Budgeting

[Monica53]

Hi
I’m always looking at ways to cut grocery budget , do usual :audit freezer/cupboards , however for 2adults we still spend £500 a month on food ? not take outs ? Supermarket shop ? Have a separate account of grocery shop, though wanting to reduce to at least £60 per week ? We bulk buy laundry liquid and Toilet rolls - so only buy once every 2/3months . Thankyou

What sort of things are you eating? Are you purchasing ready meals and top end brands?

Slightly unclear - are you saying You spend 500 a month on food for 2 people with no eating out/ takeaway and not including many household goods like loo roll?

Alcohol ?

Dh has a spreadsheet so I know what we spend on meat , veg, cheese etc

We don't eat a lot of meat

Hi Thankyou for your reply, we don’t eat branded, never have. Eat a lot of fresh fruit though

Thankyou for your reply. This is for groceries only and I’ve the month 5bottles of wine (not hugely expensive) household bills are paid separately. We have 2 accounts 1- all utility bills-CT/gas electric etc , 2nd account for grocery shop . 😊

Going through the receipts is the only real way to work out where savings can be set be made

Fruit can be very expensive depending on the type

We make our own bread as we don't like the cheap kind and the expensive nice stuff is expensive

Having cucumber or carrot sticks instead of berries

Frozen veg cheaper than fresh and just as good for you

The other area to check is food waste / does something espnsive like meat make at least 2 meals

Watch brands

Meal plan and make sure there are lots of very cheap meals - eggs, chips and masses of homemade carrots and cabbage coleslaw is really cheap

What sort of meals do you have? And lots of fresh fruit , do you have things like while melons, apples and oranges or packets of things like chopped mango and melon?

2 adults here. We spend about £350 a month to include cleaning products, general toiletries and cat food. We need breakfasts, dinners and 1x lunch mostly as I get fed at work (during term time).

We meal plan, cook using the lower end versions of e.g. chopped tomatoes, and freeze leftovers to use in recipes the following week. We have a couple of cheep nights (baked potato and tuna; pizza with homemade dough) and buy big packs of e.g. chicken thighs, portion them up and freeze. We are quite strict in not buying too much, only what we need for the week to not waste anything, and try buy loose vegetables as much as possible, e.g. 3 carrots instead of a bag. Better for the environment too.

Fresh fruit is really expensive though. I’ve switched to frozen berries for my Greek yoghurt or porridge breakfasts which is a lot cheaper and works well.

I'd look at - swapping dome fresh fruit for veg, which is often cheaper. Frozen fruit, tinned and dried too. Only eating 1 or 2 expensive fruits a week, the rest get apples, oranges etc that are cheaper.

I'd also look at buying double 1 week, making for 4 and freezing half. Generally buying larger packs and cooking once is cheaper.

Use everything up once a month, so you have a 'no spend' week.

Try not to have massively different meals, so you don't need to buy loads if different ingredients.

Buy things that go a long way. For example ... Greek yogurt can be used for breakfast, making naan breads, tzatiki, in curry, as a marinade. I buy things with lots of flavour, jars of sundried tomatoes, parmesan etc so a little makes a big impact.

Learn to love scraps and use everything up. Soup,.salad,veg curries. Find Accounts that use kitchen 'waste' on Instagram, I follow one called.scrappy cooking, or similar.

Save any spare portions in the freezer for pitta/wrap night. Add salad, cheese, dips or sauces.

Obviously pulses are your friend. As are the fresh fruit and veg offers, frozen veg too.

Remember a jacket potato, or beans on toast, are a meal.

Try bulking out foods with beans and peas so make a chilli con carne sauce with two tins of value kidney beans or a curry with an extra can of chickpeas. Doubles your volume for a few extra pence.

It depends what meals you are eating. An example of our dinner plan for a week which is £40 for five people (three adult portions, two younger child portions) is as follows. I know that makes eight meals, but allowing for a separate meal for adults if we decide to not eat the same as the kids ie mac and cheese.

