To think husband's spending is excessive!

[CornishDoll82]

We need to cut back on spending as I'm still on maternity leave and going back part time hence losing a chunk of salary. My husband does the food and grocery shopping for the week and I've realised he's spending around £220. I think this is massively excessive and we should be able to do it on about £120 therefore saving us £400 a month - but he's insisting this is normal and it would be hard to cut it. There are us two and a 11 month old baby.

Who's right? What do you spend?

Me, husband, baby and two cats. £80 per week all in (except diabetic cat........)

No wine though.

50-70 a week, 2 adults, 1 teen, 1 child and thats with treats choc and crisps, if broke or saving for something i can do all meals and a few snacks for 40pw so get your husband to read this thread and realise hes being excessive.
He needs to save the difference and treat you all to a great holiday.

The Boots delivery is a good idea, they often 2 for £x on nappies and bulk buy prices on wipes. Do a massive order once every three months (say), taking advantage of the best offers and you will save money but also get the points on your loyalty card.

You could go through the Ocado site with the receipt of what he ordered and compare it to see if he could have got the same stuff at a lower price by down grading. So if he buys brand names, go down to the premium own brand and order that. Then you can compare quality v price. When he can see in front of his eyes that the meals taste the same but cost 20% less, he may have an epiphany.

And I am afraid that if he wont try to economise then you are left with either a) putting up with it or b) doing the ordering yourself. Personally I would do b) and insist that he take over a different job that you currently do.

I don't think you need to change where you shop to make considerable savings on what you currently spend. I'm like you, I shop at waitrose because the deliver and I like their food. Similar to you there are two adults and 1 child but we spend less than half what you do. Cooking from scratch and meal planning is key.

Both husband and I take lunch with us each day to work, and all of us eat at home most evenings. My weekly shop comes in at around £80 and then I do a little top up shop for the few bits I like from other shops, or some fresh fruit mid week. I use the waitrose essential range for much of our stuff, very little is branded, and it's just as good if not better.

Just buy a chicken, it will last you all week

I'd say about £30 a week per person. What on ear are you eating?

That sounds like a lot. We are 2 (greedy) adults and a toddler in nappies. We do a big Aldi shop once a month (£100) and a once or twice weekly top up in tesco or sometimes waitrose (total around £60-70/week so with the Aldi shop it's around £80-100 week) We buy free range meat and organic fish etc and eat meat/fish ~ 5 nights a week. We also have a bottle of wine and "convenience" type ready meals once or twice a week. We don't really try that hard to economise on food but I think I would struggle to spend that much! Although if you're buying all your shampoo, laundry liquid etc at ocado I can see how it would rack up. Definitely consider doing a monthly shop somewhere bargainous for this stuff. You will save a fortune without having to change your eating habits at all.

I've told him there's a ban on the organic pressed apple juice.

We can't do too much bulk buying as our house is fairly small and there's not a lot of storage space but will look into what we can do

Thanks for all the tips!

Ah juice. I didn't think of that. We never have it, but some people have it daily. I can imagine that a daily glass of organic pressed apple juice will be expensive.

Dare I ask how much he was buying at about £3 a litre?

We keep our bulk toiletries, toilet rolls etc under the bed and before we had the kitchen extension, pretty much everything spare went under the bed in plastic crates.

It wasn't a huge volume, just enough to make sure that we always paid the special offer price and never paid full price for anything non perishable that is on offer frequently.

it takes a change of mindset - don't buy what you need this week because you are running out, buy for the storecupboard and then use from there. Only buy when on offer.

Always keep a stock of toilet rolls, shampoo, washing detergent and softner, tinned tomatoes, whatever else you always buy and is often on offer. I don't do it so much now because I shop mainly at Aldi, which just has low prices not ups and downs with special offers, but you could do this and still shop in Ocado and still save.

Instead of buying the same things each week, look at what is on offer and buy those. I know in Waitrose, the Charlie Bighams are sometimes on offer, so maybe they are on Ocado too? A lot of them can be frozen, so maybe buy a few when on offer?

