Help me spend less on food?

Rosa_Damascena

maman said:

Unless you really need to save some money then £65 isn't too bad at all. On the weeks when you spend £80 then I think you need to analyse where the £15 has gone. If you were buying large packs of meat to portion up for the freezer or ingredients for batch cooking then that's fine, as you'll save in the longer term, but if you're buying unnecessary items in the middle aisle  (and you can't afford it) it's not. 

Like you, I shop in Aldi with a very few things from Sainsburys like certain herbs and spices. I also do some shopping in other stores where I stock up on favourite/good value/offers/YS items perhaps once a month or six weeks. These include places like Home Bargains, Farmfoods, Lidl and occasional visits to other SMs.  There used to be an old lady posting on the OS boards that kept a separate purse for those sort of buys. I've even read about people who 'buy' from their own store cupboards to give themselves an accurate weekly or monthly  figure. Personally, I don't need that sort of detail . I'm just happy that I'm getting good value for money and not wasting it in shops that seem to charge more just because they can. 

JackieO is missed.

Mrs_Salad_Dodger

I second that Rosa 

mumtoomany

Me too, hope you are ok, if you still read along Jackie. Sending love, mumtoomany.

balabooberlies

Ditto !

bala

x

maisie_cat

goldfinches said:

There's also making an inventory of everything edible you have in the house at the moment and then meal planning to use that without buying anything else. You could go meat free one or two days a week if you are currently eating meat every day or try to eat more seasonally which tends to be cheaper too.
Grocery Challenge is very helpful and so are various other threads on the Old Style Board so have a look around and see what appeals to you and come back if you've got any questions.

This, we spent too much at Christmas and we managed mostly on cupboard/freezer stock in January. We have at least 2 meat free days a week, last week we had 4. I batch cook and freeze extra portions as frozen ready meals. It helps to eke out meat that is expensive. If I buy a pack of mince/chicken etc I repack as 160g-200g portions and use that to make a 4 portion dish, using lentil or beans to bulk. I rarely buy pre prepared meals, we have a pizza once a month  and we did have a meal deal for valentines day. I have 2 freezers, and if I see a bargain I will bulk buy, but it needs managing.
Check what you have in cupboards/freezers regularly,  I'm terrible at this and have a small kitchen, so I keep some non perishables in the garage. I decided to do a stock take the other day and we have 42 tins of tomatoes and 15 of passata amongst other things. We use both a lot, around 120 times a year between them. Some of them were from Waitrose, which we don't have here, so I must have brought them from Surrey 15 months ago! 

mumtoomany

Just "spoken" to JackieO via email. (i'd forgotten I had her email address) She has asked me to give her love to all on here. She is well and keeping safe. All her extended family are well too. She does look on here from time to time, mumtoomany.

joedenise

Good to hear that JackieO is OK.  It's a shame she decided to leave when the forum went to the new format.  I met her once and she's a lovely lady.

PipneyJane

mumtoomany said:

Just "spoken" to JackieO via email. (i'd forgotten I had her email address) She has asked me to give her love to all on here. She is well and keeping safe. All her extended family are well too. She does look on here from time to time, mumtoomany.

That's lovely to hear.  Thanks @mumtoomany.

- Pip

To_be_Free

There are only two of us and we work on spending between £4 to £5 per day on food which we easily achieve and eat very well on this amount, but this does not include household items such as toilets rolls , cleaning products, toiletries, etc. Which we allow another £1 to £2 a day. So are total spend per week is between £35 to £49.
Just as a quick example a  whole chicken we can make  3 meals out of it, a pound of mince 2 meals etc.

fox1uk2006

Yes that is a lot of money to be spending for two people.Where do you shop?What do you buy?What do you waste a Lot off?.Write down a weekly menu at the start and do not buy extras?Start buying bigger packs and freeze them down and mostly think about portion control.Limit alcohol as it is not a needed.One bit of advice ,use the German retailers and then top up with what they do not do.But the main thing is if you are asking the question if we are spending too much then you are