Grow Your Own Magazine

We used to budget for £400 per month, which would also include any meals out and takeaways, and usually included the odd pack of seeds etc that got thrown in the trolley, we struggled to stay at that amount though, mainly due to the prepared food we buy, so aiming to work hard this summer to shave a good 20% off it, but not sure I will manage it.
How do you shave the pennies off? (apart from growing your own lol)

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http://clairescraftandgarden.blogspot.com/

Hi Claire72.

I guess it depends a lot on how many that's feeding too... Ways to cut down (but not sure if all of these will apply to your shopping..) are to cut down on the take aways (better for your health too), cut down on meat and alcohol and increase the rice, pasta and potatoes in your cooking.

Home made foods are usually cheaper that ready prepared stuff (especially if you batch cook to take advantage of bigger packs for better value) plus it's much healthier too

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Shortie

"There are only two lasting bequests we can hope to give our children; one of these is roots, the other wings" - Hodding Carter

Grow some [extra] plants and sell them on eBay?

i get a meat pack off the butcher, veggies from the market, make my own bread, biscuits and cakes, soups, and fruit juice smoothies... and my son works part time on a toiletries stall on the market, so i get a lot of stuff inc loo rolls and washing powder, discounted. and for anything else i go to B&M bargains, home bargains, the pound shop or wilkies (ie choccy and cat and dog food)

i do shop around, and go to different shops for the cheapest of what i'm going to buy if someone has a special offer, i'll go there insted if it's cheaper than my normal source.

pasta and rice in huge bags from asda. buy the biggest bag where possible, it usually works out loads cheaper.

when i make pasta sauces,or other things, i make 4 times the amount i need and freeze the rest in portion sizes. I make lots of meals and freeze them for when i'm away so i know son will eat properly. frozen tomato soup makes a great sauce for bolognaise, which can be turned into chilli, or fajitas or tacos etc. multi use food is very handy.

we never go out for a meal or have take aways except on special occasions or if someone else is paying lol, if we want a treat, and i'm feeling lazy, i'll get a pizza and cook it at home.

I never buy ready meals, except for the odd jar or tin of crap, in case i need something quick. beans, ravioli, spam.

we have toast or weetabix or porridge for brekkie, and a piece of fruit or smoothie. which i make up in big batches and freeze)

oh and piles of tuna and sardines (from the cheapy shops)

theres only 2 of us, but weekly shopping comes to about £30 or less

and once the veg starts growing, and son goes off to uni, i'll probably spend less than half that ...... he costs a fortune in hair gel and mans stuff lol

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sometimes i do talk complete and utter rubbish ...... just ignore me if i do ........i'll go away eventually

http://teachy.myminicity.com/

About 100 quid a week!

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My Majesty made for him a garden anew in order
to present to him vegetables and all beautiful flowers.- Offerings of Thutmose III to Amon-Ra (1500 BCE)

We used to spend £120 a week (5 of us) but after I persuaded Mr Tootles to buy this place we had to cut back!!! I went to Lidl, their veg was fresh and most things had no added nasties or preservatives I would spend £50 a wek there and Mr T would stop off at a supermarket each week to raid the reduced stuff and whisky! We got down to about £80 with a bit of effort.
Food here is staggeringly expensive though, we are spending 130E AND we buy all the reduced stuff (the French don't - too much of a stigma!) I am hoping that my veggies will make a big difference soon. If I could grow bread and wine we would be sorted.

