It's December! Join my food shop challenge!

[the why bird]

I challenge you to reduce your food shopping bill for these three full weeks in the build up to Christmas. Half the savings are for you towards your Christmas dinner/treats, and half for the food bank to make sure another family gets Christmas dinner too. Embrace both your inner Scrooge and your inner Santa.

I just ordered our shopping for this week. I planned really carefully to use up leftovers and avoid waste, slightly reduced the amount of meat we buy and switched a few things to value range. I saved £30! Going to take my two year old out later in the week to pick supplies for the food bank.

Who's with me? We can post our tips and successes here.

Come and get in the festive spirit with me!

 

[felix555]

Oh I will join this. I love a bit of food shop planning

I have food left in the fridge / freezer for 5 more days then I need a shop for 6 - 18 December. I will do your challenge on that shop. I will see how cheap I can do it for.

I made a list last night of all meals for breakfast / lunch and dinner from the 19th - 27th of December now just need to decide where I will buy. I am thinking a combination of and online shop of Tesco or Ocado and M&S for Party Foods. This will be a blowout order though.

 

[aimee-lou]

I'm in!!!!

I have to buy milk and bread today but plan on keeping my shopping to £40 a week (normal budget us £55). I have managed on £25 a few weeks ago so i know i can do it!!

Meal plans might be nice to share. Thrifty meals and such.

Tonights tea is a quickly of alphabetti spaghetti with toast and cheese as I'm planning on cleaning the oven today so cant cook anything in it for 24 hours lol.

 

[aimee-lou]

Oh I will join this. I love a bit of food shop planning

I have food left in the fridge / freezer for 5 more days then I need a shop for 6 - 18 December. I will do your challenge on that shop. I will see how cheap I can do it for.

I made a list last night of all meals for breakfast / lunch and dinner from the 19th - 27th of December now just need to decide where I will buy. I am thinking a combination of and online shop of Tesco or Ocado and M&S for Party Foods. This will be a blowout order though.

I did my meal plan for 22nd-27th the other day. Already started to buy the dry goods in which helps the shock factor lol.

Unfortunately my kitchen is so tiny i can only hold 4 days if food at a time. I can sometimes do a full week if i batch cook and eat the same meals twice in one week. I usually go on a Monday for the weeks teas and then on Friday for supplies for the weekend. i wush i could do more....it would work out so much cheaper!!

 

[iiTTCii]

Joining! I say I'm gonna be organised every month and cut down on the food bill but never do. We waste so much!

 

[iiTTCii]

I'm in!!!!

I have to buy milk and bread today but plan on keeping my shopping to £40 a week (normal budget us £55). I have managed on £25 a few weeks ago so i know i can do it!!

Meal plans might be nice to share. Thrifty meals and such.

Tonights tea is a quickly of alphabetti spaghetti with toast and cheese as I'm planning on cleaning the oven today so cant cook anything in it for 24 hours lol.

How do you do this? I spend about £120 a week for me, DH and a 15 month old!

 

[the why bird]

My budget meal for the day is corned beef patties! Mashing up a bit of corned beef with left over mash and a few slightly limp looking spring onions that were languishing in the fridge. Make into patties, toss with flour, brush with oil and bake in the oven. Me and my toddler are having them for lunch with a shared can of tomato soup. Lovely hot lunch for a cold day plus she can help cook them which she loves.

 

[felix555]

I usually spend £100 for 14 days worth of shopping so for my next shop (13 days) I will see how low I can get it (will do a lot of frozen stuff and value stuff and I have a £5 off on my next online shop)

Then the difference between that and £100 will go on my food bank contribution. At our local tesco there are people from the food bank at the front of the store and they have a list of things they need, I will just go an do that then with the money I saved. I was already thinking of going and buying some things off their list so this has spurred me on.

 

[aimee-lou]

I'm in!!!!

I have to buy milk and bread today but plan on keeping my shopping to £40 a week (normal budget us £55). I have managed on £25 a few weeks ago so i know i can do it!!

Meal plans might be nice to share. Thrifty meals and such.

Tonights tea is a quickly of alphabetti spaghetti with toast and cheese as I'm planning on cleaning the oven today so cant cook anything in it for 24 hours lol.

How do you do this? I spend about £120 a week for me, DH and a 15 month old!

Value or own brand unless its a really good offer or a 'reserved' item. (Have a list of things that i cant get away with down-branding, things like tea bags and coco pops lol)

I plan meals and use my slow cooker to batch at least once a week.

I buy value nappies and toilet roll, cleaning stuff like sponges and cloths, and foil.

