Shopping

[Kiska]

ok, how do you all do your shopping? do you do a big shop at the beginning of the month then small ones? or do you go each week? i can't decide which is the best wat to do it.

[luluj]

Hi Kiska
I do my shopping each week - I start off by going to the cash point at Asda withdrawing my allowance for the week and then walk the aisles of the supermarket - I get to the "whoops" aisle and have a good old rummage! I take a list with me so that I do not deviate, however I always allow myself one indulgence - it might be a box of doughnuts or if feeling really down a box of Country Manor wine for £4.35 a box.
When i get to the till's I see what it has come to and if any money is left from my allowance then I add this onto a "savers / gift card" - after a few weeks and before you know it you have enough on it to pay for your whole weeks shopping - then you get to have quite a few indulgences with the whole weeks food money that you have saved!

Lulu

[louisa.s]

thats a great idea lulu - hadn't thought of doing that!

We shop weekly at Tesco - we write a list of what we need and run out of and stick to that as much as possible but allowing a little treat.

We pay for ours on our Halifax electron card so it comes straight out of the account thus keeping the suplus of our shopping budget in the bank!

[basil_the_biker]

Hi, we do a big shop at the start of the month and then small weekly shops. I find this works for us. We buy non fresh items in bulk, e.g. toilet rolls, pasta, tins + drinks etc and then fresh stuff on a weekly basis. If in un expected expenditure pops up then we know we have at least basics to eat.

But the weekly cash is a good idea. I may try it in the future.

[Shining]

I like Lulu's idea too, I shop weekly and take my cash out of the bank and if any left put it in a lockable cash tin and this normally covers my daughters school items as her school I'm sure like many others even though a state school requires around £10 a week in trip money for this or that! So far we're managing although she has a trip to Belgium coming up but again you can pay weekly towards it with a payment card so long as it's paid by a specified date. So long as she doesn't suffer I can scrimp and save here and there.

http://isthereanend.blogs.iva.co.uk/cat ... tegorized/

15.3 this week!

[luluj]

Went to Asda with my list on Saturday - no alcohol.just the norm things like fruit and veg,a bit of meat and a few household items - got to the tills and only £45 ! Wow I thought - so I added £10 to my savers card.

Then I got home and really looked at what I had bought and thought about it - really not much for £45 .....bread, milk and cheese all seem to have gone up by alot in the last few months.....washing powder adn some other cleaning products added a fiver to my shop ...but what in the past has cost £35-£40 cost me£45 this week -isn't it time for people's I&E to be reviewed so that the general expenditure of food and household amounts can be set realistically for those in an IVA?

[Skippy]

I agree Lulu. I can't believe how much things have gone up - I bought some sliced bread yesterday at £1.53 a loaf! I also bought washing powder - not much change from a tenner!

[cat 1]

I get paid monthly and husband weekly.I organise my self that I get a huge shop at the beginning of the month-wash power, dishwash stuff, coffee, cleaning stuff etc Then I go every week and add to the collection. I have a budget for a family of 4 for £500.However, food has gone up so much that this and more is used for the purpose intended all the time.I try to cut down, but find if I spend £70 one week I end up speanding double the week after. Everything is so expensive and going up and up all the time.Cat[V]

[vickir]

I get all my petrol from tesco, all my shopping from tesco and also send them all the inkjet cartridges from my office to re-cycle - i collect on average 2000 clubcard points each month - which is £20 of my shopping bill
I had a voucher 2 weeks ago for 1000 points (£10) if i did my shopping online and had it delivered, only had to do it once for 1000 points, used my Bread card to pay for it and just ordered all the hearvy stuff, like dog food, frozen stuff, washing powder etc, used to shop in ASDA, but there were no incentives to stay there, shame they dont operate a points scheme

[maxdebt]

Yes that's a real shame about Asda I wish they did a points system! There are 6 of us and we do our big shop at the beginning of the month (all the heavies/bulky stuff and frozen foods) that comes in around £200 (which also includes fresh foods for instance 4 chickens (£10 Asda, 4 x 500g mince) most of which I freeze for later in the month. We then do a once a week ‘perishables ‘shop (cold meats, fruit, veg etc) comes in around £70ish. Milk is an incredible £40 a month and I buy a loaf of bread a day from the local shop that’s about £40 a month. It used to come in over £600 a month but I am making £50-£60 a month saving since switching a lot of my products to supermarket own brands (therein lies a tale!) In November we spent £560 of our allocated £600 budget so that was £40 saving. I am working on bringing that down further but not easy when you have my bottomless pit children!! I have to say that we are all eating healthier than we have ever eaten in our lives I think because we are cooking a lot of meals from fresh. I use my slow cooker a lot, make a lot of soups, pasta dishes (quick and easy peasy 500g of mince (£2) 2 jars of Asda Bolognese sauce (£1.40), half a bag of Asda pasta (30p) 2 onions and some garlic (pennies) bob’s your uncle!!! All 6 of us fed for less than £4.00! Oh dear did I just type a recipe?? Sorry. I think the point I am making is having to work within a finite food budget has focused my attention on ingredient costs.

I am actually really enjoying cooking. [:D] My wife has put on half a stone in 5 months! I say she was way too skinny anyway having lost weight with the stress re our debts. I tell her it looks good on her. She does not agree [}:)]