Ideas to get my shopping budget down even more?

tam21

lightisfading wrote: »

do you have an aldi or lidl near you? they're much better for some things, ie tortillas are about 60p and are larger and don't fall apart like the old el paso ones good for low cost low fat wraps for lunch too.. ie filled with salad and some dressing. you also tend to get better quality for the same cost as supermarket 'basics' .. ie tinned toms are about 20p but taste like the premium brands, same with aldi pesto - 99p but the best i've found.

lidl would probably be cheaper for your fruit n veg, as you've mentioned

Yeah, I've never really been into Aldi or Lidl, but I am definitely going to have a look now

lil_me

If you want to buy them as plants you can or you can buy seeds, from garden shops, ebay, online, loads of places. I'm not green fingered but seem to manage herbs.

Only the follow on milks you can usually get points anywhere for. Do the clinics still sell milks? It's been a while since I had a tot in the house.

angeluk69_2

tam21 wrote: »

(Sorry in advance for the vv long post!)

OK, so over the past year I've gone from being a "buy it all ready done and to hell with what it costs" person to a fairly enlightened OSer :T (although I realise quite a few things on my list are still pre-made) but now we've had another baby and the budget is being squeezed even tighter, so I'm hoping that you lovely MSEers can help me shrink my shopping budget even more. I've read lots and lots of the threads on here and taken loads on board, but would really welcome any tips if I post my monthly shopping list and menu list! (The following is for 5 weeks)....


4 Milupa Aptamil Extra Hungry Milk 900g 31.80 (unfortunately buying this as I have to, have had problems this time with bf that I won't go into here but it has left us with this extra expense :mad: )

20 Pampers Baby Wipes Sensitive Refill 63 £23.00(usually get tesco value but these are bogof this month and are easier to use fewer of so work out as cheap for us while on offer)
4 Tesco Easy Fit Pants Junior 38 £27.92(appreciate it's not OS, but hopefully not an expense for much longer as soon as DS1 gets the hang of the potty!)
2 Colgate Advanced Whitening Toothpaste 100ml £2.27(bogof)
1 Tesco Luxury Soft Toilet Tissue White 4 Roll 964 Sheet £1.88 How come u only use 4 loo rolls a month? are you sure this isn't a couple of packs?
20 Hovis Best Of Both Medium White 800g £20.00(looking to get a breadmaker soon but need to find an affordable one!) Argos have breadmakers starting from£23.99, or you could always try your local freecycle site or ebay
3 Willow Farm Barn Eggs Large Box Of 12 £7.65(DH resisting my idea of keeping chickens ) 36 eggs for nearly 8 pounds is a lot to pay, and maybe think about buying Value eggs, they are not bad and i think you could get a pack of 15 for under £1.50
1 Discovery Flour Tortillas 320g £1.22Again Tesco do their own of these
3 Tesco Value Curry Flavour Instant Noodles 65g £0.24 You could always try using tesco own plain noodles and then putting a stock cube and other flavorings that u can make at home, lttle bit of oil and some curry powder works wonders and its quicker than waiting for the instant ones.
4 Tesco Value Chicken Flavour Instant Noodles 65g £0.32 Again as above
3 Tesco Value Beans & Sausages567g £1.14
10 Tesco Value Orange Juice 1 Litre Carton £5.80
6 Tesco Malt Wheats 750g £8.04 Not sure what these are, are they like shredded wheat or weetabix??
1 Tesco Bicarbonate Of Soda 200g £0.41
1 Billingtons Demerara Sugar 500g £0.60
3 Tesco Value Green Pesto 190g £2.97
1 Miscellaneous Corned Beef 340g £1.18
1 Tesco Dried Oregano 14g £0.62 Grow your own and freeze
2 Tesco Value Spaghetti 500g £0.46
5 Tesco Value Chopped Tomatoes 400g £1.05
21 Tesco Value Baked Beans In Tomt/Sauce 420g £4.20
1 Tesco 12 Beef Burgers & Seasoning 681g £2.49
2 Youngs 20 100% Fillet Fish Fingers 500g £2.98(whatever happened to tesco value fish fingers? ) Try the next brand level down, tesco do have their own
1 Tesco Value White Fish Fillets 800g £1.95
1 Tesco Value Peas 900g £0.98
2 Tesco Thin & Crispy Oven 2kg £2.78
15 Tesco Whole Milk 568ml/1 Pint £6.30 (Buy the smaller bottles even though slightly more expensive as it means DS1 can help himself and not spill it all :rotfl: ) Buy the larger sizes and decant into a smaller jug to make it easier for DS1
15 Tesco Healthy Eating Semi- Skimmed Milk 1.136ltr/2 Pints £12.00
1 Tesco Value 4 Cheese & Tom Pizza 760g £1.81
2 Tesco Value 10 Singles 170g £1.08
2 Tesco Value Processed Cheese Spread 150g £0.84
2 T Light Choices Extra Light Softcheese 250g £1.62
1 Tesco Value Unsalted Butter 250g £0.85
1 Healthy Living Diced Lamb 307g £4.42 Buy cheaper cuts of meat and slow roast/cook you will hardly be able to tell the difference. Even go to the butcher and ask for the cheap cuts and some recipes, take home the meat and trim it yourself
1 Tesco Butter Me Up 1kg 1.72
2 Tesco Value White Full Flavour Cheese £6.56
8 Loose Carrots Class 1 £0.64
5 Cucumber Whole Each £2.25
5 Orange Peppers Loose Each Class 1 £3.40
15 Bananas Loose £1.80
50 Finest Apples Loose £13.00 (The only thing I ever buy "Finest" of as DH just won't eat the others :rolleyes: ) Just buy the others, there is hardly any difference and the kids will learn that food is food, some just has different labels/titles
1 Tesco Cabbage Sweetheart Each £0.50
1 Baking 2.5kg Pack Potatoes £2.38
1 Swede Baby 300g £0.59
1 Tesco Value Tomatoes 500g £0.60
1 Value Lemons 500g £0.60 (looking to start buying fruit and veg in Lidl to see if this might make it cheaper)
Value Red Onions 750g 0.59
Also five whole small chickens which don't cost us anything as the in-laws buy us one each week

