Grocery shopping on a budget!

[little_lady]

Between £60 and £70 a week. I order online at Asda and mainly buy the cheapest options. I have had the weekly bill down to £45 at Aldis but this was only getting basics and we all got a bit fed up of it. Now I order some nice ham, biscuits, rolls etc - some treats to make us feel less depressed. We cut down in other areas instead.

 

[Incubus]

I've recently set our budget at £140 per month! That's 2 adults, 1 baby, 2 cats, 1 rabbit, 2 guinea pigs and a tortoise, it's going well so far

I switch between aldi, lidl and tesco depending on what we need, write a list and stick to it, also buy lots from the reduced aisle.

 

[babies7777]

Its def something worth thinking about as i think long term meat is going to continue to rise in price. Problem we have at the moment is my daughter wont accept eggs of any kind, i have tried every way i can think of to serve them but she will take a bite and disgard and she isnt a big fan of beans, will try kidney beans but most other kinds she doesnt eat. Beans seem to give her a lot of gas so i wonder if she knows that and avoids, idk but in time this may change and it would be something we would consider long term if we are priced out of the market for meat.

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.

 

[lily28]

I buy almost everything generic, it makes a big difference.
I agree w/ the comment on meat, it is soooo expensive!

 

[vegazbaby]

i used to spend £100 on husband and i , and now with formula i did £90 for two week shop
my principles that i follow are

* Why pay for lunch for me when i can eat the left overs from last nights dinner instead of having seconds

* Order online less temptation, and my supermarket always make errors which i moan about so often get freebies, ie i complained about them not having apples and i got my delivery saver price of £60 refunded!

* Try and have a reserve pot for offers, Dishwasher tablets washing powders etc so that you can stock up when they are on offer

* Buy Meat when its on offer yesterday i bought a freezer pack from the butchers, sausages, chicken, diced steak and mince, i then sat and worked out two weeks of meals from them. it means you waste less as i shall cook some meals and freeze them today, so im using all my mushrooms and onions etc instead of throwing the odd ones away

* biscuits crisps snacks are chosen based on their offers.

* and move down a brand, if you bought finest try tescos own, if you bought tescos own try value, and if you dont like it dont buy it again, i wouldnt buy value meat but there are several things that i now buy in the value range and no ones noticed, and i used to be a food snob.

* meal plan, each week i draw up my menu and write it on a chalk board, (looks like a bistro pub so its exciting) so i only buy what i need, and eat in order of perishability of the food. (i used to start each week throwing out a fridge of food now it dont)

* if you have larger things like chicken breasts, i trim them down to a smaller size then cube up the edge piece and freeze do it again the next week and ive had a free meal out of something i would have eaten.

hope this helps probably nothing new, but its brought down my meal costs.

 

[feedindy]

-We have a wholesale place near us that we can get things cheap, but you have to have a lot of storage place at home to buy things that way. For example we buy 20-50 lb flour at a time and like 30 rolls toilet paper, etc... everything in bulk, but it is soooo cheap.

-Also, make sure you are truly getting things the cheapest. All my local shops not only list the price, but the price you are paying per ounce for pantry items. So that way you can price shop around very easily.

-Grow your own food if possible. Half of our vegetable and fruit came from my backyard this summer.

- Only buy what's on sale

- Rice is a food that goes a long way for the money. We make a lot of "rice bowls". Fried rice, Spanish rice, Mexican rice, etc... Toss in some veggies and you only need a tiny amount of meat if any. I also like barley and pasta as other options that stretch far.

- Pack lunches for work. I can probably make lunch for the whole week at home for the price of going out to lunch for 1 day.


-Make things from scratch! Homemade pizza and bread are less than 1/4 the cost of buying them. Buy a bread machine! It will pay for itself in around 6 months.

- Frozen veggies are just as healthy and sometimes cheaper than fresh. They are a lot easier to prepare too.

 

[cocosianelle]

I'm with a lot of the other ladies, give Aldi a try. We buy all our fruit, veg and salad from their every week and it really is so much cheaper especially with the super 6 where you'll get an item for 69p. Last week it was a bag of mixed peppers which would probably cot 3 times as much from the bigger places.

When we lived near a town centre we'd buy all this from the markets but sadly not an option anymore.

I buy a kg of chicken breasts from there every week as they are by far the cheapest. Also a lot of their toiletries have won numerous awards, we always get dishwasher tablets, wash liquid from there.

Have you got somewhere like B&M or Homebargains to use for toiletries?

Don't get me wrong we still get named branded stuff and treats but I tend to go with whats on offer.

