Impertinent question

[Alison]

I don't buy junky treats for the children like a lot of parents I know and I buy good food to make all my meals from scratch. On Friday I do let the three children I have at home £2ish for a weekend treat b/w them and four bottles of ale each for Dom and I. But my shopping bill comes to £140 +/- a couple of quid and that's by cutting down on brands and getting the shops own.

Is your grocery bill this high or am I deluded and this is below average?

Alison

 

[highlandsflyer]

Ours is around £200/300 for an average of six. Generally don't pay for meat, fish or foul, many things come via the wholesaler, and we grow a lot of veg/fruit within the family.

I guess we spend another £150 a week on drink, hic!

 

[Alison]

Ours is around £200/300 for an average of six. Generally don't pay for meat, fish or foul, many things come via the wholesaler, and we grow a lot of veg/fruit within the family.

I guess we spend another £150 a week on drink, hic!

:shock:

£150 p/w on drink, what booze? :shock: I spend about £20 max, of course my 8,11 and 13 year old are teetotal at this present time and my 20 year old can buy his own, but he never partakes in front of his folks anyway.

Even when my son is home and 5 becomes 6 I still am only allowed £140, and we grow nothing, my parents wee practically 100% self sufficient, the real life Goods, I should probably take a leaf out of their books, we have a huge garden for a smallish semi.

Alison

 

[highlandsflyer]

Try raised beds, much easier to work on and a small poly tunnel might not be too pricey. You can often pick greenhouses and poly tunnels up or free through Gumtree or Freecycle.

Our weekly booze tab includes providing drams for estate/farm workers as well, we probably don't get through more than a ton ourselves.

 

[MikeD]

+1 for growing stuff. Wouldn't bother with spuds, though -- they take masses of space to grow and they're cheap to buy.

 

[MikeD]

Oh, and you probably won't need more than one courgette plant. Maybe two if you're a massive courgette fan*.

* Massive fan, not a fan of massive courgettes. If you're into massive courgettes, try marrows.

 

[legrandefromage]

we buy our washing powder/ softener, dishwasher stuff in bulk from Brookers wholesale and meat comes from a wholesale butcher. This can last 3 months to a year then we top it up with spuds/veg/ fruit from roadside fruit & veggie sellers.

Aldi for the rest.

 

[rosstheboss]

+1 for growing stuff. Wouldn't bother with spuds, though -- they take masses of space to grow and they're cheap to buy.

A couple of stacks of tyres will keep you in tasty spuds for a while....

After our financial s~*t hit the fan earlier this year, we started shopping at Lidl, where I have always gone when I've been working away for stuff if there's one close. You will be amazed at the savings and quality too - I wouldn't touch some of the stuff there, like the ready meals in a million years but the fresh meat is all british and really good quality for supermarket stuff. The fruit and veg seem to have a slightly shorter shelf life than the big supermarkets but if you keep that in mind it isn't a problem. All the junkier food is a lot cheaper than the big supermarkets too.

Try it, you might like it!

 

[unkleGsif]

Admittedly we don't have kids, but just switching our weekly shop from Morrisons or Asda, to Aldi, has dropped our bill from £50-70 per week to a regular £30-£35!

G

 

[rosstheboss]

Also online shopping saves a ton of money too - takes a little while to set up but you avoid the 'ooh that looks nice!' and putting it in your trolley scenario, also saves on petrol.

Should also add that Lidl has a cracking booze section too!