Grocery shopping on a budget!

[babies7777]

I cannot get my grocery shopping for the week to average out less than £80.00 per week, more when i need things like cleaning products, washing powder, personal hygiene things etc.

How much on average do you spend? and if its less please share how? what kinds of things do you buy and what meals do you make?

Im really trying to reduce my bill without loosing things like fresh fruit and veg, meat etc.

Im feeding two adults and one child, we all eat the same though i do buy dd a few snacks like rice cakes, organix crisps etc but not every week.

Any tips greatly appreciated!

 

[aliss]

About $1000 a month, my husband eats like an absolute horse (I do too, I'm afraid) and it's hard to get it lower without cutting back on fresh things. We live in rural Quebec, food is $$$ here.

Believe it or not, that's a reduced budget, I work very hard at incorporating seasonal veggies (cheaper), local.

 

[BellaBoo0512]

Mine is about £80-£90 a week on average too and need to somehow get it down to £60 a week when my maternity pay stops. I'm sure all the prices keep going up and up!

 

[LDC]

The problem is the price of living is going up yet wages are staying the same.

I tend to go to pound land and buy my cleaning things (minus tablets and comfort) as it works out a lot cheaper than a supermarket

Could you not buy brands and buy supermarkets own? That's what I do now and there's only a couple of things that I've disliked so go back to the names brands. Otherwise you could try somewhere like lidl which are really cheap as they're not English brands.

I tend to stock up on things when they're on offer and use coupons in magazines and sign up to the shops clubcards etc as they send out vouchers.

Also check the paper for coupons off, morrisons tend to put their £5 off a £20 shop in the free paper which I keep and use.

Xx

 

[highhopes19]

Ours is roughly £40-£50 a week that's for 2 adults a nearly 2 year old and a cat.

We shop at aldi we get loads for that lots of fruit and veg and also a few naughty treats like cakes etc for that love aldi!

 

[flosie]

Hi, i've managed to get our weekly shop down to about £45 a week. I buy fresh fruit and veg from aldi. A big sack of potatoes every other month from the market (£7), meat from asda I pick 3 kinds for £10 and freeze in portions, I buy whatever yogurt that is on offer for dd. Butter/ Marg that's on offer and cleaning products that are on offer. And plan meals for the week, check what's in cupboards that could be used before you shop

 

[xLaura]

I second aldi, there fruit and veg is always really good quality at a fraction of the price. I get most of what I need from there and treats like biscuits/choc is alot cheaper.

I haven't tried there cleaning products but my nan assures me there just as good but personally I get mine from B&M as you can get named brands at a fraction of the cost. Also I stock up if i see things on offer from tesco ect.

Also I'd do meal plans before you go so you don't end up buying too much and wasting things, I've always been terrible for this as my freezer is really small so we were throwing away so much because it went out of date.

 

[Lawgirl]

We spend roughly £60-70 for two adults and LO. It was more than that, but when we switched to ordering online our food bill went down as we were not so tempted by treats and offers. And this isn't a budget shop - we haven't yet tried limiting what we spend.

 

[minties]

We spewnd $120 a week here which equats to about £62. I do a lot of bulk buying, so sugar/flour/rice etc in huge bags. On shopping day I make a huge pasta dish and freeze a lot of it.

We eat a lot of cheap bread. And lots of potatoes.

 

[sequeena]

Last week I spent £48.14. I'm doing a grocery challenge, tracking what I spend, meal planning, using what I have (check your freezer and cupboard you will have loads!) and eating less meat It's tough I won't lie. I'm still buying nappies and have 3 dogs and 2 cats. I include everything, washing powder etc the only thing I don't include is takeaways (cutting down to 1 a month).

