How much is your food bill?

[charlottegrace1]

My local lidl frequently puts out food they want to get rid of because it's at it's use by or best before date and you can help yourself. It's usually first thing in the morning when they open. I've picked up wholemeal bread, flowers, rolls, and occasionally meat and it's been completely free.

Where do they put it, by the door or round the back? My local co op puts all their stuff in the biffa bins at the back of the shop and I have seen them put in 50 loaves of hovis and warburtons bread, cakes and crumpets etc in the morning regularly, I know cos I work there lol. Nothing wrong with it, just out of date. They cann't get rid of meat in the bin, it has to be collected by a special waste product collector, darn it!

 

[Circes]

It's usually by the doors, where you can pack your shopping after going through the checkout. They've had loads of other stuff like sausages, coleslaw, bakery products but I look for the SW friendly things.

 

[Hayleyj123]

It's usually by the doors, where you can pack your shopping after going through the checkout. They've had loads of other stuff like sausages, coleslaw, bakery products but I look for the SW friendly things.

I had an image of you rummaging in the biffa bins

 

[Wendyuk]

I really must show this thread to my OH lol I can't believe how much you guys spend! He doesn't say much about how much I spend except 'well we've got to eat'! There's 4 of us (3 adult males) and my 19yr old is 6ft3 and at college doing snowboarding skiing ect so u can imagine what he packs away, skinny as a rake to grrrrrr. I shop online and spend between 150-200/month thats without the trips to the local co-op in between. You do miss out on the reduced stuff tho I should make more effort and visit tesco of a night. I noticed before I started doing SW my food bills had gone up, but they have also gone up because I do enjoy red days and meats quite expensive. I suppose thinking about it I should do more green and make veggie casseroles/chillies ect and I know my bill would go down.

 

[Cougar]

I've definitely noticed a big hike in prices. I used to shop for the four of us for about £40 a week. I now spend around £60 but still buy the same things!

 

[notenoughchocolate]

Gutted at how expensive staples such as wholeweat fusili etc are these days - a big bag from Sainsburys is around £1.60 now and about a year ago it was 99p. Between 2 of us it is around £80 per week. I tried to go £100 a month when we were super skint but it just wasn't possible, not when you factor in laundry powder and cleaning products and those sorts of things! Everything is getting more expensive, no doubt about that.

Instead of doing a big shop we buy as we go along to save wasting any food we can't eat - so I will make pack lunches out of leftovers that evening (but it is easier to do that with no kids I think).

 

[jaylou]

Gutted at how expensive staples such as wholeweat fusili etc are these days - a big bag from Sainsburys is around £1.60 now and about a year ago it was 99p.

You've got to do the "downshift challenge"!
I now buy the "discount brand" range from Tesco for pasta and it's about a pound for a 1kg bag. Same for rice, so much cheaper than the Tesco stuff.
Certain things like Kelloggs cereal I won't shift on but we've gone to Tesco beans (from Heinz), value tinned tomatoes (unless napolina are on offer!) and other things. I also save a lot by having it delivered. Okay, so you miss out on the reduced items but I always spend a fortune when I pop in for milk!!!

 

[evilpenguin]

We usually do a mid week shop which costs around £30 then another shop at the weekend to cover the weeks' meals which has cost me up to £80 in the past (I was probably buying lots of cleaning stuff that day!) Seems to work out around £60 - £70 in total a week though. I don't grudge it at all, when we went off plan back in the summertime and bought "normal" food, we spent the exact same amount and got far less for our money. There's only 2 of us btw! And we always go for the own brand version when we can and to save cash we only buy fresh meat if it's on offer then freeze it, or buy frozen stuff from Iceland, it all tastes the same once it's cooked. Lidl is good for veg if you need it that day, have bought veggies from there before and it's gone mouldy within a couple of days!

