Cannot BELIEVE the amount we used to spend [waste]

[BettySpaghettiOnAJetty]

just done my sainsburys run and due to our income dropping substantially, like a lot of peoples, have done weekly shop for £40, saving even more than i did last week!

In the old days our shopping bill used to be £100 plus a week and there are only three of us. I am finding this quite obscene, I cannot imagine how we used to spend all that money.

We eat well, meat most days, don't buy ready meals and have gone down to the basics range, which is no different.

How can I save even more? This is beginning to become a massive challenge for me which I am relishing!!

I've just bought a breadmaker today and my first loaf is baking Am so looking forward to it

Would love to join this thread and collect any tips that you may have

I have a breadmaker also which is currently gathering dust because I just couldn't get the recipe right. It was a Tesco one if that makes any difference

We spend quite a bit op, pretty much like you used to but I'm hoping to bring it down lots

Ok so where do I start

yep me too,shopping tomorrow where do i begin?

We only buy frozen veg unless I'm making something la-di-da. Saved us loads!

Try shopping at Aldi/Lidl.

Meal planning doesn't save me much, because it doesn't take into accounts special, etc. Unless I have a day or two which is "whatever meat is on special + vegies", so to speak, which does work. So yes to meal planning, but with a bit of flexibility so you don't end up buying expensive ingredients over bargain ones just because you're sticking rigidly to the plan.

This week I insisted on going shopping without DH and saved more than a third off our usual bill, and it's just a mindset thing about what we 'need' in reserve at all times. He'll not drink water, just squash, and over the years has scaled up to posh squash, and he'll buy loads so he's always got some, and then of course drinks it more freely because there's loads there. I buy one bottle, if he finishes it in three days tough. Likewise sparkling water (supermarket brand, but still, come on, sparkling fecking water is not a necessity), etc.

Two vegetarian recipes a week. I did have a 'one bought loaf and the rest made' rule but I find that I can't always get bread flour, just the pre-mixes, and those often work out more expensive than cheap loaves - so I buy one nice loaf and then it's the cheapie stuff.

DH also insists on having exactly the right cleaning product for every task - so kitchen spray, bathroom spray, floor cleaner, wooden floor cleaner, floor polish, upholstery cleaner, fabric cleaner, carpet shampoo...I'm more of a 'chuck some baking soda and vinegar at the problem' sort of person, which does for almost every single cleaning task.

I find I don't meal plan because I do the reduced bit first and see what I can get on offer before I do the rest of the shopping.

I was in on Friday night and I got soup veg for 10p

Often I get chicken legs and thighs or mince. Best times for my Tesco are late evening, and around 9.30am but I think each store is different

Just done my first ever sainsburies shop and was quite impressed. I just typed in "basics" and chose most of my shopping from there. I thought I'd give most things a go and then upgrade anything I didn't quite like but I've heard good things about their basics range.

Gosh I'm impressed. It is seriously cheap! Just hope I'm not disappointed when it arrives....

I think I ought to make more soup, more bread (my breadmaker bread seems to taste too stoddgy) and more veggie recipes...

big fan of Lidl.

breakfast cereal half price of normal (own brand)

cheaper and better cold meats (for lunchboxes)

juice, bics, choc cheaper

no alcohol

oh i love basics from sainsbos

boo hiss to anyone who says "oh it is not as good" OF COURSE it is

i menu plan like an utter geek, it is such a stress fractioner (i would say halver, but i am sure it is by more than half that the stress is cut )

my breadmaker is crap though, i follow the instructions to the letter and still end up with polystyrene

so i just keep it for kneading pizza dough

around 1pm on a tuesday bully for bargains here in sainsbos

vair strange IMO but never mind

Some good tips here lOving the frozen veg one that will definitely keep our costs down

I can't avoid buying cereal with two under four but do buy store own brand

Same with juice-DP always wants juice I would really eager fo without

I don't want to reduce our fruit consumption but I do compromise so most of our fruit is apples satsumas bananas and anything on special as opposed to raspberries blueberries etc

A big problem in our house is DP-he has such huge meals (just soup for dinner would never be enough for him) and he is mr carnivore extraordinare but I am going to try to change this

With regard to meal planning I def do to some extent but on a one or two day basis-would rather this be over a week if you know what I mean-what meal planner so you use? The one from money saving expert?

*rather go

I meal plan, but haven't stuck to it recently (stooopid pregnancy).

LaTook, if your kids are smoothie fans we buy bananas & frozen berry mix (normally around £1.30 in each supermarket) to make them. Aside from that we only buy fruit on special offer.

I have a look on mysupermarket.com (sorry useless at doing hyperlinks), for deals in the area as we've got a Sainsbo/Tesco/Asda nearby.
I rave about it alot, but if anyone here can apply for a Costco card & hasn't, it's really worth the £30per year fee!