Another way to save if you are shopping online, is to rotate as many differnet shops as possible. If you miss a few weeks with one particular shop, they will send you vouchers to shop with them again.

Waitrose also have the MyWaitrose offers, where you can choose your own offer from a selection, to get 20% off. I find this fiddly though, but don't regularly with Waitrose.

Have you also checked your utilities and other bills to make sure you are on the cheapest tarriff if you are looking to save money. Do you use Quidco to get cashback when shopping online? Do you always shop around when renewing insurance etc? Do you look for online offers and discounts when visiting attractions or eating at chain restaurants?

Have a look on moneysavingexpert and sign up to their weekly newsletter. If you haven't been in the moneysaving mindset before, you can make your money go so much further and it just becomes second nature after a while.

The apple juice can stay, but just a bottle, not masses.

I wonder if your dh would bother asking for advice on his shop. Can't he work all this out for himself??

I'm sorry but you lost me at organic pressed apple juice. Is he a child? My dh manages to shop on a budget quite successfully, because he has to. We aren't playing at it.

We still eat just as well, maybe better. But I do a heck of a lot of vegetable peeling and chopping, chicken deboning, breading my own chicken nuggets, making stews, soups, everything from scratch. Then washing up pans chopping boards bowls etc. Home made lasagne is lkvely but a lot of effort.

Yes, it's called cooking. Honestly, is shopping on a 'budget' and cooking really this hard?!

OP the money is being spent on "superior quality" and "ease of cooking" so unless you are prepared to cook at all more or are content going down a notch on the standard of food and drink, you aren't going to succeed.

Organic pressed apple juice hand squeezed by blind nuns is for when hosting visitors, not every day. Surely own brand standard apple juice will do the job day to day?

Some cooking is a complete faff. I never make lasagne, too many pots! Let alone home made nuggets. Spag bol, roasts, curries, sausages and Mac cheese are all easy.

I think if my dh ever bought dishwasher tablets at full price I'd LTB.

How is a lasagne any more pots than a bolognaise?

Nap - of course it is

Bolognese - pan for meat sauce, pan for pasta.

Lasagne - pan for meat sauce, pan for white sauce, oven dish. Extra utensils from white sauce whisking. Takes longer as have to add in oven after making bolognese sauce instead of just eating.

£8 for a ready meal chilli?

Crikey, I could make a chilli to feed 10+ people for that!

We are two adults and a 17 year old. Don't stint at all - plenty of steak, salmon, perhaps a bottle of wine and 8 beers and spend about £120-£150, including a bunch of modest flowers. When DS is home from uni £180-£200. So, yes, I think your bill is ott.

Hope your dh's nails looked nice

There are short cuts when cooking that can make it easier so you don't have to do all the time consuming fiddly work every day.

Most of our food is cooked from scratch but I don't cook everyday. If I make bolognaise sauce, we have some as spaghetti bolognaise, but then I will freeze some and use that to make lasagne at a later date.

Or make a big pan of chilli and freeze some for later or make into something like enchiladas (mix chilli and rice and wrap in tortillas, pour over tomato sauce and top with cheese.

Big roast and have some as roast dinner and then leftovers cold with packet cous cous, chips, salad, potato wedges or whatever.

• plus Lasagne dish with melted cheese stuck to edges is really, really horrible to clean.

luckily my kids don't like it

This thread is a bit depressing.

Just posting to say Mary Berrys mexican tortilla bake is like lasagne but much less faff.

Noooo. That's too much! Are you sure he's not in the bookies every night or has another family to feed? Or, more charitably, maybe he's dropping half of it off at a food bank.

You can still do Ocado and bring it in without feeling like you're missing out for about half of what he's spending. No need to eat spam fritters every night ( hmm spam...)

If you can afford it then all well and good, it up to you what you spend your money on.

I think the issue here is that you both know you could do it cheaper elsewhere, but don't want to.