Grocery shopping experts - how little do you spend

robpw2

Cazzdevil wrote: »

£60 a month for 4 people equates to about 50p per person per day. It's impossible to have a health balanced diet for as little as that unless you're growing your own veg or something like that.

You simply have to find more money for it and for a family of 4 I'd think you'd need to double your current budget. If your claim of only having £60 left for food is because of debts using up other money then have a rethink - food comes as a much higher priority (especially with children to think of).

Good luck xx

i would suggest that you try and get an extra £40 pound a month for food because it would make life easier and also mae meal times more interesting .

Sassamac

Cazzdevil wrote: »

£60 a month for 4 people equates to about 50p per person per day. It's impossible to have a health balanced diet for as little as that unless you're growing your own veg or something like that.

You simply have to find more money for it and for a family of 4 I'd think you'd need to double your current budget. If your claim of only having £60 left for food is because of debts using up other money then have a rethink - food comes as a much higher priority (especially with children to think of).

Good luck xx

The money I am basing it on is to meet all our current repayments, interest charges and pay the repayment mortgage amount (we have just switched to an interest only mortgage as we got ourselves into arrears).
Basically we need to find £230 per month to cover all our debts except the mortgage arrears which we are just about managing, but we need an additional £205 to make the mortgage arrears, which means it will be gone in 10 months.
So I worked out our income and all our fixed costs and the only two things with any flexibilty was groceries and petrol (half of which is non-negotiable for work).

Looks like I may need to up the anti on the additional income earning.

thriftlady_2

bandraoi wrote: »

I disagree, I think it might be possible, but not with meal planning and normal shopping lists.
I think it'd be a case of buy the biggest, cheapest bags of
1) pasta/rice/spuds/flour
and
2) beans - kidney beans/butterbeans/lentils etc.
This probably involves a trip to your local asian supermarket or wholesaler and will probably cost you £15 - £20 of your monthly allowance.

Then every two or three days going to the shops and markets and buying whatever is a the absolute cheapest knockdown price that day for veg -tinned or fresh and whatever bargain basement meat you could get occasionally. Suppose you go every third day, so you need to get 3 days vegetables and meat for £4 - £4.50 and probably cook it up that night.

In the markets around where I live, I think that's just about doable.
i.e. going after anything that needs to be cooked immediately before it goes off.

I think this would be the way I'd tackle it too. I really think in order to ensure you get enough protein you will have to try lentils and beans.
They are far cheaper then meat. Try the library for cookbooks.

Sacks of spuds, as I mentioned before can be had for £4 at a farmshop. I paid £4 for 20 kg on Saturday. They are great big ones too. One, baked and topped with chopped broccoli and cheese sauce makes a good meal. Baked beans can be had very cheaply too and make a good spud topping.

bandraoi

The main problem is all those little extras you need to do the cooking -
Oil, sugar, soy sauce, herbs, spices. . .
Again asian supermarkets are usually much better value than any of the British or European ones, but on a budget that tight it's going to be tough.

G-G_4

Well done for trying to budget, I hope it works for you.

How about selling any old bits and pieces on eBay or a carboot sale just to get you through the 10 months of arrears payments?

We just sold our DVD's on eBay for £250 because we never watch them and are trying to de-clutter the house. That's for about 100 DVD's and a couple of PS2 games.

Also, any clothes for the all of you get from eBay for now..

Had any complaints about food? Write to the company involved and see if you can get a refund.. worth a try, you might get a couple of quid back if you were dissapointed with the crisps or something. It all adds up..

Also, potatoes.. do not underestimate the power of the spud. I buy the big bags on buy one get one free or something, keep them in a cold place and they last weeks. You can make chips, roasties, mash or just plain boiled potatoes.! Also if you have a local farmer you could prob get a massive bag for even less.

catkinq

Yategirl wrote: »

if you swop from tampons to a mooncup..

do they make a moon bucket? :rotfl:

catkinq

robpw2 wrote: »

ok cheap lasagne
asda smart price lasgane sheets £0.32
asda smart price tomato pasta sauce £0.27
asda smart price beef mince £0.74

this total amount comes to £1.34 and will serve at least 6.

this is what im saying if you know where to loo you can make a nice meal for around 1.00 per night.

you could get this even cheaper if you swop the mince for either baked beans or smartprice kidney beans. Or how about pasta with baked beans tipped over, baked potatoes and beans and big bowls of soup made with dried mixed bean soup mix and value carrots/swede etc. or cabbage chopped up and fried with an onion and a tins baked beans mixed in. Also things like (value) beans on (value) toast. Tinned fruit and veg (again value) count as five a day veg so you cna add these in to get the diet healthier. Also I think someone else mentioned gettign sacks of lentils and rice from Asian supermarkets - these are loads cheaper than others adn rice adn dahl is wonderful (and very healthy).

catkinq

bandraoi wrote: »

The main problem is all those little extras you need to do the cooking -
Oil, sugar, soy sauce, herbs, spices. . .

you can just use garum masala (cheap from Asian supermarkets) and mixed herbs and value veg oil.

Sassamac

see my signiture for details on my additional income target, but yep hoping to e-bay / Amazon, car boot / NCT sale everything. The trouble is its not a reliable income so I cant budget with it. In fact nor is my income because I am self-employed and Jan / Feb are very quiet months.
Its not just a matter of 10 months of arrears payments though, because we need to switch back to a repayment mortgage. and we need to re-mortgage in 6 months and our installments will go up as were on a very good fixed rate at the mo.

going to have store cupboard challenge this week I think.

overlykeensaver

can you tell us what you have in your storecupboard? then we can give ideas for no-spend meals.