So I just did online shopping with Tesco as a test!

We spend lllllllllloooaads on shopping every week - and yet I see people feeding the same amount of people for loads less...so came to the conclusion its this whole plan meals malarky!

SO I wrote down 6 meals (normally have chinese etc one night) and stuff for 7 lunches, added the ingredients to the trolley plus any cupboard items and snacks we required...and its still £105 without any 'oh I fancy that' which happens in the super market

Where am I going wrong?!

These are the evening meals I did for, which I make everything from scratch:
Chicken casserole with new pots
Smoked haddock and prawns with salad and new pots
Cottage pie
Eggs, bacon, sausages, onions tomatoes etc
Chicken and mushroom quiche with new pots and courgettes
Roast chicken and roast veggies

Lunches are just soups, crumpets, muffins, tuna, bread, crackers, eggs, salad etc
Snacks are crisps, biscuits, nibbles
Cupboard stuff like juice, mayo, butter, cleaning stuff

So how can I spend less than £105? (which is already about £40 less than a normal shop we do) People do it on like £60?!!

I don't get it!

ive no idea hun but i cant do it either i always seem to spend a fortune yet have absolutely nothing to show for it
even when i plan meals and only buy what i need for meals im still a fortune wen we came back from holiday my cupboards and freezer was full things like tins etc, so really all i needed was fridge food (veg, fruit) and things like washing powder toiletries and i spent about £50 more than i usually wud on a shop

Well Im kinda glad its not just me then - its not even like we are greedy and fat lol!

I do it on less because on a friday we go to my aunts for dinner and a saturday my mums. so im a scrounger with two less meals to buy! I also dont have to buy lunches just a huge box of weetabix, bananas and strawberrys for breakfasts and 5 dinners.

we dont buy sweets I buy a large box of asda flapjacks, yogurts and fruit for snacks.

my week of the month I buy nappies my shopping is obviously more expensive. I use that week to do a bulk up of things such as cleaning products and toiletries so generally my shopping bill is 100 odd for one week of the month the rest its probably no more than 60.

if you need the seven meals, lunches and breakfasts then I dont know how you can make it cheaper. maybe some weeks it will be cheaper depending on what you buy?
x

I am interested in replies here as I can't do it either. I did manage to do it at £70 a week for a short while but that didn't include nappies or baby toiletrys.

same here and i dont buy biscuits or chocolate
i do buy the odd treat like ice cream or a cake or something but i mainly buy fruit yogurts n things we get

well I don't buy nappies , and don't get baby toiletries from there

I reckon its the fact we all have lunch at home

I suppose i should be pleased with £105 - its better than usual and I am pretty sure it will last the whole week

I can't do it either, ours is between £140 and £200 per week. We eat out for the majority of the weekend! But there are 5 people in our family and two cats! Plus theres nappies and formula! And I do go out for fresh fruit and veg in the week.

I seen a thing on Martins Money last week and he said you should drop down one brand and it will make a difference! Im going to try it next time I do a shop!

Come to think about it, we spend a fortune on loo roll and kitchen roll!

Our weekly shop hardly ever comes in for less than £100 and that's without nappes and wipes etc, or washing powder as I get mine from Costco.

I have also started shopping in the poundshop for our toileties as I often find they stock some of the usualy bands i buy at a fraction of the price!!!

xx

Yeh we did the brand thing - some stuff we have kept to the supermarket brand and others we went back to our usual brand, so I cant see any more savings there

There is also the little dogs so that's £8 ish a week

I was about to say loo roll and kitchen roll lol - that amount didn't include it cos Dan got huge packs of both last week!

ours is usually about 60 then baby milk and nappies on top of that i get ours from lidl and then milk from morrisons x

our milk is delivered, so thats £6 a week extra too - jeeez!

My shopping bill has come to £150 for the whole month and with that I've spend £25 on make up and bought 3 bottles of wine too, I do grow my own veg though so I don't have to buy potatoes, tomatoes, and only a few bits of veg now and then

For your meal plan I would buy an large chicken and would make the roast dinner with it and then use the rest of the meat for the casserole and for the chicken and mushroom quiche and bulk it out with veg

2.5kg of new potatoes will do you for your chicken casserole, haddock dish, and to serve with your quiche
I would buy a pack of king edwards to make your roasties and for your cottage pie

then I would say buy things like value bacon etc, always buy loose fruit and veg and salad as it is cheaper and I cook all my veg and freeze it then reheat it when I want to use it, that way I never have any wastage.

