Do you shop weekly or monthly?

[MissJuly10]

As title... I'm struggling a bit to decide which is best for DH and I, obviously there's just the two of us but we also have 3 dogs at home and their food costs a fair bit too so all adds up.

When I first married DH, we did the food shop monthly and spent between £160-£180 a month on food, sometimes £200. About 3 months ago, we decided to shop weekly instead and somehow, that ends up costing us between £50 and £80 per week.

I try and plan dinners to make it easier but sometimes we end up buying other things like toiletries, cleaning stuff, etc and it makes it more expensive.

Now, I only do one weekly shop at payday, then I just buy as and when I need stuff but that's not really practical as we're on a budget and when we haven't enough money then we're stuck lol.

What do you do?

x x

 

[AugustMum]

I shop weekly, but Ill bulk cook so that I have enough meals for the next week as well, so one week my shopping might come to £25 but the next it might only be £15 because I already have about 3 meals or more in the freezer so just need fresh veg ect.

Its only me and my LO thought so Im sure Id spend more if there were 2 adults in the house.

 

[DaisyPurple]

I shop weekly, and try to plan a menu so I only buy what I actually need, we have a maximum budget of £60 per week, I cook.everything from.scratch, don't buy processed foods, and some weekday the shopping is as little as £35, if I've had a good meat shop the previous week, this is for 2adults and a growing child x

 

[MissJuly10]

I was actually just thinking that if I bought a bit more and froze meals it might work out cheaper.

I'm not sure though cos I try and make it cheaper but it ends up more expensive.

x x

 

[AugustMum]

I can make chilli and spag bol for about 1.25 a portion so for 2 main meals a week it could cost you about £5. Things like toast are brilliant money savers for breakfast because from morrisons for example, you can get a full sized loaf for 60p so thats almost a whole weeks breakfast (just change it with jam or cheese on toast etc). Then lunches can be salad, jacket potatos with beans, bacon and pasta etc.

I work my way around stuff by only ever making food from scratch and buying the cheap cheap stuff where I can. From tesco you can get 2kg of minced beef for £6, its not the cheapy cheap stuff either. Just when you buy it open the packets and split it in half and so it works out at £1.50 per 500g of minced beef. It'd be hard to find a price like that somewhere

 

[Me, My Girls & I]

I shop weekly-ish! Although with moving and the girls bring ill, I've managed just to buy essentials for the last 2 weeks! That said, oh keeps pipping to tesco down the road and spending ridiculous amounts on things like magnums! When in feeling really organised i can do it fortnight-3 weekly and make in bulk! Stews are a great or for
Being on a budget cos cheap steak cools really nicely if youncpok it for a few hours!

 

[Emmamb]

I always try and buy fresh-any tin stuff is from the value range cos I tend to just add them to meals anyway.
I try and do a weekly shop but always end up buying extra most days xx

 

[Nurse 26]

i try to do weekly but always end up buying in between, prefer to cook with fresh ingredients. Would be nice to try save some on food shopping but everything is just so expensive and with my eating habits at the moment i always change my mind on the day what i want to eat so its hard to plan meals ahead.

We have cut out takeaways recently though and thats saving quite alot of money xx

 

[MissJuly10]

Thanks everyone, some great ideas there - I really need to try the bulk buying although we sometimes buy a pack of pork chops from Asda in the 3 for £10 offer as the pack usually has around 8 or so chops which lasts us a while. I love things like spag bol so that kind of dinner is normally quite cheap if I bulk buy.

Nurse - We've cut out takeaways as well, which saves us a lot too as we spend £20 a time on them and had them upto 3 times a month, so saving ourselves a bit but this month is going to be a bit mad cos we've got birthdays, anniversaries, hen night and wedding all in the space of about 2 weeks.

x x

 

[charliebear]

We tend to do one or two big shops throught the month and then we will pop to the shop for odds and ends when needed.

 

[ZMD]

We do a weekly shop but i also go & get fresh fruit and veg a couple of times in the week x

 

[MissJuly10]

I do the same thing! Just had to pop out and get some veg for dinner. x x

 

[JJ Mum]

I shop several times a week now I'm off with Devon, but only what me and the pushchair can carry. If I go in the car to a big shop, I soo spend far too much money.

