Trying to draw up a reasonable budget

Kantankrus_Mare

I spend approx. £80 a week in asda but an extra 7 quid for milk delivery and probably a fiver a week for meat from the best butcher in town.(im fussy about my meat) but still go for the offers when he has them on.

Seems Im spending way too much according to you lot lol and ive been trying to rectify that lately with becoming voucher savvy and looking at the idea of saving £10 on £50 pound shops by shopping on internet etc.

We are a family of four by the way but kids have big appetites and I would say they boost the shopping bill up horrendously!

bonnie_2

we are 4 and spend 50 a week

Murtle

back to the drawing board.....

that's me by the way - £100 on food for two adults and two cats.....hopefully the month??!! but may run short and it'll be back to the store cupboard challenge again!!! It's a fun way to finish the month!!!! :j

nelly_2

Try watching BIG BROTHER,

no honestly, them lot have got a shopping budget of a quid a day each for this week!

Turning_into_scrooge

CCCS gave me a food and cleaning allowance of £50 a week for 2 people only i always manage to save out of this by shopping on our local market which is absolutely brilliant and excellent quality for fruit and veg.

klare_2

I have been reading these 'budgeting' threads both here and in the other sections for months now and im absolutely gobsmacked. How on earth do you people do it for so little.
We dont have any processed food in our house as the children wont eat it and I dont like them having it so all our veg is fresh, so is our meat etc. But I still just can not work out how you doit for so little.
my OH is a big bloke and is a meat and two veggie type of meal guy and when I mean he eats meat i mean he eats meat and lots of it. I have tried to introduce veggie stuff to him ( both sneakily and up front and honest) but he really isnt having any of it. I was a veggie myself for a long time so I know all the tricks of the trade. I would love to kknow what some of you actually serve for your meals just so I can get an idea of where I can alter what we do. I know it would help a lot if i stopped shopping in tescos but theres nothing else near me. I do how ever buy all my veg and fruit on the market each wednesday.
Any ideas would be gratefully received!! :T

margaretclare

Hi all

We're two retired wrinklies on decent pensions each (thank the Lord!) and we spend approx £50 a week usually at Tesco. In addition, we go to the fruit and veg shop locally depending on whether their fruit and veg is better quality than Tesco's - sometimes it is, sometimes isn't. In addition we pay £11 a month for milk delivered to doorstep. Sometimes meat at the local butcher.

We don't buy take-aways, we eat out perhaps once or twice a month. we live simply but we live well. The only thing that we buy that we really don't need to is dog-food, large tins of cheapest - we have no dog but I feed the foxes every night. I also buy bird-food, usually approx £38 a month.

Aunty Margaret

nearlyrich

A bit more info of how we do it since you asked!

I will admit to a shopping habit of crazy proprotions before finding this site, Tesco bill every week was £75 to £100, every cleaning product known to man I bought it.

I use the same butcher, fishmonger and veg supplier every week, good quality stuff with low prices and discount for being a good customer e.g. Rumpsteak for 4, 3 huge Pork Chops and 3 decent sized lamb Chops, ( I'm away 2 nights this week)£13.50, I can get a full salmon either in steaks or fillets for around £6 ( check out Tesco prices for fish:eek: ). This week 3lb Jersey royals were 75p (1.99 for 1 kilo in the supermarkets). I try to think about meals when I'm buying, not just buy whatever looks good and then throw tons away.

I buy value products if we like them, chopped tomatoes 17p, Tesco's own 39p and we think value garlic baguettes taste nicer than the more expensive one's.

I have never bought much processed food because it's easier to microwave a potato or whip up an omlette than defrost and zap a ready meal and I never feel full after eating one.

I still use washing powder tablets but only one per wash load now, the pack says 2 or 3, I could buy powder and even cut the brand to Tesco's own to save even more but I like the brand I use and some of us have sensitive skin and it's not worth the itching to find one that suits!

I assembled my stockpile of cleaning products and realised I'd probably bought enought to clean up the north of England so I don't go down the cleaning aisles unless I need something, I get the fixture ferrets email which tells me when my washing tablets are on offer,that's when I buy as many as I can fit in the cupboard.

Hope that helps:)

DrStep

I almost forgot Aldi - a sort of upper market Lidyl (for those Waitrose shoppers amongst you)

jaybee

Do take a trip to the Old Style section. There's masses of good help on there - it's help me reduce my spending dramatically.