Help to reduce my monthly grocery shop

jlanky81

I live alone and only have a fridge but no freezer and as a result am buying fresh each week and spending about £200 a month on groceries.

I really need help and suggestions to help reduce this after posting a message on one of the other forums this looks to be the only area I can really cut back to help reduce my outgoings and pay more towards my debt.

Any good routines I can follow???

Skint_Catt

Do you have room for a freezer? Could you get one from freecycle? Very useful for batch cooking!

Are you finding you're wasting anything? Either leftovers or things going off? That would be the first place to look out for.

redruby

How about telling us what you tend to buy each month, and what kind of food you like eating, and do you have a slow cooker or breadmaker ?
Perhaps post up a typical shopping list.

Savannah02K

Batch cook a tomato sauce recipe and keep it in your fridge, will keep OK for several days in sealed jars - I use small coffee jars or small tupperwares. You can customise it in a different way every night - add some dried chilli flakes one night, melt a cheese triangle in it another night for a creamy sauce, add dried herbs another night. Buy the dried packet sauces (peppercorn, cheese etc) and only make up half, again the opened packs keep really well. You can use dried soups/cup a soup mixes in the same way as pour over sauce for chicken, steak etc. I use a lot of dried mixes, smash etc and just add flavourings like grated cheese, dried mushrooms, chopped up onions etc. You have to think outside the box a bit when you're on your own, e.g. don't just bake one potato, bake two and the next day slice that one, spray it with olive oil and crisp it up in the oven for your own home made wedges, can put some dried herbs or southern style coating on. Masses of ideas, just need to be adventurous and look for dried stuff that keeps.

jlanky81

During a shopping trip I buy cooked chicken, bagged salad, stir fry packs, tinned tuna, sandwich fillers such as beef and chicken slices(sandwiches I take for lunch), cucumber, pasta, pesto(red / green), cheese, bread, spaghetti, stir-in pasta sauces, tinned soups, microwave meals (lasagne, curries), yogurts, colslaw, pizza bases, herbs, tomato puree, caesar dressing, eggs, mayo, jars of beetroot and pickled onion

Just rely on my oven, hob and microwave.

I tend to be wasteful with the salad / cucumber / colslaw (mainly the items that have a short shelf-life.

There is room for a freezer I think so will see what I could find on freecycle

perfectlypoor

Hi do you buy the basics/smartprice/value items?

perfectlypoor

A slowcooker would be very useful, put stuff in before work and you will have a meal waiting for you at home if you do enough for two meals you can have the same the following night served with different veg to change it a bit, if you are buying ready meals they will really bump up your costs.

Bargain_Rzl

Hi - even if you don't manage to find a freezer on Freecycle, you should find that it will "pay for itself" within a couple of months, based on the amount you are currently spending on groceries and the ease with which the freezer will enable you to cut that down

tubbee2

I would try the following
buy a raw chicken and cook it yourself
buy the ingredients for salad/stirfry and make them from scratch (eg. beansprouts in salad and stirfry, whole carrot grated in both salad and stirfry, chinese leaf in salad and stirfry ......etc,
Make your own pasta sauces - either tomato based with tinned tomatoes, onions, garlic, dried basil, dash of olive oil or subsitute creamy ones for cream cheese mixed with milk, ham, stirred in to cooked pasta
Don't buy ready meals - make your own
Don't buy tinned soup - make your own
And finally, you don't have to believe the date stamp on the top of the packet - use your eyes, nose and taste it, and if it tastes okay to you, it is. Manufacturers have a vested interest in getting you to throw stuff out. Be discerning - if its green and moving by itself it probably has gone too far...

wishing4amoneytree

isnt there a thread on here somewhere for cheap meals etc? I thought I saw something but cant find it now. If anyone finds it can you post the link. thanks :-)

bertiebots

Do you have a local market where you can buy fresh fruit & veg? I got enough for a family of 5 for under £7 this week:money: . Markets are usually loads cheaper than supermarkets. Also I would recommend not buying ready made sandwhich fillers/soups/sauces as they are very expensive :eek: . As everyone else has said try the supermarket value products (sainsburys do a curry sauce for 5p!!exception to the rule!!!yum!:o ) you could make a huge curry and freeze it in portions if you got a freezer(it doesnt have to be a huge chest freezer for 1). Also make your own soups and stews.They are very cheap and can all be kept in the fridge for a few days or frozen in portions. Its always cheaper to make a batch up than make lots of little meals..less leccy and gas! A slow cooker is another way to make cheap healthy meals and you can cook the cheaper cuts of meat in them and save yourself money. I also have a bread maker and with 5 hungry mouths to feed its a life saver...it costs about 25p a loaf to make your own bread. You could even make your sandwiches for the week and bung them in the freezer to keep fresh then just take one out the night before you need it ...saves on waste. There are loads of tips on here to get you going and I have managed to cut my budget down from an average of £360 p/m for five people so I am sure the o/sers can help you out:D