A Realistic budget??

LilacPixie

Can I get some help please please please????

Familly of 3, two adults and one toddler two cats.

What would you say to be a realistic monthly shopping budget?? Reviewing our bank statement we seem to be spending £400+ a month just in supermarkets :eek: :eek: Not including us both buying lunches while at work :eek:

Can anyone give me a realistic limit we should be aiming for??

squeaky

Hiya,

It's getting late, so you are more likely to see specific answers tomorrow.

In the meantime take a look at, and by all means join, this sticky:-

February 2008 Grocery Challenge

You'll be able to get some idea of the sort of budgets people have for their family. Often the sigs, or the post contents, will show what sort of budget they started out with and how it has slowly reduced as time goes by.

For a bet I'd think most people will say that you should be able to comfortably halve your bill over time.

As for packed lunch... it isn't always boring old cheese sarnies. see...

Lunch:
- Best sandwich?
- Cheap and practical lo-carb
- Cheap packed lunch ideas
- Desk top sweet snacks
- Food on the go
- For work
- Healthy eating (packed lunch ideas?)
- Lunch for work(salads)
- Packed lunch
- Packed lunch ideas on the cheap
- Packed lunch - Advice On Daughter Please!
- Ploughman's
- Problem with pack-up

Pink.

Hi LilacPixie,

Welcome to Old Style :hello:

Just to add to squeaky's post....

As everyones needs are different it's difficult for anyone to put an exact figure on what you should be spending, but if you have a look at Martin's Budget Planner, that should help you to find out if/where you are overspending and give you ideas on how you could cut back. There is also his article on Supermarket Shopping which has lots of hints and tips on saving money on groceries.

Meal planning is a good way to save money. To get some ideas and help with this, have a look in

The Complete Menu Plans Collection

Also there are lots of ideas for cheap meals on these threads:

Cheapest recipes???

Meal for two for 50p. Suggestions?

The Cheapest Healthy Meal Ever!

Feed 6 for £1.62

Cheapest meal

Your Cheapest Evening Meal.

cheap, easy family meals


Each month on Old Style there is a Grocery Challenge (new one starting tomorrow) that you are very welcome to join and you'll get lots of encouragement and support from others there trying to cut back on grocery shopping.

Good luck with cutting back.

Pink

belfastgirl23

I always think the starting point is to think about what you are spending money on and (if it applies to you) where you are spending it. My M&S habit was costing us dearly before I came on here but it is now very firmly under control. Your spending issue might be different - ready meals or meat for every meal or whatever. You need to then ask yourself what compromises you're prepared to make (and how much you NEED to save money vs wanting to save money). I'd say these are the things you should think about first and foremost.

Personally I took it down from around your spending level to about £200 a month last year (but this is for just 2 of us). I'm now down around the £100-£150 a month mark. I had to take it slowly so DH could acclimatise himself to not just reaching for whatever he wanted in the supermarket

Why not come on the March grocery challenge and see how you get on. I'll warn you that there are some people on there who are living on what seems to me to be impossibly low amounts so keep in mind that it's just about what you feel is possible for you, especially for the first while don't compare yourself to others...

Good luck!

lilmisskitkat

Hiya

We're a family of 3 (soon to be 4) and at the moment i'm doing £50 a week for food/toiletries/cleaning etc in the grocery challenge. I'm hoping to get this down to £40 a week in the next month or so. When there was just me and DD i did it on £25 a week but OH eats for about 3 people lol so bills have gone up.

Do you meal plan? Pen-Pin posts a menu thread on here every week, its a good place to get some ideas and if you're like me, once you've written it down on here you feel you HAVE to stick to it I have written meal plans with shopping lists attached as to what i need for each meal, i then check what i've got in and what i need to buy. Things get swapped around if i manage to get something good on the reduced counter or it goes in the freezer for another meal. Also keep all your receipts so you can see exactly where your spending is going, could you make some things cheaper at home/use a cheaper cuts of meat/bulk things out etc.

Try making your own cleaning products, i'm just starting on this now after using up all my cleaning products i'd accumulated - there are loads of recipes on the mega index.

Hth

Kate xxx

squeaky

Yes.

A very important point.

You are challenging yourself - not other members.

LilacPixie

Thank you for all your advice.

Littlemisskitkat we will be a fmily of 4 soon too. I'm due July 14th. The cupboard under the sink is pretty much packed so other thn soap powder and washing up liquid I don't think we will need to buy anything else until 2009. :eek:


I personally feel our down fall is buying ready made items and wastage. The amount of food from the fridge we throw away is disgusting usually because we have bought it with the intention of having it on a certain day and the day comes up and no one fancies it. I also feel me being pregnant is an issue, often i'm too tired after work to cook a meal so I tend to visit a supermarket on the wy home and buy a couple of chilled meals

We do virtually no meal planning short of saying hmmm do you fancy a stirfry this week and then we never get around to it.

I think I will challenge myself to planning a full weeks meals fo the week 01/03 to 07/03. I will then see how much it costs.

I m registered on freecycle but not much doing in my local area i'm afraid. I like the look of many of the slow cooker meal ideas especially because i would prepare the ingredients in the morning when i feel good and its ready by the time tiredness hits.

lilmisskitkat

LilacPixie wrote: »

Thank you for all your advice.

Littlemisskitkat we will be a fmily of 4 soon too. I'm due July 14th.

I'm due July 10th lol - an old style bump buddy lol

Take care

Kate xxx

belfastgirl23

One of my biggest behavioural changes is to stop and think 'what's in the fridge for dinner' rather than 'what do I fancy for dinner' This has cut out the majority of the M&S problem:)

Re the time issue I try to do a big cookup on a Sunday since I would always have put in some kitchen time on Sundays anyway - this will normally do for Monday dinner and some to freeze for a night i don't feel like cooking. There will usually be 2 pasta nights with eg HM tomato sauce or pesto and frozen green beans. And quite possibly a beans on toast night too if I'm feeling lazy I'm not a great one for coming in after a day's work and cooking either....

Good luck!

LilacPixie

Kate oldstyle bump buddy sounds good to me

Belfast girl i think thats half the problem, we concentrate more on what we want that what we have. I also think we use too many 'big' stores and not enough of the smaller ones, we have a lidl and an aldi here and i don't visit them enough yet yesterday i was in lidl and bought a pack of gammon steaks £1.69 for two steaks and they were real meat not the processed plastic stuff.

i

LilacPixie

Kate oldstyle bump buddy sounds good to me

Belfast girl i think thats half the problem, we concentrate more on what we want that what we have. I also think we use too many 'big' stores and not enough of the smaller ones, we have a lidl and an aldi here and i don't visit them enough yet yesterday i was in lidl and bought a pack of gammon steaks £1.69 for two steaks and they were real meat not the processed plastic stuff.

i'm gonna join the march grocery challenge and see what happens, i'm currently meal planning around the tins and jars i already have in