We've got our shopping for the week (family of 4 ) down to under £50 .

We do the main bulk of our shopping in Aldi- by now I've got to know whats cheaper in there, and whats good and whats not.

We get all our meat from our local butcher, apart from a whole chicken which we get from Aldi (free range). 3 of the butchers chicken breast will feed 4 of us , if diced/sliced etc, as they are a lot larger and meatier than supermarket ones.

If we need any Italian type foodstuffs eg Risottto rice, olive oil, I buy it from our local Italian Deli, as they are far cheaper than the supermarkets.

Generally it's only items like bread, crisps and capri suns(for dcs lunchboxes) that I can't get in Aldi's so we get them from Farmfoods. They do 2 loaves of Hovis for £1.50, a large box of capri suns are £2.50, and a box of 36 walkers crisps is £3.50. There ice cream is great too.

I meal plan each week , and cook from scratch. If I get time on the weekend I also do some baking eg cookies for lunchboxes etc.

Shopping is all done either Friday eve/Sat morning and done all at once, then all I have to get during the week is milk and fresh bread, which I get from Farmfoods on the school run.

I am intrigued!!!!

Tell me how you can feed a family of 4 for £50 a week (whilst not eating horrid food!)

I have a few allergies but I dont buy specific food instead (like gluten free or lactose free) I now buy UHT carton milk in packs of 6 (can save up to half on fresh milk and you never run out!) and carton apple juice instead of freshly squeezed.

I do buy frsh fruit and veg though (some frozen veg is just plain nasty!) but am trying to cut it down.

I try not to buy ready meals, but my dh and ds1 like pizzas so I get those and garlic bread each week. Also buy ice cream for dh and dc.

I also buy jars of pasta sauce...have tried making my own...they dont like it!!!!

Dont really buy alcohol (maybe the odd bottle of wine and cider) Get squash for ds2 and dh.

Do spend ALOT on cleaning stuff though got a steam mop for my wood floors so that doesnt cost anything now and they are REALLY clean! dh and ds1 have asthma so I use the "Method" range of cleaners, but they're not cheap!!

I buy supermarket own brand washing powder, softner and dishwasher tabs.
I also buy own brand washing up liquid. ditto K roll and loo rolls.

Ditto nappies, wipes and nappy sacks.

I get so fed up with my bill each week...I dont think I am wasteful or profligate but each month I easily spend £500 which is mad, even taking into acccount the VAT increase.

aaaarrgh

On bread machines We actually bought a new breadmaker in April. We had an old morphy richards job from about 8 years ago and we never used it because the bread tasted awful.

But we now have a panasonic sd57 which was £100 when on offer in Argos. I tweaked a recipe slightly so instead of using wholemeal flour I use a seeded flour from Sainsbury's taste the difference range and I add 5 different seeds as per the recipe. Worked it out that even with the electricity to mix and bake it it is around 50p per loaf. It tastes like a bakery bought one.

We also use it for bread roll dough and pizza dough. I haven't bought any bread since we got the bread machine.

I meal plan so I don't waste food, so tonight is salmon with baby potatoes, sugar snap peas, sweetcorn and broccoli. Remaining peas, sweetcorn etc then go into a stir fry on Wednesday.

I second the Costco card, if you have one near you and can get one. We shop there every week and buy milk which is cheaper than the supermarket by a good 30p for a 6 pint. We get fresh veg from there but as it comes in large packs, we eat what we can and roast the rest, then freeze it.

Makro also do massive bags of frozen veg if you have room.

Beca try Aldi's cleaning products they are really good and most of them have received Good Housekeeping's awards.

I use their laundry liquid and have no complaints, I used to use Asda's own brand but it wasn't great on some marks , and Aldi's is a lot cheaper.

I use stardrops to clean my kitchen/bathroom/anything wipeable- you only need a drop and it lasts for ages and it's under £1 a bottle. I have a bissell carpet washer and use a drop of that and white vinegar diluted in warm water to clean my carpets- it actually keeps my carpets cleaner longer than the bissell shampoo.

Fruit and veg is Aldi's is great and a lot cheaper (most of it too) my Dc's love fresh fruit and I buy cherries, strawberries and blueberrys in my £50 shopping whilst they are in season.

If you'd asked me I would have sworn that this was a revived old thread from 2008.

Until very recentely we were spending around £80 per week for the 4 of us and a dog. This week I decided to go through my freezer and store cuboard and try and use as much as we can of what we already have. I Shopped a Aldi this week and got everything that we need for £23 . I must add I did meal plan and we are having about 3 veggie nights this week. I expect next week to be under £50 still even though we will need a big shop. For us meal planning and sticking to a list when shopping is what works, now I hope we can keep it up.