£67,031.92 is a frightening number indeed....

Verbatim · 27 February 2017 at 3:53PM

GeorgianaCavendish wrote: »

Could you set up price alerts on MySupermarket for the butter, cleaning products, toilet paper etc so you get a notification when price drops or it is on special offer? That might help a bit in the long term (although I appreciate not in the short term if something has run out and it needs to be replaced straight away).
Waitrose have a loyalty incentive where you pick (I think) 5 products that you'll always get 20% discount with your Waitrose loyalty card, that might be useful for branded items that are rarely reduced elsewhere. Could you buy larger tubs of certain things, e.g. Greek yoghurt and make a saving on cost per serving that way?

It's 10 offer items at Waitrose and you can change them a couple of times each season. I keep meaning to change mine to reflect the weather but keep forgetting.

Treadingonplaymobil · 27 February 2017 at 3:58PM

GeorgianaCavendish wrote: »

Could you set up price alerts on MySupermarket for the butter, cleaning products, toilet paper etc so you get a notification when price drops or it is on special offer? That might help a bit in the long term (although I appreciate not in the short term if something has run out and it needs to be replaced straight away).
Waitrose have a loyalty incentive where you pick (I think) 5 products that you'll always get 20% discount with your Waitrose loyalty card, that might be useful for branded items that are rarely reduced elsewhere. Could you buy larger tubs of certain things, e.g. Greek yoghurt and make a saving on cost per serving that way?

Have never heard of the Waitrose offer, that's good to know! And hadn't thought of using MySupermarket to do that, will have a compare of Aldi receipt vs Sainsbury's standard prices and see whether it's worth setting up alerts.

DawnW wrote: »

Hi Treadingonplaymobil, I recognise you from the small things thread! I think your food consumption / menus look very reasonable, and as you say, you can't skimp on milk if you have small children! I shop similarly to you, only Lidls and Sainsburys as opposed to Aldi, and I have noticed prices on some items, such as butter creeping up over recent weeks And as you say, there is always the other stuff, such as loo paper, washing supplies etc to buy as well as food.

With baking, what I do now is to use just stork for most things, as it works out so much cheaper, and to be honest, you can't tell usually. Why not try it, you can always go back to butter if you don't like the result. I did this quite sytematically, over time substituting stork for butter in all the recipes I usually make and getting the family to taste test the result. The only things we noticed were different, and I have since reverted back to butter for these, are crumble, flapjacks and shortbread, we honestly couldn't tell the difference in anything else.

I have just added Stork into my shopping list for the first time in YEARS! I'm going to give it a try, especially with baking I do for clients - they'll survive if they don't get pure butter baked goods, I'm sure!

I've really noticed inflation in the past 3 months or so, which is partly why my food bill got out of hand - I knew I wasn't sticking to my budget, so just started adding more and more in (because that was obviously the way to deal with a shortfall....)

Verbatim wrote: »

I've just bought frozen fish in Ic'land. Packs of tuna, haddock, cod, salmon with 4-6 portions are £4 but 3 packs for £10. Their frozen fish is usually good but we really didn't like the leg of lamb I once bought there.

Ooh, I'm not sure if we have one near us, but I'll definitely have a check.

GeorgianaCavendish · 27 February 2017 at 4:03PM

Verbatim wrote: »

It's 10 offer items at Waitrose and you can change them a couple of times each season. I keep meaning to change mine to reflect the weather but keep forgetting.

Ah, thank you Verbatim - I couldn't remember! Good to know you can switch items, I will have a look at that this evening

JoJoC · 27 February 2017 at 4:16PM

I think you’re being a little hard on yourself TOP! I know you want to bring the cost of everything down, but I don’t think it’s realistic to have as good a week a last week on every single shopping week without making serious compromises.

The way I look at it is that I try to have one week per month where I buy nappies, pull ups, toilet roll, kitchen roll, cleaning products etc so that it’s maybe an £80 shop, but it’s once per month. That means for the rest of the month, I can compete with myself to see how low I can go on the weekly shopping budget and cut down ‘normal’ weeks.