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Tx

can I pass on this one please

altho having said that....now that I am on reducing working (through choice) and will be going to College in Sept for me Hort course I WILL need to reduce somewhat

Lynda you are a real inspiration - thank you

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aka
Suzie

welcome

i never understood why people said they can't eat healthily on a tight budget, it's so much cheaper to eat proper food than buy prepacked and low fat crap with few nutrients, and you can still have ready meals, you just prepare them yourself.

about once a month, i spend all day making food to freeze, it can be hard work, but really if you think about it, the time you spend shopping in the supermarket, you could have made a loaf of bread, and enough soup to feed the street, and not a colouring or preservative in sight, and all low fat too.

when times were really hard, we lived off mince, tuna, sardines and eggs. and veg it's amazing what you can make and still live healthily.

bolognaise with sardines is really yummy.

and cornmeal tuna fishcakes with tomato ketchup are a favourite

and we never eat margarine either ...... you can't have margarine on home made bread it's just wrong lol

and now i'm growing my own herbs, everything will hopefully taste even better ...it's so exciting

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sometimes i do talk complete and utter rubbish ...... just ignore me if i do ........i'll go away eventually

http://teachy.myminicity.com/

It sounds nuts but usually at car boot sales there is usually someone selling cheap loo rolls and household goods etc... and at the car boot i went to last Sunday... 4 melons for £1, 2 punnets strawberries £1.50, 8lb bags of spuds 80p, and loads more, i couldnt believe the cheapness of some one the stuff, i wont be doing a big shop at a large supermarket anymore, im going to be shopping around and going to the local markets, aldi etc....

Our shopping has gone up we used to spend on average about £80 a week now its nearer £100 more if we need to top up phones, we dont go out for meals or buy takeaways unless its a special occasion, we dont smoke or drink, holidays are camping for a week, two if its not raining, we both have a car now but I dont drive mine much no school runs anymore except once a week to fetch grandson, his school is about six miles each way, I drive to the lottie and thats about it.
I dont see how we can cut back anymore. We were just coming out of a time when money ran out before the end of the month and begining to do more and now it looks like I will be needing to do more hours at work to be able to keep up.
As I have been working shorter hours due to my shoulder my money was halved and I havent been able to give my daughter her pocket money which is £15 every 4 weeks ( my pay day ) for two months, she uses this money to buy clothes and things that she wants, we buy things she needs, she also has £10 phone top up at the same time. Luckily because I work for Tesco I get 10% off food, clothes, electrical, phone top ups ( upto a spend of £7,250 a year ) and all insurances, plus we also get the points money voucher's as well.

Hmmm... there's only two of us and a little baby who is still using mummy for food so can't really include her! Our food bill has historically been vast, but it's pretty much our main joys - to eat good food and drink nice wine! I'm a total foodie, and cook at least once a day, and I'd rather scrimp on anything other than what goes in my mouth!

Sooo... our food bill used to be a big weekly shop of about £120.00, and then about 4 supplementary shops for special things and fresh stuff of about £80.00 per week.

However, now I'm not working having had gorgeous little baby, we've had to rein ourselves in. I now budget quite carefully, make my own bread, pasta sometimes, buy meat in bulk then dice/slice/mince and freeze it. I now shop twice monthly and it comes to around £200 ish, but I still also buy the fresh stuff I can't grow every few days. We hardly ever eat out though, and only have a takeaway about twice a year.

I'd still rather go without new clothes than compromise how and what we eat and drink though! Old habits are dying very hard...

I guess if we got to £100.00 per week for everything, I'd be happy with that - I'm still over budget at the moment!

About six months ago it was about £120 for the 2.5 (soon to be 2.75) of us, but that has crept up to about £150 and that is mostly basic's. We don't go for much named stuff, just supermarket own brands. Think thats why I got permission to dig up half the garden for veg Also trying to shop for things in season from the UK, gets us down the local market, but you do pay for that...

p.s. my great tip is find your local Chinese supermarket! Live fish and seafood, amazing fresh veg and stuff for pennies, practically everything (including some lovely tableware) for madly low prices. The shopping takes a bit of getting used to, but I save loads going there and it's brilliant fun finding new things. There's fresh tofu every day in little wooden boxes, and gorgeous Peking duck!

"I dont see how we can cut back anymore"

I've had quite a lot of success driving more economically. Despite what the text books say I "coast" the car a lot - down hills and coming up to bends and so on. If I just drive "normally" it averages about 30-35 miles per gallon (country lanes, sleepy villages). If I drive carefully I can get close to 40, and the last couple of days I have managed over 40 MPG (really good results depend on things like no one being parked outside a village shop which is on a long downhill free-wheeling bit!)

