if you shop monthly or something like that, could I ask what you buy?

[lucysmam]

and what sort of quantities of what you buy?

and roughly how much you spend?

am considering whether I would be better off doing my shopping online monthly online and topping up as I go along weekly after reading a couple of other threads today where people do this.

thanks

[lucysmam]

anyone?

[TheProvincialLady]

I have just done my monthly shopping online. For the first time I ever I have planned a whole month's worth of menus and bought all the dry goods and non perishables I will need. I also bought bigger quantities of washing powder, dishwasher tablets etc than I usually do as I almost always run out towards the end of the month. I reckon I will save a lot because buying things locally is so much more expensive - for example £1.50 for a carton of soya milk here, 63p at Tesco.com. So now all I need to do is buy milk when we run out and fruit and vegetables from the market or greengrocers.

In fact I am wondering why I didn't do this before!

[TheProvincialLady]

Sorry, quantities -

For 2 adults plus toddler I have bought about 3kg pasta, 1kg rice, 10 cartons of soya milk, 10 pats of butter, the biggest washing powder they do. It came to £106 but that was with £8 clubcard vouchers and and a £13 off code that someone posted on MN.

[IAteDavinaForDinner]

We do this.

I order all my dry storecupboardy things, cleaning stuff and some basic fresh things, as well as stock the freezer, once a month. Weekly visits to greengrocer/butcher and local co-op thereafter.

Monthly shop includes:

• lots of tins of beans, tomatoes, sweetcorn, tuna, baked beans, fruit
• pasta, rice, breakfast cereal, herbs and spices etc
• some pizzas/quiches/breaded fish for 'oven dinners' if I am late in from work/DS has been hard going
• nappies, cleaning products, toiletries, loo roll etc
• bread and rolls, frozen veg for the freezer
• a few tins of soup, jar sauces etc - things that are quick for lunch
• wine
• small selection of fresh fruit and veg, yoghurt, margarine, milk and maybe some meat

I usually buy something towards Christmas once a month from now onwards too - booze for relatives mainly. I usually spend around £100 on this shop.

Weekly we just get fresh fruit and veg, and milk and top-up bread from the local shop and visit the butcher as and when. Hopefully not more than around £20 a week.

I try to always be well stocked with basics because we're miles from a big supermarket and I like ASDA to earn their delivery charge

[lucysmam]

I agree about buying locally being more expensive!! And our local market is like a day out for lo and so much cheaper for fruit & veg it's worth the £3.50 bus fare!

I'm just not sure what's the best way to go about it as we usually shop fortnightly as we're paid fortnightly. Just monthly would probably save us money on odd 'pop to the shops' kind of trips where we got to spend 20p on a tin of beans and come back with a tenners worth of shopping

[lucysmam]

lol IAteDavina @ earn their delivery charge!

£100 isn't too bad all in one go, I expected more than that tbh. & if you can keep top ups as low as £20 then it would be worth me looking at doing it

[IAteDavinaForDinner]

Well, I'm totally happy to use stripey/savers versions of most things I'm cooking with (no Taste the Difference plum tomatoes here ), I drink V cheap wine (cos it's better than none, and if you're smart you can get something remarkably tolerable for under a fiver), we don't eat meat as much as DP would like and I buy own brand wherever possible (ie everything!). You could probably get better stuff for not a huge amount more though.

[lucysmam]

we use own brand everything here anyways IAteDavina, don't see the point paying extra when you can't tell the difference! & I never get a bottle of vino for more than 3quid & that's usually from co-op if we have spare change

We eat quite a lot of meat at the mo but am slowly introducing more veggie based stuff/fish to oh and he doesn't mind trying something new but makes sure I know all about what he likes/dislikes/maybe I could try next time

have you always shopped monthly? sorry to be nosey but I'm trying to work out what would be the best way to switch, as obviously I can't just do no shopping until we do a months shop iyswim

[IAteDavinaForDinner]

I started a couple of years ago when we'd just bought a house and were extra poor. Cupboard was empty anyway so just stocked right up on payday and took it from there.

ASDA have some spectacular bargains on wine just now, am sure it's a mistake - 3 bottles of Aussie red (at £8 each) for a tenner!

Have found ASDA a good 20-30% cheaper than Tesco, by the way.

[lucysmam]

really? bargain! May be worth investing in 3 bottles at a time then! I'm online shopping this week but only have £50 to spend so not possible for this week but I think when oh starts his new job next week I will stock up well with his first wage.

Thanks for the tip about adsa being cheaper, will start there!

[nannyL]

if you get an asda credit card and order over £50 (I think its over £50, may be slightly more) and pay for your shopping with the card, they will deliver it to you free

[lucysmam]

cheers nannyL, i've just ordered and been looking, unfortunately its over £99 for free delivery but I managed to find a free delivery code anyways . I don't have any credit cards either, we've not had them the past 3 years so have had to learn to live on literally what we have rather than just spending on random stuff