Chicken roast dinner with all the trimmings
Beef burritos, wedges and salad
Chicken fajitas, mexican rice and salad
Cheese and onion omlettes, chips and beans
Lasagne, garlic bread and salad
Philly cheese steak ciabatta, homemade potato salad and salad
Mac and cheese with homemade tomato soup
Prawn salad with chips

Add breakfast (cereals and toast) and packed lunch stuff including fruit (apples/bananas/grapes) it comes to around £60, It doesn't include non food items, or things like squash or coffee etc but you get the idea. Sauces all homemade

Other favourites include spaghetti bolognaise or meatballs and spaghetti, quiche, chicken pie, chicken/prawn curry with paratha, chow mein, chilli con carne, pizza using 00 flour which makes the dough so delicious, sweet and sour chicken balls and egg fried rice, stew, biryani. All cheap and cheerful, but as it's all homemade you have to weigh up your time to the cost benefit.

So you spend £125 a week on 2 adults

And want ideally to half it to £65

We spend £500 with 2 adults and 1 DS who is 9 months (this includes cleaning stuff and toiletries though). We’re vegan so don’t buy any expensive meat but do buy quite a lot of fresh fruit and vegetables for this.

we used to spend £60 a week before having baby but actually don’t buy that much more for him.. so think it’s just the col crisis unfortunately.

Ok just have frozen berries, bananas or apples or any other cheap fruit. Use cheaper veg. If you aren’t willing to sacrifice fancy fruit and veg you won’t see a difference in your bill

Ok that isn’t bad and is really useful advice actually for someone who’s struggling but it’s probably not that good for you

It’s not particularly bad for you if you add in fruit for snacks and maybe a veggie soup for lunch. Better than the beige freezer food aimed at lowering the food budget.

Where are you doing your weekly Shop? Sainsburys I am finding now is getting very expensive, a small shop for me now in there is about £50. If you have a Pound land near you try that, as I know now they do sell Freezer food. We lost our Iceland store in our town. and poundland put freezers in with different products. I have never used it myself. But this may help. I find Morrisons to be a bit cheaper. But I don't drive so I am only able to get to Morrisons when my dad takes it.

Porridge is a great, cheap breakfast.

Cheap suppers:

A good formula is to use half the amount of the protein think and stretch it with cheap carbs and veggies.

Eg:

Stuffed jacket potatoes with flaked smoked basa (stretch two basa fillets to feed four people), softened leeks and grated cheese. Salad on the side.

Savoury rice with any chopped up veg (onions, mushrooms, grated carrot), frozen peas and a few snipped up rashers of bacon

Tbh if you are looking for 60 a week for two it comes around less then £5 per day per person. It is not impossible but it is really not a big budget.
(Still remember student union making a big drama how some studnets have to survive on £5 or less per day,and it was in 2017!)

We shop online at asda, you can go to the recipes section, they have a budget section and it puts the ingredients in your basket... you take out anything you already have.

It's given some good meal ideas, had fish finger pie tonight which was tasty and cheap.

Guessing that's fish fingers with mash on top ?

Some of the supermarkets do 3x meat or fish for £10. If you base your meat dishes around that (some packs only serve two if you choose the more expensive options, but eg bacon or mince do multiple meals) and maybe have some meat free days per week (pesto pasta, veggie egg fried rice, or shakshuka go down well here) then that’s a good approach for dinners. Where we fall down tends to be snacks and lunches (me and ds17, we both eat or take all meals from home). Currently spending around £100 per week including cat food / most toiletries / most household.

It's difficult to know how to help you cut back, without knowing how you are managing to spend that much in the first place.

We are now back to two adults only, and don't spend anywhere near that much. That's not because we are short of money, but because our shopping just doesn't cost anywhere near that amount.

There are a few more ingredients but those are 2 of the main ones ngl

😂😂😂😂

It was actually really tasty - parsley sauce makes all the difference!