 

[summer rain]

I don't find Aldi that cheap (or Lidl) and they aren't anywhere near me so it makes no sense for us to shop there. Instead I shop online and compare the different supermarkets 'manually' as I don't find My supermarket that accurate. We thought Asda was cheap but it isn't for what we buy especially as they are dwindling down their smart price range. Oddly enough it is usually Sainsbury's that wins for us, it's at least a couple of pounds cheaper. Occasionally ocado will be the cheapest of all, something which surprises a lot of people. When shopping online it's easier to spend less but you may have to swap around some products for alternatives if those are on offer or cheaper. Also while basics/value range are usually cheaper, it isn't always the case, often own brand normal range on offer is cheaper and rarely branded items can be cheaper if they have an exceptionally good offer on them. It's always important to double check xx

 

[Mrs_Random]

£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.

I notice you have been following slimming world.....
I am and I'm trying to switch to Aldi but finding it difficult - how did you get on with your meat/cheese items? I noticed I can't get 5% mince at Aldi, do they sell Quorn?

 

[ShelbyLC]

Food is $450-$500 per month. Diapers and wipes cost $100 monthly. Paper products and odds and ends we need on occasion are usually about $30 per month. So, that's £280-£315 for food, £60 for baby stuff, and £20 misc.

 

[MumToEva]

Mine is around £70 per week for 2 adults and 2 children. I buy fruit and veg from a local fruit man, as it's fresher and cheaper than the supermarket. Meat I get from a local butcher, as I'm really fussy about the meat that we eat. The rest is from tescos - I get it delivered, which I find helps keep the bill down, as I get tempted by all sorts of nice stuff in-store (as well as being a lot handier with 2 small children!), plus you can go through it at the end and take out the stuff you don't need when you know how much it all costs! I'd recommend trying the budget/value range from your supermarket - some of the stuff isn't great, but other stuff is absolutely fine. You won't know until you try! And planning my main meals helps me not to waste food - before i started doing that i always ended up throwing away stuff at the end of each week. Also, one week in every month I don't get groceries delivered, I just top up what I need from the local shop and make a point of using up what's left in the cupboards / fridge.

 

[lovelylaura]

i spend £40 a week, i online shop from tesco but i did use aldi which was good too. I cook from scratch. Also meal plan you'll be shocked at how much stuff you buy that you dont need. I dont meal plan know as i know what i need and work around it.

 

[lovelylaura]

also i got a bottle of wine in this weeks shop too for £41 all together it can be done.

 

[highhopes19]

Also to add meal planning really saves money and cooking from scratch...also I buy a big tray of mince say if I'm making spaghetti bowl and I make a huge pot of it and freeze half, I tend to make extra for lots of meals so that they can be frozen and then say if either me or Tom are on a late shift then I can just get it out in the morning to defrost and then just warm through when we get home of an evening saves a lot of time and is more healthy and quicker than a frozen or microwave meal.

 

[stephx]

Go to your local butchers for meat, it's nearly always cheaper and better quality than from supermarkets and you can usually get a bargain if you haggle a bit

And try a greengrocers or market for fruit and veg. Mine is ridiculously cheap x

 

[hshucksmith]

Have you tried doing a shop in 2 places?

For me and DH we spend no more than £40 a week and that's only if we are bulk buying something!

We are lucky because Lidl's is right opposite Tesco so we can go to both shops.

I lived a primarily vegan lifestyle pre-pregnancy, and when I can be bothered I get all my fruit and vegetables on the city market on a Saturday. I am also minorly lactose intolerant and depending on how much my intolerance is playing up I have to buy the expensive soya yogurts etc.

In Lidl we get our yogurts, a lot of our fruit, jars of sauce, pasta, cereals etc. Mainly odds and sods with a few necessities thrown in.

For example, usually at Tesco I will spend £2.00 on 2 x 4pk yogurts. I could buy the value ones or Tesco own brand but yogurts are my treat when my body can handle them! I can get 8 x yogurts of the same weight for £1.29 in Lidl. Milk is cheaper in there - £1 for 4 pints - so we get that too for hubby. I get a 500g pot of natural yogurt for £0.45p in Lidl that would cost £1.00 for a fat free equivalent in Tesco.

When things are on offer we get double the amount too. Stuff like washing powder when Tesco have the big deals on (like £5.00 for a 50 wash box of powder), I will pick up 2 or 3 boxes and keep them in the cupboard. Same goes for BOGOF on squash, juices, jars... any non perishables.

The market is brilliant for fruit and veg. I would spend £10-£15 and get enough fruit and veg to live off of for 5 x meals a day for me, 7 days a week, when I was eating vegan only.

Shop about!

Also, have you tried that shopping compare website where you fill up your basket and it tells you what would be cheapest? We tried it a couple of times but we always figured Tesco was the cheapest.

Take a shopping list when you go too. Don't deviate from it AT ALL(!!!) unless you realise you need something you've forgotten to put on the list. Keep a piece of paper on the fridge and write down the things you need once you've run out or are very close to running out of!