If I was to pick the one thing that I constantly overspend on it’s the grocery budget, I can never seem to get it right; I used to be fine sticking with the amount I set myself, but lately it’s all been going wrong.
Reasons I keep going off track:
- Buying organic, more expensive options
- Ignoring the menu plan
- Shopping daily
- Ignoring my price book
- Buying Kettle Chips!
- Buying treats, because I’m shopping daily
Now I don’t want to stop doing number one, this fits in with everything I’m trying to do this year, but I do want to put a stop to numbers 2-6.
This post is a declaration of my intent to not overspend for the next four weeks. Does anyone want to join me?
I’m setting a budget of £200 (I’ve been spending £260-£300) and will blog my success or failure.
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£200 is quite tight. I am going fro £70 per week to feed five of us now. Soups and stews are the answer for me, also pasta with sauces & old fashioned puddings.
Good luck.
Lizzie
lizzie´s last blog ..My own mid life crisis-busy and confused.
That’s quite a challenge. I struggle to get under £70 a week and that’s for only 3 adults. Although I’ve cut down over the last 6 months by about 25% it’s still too much. Like you, giving up organic is not an option. I cook a lot from scratch, don’t shop daily and rarely buy treats. I’m going to keep trying though and will try and keep to £60 for the next 4 weeks!!
Teresa ´s last blog ..Snow and Show
I’m in! I, too, have fallen off the wagon of careful, frugal shopping. I’m going to strive for $50 U.S. per week for the 3 of us. I have a lot of meat and vegies in the deep freeze so hopefully this shouldn’t be too hard. Plus, it will be good to clean out the freezer!
Life’s been kind of topsy turvy lately and I’m not always at home, so food budget is currently out the window. But DH and I used to do things on about 200 euros a month for two.
Here’s how we keep the grocery budget down:
1. Find good deals, stock up AND cook from what you have.
We will buy cereals, grains, dry beans and pasta in bulk once a month (as well as milk which in France is UHT and keeps for months). You can also keep some cheeses frozen, for example.
2. Once a week, get your fresh fruits and veggies (preferably with a CSA). CSAs are a good way to keep you eating organic, local foods for less if you’re lucky enough to have one available.
3. Make lots of your cheapest dishes. I have a couple really cheap (but good) recipes that make a large quantity so I can serve it at least twice. For example, Indian spiced lentils and carrots, black bean vegetarian chili, white bean and sausage soup, chicken soup or mac and cheese with either broccoli or cabbage mixed in. I added up the costs of making these and the full serving comes to only about 2 euros per meal for two people.
4. Have a couple of easy, frozen options on hand in case you’re too tired to cook–you can either make these ahead or buy them ready made. The idea is to be able to avoid the random (and always expensive) trip to the grocery store–or worse the pitfall of ordering takeout or eating out.
5. Consider a food rotation. Friday nights for us used to be home made pizza night (a cheap and fun meal option). Sundays we used to eat meat (we’re basically vegetarians). Mid-week we’d have a stew or chili night and maybe once a week, I’d do omelets.
Anyway, just my two cents.
Simple in France´s last blog ..Introverted? Highly sensitive? I think not. A simple response to intrusive noise.
hi – well, I find it really hard to stick to budget, so I opted for increasing my budget to a more realistic amount and it pretty much goes fine now. However, I overspent massively last week (over £200) because I went on a mad stock up the cupboards before we lose the hire car spree. Hence for the next – er – long time – my budget is tight. I am going to aim for £50 a week. I have a budget of £100 and I usually come in under that. If I am careful it is £70. But with the massive stock up on heavy things, we should be good for a £50 for a while. (ps I blame my husband! He eats a lot and likes meat….)
mo´s last blog ..wooden coat hangers
pps this budget includes household spending like cleaning stuff, toddler stuff and postage and things like that.
wow; thank you for all the comments. Our budget is for 3/4 people, depending on how often my son comes home.
Thanks to those of you who are joining in, i’m much better at sticking to things when I have help; I’ll post weekly progress reports and we can all encourage each other to stick to our budget!
I don’t think there’s anything wrong with shopping daily, if it’s daily shopping for fresh ingredients—and especially if it’s daily shopping that lets you pick and chose whatever looks best of what’s on sale.
Around here we can often get great deals that way.
Philip Brewer´s last blog ..Frugality, Simplicity, and Sustainability
@Philip Brewer – i get far too tempted by ‘naughty’ food when i shop daily, when I have that under control, i’ll totally agree with you
Ooh, I do like a good grocery challenge – keep us posted! What’s the price book by the way?
Shoestring´s last blog ..Getting on with things
My tip for reducing the grocery bill is to stop thinking to myself ‘hmm, what do I fancy for dinner tonight’ (and then going out and buying the ingredients I need to make it). Instead, I look in the fridge and think ‘hmm, what can I make with the ingredients I already have’. Also, I do all my food shopping online – fruit, veg, meat, fish and bread from Abel and Cole, and everything else from Ocado (they have a Tesco price-match on pretty much everything). So in addition to saving time, there is no temptation to buy those little extras! Oh, and I buy wine in bulk from Tesco whenever they have a half price deal
My husband and I live in Manchester with our two adorable Jack Russells, but we have a plan to move to the south of France by 2014 – so I’m very happy to have discovered this blog and will be checking in regularly to see how guys are getting on!
Alice at Simply The Nest´s last blog ..Recipe For Lobster Thermidor
@shoestring here’s a link to starting a price book
http://www.stretcher.com/stories/05/05mar14c.cfm
@Alice thanks for dropping by. It’s great to ‘meet’ people doing a similar thing to us; France in 2014 sounds great.
Are your plans to work there? if you don’t mind me asking!
Hi! Yes, we plan to work there. My husband and I both have the kind of jobs where all you need is a laptop and internet connection – and of course we’ll be doing the whole B&B thing, which long-term will hopefully mean I can hang up my laptop for good (apart from blogging, of course!)
Alice at Simply The Nest´s last blog ..Light And Airy Notting Hill Home