A few suggestions:
- Substitute Haddock for cheaper fish? Or flesh out with frozen prawns/ more veg and cut down on the volume of fish. You could even mix some fresh haddock with some frozen haddock to bring the cost down?
- I’m not going to talk to you about butter… I wouldn’t compromise here! Haha It might be worth introducing a cheaper brand at home alongside your current one – if the kids don’t care then use the cheaper one for all their stuff and you’ll go through the more expensive one less.
- Do you have a B&M or Home Bargains nearby? Is it worth pricing deodorant and cleaning products in there? I find it much cheaper for most things than any supermarket.
- I get my son’s multi-vitamins (branded ones) from Home Bargains for £1.99 and I’m pretty sure they’re about £6 from supermarkets/ boots etc.
- Bleach in Aldi is 45p for 2L – I get the lemon one, smells good and is way cheaper than the standard £1 that most supermarkets seem to charge for basic level bleach.

Some of these suggestions might not suit you, but just some things that popped into my head while I was reading. I hope you manage to trim the fat along the way, but you’re doing really, really well!

joeyjimbles · 27 February 2017 at 4:36PM

Hello, have read and dashed many times but wanted to give you a few more suggestions (you are doing so well figuring it all out anyway).

In Aldi the spreadable silver butter is very good - especially for buttercream if baking and you can get past the idea of oil in there - and their version of stork is good too and much cheaper. I bake a great deal and find it works really well though I'd still use proper block butter for scones, crumbles, shortbread.

Also I second HB and B&M for cleaning products and also tea/coffee especially if you prefer a branded version. I also regularly get ketchups and sauces in there at much better prices.

KxMx · 27 February 2017 at 4:47PM

I use Lidls version of Stork, noticed zero difference in my baking, and certainly don't get any complaints. Am sure Aldi do one too.

I second the suggestion of buying toiletries and cleaners elsewhere.

Treadingonplaymobil · 27 February 2017 at 5:04PM

Thanks so much for all the ideas and advice. Was surprised to see that local horrible shopping outlet place (imagine Home Bargains crossed with a crack addict...) apparently has laundry powder cheaper than even Aldi. I'm not going that way this week, and the petrol would be as much as the saving, but I'm going to make a note of the prices of some of the things I always need (laundry powder, toilet roll etc) and then pop in next time I'm passing and stock up on things that are cheaper. I have to say I'd assumed Aldi was cheaper for things like that, but clearly more research is required!

I am totally non-brand-loyal. I think Heinz ketchup is literally the only thing where I insist on getting the brand I like! Everything else is a preference rather than an essential.

I am aware I am nit picking here, but when I see those threads about people feeding a family of 19 teenagers for £8.50 a week I just think 'I should be able to do that'! I think we would struggle to make many more cuts without compromising things like fruit and veg intake and actually all eating three times a day, but even the odd pound shaved off here or there would make me happy.

JoJoC · 27 February 2017 at 5:39PM

I'm not sure quite how realistic those claims are for everyone, TOP. I'm sure there's someone out there that can feed a family of five for a week on pennies, but I will never be one of them.

As a family, we like meat (not necessarily a lot, but we like meat), the kids drink loads of milk and eat loads of fruit and veg. Between those three categories, it makes up most of our weekly food shop spending! However, as part of our nursery fees, the kids get breakfast, lunch and snacks there so we don't need to consider that, just our own during the week.

It's swings and roundabouts - those comments are potentially misleading, unless caveated with the person's exact situation.

As we have discussed before, I'm much happier competing with myself than others

mfmaybe · 27 February 2017 at 7:09PM

Food is an area where I struggle too (eg will only buy higher welfare meat) so I feel your pain. I actually think you are doing really well. We are 2 adults and one very young DS. He eats at nursery all week yet I have a budget of £75/week. I am going to start using Mysupermarket and use the genius suggestion of doing my shopping online, and rejigging until I hit the budget. I have no idea why I didn't think of that.

Also remember re others, you don't know if these super savers also have an allotment, for example. I don't have much time for the garden this year, but I've bought some lettuce seeds as that is one thing we buy all the time.

System · 27 February 2017 at 7:31PM

Have just read about your food dilemma, I live on my own and I spend around £20 per week on food but one week when I batch cook it will be nearer £30. I see other people living on less but I don't know how they do it. I shop at Aldi and go to Home Bargains for toiletries and cleaning products. I think you are doing really well with your shopping .

£67,031.92 is a frightening number indeed....

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