Is online shopping really that good?? I've been considering it! We much prefer Asda but I don't like driving out there, it's a bit far out for us. I might do a trial month of online shopping and see if I save cash

 

[jaylou]

Is online shopping really that good?? I've been considering it! We much prefer Asda but I don't like driving out there, it's a bit far out for us. I might do a trial month of online shopping and see if I save cash

I save a lot by online shopping. Okay you have to pay delivery but I think I save far more than the cost of it (it can be as low as £3.50 with Tesco).
I make a list of the evening meals we will have and order those foods and the staples. I also make a shopping list throughout the week for bits we are running low on or have run out of. I order well in advance, stick the staples in the order and then add to it, you can add right up to the day before it is delivered.

There's no impulse buying, thats the good thing and you only buy what you need! Oh, not mentioning the time it saves too!!

 

[Julianne_julz]

We do our shopping online with Asda, and spend £60-£70 a week for 2adults + 1child.

If you search online for "e vouchers" or "voucher codes" etc, you can sometimes find free delivery/discount codes, or other offers. We do that for anything we get online, ALWAYS search for voucher codes.

 

[*EB*]

i shop online at waitrose deliver and it averages around £60 per week for 2 adults.

we do eat out over the weekend so its probably about £100 if you include takeaways/meals out etc!

xx

 

[funcurls]

Ooh theres posh you are Ellebear, shopping in Waitrose!! LOL!! Well I'm a very inconsistent shopper- I have no set shopping day and no set price to spend! I can spend anything from £15-£100 in a shop depending on my mood(!!) or what we've got in the cupboards/fridge/freezer! (There's just myself and my o/h) Our freezer is particularly jam packed at the moment so I've made the decision to utilise what we've got in there, combined with all the millions of pasta, rice, couscous, bulgar wheat, noodles, lentils, beans etc etc I have in the cupboard not to mention all the soy sauce, worcestershire sauce, tabasco sauce, vinegars, mustards, mint sauce etc etc- there are zillions, so all I really need to do is use my imagination and just top up on fruit & veg, milk, bread, yogurts, cheeses etc, and of course my beloved HEXb snacks and mugshots!X

 

[jaylou]

Funcurls that is such a good idea! I'm having to run my cupboards down as I'm having a new kitchen fitted soon and there's going to be a bit of a storage issue in between kitchens.
I'm seeing it as an opportunity to save some pennies, only buying fresh veg and meat to go with the mountain of dried foods I have in the cupboard.

 

[Circes]

Gutted at how expensive staples such as wholeweat fusili etc are these days - a big bag from Sainsburys is around £1.60 now and about a year ago it was 99p.

I do think Sainsbury can be more expensive than some of the other supermarkets. Maybe you should consider switching if there are others within distance. Asda sells their organic wholewheat pasta at 2 x 500g bags for £1 and you'd pay that if not more for one bag elsewhere. Even a single bag is only 60p.

 

[Lianna]

I spend between £30-£65 a week on 2 of us,, i usually go for the 3 for £10 on meats at tesco,, and get fruit and veg and baked beans,,, i buy like frozen pizzas and chips for OH when he dont want boring meals like me lol!!

 

[Wendyuk]

I'd definitely give a thumbs up to online shopping, yes u pay delivery but by the time I use fuel etc it's worth it. A question, has anyone shopped at Tesco and Asda (seperate times of course) for home delivery? I've only used Asda once a few yrs ago and was interested to find out if one was cheaper than the other. TBH I use Tesco because I can use my clubcard but I know Asda doesn't do a loyalty scheme to keep down their prices. Any thoughts?
Ta
Wendy

 

[jaylou]

Do your shopping through this website Compare Supermarket Prices | Supermarket Shopping - mySupermarket

I did this, selected Asda, did my shopping and it lists the comparisons with Tesco, Waitrose and Sainsburys. Asda were cheaper than Tesco.

It's well worth a look.

 

[Wendyuk]

Wow Jaylou that would be really helpful! Off to have a look now. Thank you
Wendy

 

[charlottegrace1]

I feel some lovely treats for us coming on peeps with all the money we are going to be saving by being more savy with our shopping, beauty salon here we come.

 

[Wendyuk]

Oh my goodness it even gives you the calories underneath each product no need to click on the pic. All we need now is for it to say 'SW friendly, SW healthy extra' how cool would that be.

Ha Ha Charlotte I'm booking treats as I shop lol well in my head anyway ;-)

Wendy