 

[shanny]

80 - 90 a week 2 adults 4 kids

weekly food menu

own baking eg pizza base etc

value products

get it delivered - then you know exactly what you are spending (plus we live in the sticks)

good use of leftovers / freezer

 

[Sarah125]

We do a meal planner then shop at Aldi. We are usually about £40ish for us and a dog. Can be as little as £30 though. You can get loads more for your money there and it's all great quality stuff there's also a voucher in the paper at the end of the month which is when we do a big shop (get washing powder etc)

 

[catty]

We spend £200 pm so average £50pw

An average week for us would be :
Fish n chips
Fajitas
Tuna pasta bake
Macaroni cheese
Hunter chicken
Lasagne
Dont eat at ours on sunday
All of these are made very cheaply with food from aldi, also have things like spag bol, burgers, enchiladas, fishcakes all from aldi

With our £50 we have to get a box of baby milk and nappies (£15)
So have £35 on food and toilet roll, toiletries etc

Find it much easier to bulk buy meat and buy things to go with my meals weekly

2 adults and a baby

 

[Radkat]

Ugh. This is a issue for us right now too. I'm too embarrassed to say how much I spend on food. I love food and believe in organic products, esp for LO. Some strategies I do use is shopping at farmers markets. The produce is typically cheaper and has fewer pesticides and other baddies than the stuff in the big markets. I'm also trying to cut down on convenience foods and cook more. It's a struggle. DH is making chili tonight. Weird in the summer, but whatever, he offered to cook and it's cheap.

 

[Halle71]

We probably spend about £110 a week but this will include all food, baby stuff, cleaning stuff, communal toiletries and alcohol. We've also been eating loads of salad over the summer which is more expensive than the veg we have in winter. My philosophy is that my greatest pleasure at the moment (other than the kids obviously!) is eating, whether in or out. That said, we are naturally both quite frugal and don't want to spend more than we have to. We get a weekly delivery from Tesco (using delivery saver saves us money) and make the most if their special offers. As others have said, it is easier to buy just what you need (other than those pesky special offers) because you aren't tempted by stuff. We get what we can from Lidl and now the balance is shifting from Tesco to Lidl - loving meat, fruit/veg, deli type stuff and the amazing ice cream.
Going back a couple of years we spent £80 pw for three of us so taking account of price rises and a new baby bum that needs nappies we're not too bad.

 

[summer rain]

Ours is around £65-£70 a week though this week we spent £120 as we were buying a lot of storecupboard and freezer stuff, we only do a shop like this once every few months. There are seven of us. I cook pretty much everything from scratch and we buy mainly own brands, a mix of the normal range and basics/value ranges. We get a lot of fruit and veg included in that and household stuff and toiletries as well. Next week our shopping will only be £40 or £50 hopefully because we have enough in. There are seven of us although at the moment my youngest doesn't eat anything he does get through a lot of laundry, nappies and wipes. Xx

 

[lozzy21]

£40-50 a week for two adults and a nearly 3 year old. Aldi is the key and making things from scratch. You can pay £1.70 for a jar of bolagnsise or you can spend 50p on an onion, tin of chopped tomatoes, some garlic and a pinch of mixed herbs.

We don't buy crisps, biscuits, cakes etc and the only frozen food we buy I'd frozen veg and fish fingers.

 

[babies7777]

Thanks so much for all the replies, we are going to try Aldi tonight, i make everything from scratch but i think a lot of the cost is on fresh fruit and veg so it will be great if i can get that cheaper but still good quality. I did try shopping online and i dont know where i went wrong but it was always way more than instore, crazy. So glad its doable as we have a lot of expense at the moment as we are moving house so anywhere we can save is great!

 

[stephie_corin]

I know you said you want to include meat but cutting down meat to once a week or less will also save money. I'm a long time vegetarian and meat 'replacements' like beans, eggs, tofu are much cheaper. If you buy dry beans they are even cheaper again. A bag of split red lentils cook very fast and adds terrific protein and nutrients to a dish.

 

[ellie27]

I spend about £80 per week too, not including any big things like nappies/soap-powder/alcohol etc.

That £80 - nothing is extravagant - it is all deals,half-price mince/2 for 1, etc so a lot of special offers.

Things like nappies/soap-powder/loo roll/kitchen roll I do buy in bulk. I have never bought a small 20 pack of nappies or just 4 pack of loo rolls, but always buy a huge amount when I find a good deal. eg last time I bought nappies was 3 months ago when boots had their price glitch on their own brand nappies making the pack of 60 nappies £2.75!! I bought 600 nappies. Also recently bought a big boots order of baby wipes, for 46p a pack, bought about 36 packs. These things are never included in my grocery shop as I buy things like that online!