New start - food budget anyone?

pixiechick99

Hi there,
I've just recently realised how awful my money situation is and with a lot of help from this forum I've been sorting myself out a bit over the last few days! Been reading all the diaries which are inspiring, I hope to be able to be so organised and dedicated!
I'm in the process of moving house due to my marriage ending last year, so selling this house and moving to rented with my 2 daughters. So in a few weeks I'll know my outgoings in more detail - bills, insurance etc. I'll also have a few thousand free from the house sale to pay off some debt - although the 'old' me would rather keep the money in the bank and live well for a while, but I know that's daft!! I'll pay off some debt and see how much I have.
Anyway, I think my main problem is frittering money away - I live with my girls of 11 and 9 so we can't need to spend at least £60 a week on food can we?! I find myelf nipping into our local shop for milk and spending £20 on bits and bobs we fancy, ridiculous.
So, what I really came to ask is - what is a realistic food budget to have for the week? I'm often able to use Morrison's where I can use my Mum's 10% discount, which is good. I'm thinking of trying to do £35 a week now, and stopping buying coca-cola, biscuits by the truckload etc!! Any advice would be sooo welcome.
I've joined Quidco, I'm on £26 I think, it's fab. This is a fantastic website, I'm getting obsessed with it now!

Bye for now,;)
MS

hypno06

Head over too to the Moneysaving Old Style (OS) board on this site- they will help you make fab meals for next to nothing.

good luck!

andan

Like hypno saidm definately head over to the old style board as they have a grocery challenge on there and will be able to advise on what you could be paying. They also have great recepie ideas and suggestions such as making lots of portions and freezing some. Great way to try out lots of different food ideas.

jak

Meal planning is the way to go. Allow for certain snacks etc and lunches and try and cost it. Go on to mysupermarket.com (I think) and put in your food and it'll give you comparison prices for the major supermarkets. Shop around and get to know prices. Also save as many coupons as possible as most places give 10% off and you don't have to buy the product.
Good luck. It's become a bit of a hobby for me actually. We have got our monthly bill down to £85 for 2 adults, and that includes ice lollys and ice cream!!!!
J
X

SamanthaA

I can food shop for between £35 -£45 per week for me, 10yr DS & cat.
It has gone up repidly over last few weeks due to cost of living.

However I start the same way every week.
1) Check freezer & fridge, write down contents & work out how many meals I can get out of whats in and if I need to add anything.
2) have ANTI shopping list, if freezer has chicken - put chicken as an anti buy, if we not eat the yogurt from last week - why buy more?
3) meal plan on back of shopping list & add missing ingredients to shopping list - meal plan is not set in stone, can be changed if something better shows up, or don`t fancy whatever on that day! (sounds daft, but I have a friend who won`t meal plan cose she thinks that she HAS to have whatever on THAT day! :rotfl: )
4) Add to shopping list - you know if your making sandwiches for 3 people for 5 days how much filler/ bread/ crisps/ drinks to put on list.