To ask how you've lowered your food shop?

[coffeecoffeecofffee]

Recently come under a crap time, can't work due to chronic health condition, lost our UC payment each month of £400 as my partner now earns above the threshold (but still doesn't take home much due to debt he has unfortunately) & had my PIP review recently (I used to get £430pm) and may have that reduced/taken away completely.

I'm trying to think of ways to reduce my outgoings and have decided to reduce my food budget to £25pw. (used to have £35pw)

My partner and I buy our things separately but share the cost of regular household bits, cleaning and usually salad! We both eat two completely different diets, me vegan & him a meat eater. So about £6 per week of each of our budgets goes towards cleaning & toiletries.

Left with £19 for food for the week.

I already buy a lot of frozen veg and the only fresh produce I buy are apples (whatever's cheapest), strawberries or blueberries, tomatoes, salad (spinach, kale & rocket), avocados& sweet potato.

I usually buy 1 dairy free milk (£1.40) which lasts me most of the week as I don't eat breakfast every day.

I eat a lot of wholewheat pasta w/ no added sugar pasta sauces (tomato based & pesto) as it goes a long way, no added sugar & is cheap and delicious as well as healthy as I don't eat a tonne!

I also buy a bag of plain frozen fish for the week at £3.30 for 5 fillets.

I tend to find the fresh stuff & toiletries like body wash take up most of my budget, I've tried shopping at my local Lidl and Aldi but the fresh produce is often going off when I'm in there! Let alone getting it home, hence I find Morrisons/Asda/Tesco better for that.

Anyone got any smart ways to reduce/meal plan for a vegan? I don't like beans, lentils etc so that's annoying as I know they're really cheap!

Frozen stuff
Pasta

So cheap meals for me would look like
Chicken and pasta (£2)
Kiev's/fish and chips (3.50)
Macaroni cheese (£3)
Tomato pasta with sprinkle cheese (£3)
Tuna pasta (£3)

Never seen the point of disposable wipes for kitchen side etc. Buy a pack of J-cloths and chuck them in the wash, or cut up old worn out clothing, towels etc to use as cleaning rags. That plus warm water from the tap (just as hot as you can stand) is just as good as a wipe, you can add a squirt of spray if you think you need something extra. I put them in a normal 40 degree wash with our clothes. Best to replace fabric softener with half a cup of white vinegar, though, when washing this kind of cloth.

Cheap loo roll is a false economy, buy nicer loo roll but use less. Foldng rather than scrunching is more efficient and kinder to your drains.

For the cleaning bits you do need look up amazon subscribe + save to see if it's any cheaper.

Another one confused at the whole vegan eating fish thing? Not meat free then...

Also I have to take my hat off to all of you managing to spend under £50 a week on shopping. We budget for £100 a week and theres only 3 of us

Keep your spray bottle from your spray cleaner when it's used up.
But a bottle of disinfectant from Tesco for about 90p, just the cheapy value brand will do. then use that to make up your spray with water. That will last a long time (months!)

Stop with the disinfectant wipes - waste of money, use the homemade spray and either microfibre clothes, or kitchen roll if you insist.

Stop buying strawberries and blueberries, they're too expensive. That's about £4 wiped out, if not more.

stop buying prepacked salad mixes - again too expensive. Get a whole lettuce and maybe a bag of spinach or kale to spruce it up a bit.

I use an app called Shopmium (pm me if you want a referral code), they have different offers each week; sometimes you get items for free, sometimes 50% off etc. I tend to only go for the free ones. You buy the item, then take a pic of the receipt and upload it. If it's an item I definitely won't use I'll pop it in the foodbank box instead.

stop buying avocadoes - too expensive, or look at frozen avocados.

@Dvg not giving up the avos or berries. I don't drink & I don't smoke so those are the 'expensive things' I enjoy each week. Plus the avos are only 89p each & I can get a punnet of strawberries to last 3 days for only £1 usually.

I've tried loads of dairy free milks and have liked none aside from the one I get. So I can't change that annoyingly. It's sometimes on sale for £1 though.

ReusAble cloths and an all purpose cleaner will be much cheaper (and better for the environment) than wipes. You should also consider flannels / handkerchieves if you use a lot of tissues (when you don't have the lurgy).

