a barge pole!

It is like having a child, i hve tried smuggling things into meals but he just wont eat it then i get mad coz its a waste so its easier to just cook wot he likes. I feel the same way too i have said i dont want fussy kids, when i was young we got wot we were given or we went hungry and i will eat most things (except celery and peppers yuk)

Sometimes i end up cooking two meals because he likes everything plain and it drives me mad, that also means more expense.

bellaquidsin

Fraggs. It is quite difficult for you to have to cater for a faddy eater but I am absolutely certain that you can get that £80 or so food bill down to a level that would suit your purse much better.

It's good that the things that you say he will eat (Chicken, mince and sausage) are all reasonably priced and there are hundreds of different ways of cooking chicken and nearly as many thing to do with mince.

At the weekend when he is at home could you cook a chicken dish which would provide four portions? A slow cooker would be excellent for doing this but if you don't have one never mind, a casserole dish in the oven would do just as well. Eat two of the portions together and freeze two seperately and serve them to him at a time when you want to eat something else so that at least you don't get sick of chicken. You could do the same sort of thing with mince - a bolognaise or a chilli or something of that nature, perhaps cottage pies the possibilitied are endless.

You might find yourself dipping into his supplies when he is away for a quick meal for yourself, because it is never much fun cooking for one. Or your could start your own supply with things that you like.

When the creativity runs low or the energy has flagged just give him sausage if he loves it so much.

I would never, never, never ever cook two seperate meals at once from scratch just to satisfy a fad. That would be bad enough to have to do in the case of dietry restrictions, but even when I was following a very rigid and very restrictive diet I managed to find things that were tasty and acceptable to DH - it can be done.

Think positive, be prepared to put in a bit of groundwork and you'll get there.

:j :j :j