There are 2 adults and 3 older kids (two of which eat adult portions now). I am in the process of trying to work out what I spend and am going to take out cash each week to use to try to stop me spending

As soon as I get back from the shops I find something I need to buy still and start a new list.

I do bulk make, cook, ice , slice and freeze cake slices , make a larger pot of spag bol, mince bulked up with diced mushrooms or aubergine and it will do 5 people plus devon with spagetti and then also makes a family sized lasagne for freezer , plus some for a jacket pot for me and OH (kids have something else), so it does 3 days. Also soup and homemade bread rolls one day, plus homemade pizza (I do have a bread maker, so cheeting really - used to do from scratch). Then pasta with chicken thigh fillets (won't buy unhappy chicken as I have chickens myself!), with a condensed can of chicken soup as the sauce!! You really can make food go far. Try cooking a chicken for roast, then shred the bones and leftovers for homemade chinease, with noodles and homemade sauce. We buy morrisons large choriso sausage ring, and chop in half and freeze the other bit, £1.99 for two meals ! have it with pasta and homemade tom sauce

 

[wannabemom]

i do shop weekly...that's the most appropriate time for a big family as mine...so need to do it frequently...

 

[MissJuly10]

Thanks for all the ideas, defo going to make a list of things I can cook and freeze. Hopefully that will bring my shopping costs down cos at the mo I spend too much on our first week shop so the next time I need to go shopping, I'm even more budget conscious.

x x

 

[LouiseB]

I do a weekly shop for freshness but to be honest the only thing that keeps the cost down is meal planning and minimising wastage.

Also keeping meals simple - meat, carbs and veg. Too many ingredients and the cost soars.

Freezer food is great, but it has to be bought as freezer food because my hubby will just not eat things i put in the freezer.

He'll eat Birdseye breaded fillets or whatever, but if i made my own and froze them he won't touch them even if he enjoyed them fresh

 

[littlemiss83]

I used to buy monthly when it was just me and OH & pick up things as we needed them, but spent more money as we'd pick up alot of rubbish when we went for bits every couple of days.

Now I get stuff weekly, order it online thro either tesco or asda & they deliver which means no travel costs & they carry it up the stairs too. And I pop into sainsburys & get fresh meat, fruit & veg as I dont trust other ppl to pick.

I find ordering online better, I write down all our meals for the week & buy what i'll need for the meals plus any toiletries & household stuff & a couple of treats, I very rarely go over our limit, whereas going round a shop you dont really know how much its all coming to.

 

[Cazza]

We swapped our monthly shop at Tesco to a weekly shop at Lidl's about 2 years ago, it cut our bills dramatically.

I also use the local greengrocer and bakers as much as possible.

Being veggie I cook alot with Quorn (or shops own alternative) and freeze lots of chilli/bolognese/curry/ratatouille for quick meals with pasta or jacket spuds!

What do you feed your dogs on MissJ? My dogs are on raw food (BARF) and 9 large dogs cost us £50 a month!! Lots of butchers give away scraps, bones and carcasses too!

 

[deedee84]

we tend to do weekly, we buy the 2 cats and dog food in to last the month (£7 for dog £4 for cats) and spend roughly £40-£50 on the weekly shop for me my OH and DD, i usually get my fresh meat from the butchers as they do 3 for £6 then the rest from the supermarket...we noticed before DD was born when we did monthly shops that we would spend £200 and it wouldnt last the month mainly because our thoughts were "oooh, we have this in the freezer so we will eat it now" so many meals just got eaten as snacks because they were just there, this way we know whats for meals and if we want snacks we get them so we know whats what works better for us anyway! xx

 

[natashateale]

What me and Oh do is buy Meat, froozen stuff and juice and other stuff that doesnt go off once a month and then just go shopping once a week after that for fresh veg and fruit and milk. We normally spend about £100 -£150 on the big shop once a month and then between£10-£20 for the fresh shop once a week. It works for us We freeze our meat and bread so we can do this.