Food Costs!

kissme

Gold Member
Hi people, I never have had a problem spending money :D but recently food shopping seems to be going through the roof.

I have just done 1 weeks worth of food shopping and I have planned my next 2 weeks food. I know that I will need to pick up some more fruit and veg next weekend and my food bill was still £100! Im having real trouble fidning lower cost meals that my OH will eat as he is very picky!

heres is what I bought, I know some of it will last longer than 2 weeks (pasta, beans cupboard stuff0 and other stuff wont last the week (fruit veggies)

I have put what I have just bought, now i know there are other bits in the such as bin bags and toilet roll's cos a lady has to wipe.

I would love some lower cost ideas and how do you keep your shopping prices low?? I dont drive so it has to be home delivered and i have acess to asda tesco and sainsburys but i cant go to them for diff things as i would pay a fourtune in delivery!! please help!!!!

1Andrex Fresh Moistened Toilet Tissue Sheets Refill£1.00
1Andrex Fresh Moistened Toilet Tissue Tub Wipes£1.92
1ASDA 20 Drawstring 30L Tall Kitchen Bin Liners£2.00
3ASDA Baby Plum Tomatoes£3.00
3ASDA Back bacon - smoked£5.00
1ASDA Baking potatoes£1.87
1ASDA Bread mix - wholemeal£0.65
1ASDA British Iceberg Lettuce£0.97
3ASDA Cheesy curls- cheese£3.00
1ASDA Freshly Frozen Fine Whole Beans£1.021
ASDA Fusilli pasta£3.00
3ASDA Garden Gang Orange Wedges£1.00
1ASDA Green Seedless Grapes - punnet£1.50
1ASDA Kitchen foil - thick£1.55
2ASDA Lamb mince£5.00
3ASDA Large Pineapple£3.00
1ASDA New potatoes£1.37
1ASDA Red grapes - punnet£1.50
2ASDA Round lettuce£1.14
2ASDA Shades Power Towels£2.50
1ASDA Shades White Toilet Rolls£7.81
1ASDA Smartprice Bananas£1.42
2ASDA Smartprice Chicken breast - fillets£7.48
3ASDA Smartprice Cottage cheese - low fat£1.38
1ASDA Smartprice Mushrooms£0.87
1ASDA Whole black peppercorns£1.22
2ASDA Whole cucumber£1.52
2Baco Zip 'n' Seal Resealable Sandwich Bags£2.00
5Batchelors Pasta 'n' sauce - cheese and ham£2.00
4Bernard Matthews Wafer Thin Turkey Ham£4.00
2Cadbury Curly Wurly£1.94
2Coca Cola Coke Zero£8.00
2Colman's Casserole sauce - shepherds pie£1.24
1Colman's Chicken casserole£0.62
1Colman's Chilli con carne dry mix£0.62
1Colman's Pour over sauce - Cheddar cheese£0.42
2Heinz Baked beans - original£4.00
2Inspire Peeled Maris Piper Potatoes£1.00
2Kerry LowLow Freshly Grated Mature Cheese£2.00
2Quark soft cheese£1.40
2Stonegate Farmers Free Range eggs - mixed weight£3.84
1The Laughing Cow Light Cheese Spread Triangles£1.63
1Weetabix Oaty Bars - Chocolate£1.37
 
Hi there! I'm also finding the same thing - having loads of perishables is costing the earth! :( I need to try to do SW more cheaply, as I really can't afford to be spending about 70-100 quid a week, especially as it's just me, eeeeks!! Though I have had some utensils/pans/dishes to buy recently, but not a huge amount! :( Sorry to hijack but I would also appreciate any tips! I haven't really got any freezer space, so frozen veg etc isn't an option!

Sian xx
 
Hello!

A suggestion would be that you get your fruit and veg from a market stall/farmer/local produce supplier, just as supermarket veg and fruit does cost more. The veg from these places might not look as good, but it will taste amazing, and you will get a much better price. Try this link to find your local farm shop - and then ask if they deliver??

Farmshopping.net - Farm Shops, local, fresh & organic foods from the farm in the UK

just click the map, enter your postcode and away you go!

The next thing is to budget, choose supermarket own name brands - you have got Heinz beans, Coke zero, Low Low cheese (also you had grated which tends to be more expensive than block!) etc, if you cant sacrifice them all (panda pop is nasty i know) maybe just choose one or two a week.....!!!

Your non foods come to about £20 too - which reduces the actual food spend by a 5th anyways!

I think for 2 people the average is about £50 for a week (i spend just over this value) so dont worry too much! x

Also Waitrose and Ocado do free delivery - so check if they deliver to your area as they are fabulous and substitute in your favour (unlike Sainsburys!!!)

x
 
Hello!

A suggestion would be that you get your fruit and veg from a market stall/farmer/local produce supplier, just as supermarket veg and fruit does cost more. The veg from these places might not look as good, but it will taste amazing, and you will get a much better price. Try this link to find your local farm shop - and then ask if they deliver??