Food wise if you don't like beans or lentils, what do you do for protein if you're a vegan? have you tried cooking them in different ways e.g. Dahl and rice is cheap and tasty, and doesn't really taste like lentils!

@donajimena usually 40-60 wipes in a pack. We use them for kitchen surfaces after cooking, bathroom & in the car too when things get spilt.

I find hot water, soap and a cloth is more effort plus never seems as clean to me.

Lidl are starting to do special boxes of veg, hopefully my local one will be included. The Too Good to Waste boxes will contain around 5kg of fruit and vegetable produce that are still fine to eat, for just £1.50.

Check out the Astonish cleaning range. Only 99p and vegan friendly. Fantastic quality and do about every cleaning product you can think of. You can get them in the cheaper shops, such as B&M, Homebargains, etc.

Make your own washable kitchen rolls. m.youtube.com/watch?v=z7LP7AX6czQ You can use scraps from any clothes you’re disposing of.

I am not going to comment on food cost because my own is abysmal, but the £12 a week on cleaning products and toiletries?
That's a lot.
It might be worth it for you to invest and buy proper concentrated cleaner you can afterwards waterdown in a spray.
Something like on a picture. It dilutes 1:20 and for home you can happily do 1:15. Will last you for ever and ever.

Blue roll instead of wipes. Again. Will last you for ever.

You are buying pricy toilet roll. And what's even more shocking is that you say it's not a good quality.

Basically pop into your local nisbets shop if you have one🙈 It's worth it.

YABU for saying Avos do you make 'guac' with them?

Comes on to ask for tips to lower food shop and refuses to actually take on any advice.

Also refusing to answer why you're calling yourself a vegan but eating fish!!

Most annoying post ever 😂

@00100001 I've never thought about it tbf but a previous poster pointed out it could be thin crap stuff and it actually is really thin so I think we use more due to that. I'm going to get a better quality one from now. We also don't buy kitchen roll so use loo roll to wipe up spills/puppy accidents etc.

@donajimena Yes I did, thank you.

@longtimelurkerhelen No garden unfortunately but I've always wanted to grow my own things! Especially green beans 😋😋

We are actually home all day to be fair, my partner works from home & I'm home too as I'm not working at the moment and often have days where I'm in bed due to my chronic illness. That might be why we get through a lot of loo roll?

Nope - my partner and I both work from home too and don't use anywhere like this amount of loo roll. I actually didn't comment on it at first because I thought I'd misread the post and you meant per month...

Strawberries and blueberries are expensive - especially out of season. These are always the first things to go from our food shop if we're going through a skint phase.

@00100001 I can go more than 4 times sometimes? Especially when I drink a lot of water or coffee. We are home all day too so that adds into it.

coffeecoffeecofffee, if you have a homebargains near you, they’re brilliant value for really good quality toilet roll and stock the astonish range.

ok, so how many times day do you go?

let;s say 8 times, that's still 20 sheets per visit!!

Honestly - there is plenty to cut down here, but if you won't then there's not much to be done.

Yeah we don't buy loads of cleaning products (just surface spray, wipes for the bathroom/kitchen & bleach

Bathroom and kitchen cleaning wipes are expensive and wasteful. Just stick to a cloth and an all purpose antibacterial cleaning spray.

Use a bar of soap in place of shower gel and bath foam. Make sure it stays away from running water when you are not actually using it as that erodes it too quickly.

You loo roll use is absolutely ridiculous. This surprises me particularly because, as a vegan, I'd have thought you'd be more mindful of the environment.

But Aldi's dupe of Fairy Liquid. It's just as good and you only need a tiny bit so a bottle lasts ages. Cheap washing up liquid is a completely false economy.

Berries have a really short shelf life and are expensive. Buy bags/tubs of frozen berries.

Persevere with the beans and lentils and eat porridge - it takes time to learn how to cook and season pulses properly but they are the best things for cheap, delicious, nutritious protein packed healthy meals. We eat loads and we aren't even veggie, never mind vegan. As a vegan you need that protein. It's the cheapest, most natural source you will find.

I do buy frozen fish, I think that was in my OP.. Yes and you've been asked a couple of times - is it for you or your partner? You said you eat different diets and only share expenses on salad and cleaning stuff.

It wasn't really the best time to get a puppy but I suppose it's a bit late for that now.