We have also reduced our home energy by 1/3rd in each of the last two years (50% in total). Better insulation, got rid of an old American style fridge freezer (stuck a meter on it and it was using £ 250 electricity a year Eek!), cleaned the filters on the others, put timers on things so they come on Economy 7, low wattage long life bulbs; we have nothing on standby - all computers, TVs, and other stuff is all turned off when not in use.

Claire

You need to work out how much per person you are spending, as you might have a family of 10 - which means you are doing very well indeed.

Main things to shave off shopping bills are don't buy ready meals, and make your own sandwiches for work. Stop buying expensive washing product and use soda crystals and vinegar.

Loads more on
moneysavingexpert.com - try the old style board on their forum.

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Andrea :wavehello

http://www.growfruitandveg.co.uk/gra...logs/zazen999/

moon trials completed:
tomatoes
[46% increase in crop per seed sown and 10% increase in crop per plant]

currently underway:
calabrese
garlic

my dad says that he's gonna go shopping with two trollies and buy all the b.o.g.o.f's to see if we can get two week's shopping for the price of one. You could give that a go. they don't seem to do many offers like that on the fresh produce unfortunately. this is the reason i have started to grow stuff, might save some money, and it gives me an excuse to look up some recipies

I tend to have not too bad a bill - but that's cause I cook a lot from scratch.

Lots of tins of toms, tom puree, coconut milk, tuna etc. Much cheaper and nicer sauces as a result. often with plenty of fresh veggies (either our own or local greengrocer). With plenty of seasonings, spices, herbs etc (GYO where I can, but buying dried is fine too for lots of them).

I tend to do a big stores shop in a large supermarket infrequently, and then try to shop in local stores more often (I didn't actually need to go to a supermarket this week at all as it happens - fishmonger, local store for milk and bread, and the plot, supplmented by the freezer).

Buy larger packs of things where price per unit is cheaper and store these well. Buy BOGOF's when I would have bought those brands or more expensive anyway.

Use lots of vouchers, coupons etc when I get them - for brands of stuff I'd be buying anyway. And loyalty card schemes (yes, I know they get lots of info from them, but there is money off and other vouchers that I might use). And the savings stamps schemes too - by putting in my spare change, I get an extra 2% back (€2 free when card filled with €98) - and they are a great help on big stores weeks.

We do buy a fair bit of wine, but I tend to do this on various offers: Buy 6 or 12 bottles and get 5 or 10 % off. Certain supermarkets have special weekends where any wine/champers bought gets 30% back to the loyalty card on next vouchers mailing (and often STILL have that 5% offer). Bulk reductions on particular brands we buy occasionally (especially New World ones). Various vouchers with the loyalty vouchers or other sources. When up in Norn Irel' - usually buy a good bit then and often boxes (the ones with the tap) are very good value.

We tend to be pretty ok though in terms of "extras" - some biscuits, the toddler usually has some dunkers for creche snack, but very few crisps, biccies, choccie etc (we tend to get a bag of about €5 of Leonidas orangettes as our treat maybe once a month rather than bags of cheaper choc every week). And relatively low on pre-processed food: some frozen veg and oven chips, and the odd "real" chicken kiev (where you can see the whole real chicken joint with the bone still left in - rather than the squished together, made from scraps type) and packet of fish fingers. I've moved away from chicken breasts as my main emergency staple in the freezer (still have some but only a few now) to prawns and our local supermarket does these regularly on a BOGOF so I always stock up then.

I've found pre-planning the menu and writing a list before going to the shops, as well as making my own lunches, and double batches of freezable dinners, have all made a huge difference to lowering the food bils here. And we are much less likely to reach for the takeaway menu if there is a sauce in the freezer that just needs defrosting and some pasta or rice cooked for it (we still have takeaways, just not nearly so often now, maybe 1-2 a month instead of at least weekly).

