Having just come back from doing the weekly shop and having spent well over half off my weekly budget something has to change. I shop once a week and buy everything in one place is this because of convenience or laziness I have to admit it's a bit of both. I plan our weekly meals I have to due to various after school activities and also my daughter is allergic to dairy and eggs not just intolerant but allergic she also has coeliac disease so everything is cooked from scratch which means we eat very healthy and I do have to plan and adapt recipes I'm not one for cooking lots of different meals. We all eat the same.
I shop at a probably one of the most expensive supermarket which delivers free of charge though I do like to go in. However for my daughter her food is cheaper here than anywhere else. Mainly I can buy their own brand rice crispies for £1.20 and they do not contain gluten other supermarket brands do so I have to buy a special brand which can cost anything from £2.50 to £4.00 a packet so over time it's cheaper. It's also the same for her pasta.
I go to said supermarket once a week and do the whole weeks shop including fruit, veg and meat. I will also need to do a small top up at shop near me mid week.
We have a butchers and market that comes twice a week which I do use and I have tried doing cupboard and freezer from supermarket and meat from butchers and fruit and veg from market or green grocers though when I did this I always found I was shopping as fruit and veg would go off before I had chance to use it and the butchers never display the price so I'm always confused how much I will be paying and have had some shocks.
So what does everyone else do to save money and time.
I keep a really well stocked cupboard of all the basics, at least 2 of everything, then make a note when I need to replace, so that I do my main shop once a month either at Tesco if I have a voucher ( they sometimes do £4 or£5 off ) or Co-op ( I have vouchers from a co-op calender for £5 of £40 shop) They are our local supermarkets. We also have a waitrose but it is always so busy. Our veg comes from the garden most of the time as does a lot of fruit otherwise I buy weekly along with milk from where ever supermarket depending on which town I go to. Some things we know we can only get in one place so we will call in there on our way to somewhere else. For instance we buy several boxes at once of value bran flakes from Asda or Morrisons as they are so much cheaper and Tesco here doesn't have them. We will go to Sainsburys if we are at that end of Ipswich and stock up with their value bacon off cuts and a few other things that we know are cheaper there. I keep a little price book of what is cheapest in which supermarket that I can update as I need to.
ReplyDeleteYour daughters health issues must be the most important thing for you to deal with so I'm sure it must make things more complicated for you. Hope you are able to sort out the best way for you.
Thank you. It is waitrose at Saxmundham which I shop at. I have my eye on a Kmix and I have to save from my housekeeping budget so really need to stop wasting and shop smarter.
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