How much do you spend on food shop for I&E

squeaky

betterlatethannever wrote: »

I'm pretty impressed by my £17 for 2 adults, but i have to admit were eating rubbish. I need ideas for stretching food and healthier meals.

If you want to stre-e-etch food, try...

- Rubber Chicken

MrsE_2

I try & buy organic/free range/wholemeal ect. Plus I buy the lowest fat/sugar option.
Thats what pushes my bill up.
How are you all doing so much for so little?

Just as an example, wholemeal pasta is far more expensive than white, same for rice & the rest.
Organic chickens & free range eggs are all the most expensive.

Do you think organic beef is any different?

What about lamb, they all run around outside anyway don't they?

squeaky

I'm lucky in some respects. I have a veg box delivered from a local council site that is staffed by people with disabilities and so is subsidised because it's an on job training type thing. It's not fully organic - some things are, and where not they still try to avoid or minimise the use of chemicals. That's close enough for me... you're right, I can't afford "full on" organic - but I'm close, and I'm much more organically orientated than I used to be.

As I say - I currently eat more healthily than I used to - and my grocery bills are still much lower.

Shopping techniques help... take a list and stick to it. No impulse buys and especially stay away from special offers "just because they look like a good deal".

That said - if there's a special offer on something that I normally buy - then even if it's not on my shopping list I'll take advantage of it and buy enough to last me through its "best before" or "use by" period. There isn't a lot in my pantry or freezer that's not value or on some sort of offer.

I buy value products of quite a few things (if they ARE value - because some shops just aren't actually value) but there are some I just don't like value versions of - like beans and cornflakes, so I bite the bullet and pay for my favourite branded products. Then I have them more as treats than as staples, if you see what I mean?

I check for discounted items, which usually have a very short date left on them, and either freeze them straight away, or cook them and then eat or freeze.

I make my own bread --- for about 15 pence per loaf and my own pizzas for under a quid - plain cheese ones, that is. Extra toppings cost more - but that's still way under the price of shop bought or take out.

I grow some of my own herbs, salad things and veggies. Not that I've turned my garden into an allotment - I use odd corners, spaces in the borders... tubs...

I do the vast majority of my cleaning with vinegar (15p per 500 mil and it gets diluted to anywhere between 10 to 1 and 50-50 depending on the job it's for) and stardrops (around 58p), washing up liquid (cheap and only ever bought when on offer) and cheapy soap powder (again only ever bought on offer).


There are hundreds and hundreds of ways to make your money go further - and that's without seriously compromising your life style and life choices. And that then leaves you more money to buy fair trade and fully organic products. On my budget that really means "fairly fair" and "mostly organic" but I do buy myself full on organic and fair things now and then as treats. Much as I'd like to do more, for fairness and health, I can't.

I just do the best I can - and my best has been getting better all the time as I've learned how to survive on a low income.

MrsE_2

I too never buy something on offer that I wouldn't buy normally.

But like you when it's on offer I stock up within what I can store within its sell by date.

You're lucky with the veg box.

Fruit & veg is silly expensive nowadays :-(

squeaky

I don't buy anything for the house these days without searching the boards for best deals and special offers either.

A single example:- I needed new cartridges for my then printer. £26 or so each. Shopped around for those supplier sites and sourced the pair for £15 total... but THEN... spotted a grabbit offer of a promotion for a Dell printer at just £10. problem solved.

The old printer...? Freecycle

Using this site saves me comfortably more money than it costs to run and upkeep my computer plus my broadband.

Oh yes - Freecycle

I've given a fair few things away, but when my 20+ year old washing machine finally got beyond my ability to repair it - I got a nice new 8 year old one to replace it

My cold frame is a nice big one and it's all made from salvaged materials - the glass window tops from a skip (I asked) and all the timber from a chap down the road who had dismantled some kitchen reworking and was just about to burn it! I even reclaimed most of the screws and nails. The whole thing (double glazed) cost me under a fiver for odds and ends and sealant.

My television stand is an old stereo cabinet laid on its side and "modified", and my super duper fish tank stand was made from an old tv stand (normal strectcher removed) old reclaimed shelving, and the drawers from an old (free) chest of drawers that I had modified to be a printer stand.