Time to slash the shopping budget and use up the store cupboard

threepenny_bit

Thankyou everyone - it was wonderful to see the comments and support this morning and I really appreciate it. 
We travel home on Thursday and will stop at costco to get potatoes, carrots, onions, fruit, salad, eggs, bread and milk and promised to get a spiral ham for hubby which will be for his lunches and to have with salad etc, i cannot eat pork so will use some of the frozen chicken when he has ham. The hams are really good value and on offer after Christmas; I make soups,quiche, stir fry, use the smaller slices for bacon etc and it makes so many meals for him. I have the $100 gift voucher towards Costco but now I will use a large amount of the budget for the start of the month. 
I wont be able to use the 15% appreciation day for the first Tuesday of the month in January as we will not be home; will use it the remaining months though. Hoping to get some dried fruit and mincemeat in the sales if i can see any - I make the barabrith type of fat free fruit loaves to store in freezer when I can as this makes a cheap cake.

nobler

My main tip would be to meal plan eg on a 4 or 6 week cycle. That way you can write shopping lists which are limited to the stuff you don't already have for specific meals for the coming week.

Regarding milk, both filtered or UHT are going to be more expensive than regular milk so you have to weigh up the benefits for your situation. I usually have a small amount of UHT around for emergency use (skimmed because it doesn't have the UHT taste, which I hate!) as I'd rather do that than have to do a special trip to the shops.

Do you have any form of supermarket comparison tool available to you? I find it very helpful. I alternate between different online supermarkets (online also makes it easier not to be tempted by off-list items), structuring my shops around bulk buying more expensive items, eg ground coffee, when and where they are on special offer.

Obviously if you're in a physical shop it's great to pick up any  reduced for quick sale food that you can use or freeze eg I once bought loads of packs of prechopped onions that were only 5p each (ie much cheaper than a fresh onion) and froze them.

threepenny_bit

nobler said:

My main tip would be to meal plan eg on a 4 or 6 week cycle. That way you can write shopping lists which are limited to the stuff you don't already have for specific meals for the coming week.

Regarding milk, both filtered or UHT are going to be more expensive than regular milk so you have to weigh up the benefits for your situation. I usually have a small amount of UHT around for emergency use (skimmed because it doesn't have the UHT taste, which I hate!) as I'd rather do that than have to do a special trip to the shops.

Do you have any form of supermarket comparison tool available to you? I find it very helpful. I alternate between different online supermarkets (online also makes it easier not to be tempted by off-list items), structuring my shops around bulk buying more expensive items, eg ground coffee, when and where they are on special offer.

Obviously if you're in a physical shop it's great to pick up any  reduced for quick sale food that you can use or freeze eg I once bought loads of packs of prechopped onions that were only 5p each (ie much cheaper than a fresh onion) and froze them.

Hi nobler, I like the idea of a 4-6 week cycle and will give it a try - thanks. I don’t know of any comparison apps but will take a look. I can see flyers for different grocery stores and some will price match if you take the flyer into the store. I try to do an online shop at the start of the month , mainly for pick up as the delivery slot can be expensive unless they have an offer on that too. If I don’t do online I find I see more things I want to buy lol! 

Spendless

Something I've suggested to my student daughter about organising her groceries is to only buy veg that is eaten both hot and cold. Daughter's issue is she's not getting through the amounts before needing to throw away - and add in a student kitchen where she only gets one fridge shelf and one freezer drawer that's hers so not a lot of room to store.

My suggestion was to buy spinach rather than lettuce to add to lunchtime sandwiches or salads because it can then be added to something like pasta at night, other hot and cold veg could be onions, tomatoes, peppers, (tinned) sweetcorn. She's going to give it a try. Obviously with more space leftover veg could also be turned into soup or a quiche. 

foxgloves

We meal plan, but used to do it weekly. We have now changed to writing a monthly master meal plan, leaving a couple of blanks for those occasions when some decent leftovers will make an unexpected extra meal. The monthly plans work much better because they allow for good use of rolling ingredients forward to achieve another meal from them. It also helps us not to over-buy....i.e we might see something that's a good deal, but if it definitely isn't required for the next 3 or 4 weeks, is it actually such a good buy? I am finding we are doing more strongly targeted grocery shops because we are going with longer-term knowledge of what we are going to be cooking/eating. We do still allow flexibility if plans change. We plan our month of meals but mostly don't assign them to a specific day until we choose which we want to eat over the next week.
I also do quite a lot of preserving - mostly from stuff we grow in our garden - & I do find that having a pantry full of tasty jars also elevates leftovers & ordinary ingredients.
F

threepenny_bit

foxgloves said:

We meal plan, but used to do it weekly. We have now changed to writing a monthly master meal plan, leaving a couple of blanks for those occasions when some decent leftovers will make an unexpected extra meal. The monthly plans work much better because they allow for good use of rolling ingredients forward to achieve another meal from them. It also helps us not to over-buy....i.e we might see something that's a good deal, but if it definitely isn't required for the next 3 or 4 weeks, is it actually such a good buy? I am finding we are doing more strongly targeted grocery shops because we are going with longer-term knowledge of what we are going to be cooking/eating. We do still allow flexibility if plans change. We plan our month of meals but mostly don't assign them to a specific day until we choose which we want to eat over the next week.
I also do quite a lot of preserving - mostly from stuff we grow in our garden - & I do find that having a pantry full of tasty jars also elevates leftovers & ordinary ingredients.
F

Thankyou Foxgloves - I liked the 4 - 6 week idea from nobler and a longer meal plan really appeals to me. The best shoppiing offers are at the start of the month for our grocery stores so once  I am home tomorow i will do the plan for the whole of january and first few days of February and see how it goes. Hubby is paid every 2 weeks so I try to food shop the start of a month and then just get bits and bobs during the month according to his pay day. I think this will help me not over buy also. 
I have a magnetic calendar for the whole month and one for a week and I will do the meal plan on the monthly one rather than the weekly one; I think this will really help me see the rotation and shopping needs. I do try to make a double batch of things like chilli , curry or pasta sauces for nights when we are in a rush; I also use these for smaller meals for hubby to take to work. I am home for lunch every day and will be using my soup maker a bit more often. (Lately I have added any leftover veggies to a ziplock bag and will use that in a soup)

I have a facebook video call once a month with my daughter and we cook for our freezers on that day - sometimes I havent always planned what to make  but with the master meal plan and the storecupboard inventory I will have a better idea of what to make. I did find that I had 6 new boxes of spaghetti pasta in the pantry so that will be a regular lol! 

threepenny_bit

Foxgloves wrote that she made lots of preserves from her garden and this got me thinking. In our garden I have  crabapples for puree, jostaberries for jam - which are like black currants, and a young sour cherry bush which should produce fruit this year, but we have a very short growing season here and a healthy deer and bear population who also like to forage and so you have to be fast at harvest time!

In the past I have used our local library which has a seed library where people take excess seeds to donate so I will check there in spring and usually manage to get spring onion, raddish, tomato and a few herbs.
I have a tiny little aeroponic garden machine and some lettuce and herb pods for it, along with an amazon voucher I got for christmas so I can get more lettuce pods for the winter season.

We also have a zero waste shed in Town where local stores will donate items on their sell by dates like bread, sometimes pies, cakes etc. Often there are tinned beans, tomatoes, sometimes fresh veg or milk. The shed is available for anyone to use and is designed to stop food going to the landfill or compost sites; I can only get to the shed once a week but usually manage to get bread and a couple of tins. 

Later this year I have a knee replacement surgery and so hope to have a lot of pre prepped meals in the freezer nearer the time. Once I have the surgery I will also be given a date for the secon knee to be replaced, I will be retiring from work with an very, very small pension  so I have to have the budget under control too.  

foxgloves

Crab apples make a nice pink jelly, which can be eaten with meat, etc. I haven't made it myself, as don't have a crabapple tree, but I have used ordinary apples as a jelly ingredient (i.e apple & mint) & they provide plenty of setting ability. A jar of nice fruity pink jelly would make a nice gift for foodie friends & can be topped with a pretty cloth or paper lid-cover/ribbon. 
F

threepenny_bit

foxgloves said:

Crab apples make a nice pink jelly, which can be eaten with meat, etc. I haven't made it myself, as don't have a crabapple tree, but I have used ordinary apples as a jelly ingredient (i.e apple & mint) & they provide plenty of setting ability. A jar of nice fruity pink jelly would make a nice gift for foodie friends & can be topped with a pretty cloth or paper lid-cover/ribbon. 
F

thankyou! the crab apples I usually mix with the small apples on another tree, press through a sieve after coookiing in slow cooker and use as apple puree but I love the idea of makiing as a gift. I also thought about using the sour cherries in vodka as a christmas gift if they fruit this year. 

threepenny_bit

Today we fly home and will be stopping at Costco to shop on our way from the airport to do my first shop of 2024.
I have no fresh food in at all so am hoping to buy milk, bread, eggs,  fruit, veg and salad plus a spiral ham if still available (they are a seasonal item and sell out fast but would make so many meals for hubby for the freezer). I think it will be around $200 total but will also use the $100 gift voucher  which I am not counting as part of the $2500 for the year.
Tomorrow I am going to make a meal plan for the rest of month depending on what I buy today but will try to do a rough plan on the plane ride with the things I know I have in the freezer. Wish me luck!!