Obviously there are some things on here eg the frozen white fish, toothpaste etc that will last us more than one month, and some things that we have already from previous months left over, but these should pretty much cancel each other out.
So this totals £217.50, £130.63 of which is food, 86.87 of which is nappies, wipes, baby milk etc
Our month's menu will be ...

35 Main courses - 2 quesadillas + chips, 1 sausage bake, 2 shepherds pie, 5 lemon pasta, 2 fish + pasta bake, 5 tuna tomato pasta, 2 calzone, 5 egg, chips + beans, 2 tomato pasta, 1 corned beef hash, 2 sandwiches + chips, 1 lamb stew + dumplings, 2 pesto pasta, 2 cheesy rice, 1 chicken casserole, 1 colcannon + gravy
25 DH's lunches - 7 chicken sarnies, 8 chicken/BBQ sauce jackets, 4 pesto pasta, 6 jacket + beans
25 My/DS1's lunches - 10 cheese spread sarnies, 5 fish fingers and peas, 5 pizza, 5 beans on toast/beans and sausages
10 Whole family lunches at weekends - 5 burgers, 5 noodles
35 Breakfasts - 30 cereal/toast/OJ, 5 eggy bread on sundays!
Treats - HM flapjacks, krispie cakes or biscuits that I make with DS1

So, sorry again for the ridiculously long post, but any ideas?

Sorry, Ther is some stuff here that does not need to be branded as there is good alternatives.

You seem to have everything else under control tho so well done.

BARGAINHUNTER!

lil_me wrote: »

Make your own tortillas, much nicer!
Refill milk bottles to save on money and the amount of plastic you need
Herbs are easy to grow in pots and smell nice too
Flannels and water are much cheaper and kinder for cleaning babies

Try other shops! Have you got a fruit and veg shop nearby? What about a farmfoods/herons/other discount freezer shop?

Do you have a recipie for making tortillas please - im kinda addicted to them at the mo but they are expensive so I could make a load and freeze them!

lil_me

http://www.cooking-mexican-recipes.com/flour_tortilla_recipe.html

Google is great for recipes just type in what you want to make and ping, loads pop up. I freeze them in 'usable' batches so don't have to defrost too many. There is a lot of different tortilla recipes to try. I like to add a little garlic to mine, lemon and pepper is nice if they are to be used for chicken.

tam21

angeluk69 wrote: »

Sorry, Ther is some stuff here that does not need to be branded as there is good alternatives.

You seem to have everything else under control tho so well done.

