Grocery shopping experts - how little do you spend

overlykeensaver

Perhaps you could make savings in other areas of your budget so that you have a little more to spend on food? There are 2 adults and 1 toddler in my house and our minimum spend each week is around £35-40 and that is when we are very careful and have things stored in the freezer and the cupboards.

thriftlady_2

I think £60 a month for a family of 4 is very low. I seem to remember a thread about budgeting on £12.50 per person per week. That was considered low, but for a family of 4 that's £50 a week. I think I could feed my family of 5 on £50 a week, and when we've eaten the contents of our storecupboards and freezer(current challenge) I might try it, but I couldn't £60 a month.

robpw2

we saved money by cutting out meat.. not only do we eat healthier as dont buy chips and other such junk food . it cost less ..

thriftlady_2

robpw2 wrote: »

we saved money by cutting out meat.. not only do we eat healthier as dont buy chips and other such junk food . it cost less ..

That's a very good point meat and fish cost a lot more than other basic foods. The cheapest source of protein I've found is split peas. We're not vegetarian but we save meat and fresh fish for the weekends.

Cheap nutritious foods are; oats, lentils, dried beans and peas, flour, potatoes (buy by the sack at a farmshop and they work out about 9p a lb or 20p a kilo), pasta, rice, carrots, onions, cabbages and other seasonal veg, tinned tomatoes, apples, bananas, tinned fruit in juice, homegrown produce, longlife fruit juice, tinned tuna, mackerel, sardines, fresh mackerel, herring and coley, milk, dried milk, homemade yogurt, cheap cheese.

taplady

Am sure we couldn't so it, there's 4 of us most of the time( all adult sized) and I get quite a few meals at work but we usually spend £50 to £60 a week minimum.I could do it for less with a bit more planning but £15 a week for a family of 4 is very low.

Maxjessdru

Can I just ask how old the kids are and if there is anything this don't eat? Also, how many meals do you have to make out of your budget - does it include packed lunches as well as breakfast and dinner?

Yategirl

Sassamac wrote: »

I have allowed £30 per month for all the non-food supermarket stuff (including cat food). Just to buy nappies, BOGOF wipes and tampons is £20 per month so two thirds of that is non-negotiable.

if you swop from tampons to a mooncup - you will pay approx £18.99 ONCE then after that you would not have to buy any tampons..... therefore the cost of your tampons could be added on to your food budget??

look here mooncup

not for everyone I know but I swear by using it and don't buy any tampons now.. I also got a few cloth sanpads for panty liners but rarely use them...

Penny-Pincher!!

Sassamac wrote: »

Basically I want to know how little you spend, because according to my budget on our current income I need to get my grocery budget down to around £60 per month (2 adults, 2 kids, 2 cats), simply because most of the rest of the budget is fixed.

So £60pm for 2 adults, 2 kids and 2 cats? I couldnt do it.

Could you find some part time work?

PP
xx

Sassamac

Belfastgirl, I like your theory of working out how much the 'necessary' foods cost to give a base for the budget. I might do that at the ned of the month because this is the first time I have kept all my receipts. I could have a rough guess at the amount we spend on bread, milk, cheese and other such things we cant live without, but I dont know how accurate it would be.

there is a f&v market in town but on the occassions I have used I havent noticed a significant saving, perhaps because I buy a lot of 'value' f&v at Tesco, the market cant compete with that. I might sit and work through my receipts and write down pence per piece of fruit etc.

I might have to go farm shop hunting if I can find 20 per kilo spuds! it seems that the cheapest staple is rice then pasta then spuds, unfortunately thats the reverse of popularity in my family. I have no clue how to cook with lentils, beans etc as its not really food I like but I guess if it could bulk out a stew cheaply its worth a go.

Im not a fan of vegetarian food, and have little idea how to cook it. We live on mince, white fish, chicken (whole not fillets etc), and sausages. We only eat beef if my parents bring it for a Sunday roast (like yesterday so the leftovers are in the oven tendering up for dinner). They had duck half price on the reduced counter today and I still couldnt afford to bring it home.

My littluns are only 3 and 1 BTW so its not as if they're helping themselves to the fridge all day long (as per the average teenager), but according to my Mum who works in a primary school kitchen, both my kids eat more than the average 4 - 7 year old.

Yategirl

thinking about I don't think I could either... we had a short spell when I had no more than £35/week for food and loo roll (I went without cleaning stuff) for 2 adults and 2 children so £140 and tbh that was a struggle... and we didn't eat meat either.... £50/week is my "safe" amount!