Not enough money for groceries ?

[Cupcakejamlover]

Since having a baby i’m a stay at home mum so we are only relying on my husbands income which is getting a bit tough. (I dont even receive maternity pay). Because of our situation, Dh has set a monthly budget of £300 for groceries. This includes all food, drinks, desert, cleaning equipment, sanitary items, baby wipes etc. To give a little back story: its just me, my husband and 6 month old baby at home who is breastfed so only needs nappies and the odd item from the grocery store and minimal food as we are introducing solids now.
We have implemented this budget a few months ago however i fail to stick to it every single month… i always end up going £30-£40 above, and thats TRYING not to.. now i’m wondering is this an unreasonable amount for a couple with baby? Or am i just not planning/ budgeting correctly? Does anyone have any tips as to how to budget? We live near a large sainsburys so tend to do all our shopping there except meat/chicken.
How much do you spend if you are in similar circumstances?

Yes its doable but not whilst shopping at Sainsburys and not if you lime a lot of "nice" things, or wine or meat.

It's worth looking at your other outgoings though. No use you scrimping and saving to save £1 here and there if your dh goes down the pub once a week to spend £30, or has a taste for fine wines.

This could be a 750g pack of extra lean mince which will feed us 3 meals in a bolognase or similar,

@WombatChocolate I am interested in how you get a pack of mince to do 3 meals for 4 people?! I might get one meal for 3 of us plus one or two meals leftover.

Saying that though, none of us like to eat the same things in a row so it wouldn't work for us!

£300 is plenty for 2 people and a baby, we manage it (me and 2 teens), I shop mainly in Aldi and Tesco, we don’t eat a huge amount of meat and we do grow some of our own veg. I spend between £60-£70 a week.

@wombatchocolate your numbers IME aren't accurate. 8 pints of milk = £2, large block of cheese = £3/4 the extra cheese would be at least another pound... That's just an example. The other thing is that you seem to eat what I'd call "filler meals" . Also bacon with stir fry??

That was our budget when I first became a SAHM and had an EBF baby. We used mostly Aldi and Lidl. It’s more like £370 now but we have a 4yo and 2yo. We have ‘moved up’ to using Asda now too. Would never do a full shop in Sainsbury’s! But these are the kind of sacrifices you (in my case happily) make so that you can stay at home with the kids, in my experience.

@Phrowzunn there was some shopping research done recently and apparently Asda was the cheaper supermarket for a basket of goods.

750g of mince (lean with only 5%fat) cooked with 2/3 punnet of mushrooms, 3 -r carrots, 2 peppers and a litre of tomato passatta plus herbs, spices, garlic and leek/onion makes enough bolognase for 12 portions - thats 250g of meat to feed 4.

Those are generous portions of sauce to go with pasta, or to be made into a lasagne.

There’s no need to eat it multiple days. We probably eat one portion, freeze one for another week and then have it in fridge and perhaps eat it again 2 or 3 days later.

I think many people spend more because they eat very large meat portions.

It's not a generous amount, but adequate if you cook from scratch sadly most of us don't these days. Its not easy with a baby to find the energy to do all that chopping and peeling and constantly checking the oven whilst breastfeeding - but if needs must - - -
Can DH make savings elsewhere? Do you have Sky for example - Freesat/Freeview are acceptable even if he can't get live football.
Does he have a top of the range phone costing megabucks a month?
Those two items aren't taken into account by a lot of blokes when they're looking to cut household costs (no its the 'little woman's luxuries' that get cut back).
And does he take sandwiches or eat at a canteen (works canteens may be subsidised but the often turn out quite expensive). Its not just you who needs to 'budget'. Does he have a 'night out with the boy's?
If you're able to stay at home all day, try Tesco online deliveries (never Sainsbury's, sorry its a lovely store but not for people on a budget) where you can choose a 4hr delivery slot for £1.50 which is less than it's cost you to get the car out, and you know exactly what you've spent.
But don't beat yourself up about not sticking to your budget - you're falling into the same trap as I did - thinking that because he earns the actual cash he calls the shots. No, no - your job is worth more than his, mothering your baby is far too important than that.

I wouldn't go to Sainsbury's. I went there this week as it's closer and I was feeling lazy! Cost me £40 more than my usual average and the only extras I got were paper cups and plates for Halloween.

I usually go to Aldi or online Asda order.

There's 5 of us and my weekly budget is £100 plus a few extras in the week of about £20. I meal plan while I'm shopping depending on what offers are on.

Can be done easily in Aldi

If you can, try Home Bargains for cleaning, household, toiletries etc - big savings compared to Sainsburys.

Terrible - the milk is £2.20.The cheese is £2 for a large block of extra mature cheddar in Tesco. The extra cheese will be about £1-1.50.

Sorry, not sure what you mean by ‘filler’ meals.