£310 a month 4 kids, 2 adults. And the only "junk" food is the odd bag of oven chips and fish fingers for when I am too fatigued to cook. I buy herbs and spices direct now (since the retailer I was getting them from decieved us by selling out to TESCO). Get washing powder every 6 months from a farmers supplier (same for fabric conditioner) usually pro grade so I need less. Toilet rolls the same, ok so it ain't andrex, but then the kids don't waste it either.
I rarely buy eggs since our neighbour works on an egg packing line :-) (yes they are free range, supposed to be for TESCO )

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http://www.freewebs.com/notesfromtheplot/ **updated**

Just the two of us with the occasional packet of biccies for grandchildren but usually averages around £70 a week. Having said that I also do as some of the other grapes. I make my own bread (albeit using a Morphy Richards Fastbake) perhaps three loaves a week, I usually batch cook things like spag bol, soups and stews. We bottle all fruit from the garden and this usually produces around 70 - 80lbs of various ie apple, apple and blackberry, jostaberry, goosberries, blackcurrants. I bottle into 1lb and 2lb jars and they last us all winter. It means I can produce an instant dessert - just add a bit of custard or ice cream or go really mad!! and make a crumble or pie or add to smoothies. I have also now gone back to my wine making since I had all the equipment sitting there idle and now that we are both pensioners and having to budget, trips across to France are not going to be that frequent. I often buy own brand stuff and make comparisons all the time as I go round. Also, make a list before you go and try and stick to it. Impulse buying is fatal. I swear that the big stores deliberatley change their stock around to force you into other areas of the store that you would normally miss. We have a Tesco clubcard (yep - I read all the comments from the other Grapes re these and other "loyalty" cards and I am sure there is a lot of truth in the comments but it works for us). We have a Tesco credit card which also gives us points and which is ALWAYS settled immediately. We therefore get double points on all shopping. The clubcard points have virtually paid for our main holiday this year in Bulgaria. We saved the points up for two years and have had to add only a few quid. We do all our washing (and winter clothes drying when the weather is foul) using cheap rate electric. We have the machines set on timers so I don't have to get up at some unearthly hour just to switch them on. I never use the dryer when there is a possibility that they will dry outside. We don't have central heating (got our love to keep us warm ha ha!) and we are regarded as oddities by many of our friends for that. I would say though that it is a good idea if within your budget plan you allocate a small amount of money to be used for the occasional treat. Living on a budget through necessity (rather than an experiment which you can stop any time you like) can be boring and demoralising, especially if you see other people around you apparently living a high old life, and a little treat pot will cheer you up. I sometimes stand at the supermarket checkout and wonder how other shoppers can get through the mounds of stuff in their trolleys. Drink (especially the alcoholic kind!!) I can understand but box after box of pizza etc.????

Spend about £20 to £30 a week for the two of us used to be a lot more but was made redundant and then out of action for six months when I had op on ankle, morgage ins refused to pay out so now am ecconomising big style as credit card maxed and arrearson morgage working again but earning much less than before, ust about making ends meet roll on Feb when arrears on morgage will be paid.
Happybunny likes cooking and were doing more fresh cooking together but I as I work shifts it can be hard think i need to take a leaf out of Lynda66 book and do a big cook day once a month

Lynda66's idea of a whole day cooking sounds great - but our freezer isn't big enough for that and I wouldn't get a whole day of peace from the toddler. But I do find that I can get stuff done on Sunday afternoons. When I am cooking the family dinner anyway (try to have a nice big family dinner together on Sundays at least and often a roast), I make a dinner suitable for Monday and freeze half for another night middle of next week. Like a spag bol, lasagne, shepherd's pie, fish pie, various curries or stews etc. They usually taste much nicer if they've had a day to "rest" and it means far less rush on monday evenings after work.

And if I DO make a roast, I'll often do a large tray of roasted veggies (usually mediteranean kinda mix) with it (may as well use the oven when it's on) and use the leftovers either with pasta for dinner or with couscous for lunches until about wednesday (usually don't have enough til then, but I reckon they're ok to use til then, IYKWIM).