Food Spending out of control

turbo

Help!! I have just added up our food/drinks bill on our credit card for one month and it comes to £660 for 3 adults and two dogs. This includes £47 for son's food shop going back to University (he is not included in the three adults) and £54 for alcohol. This huge amount doesn't even include cash items such as milk from milkman and top up items. We did two big shops for herbs spices dry goods, tins, vitamin supplements etc. but I am still horrifed at the amount we spend. We are not in debt but I just don't know where to start with meal planning etc. I just put food in the trolley and then think what to cook. DD has a packed lunch every day so does my husband and |I work from home. We rarely eat out. Where do I start?

Turbo

Liney_2

A good place to start is by having a look at what you have in your cupboard already - decide you are going to use some ingredients up - then I use the internet to search for recipes. I then make a note of any additional ingredients I may need and add them to my shopping list. Write down the suggested meal and say hmm we can eat that on Monday, and repeat the excercise for Tuesday. Don't waste anything - freeze what you don't eat and use leftovers for lunches next day etc.
Its fun when you start doing it.
And don't deviate from your shopping list next time you go to the shops.
Also look at the prices in the supermarket - you'll be surprised at how much you can save just by looking and not picking up the first thing you see.
good luck and let us know how you get along.

duchy

You start with a big piece of paper and a pen
List everything you have in the freezer and store cupboard and start writing out possible meal ideas. Be4fore you know it you'll have a meal plan for a week....or even longer
If you get stuck-post with the "stray" ingredients and someone will come up with ideas.
When it's time for another big shop-a couple of days before go on-line and do the same thing-make a list on-line-(even if you ultimately end up going to the supermarket to actually shop for it) freezer and cupboard are within easy reach for checking so you won't put stuff on the list you already have-and special offers are all bundled together so you may get ideas for dishes there too. Then save the list and look at it again the next day-you'll probably change it around a bit but you'll have a list of what you need.
Then either pick a delivery slot.....or copy the list and hit the supermarket
Works for me anyway and stops me getting carried away in the aisles

Pink.

Hi Turbo,

Welcome to Old Style :hello:

I think a lot of us are finding the grocery shopping creeping up at the moment because of price increases.

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 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

luby-lou

Hi Turbo - I too have not meal planned before - well, until Saturday night anyway. I made a full list of everything in my fridge, freezer and cupboards then looked through to see what I needed to make what.

e.g. - have 2 x portions of chicken pie filling in the freezer so puff pastry went on the shopping list to make the pies - already have potatoes in so can have mash but need some veg to go with it - so veg on shopping list.

Have mozzerella in the fridge, mushrooms, tinned tomatoes, strong flour, yeast, etc. so homemade pizza tonight. - no ingredients to buy.

whole chicken in freezer and potatoes in cupboard so veg and gravy gone on shopping list for roast dinner for Sunday.

Also, the more you can make yourself the cheaper it will be and where possible double up recipes and freeze.

HTH - Good luck!

scuzz

Why don't you try the "Downshift Challenge" and swap brands for the one below. So if you buy a known label, try the store's own, or if you have the store's own, try the value. If you like the food a good saving for the future.

I get quite a bit of value stuff and find little to know difference.

Also look out for vouchers. Try writing to companies if you see something you'd like to try as they may well send a coupon enabling you to try it cheaper. Try the vouchers board on here for more ideas

And check out the reduced section too. Things like chicken legs and steaks are quite often reduced at my local one.

As everyone else says write a list and stick to it when out shopping. I'm yet to try meal planning, but everyone else swears by it. Another tip everyone always says is don't shop when hungry.

angchris

hiya don`t just go to the supermarket unplanned and throw stuff in the trolley that you fancy because if i do that we end up with all sorts of oddments that you cant actually make a meal out of and i also end up with lots of biscuits/crisps and sweets that oh or ds throw in :rolleyes: these all really add up costwise and ds would happily eat 4 bags of crisps a day rather than expending the effort to make a sandwich which would stop his hunger whereas the crisps dont so he keeps on picking :mad: i have now stopped buying "rubbish" and my food bills halved immediately and ds is now forced to grab either fruit or make himself something which is far better for him.
check out what you have in your cupboards/freezer first and make meals out of that first then when you can no longer make something just buy the extra bits you need to make a meal. when you next need to go shopping sit down and work out a menu for the week/month and only then when you have your list go shopping and stick to it unless you find reduced food and tweak your menu accordingly.
when cooking your meals bulk them out with lentils/grated carrots/beans and oats wherever possible as these are dirt cheap and this will give you an extra portion or 2 to freeze or to eat them for lunch the next day.
instead of buying biscuits and cakes make them. a simple cheap sponge or muffin mixture can be thrown in a baking tray with sultanas or whatever added and cooked and iced with sprinkles/coconut on or lemon drizzle these can be cut into squares and half can be frozen for next week.
a good investment is a breadmaker, i make almost all my own bread now as my panasonic is fantastic, white loaves can be made for about 25/30p. i just throw the ingredients in the night before as im never organised in the morning and set the timer so i wake up to freshly baked bread. before i could happily eat 4 slices of toast in the morning now i just have the one slice as its really filling and i throw in pumpkin seeds etc so its actually healthier for me except for the lashings of butter :rotfl: also we have pizza a couple of times a month (dough made by breadmaker)ds loves it as i make them when he has mates sleeping over.
why not try joining the grocery challenge next month theres lots of tips and encouragement from other people in the same boat as you everyone is welcome
what are you feeding your dogs on? i buy iams every six months or so in bulk for my rottie it gets delivered to the door and its much cheaper than buying from a supermarket i think they sell mostly to breeders so you would have to have 2 or more dogs although i dont give them a ring they do allsorts of pooch food although they only advertise online cat food http://www.rlpetproducts.co.uk/index.php

Olliebeak

I had a veg box delivered back in October (cost £23) and threw out most of it :eek: - didn't even dawn on me at the time to blanch and freeze the darn stuff - how embarassing . Soon changed that bad habit!

I now find myself buying large bags of SmartPrice carrots (might be 1.5 or 2kg bags) and blanching them for the freezer. Can also be blanched in the microwave to save boiling away essential nutrients - and the stock that comes off is packed with flavour and gets frozen. I often buy the mixed veg bags (£1.28 for couple of parsnips, a lot of carrots, small swede and couple of small onions) - again I pre-cook everything and put enough carrots/swede/onions for a casserole/stew (already mixed) into one large bag to be frozen. Then the parsnips and remaining carrots are frozen separately as well.

Also stopped myself from throwing out soft/sprouting potatoes by cooking them when bought and making into mash for the freezer (takeaway containers hold enough for two portions) - not attempted frozen roasties yet!

Packs of minced beef get divided into half pound portions and then bagged(there's only 2 of us) so the larger trays of mince work out better value - you just have to remember to divide before freezing!

Same thing with the trays of pork chops and chicken portions - I put two into one bag and then separate bags with one in each - helps if you suddenly find yourself with an extra guest.
Again with sausages - divide up into smaller portions where you can - not everybody likes the same sausages .

Bacon gets opened and bagged into smaller portions to save using a whole pack just for the sake of it.

The turkey drumsticks roasted make a good midweek meal for two adults(99p each) or even two adults and a child with extra veggies and stuffing to pad it out .

turbo

Thank you Liney, duchy, Pink-winged, luby-lou, scuzz, angchris and ollie beak for all your lovely replies. I am going to start with checking our cupboards and the freezer to see what we have and then meal plan and write a list . The rest of the family were shocked when I told when I told them how much we had spent. I will let you know how we get on.

turbo