We do eat a bacon stir fry - lots of standard stir fry veg, with bacon added and oerhaos sweet chilli sauce with noddles or rice.

It's low, and if that's because you're in debt, you need professional advice, because if you go onto a debt management plan or similar, you'll be allowed quite a bit more than £300 pm for groceries, maybe £4-500 pm and debt repayments are made after you've paid your normal basic expenses.

@BarbaraofSeville

It's low, and if that's because you're in debt, you need professional advice, because if you go onto a debt management plan or similar, you'll be allowed quite a bit more than £300 pm for groceries, maybe £4-500 pm and debt repayments are made after you've paid your normal basic expenses.

It's because they're currently surviving on one income

@WombatChocolate that looks about right for us too. I feel like people must eat salmon/steak multiple times a week here

It's definitely doable, just not at Sainsburys. I think you need to start using Aldi, Lidl and Asda instead.

@wombat that's not a large block of cheese, that'd a medium size one! (345g thereabouts). Also the advised meat portion is of 70g of cooked meat. Your current portion sizes (according to your example) are of 62.5g of uncooked meat. And no, I've never had bacon with stir fries. Duck, pork, chicken, beef but never have had one with bacon! I do add bacon to my fajitas though.

@RedMarauder cheaper than Aldi and Lidl? That’s good to know in case I’m ever tempted to go back! I use the term ‘moved up’ with my tongue firmly in my cheek. I do prefer that you can get it delivered or click/collect, that’s a huge plus over Aldi/Lidl.

It's possible. You might need to move to cheaper nappies.
And meal plan, cooking simple things from scratch, to keep costs down.

Things which I think can help people spend less, apart from changing supermarket include;

• really limiting top-up shops
• no nipping out for random items you just fancy
• cooking with an amount if portions in mind. Then dishing up portions or having a serving dish with the required number of portions and a bit extra for anyone who wants a bit more. Doing this instead of putting out a pan which has 8 portions, when 4 sit down (and Hopi g there will be enough for tomorrow) usually results in people eating far more than they need and there isn’t enough for next day, although there was plenty of food for 2 days. I don’t see this as being about being tight or restricting people or leaving them hungry…it’s a way for our family to also help ourselves not eat the overly large portions we had got used to and which weren’t doing us any good. It’s absolutely not about leaving people hungry.
• making sure the family know which food is ‘help yourself anytime’ and which is there for meals and needs to still be in the fridge when it comes to meal prep - ie so you don’t find the pack of sausages needed for dinner are still there and not all eaten by teenager, but instead the teenager has known to eat the apples and biscuits or bread instead.

It's doable if you cook everything from scratch and shop somewhere like Aldi for the bulk of the basics.

I don't think £300 for 2 adults and nappies is tight at all...

OP could you post mealplans or receipts so we can see if we can help?

there is something about the tone of your OP that makes me nervous - is £300 genuinely want you can afford or is it an arbitrary number set by your DH?

If it really is necessary for you as a family, I think you probably can get it down a bit as per the suggestions above. I also found when things were really tight, if I just really thought about making a couple of meals the were super cheap, that had a knock on effect. eg we went through a phase of a baked beans-based meal at least once weekly, and stews at least weekly as I could buy cheap ingredients and make them go far.

What sort of things are you cooking /eating?

Someone has mentioned the extra effort you will expend in chopping and cooking whilst breastfeeding.
Personally I think that is relevant.
I remember having to eat once an hour myself so that I could do breastfeeding. And I still lost weight...

Would go with the suggestions to change supermarkets:
There are at least two things which would bother me about your budget.

Since covid started I have tried to put some things by in case we have an emergency and run out of something. I'm not talking stockpiling, just looking at the prices and when there is a special offer buying a bit more and storing it.

Not only does this provide a sense of security in case you are ill, heaven forbid, but it is amazing the number of times we have run out of something and not needed to go to the shops as we have it in the store.

Generally now I aim to have two of everything in, aside from fresh fruit and veg of course.

Aside from that, I would be concerned at DH setting the budget and it not being a joint budget. If he never does the shopping he is likely to be out of touch.

Try using Quidco for cashback on everything you buy or similar.

Through Quidco there is a company called Approved Foods which features products where the box is damaged and so on but products are within date.

Fourty pounds delivery only 1.99 delivery charge I think.

Baby stuff on there.
Basically it is a company which takes boxes etc of stuff that bigger supermarkets get ridof
I've personally had some really nice things on there.

Also try mixing veggie mince or generally veg with bolonaise etc.

Sticking to the budget you have got is a lot of work I find to set it up.

and you are already 'working' looking after two kids, bless you.

Perhaps when you want a holiday you could ask your DH to do the shopping within that budget for two weeks. I expect he wouldn't be able to manage it.