Quite right, never really buy branded things, do usually get tesco tortillas but couldn't find them on the site when I just did this list. Think will follow advice from this thread though and start making my own. Only getting the branded fish fingers this time as they are on offer and it makes them cheaper than tesco's, but as per shelley's post I'll be getting Asda's value ones instead. Malted wheats are like shreddies. And yes, we use lots more toilet rolls than this but we buy them in bulk to save money, but I know I'll run out this month so will just buy a small pack as a top up. I guess we could just buy the next large pack really.

And if only it was the sprogs that objected to cheap apples - unfortunately it's hubby and it's the only thing he realy wants the expensive stuff for, so I'll let him off (although we have just had a conversation about swapping from apples to oranges to make it cheaper )

JailhouseBabe

Asda do bags of Value peppers - I'm sure they're less than £1.40 for a bag with 5 or 6 in. Even if you had to get 2 bags because they're slightly smaller, it's still cheaper than £3.40 for 5.
I used to use oregano in everything, now I use Tesco Value dried herbs (Italian? Can't remember) - I think they were 19p.
Whatever happened to milk tokens? I'm sure they used to be available (not means-tested) to all families with babies under 1 year? Mind you, it's a long time since I was there, so I could be wrong!

OrkneyStar

tam21 wrote: »

(Sorry in advance for the vv long post!)

OK, so over the past year I've gone from being a "buy it all ready done and to hell with what it costs" person to a fairly enlightened OSer :T (although I realise quite a few things on my list are still pre-made) but now we've had another baby and the budget is being squeezed even tighter, so I'm hoping that you lovely MSEers can help me shrink my shopping budget even more. I've read lots and lots of the threads on here and taken loads on board, but would really welcome any tips if I post my monthly shopping list and menu list! (The following is for 5 weeks)....


4 Milupa Aptamil Extra Hungry Milk 900g 31.80 (unfortunately buying this as I have to, have had problems this time with bf that I won't go into here but it has left us with this extra expense :mad: )

20 Pampers Baby Wipes Sensitive Refill 63 £23.00(usually get tesco value but these are bogof this month and are easier to use fewer of so work out as cheap for us while on offer) Washable wipes or Tesco own or even better, Boots own (if you join parenting club you get extra points until youngest is 2, lots of offers and Boots wipes are often BOGOF in there).
4 Tesco Easy Fit Pants Junior 38 £27.92(appreciate it's not OS, but hopefully not an expense for much longer as soon as DS1 gets the hang of the potty!) Ditto re Boots
2 Colgate Advanced Whitening Toothpaste 100ml £2.27(bogof) Ditto re Boots
1 Tesco Luxury Soft Toilet Tissue White 4 Roll 964 Sheet £1.88 Lidl Loo roll is good too
20 Hovis Best Of Both Medium White 800g £20.00(looking to get a breadmaker soon but need to find an affordable one!) Tesco own ?
3 Willow Farm Barn Eggs Large Box Of 12 £7.65(DH resisting my idea of keeping chickens )
1 Discovery Flour Tortillas 320g £1.22 make your own
3 Tesco Value Curry Flavour Instant Noodles 65g £0.24
4 Tesco Value Chicken Flavour Instant Noodles 65g £0.32
3 Tesco Value Beans & Sausages567g £1.14
10 Tesco Value Orange Juice 1 Litre Carton £5.80
6 Tesco Malt Wheats 750g £8.04
1 Tesco Bicarbonate Of Soda 200g £0.41
1 Billingtons Demerara Sugar 500g £0.60
3 Tesco Value Green Pesto 190g £2.97 easy to make esp if you grow a pot of basil- easy peasy
1 Miscellaneous Corned Beef 340g £1.18
1 Tesco Dried Oregano 14g £0.62
2 Tesco Value Spaghetti 500g £0.46
5 Tesco Value Chopped Tomatoes 400g £1.05
21 Tesco Value Baked Beans In Tomt/Sauce 420g £4.20
1 Tesco 12 Beef Burgers & Seasoning 681g £2.49
2 Youngs 20 100% Fillet Fish Fingers 500g £2.98(whatever happened to tesco value fish fingers? )
1 Tesco Value White Fish Fillets 800g £1.95
1 Tesco Value Peas 900g £0.98
2 Tesco Thin & Crispy Oven 2kg £2.78
15 Tesco Whole Milk 568ml/1 Pint £6.30 (Buy the smaller bottles even though slightly more expensive as it means DS1 can help himself and not spill it all :rotfl: )
15 Tesco Healthy Eating Semi- Skimmed Milk 1.136ltr/2 Pints £12.00
1 Tesco Value 4 Cheese & Tom Pizza 760g £1.81
2 Tesco Value 10 Singles 170g £1.08
2 Tesco Value Processed Cheese Spread 150g £0.84
2 T Light Choices Extra Light Softcheese 250g £1.62
1 Tesco Value Unsalted Butter 250g £0.85
1 Healthy Living Diced Lamb 307g £4.42
1 Tesco Butter Me Up 1kg 1.72
2 Tesco Value White Full Flavour Cheese £6.56
8 Loose Carrots Class 1 £0.64
5 Cucumber Whole Each £2.25
5 Orange Peppers Loose Each Class 1 £3.40 packed ones ? Lidl again although only green/red/yellow normally
15 Bananas Loose £1.80
50 Finest Apples Loose £13.00 (The only thing I ever buy "Finest" of as DH just won't eat the others :rolleyes: )
1 Tesco Cabbage Sweetheart Each £0.50
1 Baking 2.5kg Pack Potatoes £2.38
1 Swede Baby 300g £0.59
1 Tesco Value Tomatoes 500g £0.60
1 Value Lemons 500g £0.60 (looking to start buying fruit and veg in Lidl to see if this might make it cheaper)
Value Red Onions 750g 0.59
Also five whole small chickens which don't cost us anything as the in-laws buy us one each week