I use vouchers and coupons.

I swap between morrisons and tesco. If i need more fresh stuff i go to morrisons. Their meat and veg is cheaper. Tinned or dry tesco is better. I will say Morrison veg isn't as good a quality but its cheaper so if you're making soups or stews its better.

I cook most days from scratch but allow myself 2 'lazy' days a week - 1 for fish fingers or chicken dippers as these are always on offers and bulk out the meal plans plus the kids love it lol, and the other i have out if the freezer from the week begore's batch. This week i have a batch if chilli to use up.

I've been on this kind of budget for nearly 3 years now. It's just second nature now lol

 

[Amber4]

I actually did my Tesco shop last night and it came to £48 when it's usually £60! I was rather happy with that xx

 

[felix555]

OK I have just made good use of nap time and did our shop for 6 - 18 December

It's £80.14 compared to my usual £100 by shopping with Tesco rather than Ocado which I use about 80% of the time and using Value stuff, using up stuff that's in the cupboard and getting a few frozen bits. I will go and do a £20 food bank shop at my Tesco when I am out later.

Oh what saves a lot of money for me is doing leftovers, so I will do roast chicken 2 days in a row, bit boring but helps.

If anyone is interested these are my planned meals:

Mushroom Lasagne w. garlic bread
Leftover Mushroom Lasange w. garlic bread
Roast chicken, potatoes and carrots
Roast chicken, spiced cabbage & wedges
Gammon w. cauliflower cheese
LO Gammon w. chips and egg
Garlic chicken w. cous cous
Veal Ragu w. spaghetti
Leftover Ragu pasta bake w. cheese
Cod w. risotto
Breaded Turkey w. bread sauce and JP
Mushroom Lasagne w. garlic bread
Leftover Mushroom Lasange w. garlic bread

And extra bits I got was ..

Soft drinks
Bottled water
Toilet rolls
Some desserts for my OH
Milk

 

[the why bird]

Thanks for sharing Felix! Mushroom lasagna sounds delicious do you have a recipe? I love risotto too for an inexpensive meal, such warm yummy food for winter.

I just did some maths. My husband switched half his pepsi for cheap flavoured water this week. He saved enough to buy 11 tins of beans for the food bank. I skipped my weekly latte from Starbucks and saved enough to buy 2 kilos of pasta, 2 tins of tuna, and 2 tins each of peas and carrots. That's a lot of food.

Even a tiny bit really does help. If you can save just 50p to donate, that's enough for two tins of soup - two little ones who won't go to bed with empty tummies that night.

 

[aimee-lou]

Shop done at teco today. Spent £17. Got all my bits plus 3 tons (rice pudding, fruit cocktail and stewed steak) to go in the food bank. Ours has asked for no more beans ....think people have been too generous with the beans lol.

Spend so far this week -19.32
Left of budget - 20.68
Food banked - 3 tins

 

[felix555]

I do this recipe which is enough for 4 dinners.

https://www.taste.com.au/recipes/24823/mushroom+lasagne

I do two dishes and then freeze one and the other we have the first night and reheat the night after.

 

[felix555]

Oh and yesterday I went to tesco but the guys from the food bank wasn't there with the list of things they need so I have downloaded it now and I will go back and buy the stuff (there is still a drop off there) on the list is uht milk so to make is easy for me I will buy one thing so 20 x 1l milk. I'll also buy at least one more every time I go to tesco from now on.

 

[aimee-lou]

Meal plan this week.

Tonight - homemade pizza
Tomorrow - chicken fingers, waffles and beans
Thursday - omelette with bread and butter (choice of ham, cheese, onion, tomato, mushroom and sweet corn)
Friday - spaghetti bolognese with garlic bread
Saturday - visiting family being fed there lol
Sunday - chicken pie, wedges, peas and gravy and rice pudding.
Monday - bolognese pasta bake with homemade tear and share bread.

 

[motherofboys]

I spend 60-70 a week for 6 people with 2 of the kids eating adult sized portions. That includes nappies and pet foods and cleaning products too though. I buy value stuff already so not much room for cutting as all food is used up every week and we never have left overs here.
I will try to see if I can save any money somewhere anyway.

 

[iiTTCii]

I kind of saved money.. Just did my shopping online (which I don't usually do). I had a money off coupon plus free delivery. I was forced to meal plan for the week rather than pop to tesco everyday. My shop was a lot cheaper than usual... But with the savings.. I bought some crates of beer and 6 bottles of wine for over christmas (both on offer).

I'm gonna go to tesco this week though and buy things just for the food bank.