Farmshopping.net - Farm Shops, local, fresh & organic foods from the farm in the UK

just click the map, enter your postcode and away you go!

The next thing is to budget, choose supermarket own name brands - you have got Heinz beans, Coke zero, Low Low cheese (also you had grated which tends to be more expensive than block!) etc, if you cant sacrifice them all (panda pop is nasty i know) maybe just choose one or two a week.....!!!

Your non foods come to about £20 too - which reduces the actual food spend by a 5th anyways!

I think for 2 people the average is about £50 for a week (i spend just over this value) so dont worry too much! x

Also Waitrose and Ocado do free delivery - so check if they deliver to your area as they are fabulous and substitute in your favour (unlike Sainsburys!!!)

x

Well ocado don t deliver to me and the waitrose we have is only tiny and only stock expensive things to stop tramps and kids buying cheap food and booze try to keep the riff raff out lol!
i only like brand name coke :( heinz beans worked out cheaper than asda own brand and the smartprice ones are imo nasty lol low low cheese was only £1 for the packs of grated which is the same as the 200g block :) hence why i bought it lol and i live in devon but the only farm shops we have near by are riverford or are miles and miles away and wont deliver iv tried. i think it mainly because i have bought 2 weeks worth in one go hence why i keep thinkin its so expensive
 
same here :( ive even considered quitting due to price of food! im too spending that amount sometimes only lasts few days ie salad n some fruit :( i cant afford spend that amount at all
 
we havent been shopping since starting SW but we are spending 10-15 a day!!! ok some stuff is lasting longer (spices, and yogurts) but in 3 weeks we havent had a shop under 10! we never buy named brands, we dont really buy treats either. im worried about how the bank balance is going to look at the end of the month :( its only for me my OH and our daughter (18 months)
 
I guess I should have said in my post that the biggest expenditure I've had has been stocking up on various tins, seasonings etc which I won't need to buy again for ages, but buying fresh fruit and veg does cost a lot, even when it's on offer. And if you're limited in freezer and fridge space and have to buy food more regularly it does work out more expensive. Probably once I've got more used to the SW plans I'll be able to shop a lot more cheaply.
 
I know! the thing with sw superfree foods are all salad/veg fruit and they cost alot...! my partner only working 1 in house so dont get much income :( wish there was another way :( considering doing calerie counting instead with £5 sw fee ad £100 shop per week just not managable!
 
I cant believe how expensive it all is! i live in a village and haven't got a car and dont fancy lugging it all on the bus! They should make it cheaper! xx
 
There is me and 5 teenagers in my house, I cook everything fresh for myself and for them if they are at home and the shopping for all of us is only around £75 per week, you just have to make sure you pick up the best deals. You can do sw cheaply and cook fresh food.
 
You should be able to cut back on £100 a week but it does take some effort and planning. If you look at the thread I linked to there are some really good ideas. As for fruit and veg, buying things that are in season will always be cheaper and many of the supermarkets have weekly deals where you can pick up things very inexpensively. In my experence it's not really the food itself that is expensive it's peoples shopping and cooking habits that make it so.
 
Thanks for all the advice :) I'm fairly new to this cooking for myself (tended to live on ready meals - not good!) so I think I prob just go a bit overboard with buying food. I haven't wasted anything yet, but then maybe I'm overeating and should be eating less. I don't know! :(
 
And to be fair, you can't blame it on sw, everyone should be eating a large quantity of fruit and veg, whether on sw or not. Also, I find it much cheaper to buy frozen veg and fruit.
 
I've found this too, was shocked when I looked at bank balance.:wave_cry:

I know there will be cheaper ways to do it and will look at that thread with interest. I'm thinking I'll have to stick with green days atleast til the end of the month and it's only the 9th....:8855:
 
try some of this price comparison business asda, tesco and morrisons keep faffing on about? and asda have this new thing where if you check your receipt online and find the same shop cheaper elsewhere, they refund you the difference - or something like that? it's worth a check :)

also, maybe as you've now bought some stuff that will last longer than two weeks, your bill will drop the next time you shop..
 
I always buy smartprice veggies and fruit. Our weekly shop (minus his booze and treats) is £53. we eat smartprice or own brand and frozen stuff when we can. We do always buy Coke Zero (3 bottles no less) and cravendale milk. I think it's looking around and trying the cheaper stuff. I actually prefer smartprice beans to Heinz but maybe I just have dodgy taste buds! LOL. We also only buy 2 meats a week- i.e. Mice and chops or chicken and mince... (oh and if we take out the price of the dog's dinners it would go down to about 45 a week)
 
We eat a lot more fresh food since joining SW, as a single mum I'm still adjusting to it B is 2years old, so including nappies and milk we are spending about £70 a week, that includes topping up on fruit during the week x
 
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