Obviously there are some things on here eg the frozen white fish, toothpaste etc that will last us more than one month, and some things that we have already from previous months left over, but these should pretty much cancel each other out.
So this totals £217.50, £130.63 of which is food, 86.87 of which is nappies, wipes, baby milk etc
Our month's menu will be ...

35 Main courses - 2 quesadillas + chips, 1 sausage bake, 2 shepherds pie, 5 lemon pasta, 2 fish + pasta bake, 5 tuna tomato pasta, 2 calzone, 5 egg, chips + beans, 2 tomato pasta, 1 corned beef hash, 2 sandwiches + chips, 1 lamb stew + dumplings, 2 pesto pasta, 2 cheesy rice, 1 chicken casserole, 1 colcannon + gravy
25 DH's lunches - 7 chicken sarnies, 8 chicken/BBQ sauce jackets, 4 pesto pasta, 6 jacket + beans
25 My/DS1's lunches - 10 cheese spread sarnies, 5 fish fingers and peas, 5 pizza, 5 beans on toast/beans and sausages
10 Whole family lunches at weekends - 5 burgers, 5 noodles
35 Breakfasts - 30 cereal/toast/OJ, 5 eggy bread on sundays!
Treats - HM flapjacks, krispie cakes or biscuits that I make with DS1

So, sorry again for the ridiculously long post, but any ideas?

Ok, have put some ideas in pink. I think trying Lidl might be a good idea. Make sure you use your Clubcard and get points in Tesco when you go there. Also I def think for baby stuff the Boots advantage card really helps. Don't set yourself too hard a task though as you will be busy with baby, and you are doing pretty well so far. hth

hmkn

tam21 wrote: »

Thanks so much for all your replies! Have already knocked some money off the shopping list

mummytofour - My only concern with the value eggs was that I was assuming they were battery which I didn't want to buy, but not 100% sure if that's the case?
quote]

Yes they are battery eggs. I agree, I won't buy them either. Barn eggs are way better in welfare terms. Not as good as free range, but definitely better than caged. I'd rather economise on something else than buy caged/value eggs personally.

By the way, as far as I know, M+S is the only mayo to not use battery eggs.

HTH

HMK

OrkneyStar

JailhouseBabe wrote: »

Asda do bags of Value peppers - I'm sure they're less than £1.40 for a bag with 5 or 6 in. Even if you had to get 2 bags because they're slightly smaller, it's still cheaper than £3.40 for 5.
I used to use oregano in everything, now I use Tesco Value dried herbs (Italian? Can't remember) - I think they were 19p.
Whatever happened to milk tokens? I'm sure they used to be available (not means-tested) to all families with babies under 1 year? Mind you, it's a long time since I was there, so I could be wrong!

I think they have been replaced by healthy start tokens and now they are certainly now means tested.
http://www.healthystart.nhs.uk/
In short I think you have to be getting Income Support/Income-based Jobseekers allowance and/or Child Tax Credit, have an income below approx £15575, and not be in receipt of working tax credit, but the site has a 'do I qualify ?' Sadly we did not