At the moment I am Spending about £50-£60 per week that includes lunches, and dinners as tommy is on school holidays. I get a bit worried if I spend more, having said that I will buy formula seperate and I to get nappies, loo roll, washing powder etc from Costco. I imagine if I did it all in my normal shop I'd spend about £70-£80 a week
And tbh that's alot!
I use to feed me tommy and his dad on £35 a week a few years back!

Ours is usually £80-£90 a week. One week we fill freezer, next loads of cleaning stuff, then nappies/wipes/organix snacks etc so there never seems to be a cheap week though we always think it will be cheaper next week as freezer full etc.... We also prob spend £10 a week on a takeaway and then another £10 on extra milk, ham, choccy.

Im rubbish at meal planning and admit we do end up chucking things out eg ham thats open too long, cpl bits of fruit that went off, opt for a chippy and forget about chicken breasts etc....

I was going to say I dont know how people do it cheaper but we buy about 8 2lt btls diet coke a week, buy prepared veg/mash sometimes and too many treats jump into trolley!

http://www.goodtoknow.co.uk/recipes/266969/Credit-crunch-weekly-meal-planner

mandy wrote:

My shopping bill has come to £150 for the whole month and with that I've spend £25 on make up and bought 3 bottles of wine too, I do grow my own veg though so I don't have to buy potatoes, tomatoes, and only a few bits of veg now and then

For your meal plan I would buy an large chicken and would make the roast dinner with it and then use the rest of the meat for the casserole and for the chicken and mushroom quiche and bulk it out with veg

2.5kg of new potatoes will do you for your chicken casserole, haddock dish, and to serve with your quiche
I would buy a pack of king edwards to make your roasties and for your cottage pie

then I would say buy things like value bacon etc, always buy loose fruit and veg and salad as it is cheaper and I cook all my veg and freeze it then reheat it when I want to use it, that way I never have any wastage.

some good ideas there!

I already use all the chicken as I use any spare for Izzy dinners, so I buy breasts for the casserole and quiche - which I know aren't cheap...hmm need to work out my chicken usage!

I try to get loose vef (and have done for this tesco order) normally im too lazy and grab a bag!

I am REALLY limited on what i can freeze as we have one of those half and half fridge freezers, and its rammed anyway - so the chance of having space to add things ready is slim :-(

Its hard when you don't have freezer space. I just give Chloe a little of what we're having which saves money too. I would also make soup from the chicken bones which sorts some of the lunches out

We have definitely spent less since Lily has been having the same food as us. I do the chicken carass thing like Mandy to get nice stock for soup and stews and then it doesnt really matter if there is not loads of meat in it as you have the nice flavour.

That said i still spend a fortune but it is mainly on rubbishy treats rather than proper food!

Well budget out the window!

My tesco was £105 - Dan popped for a couple of things to Sainsburys and spent £60 - but I looked and could only remove £20 of the same stuff off my list!

SO he ruined it with all his wine and biscuit buying!

I think he improved it with the wine buying hehe!

i find farmfoods is my friend as is iceland. i can stuff my freezers for £30 a week from either or place!! simply cause, i gave in making home made meals that were never eaten!

u do know that the tesco own brand cheapo packaging is jus the same as thei tesco other packaging... its all in the packaging.. its cheaper cause its simpler.. not any diff tasting... well sometimes i think it does.....

I shop for 4 of us for between 60-80 a week depending on whether I take OH with me or not!! I buy fruit etc and meat from farm shop so probs a bit more expensive than tescos etc but worth it cause it's local! I very rarely buy ready meals and we eat a lot of pasta! We do spend a lot on milk as OH drinks it by the pint and kids eat cereal like it's going out of fashion!

Xx

Hey kell, I think the cost of a weekly shop has just gone up soooo much. A couple of years ago ours was £110 ish per week and in those days I drank a lot more wine! Since having ellie, a bottle of wine could last a week (usually throw it out now or put it in a casserole)!