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Wednesday 18 February 2015

Feed your family for £50 in February - week 2

I set myself a challenge for February to try to do all my weekly grocery shopping for under £50 per week for my family of 4.

We're now at the end of the second week and I think it's fair to say that I am failing miserably!

In Week 1 I did my usual weekly shop on the Tuesday (but did spend a lot less than usual), and then my usual top up shop for the weekend - totalling about £65.

I decided that for Week 2 I was not going to do a large weekly shop (with the waste entailed as things start to get a bit manky towards the end of the week).  Instead I was only going to plan the menu a couple of days ahead, using things that I already had in the kitchen as much as possible, and was going to do small regular shops using the town-centre, butchers and grocers a bit more and avoid the supermarket.

That's all well and good, but small children seem to do very odd things to toilet rolls, soap dispensers and toothpaste - and I always seem to need those things.  Supermarkets are the cheapest and most convenient source of those items, so instead of skipping the supermarket this week, I seem to have gone there every day or two for small shops instead!  Looking now at my receipts for the week (and because I've been doing small shops I've paid cash a couple of times) I've spent at least £65 this week.

I do like the just shopping for the next couple of days thing though, as long as I'm going to be passing a shop at some point each day, and am not having to make a special journey for it.  I do like a nice full fridge, it somehow tells you that you're not going to go hungry; but I also like that I'm not digging through manky salad and having to throw things out.  I can see what I've got and what I need.  This week, so far I'm doing okay.  I popped to the supermarket yesterday for things for last night and some other essentials, costing £22, and then I topped up for lunch today and dinner tonight for just £6.  I'm definitely going to take the children to visit a real greengrocer and butcher in the next couple of days too.  I'll let you know how that goes next week.

4 comments:

  1. It's surprising how much shopping can cost, I try to watch what I spend, and am sometimes shocked when I get to the checkout. Buying in every few dats tends to work for me too, and there is much less waste.xxx

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    1. I agree, I'm wasting loads less when I've not got a week's worth of shopping to get through. My worst throwaway is salad, but my first lettuce of the season (on the utility room windowsill) is almost ready and that will put a stop to that, and save about a pound per week.

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  2. We are trying to challenge ourselves on our food budget but with two teenagers in the house we are not even close to your £65 but I am trying. It dies us good and out if necessity to be keener on the shopping. Not easy though because as you say having a full fridge dies make one feel better. Good luck with your continued endeavours

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  3. I think I manage with a sparse fridge much better than hubby. He looks in there and thinks that we don't have any food. I have an inventory of the food stock in the cupboards, and what meals will be cooked over the next couple of days, and what's in the baking tin, and what's on the next day's shopping list - and with all that information I'm confident that we won't starve. He's not so sure!

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