To attempt to have a weekly shopping budget of £50?

[LittlePickleHead]

In the last few months of saving for a wedding and a lot of expensive things coming up, so for the next few months I'd like to try and stick to a £50 a week budget for me, DP and 2yo DD.

I know this has been done before, but really looking for tips on how to do this, or whether I am being completely unrealistic!

I'm having to give up my beloved Ocado for a while and switch to Tesco (not really a fan TBH), but I've just used mySupermarket and managed to get a shop for just under budget, although haven't had to buy washing powder this week (though this does include nappies).

Anyone else manage on this small amount? I usually spend around £80 at Ocado, not including any alcohol...

i got pork steaks last week for £1.37. There was enough meat when sliced to feed 4.

I love the random other bits they have an spent my food savings on a bath mat last week.

And home and bargains is deffo worth a lurk for cupboard stuff. Tins of del monte tomatoes for 25pppppppppppppppppp !!

Have you tried your local markets? Much cheaper for meat and veg than supermarkets.

Never heard of home and bargains, I wonder if there are any near me in SE London?

stuck I will sheepishly admit I don't even know where are local markets are

Well, apart from super expensive poncey ones where a single sausage costs £2.50 (I secretly love them though!)

I need to do a bit of research into my area and what's around I think...

Lidl nappies rock, as do their pull-ups. Great frozen fish there too. Milk cheap, you can sometimes get 2 loaves of 50:50 for £1.50 I throw them in the freezer.

Aldi is also excellent.

I am of everyone with freezers. Ours is full with a packet of peas, fishfingers, some frozen squash (actually I'll really miss that from Waitrose) and a few frozen batch meals for DD. Could probably fit a bit more in if I got round to deicing...

Do you have any ethic supermarkets near you?
We have a chinese supermarket not to far away which is great for spices, sauces, pepper ect all at about half the price of the supermarket and a lot better quality. I get a bag of black pepper for 79p and it will refil the supermarket glass jars 3 times.

I am sure we do cant, I haven't actually been into any but that is a good tip. I used to go to one when I lived in Leytonstone and like you say, the spices etc were fab value.

alt I do think that Asda isn't as good value as they would have youe believe!

They're great!

I can get:

Chicken breasts, mince, sausages £5

Tomatoes, potatos, onions, apples, cabbage, carrots, peppers, lettuce, cucumber, brocalli: £5.

100g bags of various dried pulses for about 50p. Flour is pretty cheap too (we have one of those weigh and save places)

Bacon bits (huge bag to devided into portions and frozen) £1.20.

From that lot, I can make a huge range of meals. Add in a few other cheap things, (dried noodles from chinese supermarket, flour for baking own pies, suet for dumplings) and the possibilities are endless.

To be fair though, this does depend massively on your location. I've lived all over the country and have been able to find good traditional (not poncey farmers ones) in Sheffield, Norwich, Newcastle, Stockport, Oxford and Leeds. If you're in a very rural area/commuting belt of London, it might not be so easy!

www.information-britain.co.uk/othertypes.cfm?type=Market

List of UK markets.

Stuck I am further in than commuter belt of London so I'm not sure it will be that easy. But I will do some research, it may not be impossible!

Sugar at the moment there is nowhere to put it at all, no spare cupboards (or space for one). We have a nice place, but it is a conversation flat and we have used every space we possible can just to house the three of us.

I'm happy to try and eat fresh each week and freeze the occassional thing until we do finally manage to upsize!

Do you have any markets near you? If you live in London you will be amazed at the prices, and often for decent quality fruit and veg ( and meat ) .Some of the street and covered market halls in London make a total mockery of Asda's, Sainsbury's etc claims to offer value for money.

Me and OH feed oursleves easily for £30/week including cleaning products etc, we look around, mixture of sainsbury and markets, i would imagine £50pw for a couple with a child is easily attainable.

Appreciate this is different if you live in a "Tesco Town" or have few alternative options. But buying in bulk or looking at ethnic shops is always an option - they always have a lot of bargains.

I am an Aldi lover too..... I go there to get virtually everything. cost us (me DH and 2 DC's) £45 to £50 per week. I am forced to go to the devil shop asda every now and then for the branded bits the kids love eg babybells, frubes, bisto best , but I make a list and am straight in and out with those items. I make a point of not going up any aisles not on my list!
I don't do it to save money though........ although that is great! I do it as I hate what the big supermarkets have done to our farming industry and high streets. Aldi (a german company) do not bully our farmers and hold them to ranson, and still manage to be miles cheaper.!
Come on girls join my revolution!!!!

can you cook with lentils?
lovely and cheap

and you dont need a bread maker to make bread.

buy value what ever you can, if you have no aldi/lidl.

meal plan

eek out with lentils, veggies.

Just checked tht link at there is a market v. close! Would need to factor in the cost of the car park (don't know how I'd manage with just the buggy - have a bee and it's not v roomy underneath!) but will definitely give it a go.

I do use a lot of lentils and pulses in general, I was a veggie for years and so have a fairly large repertoire of veggie/vegan meals. I do a mean lentil bolognaise actually

Feeling very positive about this now and I'm going to use a combination of these suggestions, especially visitng Aldi and the market. The extra £30 a week I'll save will be soooo helpful!

Bloody hell, our shopping bill is almost double that, for me, DP, and 20mo DD! The nearest supermarkets to us are Asda and Tesco - others are near the city center and I can't be arsed traveling that far tbh.

I'm on a diet, so I can't eat anything other than lean/extra lean meats, and I go through salad/fruit/veg at lightning speed.

My main problem is I can't resist a bargain, and even though I go armed with a specific list, I always add more on! I used to shop online to swerve my bad habit, but when they started sending me my veg etc with only 1 day left before expiry I started going to the shop myself.

Really need to start shopping around though as our last shopping bill was just a joke.

If you do go to asda don't forget the price guarantee thing. I did this last night and got a voucher for £2.20 which I will redeem next time I go back.

I am a mug because I have never done this before and you only have 28 days to enter your till receipt online.

here

ICan I started shopping online for the same reason (lack of willpower) and then shopped with Ocado because of the shelflife guarantee (have to say taht Tesco and Sainsbury's are shite when it comes to sending stuff going out of date)

you can put that in the Notes section of online delivery.
that you want a long shelf life.

If you do your own baking, you'll save a lot. Cookie dough will keep in the fridge for a week, brownies in air tight tins will last for ages. The Value range of flour from tesco is perfectly fine for making anything with a lot of sugar in it. I know people think of things like cookies etc as luxuries, but if you're doing packed lunches for DH and yourself, it softens the blow a bit to have a treat in there!
Also, see if there's a local chicken keeper you can get your eggs from.

YesPlease - binned the last receipt but will do that with the next one!

I'll have a quick look at Ocado now before DD wakes up!

Slarty - I always put that, not at first, but then someone told me to and I did but I may as well have wrote "You bollock head" because nobody took a blind bit of notice to it! When I queried it they just said that they pick what is available on the shelves