Food Budgetting

Whilst I have been working Full Time and Commuting 2 hours a day our Grocery budget has gone sky high, some times as much as £80 a week (!) this feeds 2 Adults, 1 toddler, 2 cats and various passing friends each week as well as cleaning products and toiletries. Some convenience products such as ready meals and ready made jars have sneaked in as well as more treats than we really earned.

Now we are only on 1 wage it is clear that amount HAS to be reduced so I began this weekend to look how I could lower it.

First step was to visit a local wholesaler for pet food. Both cats are fussy and will only eat a branded cat food which obviously costs more. Due to time constraints we had been purchasing their food from the supermarket paying £3.60 for 6 cans, at the wholesalers we can buy 12 cans for £6.00 a saving of £1.20 not a huge saving but over a month it frees up a little under £5.

Next step was to Meal Plan, something I had always done previously but again due to time issues had lapsed on. By only buying in what we need we will be able to drastically reduce not only our expenditure but also our food waste. I dislike wasting food anyway but recently I have thrown things away just because I lacked time and energy to do something inventive with it! I plan to shop more locally especially for fruits and vegetables as our local market is only 10-15 minute walk away.

I have purchased one of these:


It was reduced to half price for £23. I had already purchased some veggie seeds and seed trays from our Aldi Supermarket, I am hoping that they all grow well and enable me to provide at least some of the Family veggies.

The final thing I have done this weekend is to place an order with Approved Foods, a company that sell just past their best before date or near to their best before date foods at a fraction of the normal cost. Amongst other things I ordered:

6 x 800g tins of Tomato Paste for £2.00
4 x Fajita kits for £2.00
10 x tins of Kidney beans for £2.00
4 x bottles of HP sauce for £1.00
30 x Bottles of milkshake for £6.00
12 x sachets of red Thai curry paste for ...................................1p!!!!!!

Overall RRP for my shop was over £80, even including delivery mine cost £35!!!

I think all these things added to the fabulous ideas I have got from looking through Frugal Blogs on here I am VERY confident that I can easily lower our grocery costs. I will keep you posted!