What cut backs have you made recently?
Discussion
OutInTheShed said:
I don't stick rigidly to 'the list'.
If I see something nice for a fair price I'll quite likely buy it for a change.
As for throwing food away, it's very, very rare that we do that.
The odd tail end of a bag of salad maybe.
And recently we could only get bigger bottles of milk than we could use, and some was chucked.
Maybe catering for guests there's a bit more waste, but that's cheaper than eating out.
"Bag of salad" ? Savings to be made there surely.If I see something nice for a fair price I'll quite likely buy it for a change.
As for throwing food away, it's very, very rare that we do that.
The odd tail end of a bag of salad maybe.
And recently we could only get bigger bottles of milk than we could use, and some was chucked.
Maybe catering for guests there's a bit more waste, but that's cheaper than eating out.
Puzzles said:
No cut backs here yet, I did live in a Georgian house with no real heating for years so I know if I need to I can go through the winter with no heating.
The sick, elderly and children don’t have that option.
This,only two rooms with coal fires n,to save coal,frozen,on the inside windows in the morning,hot water bottles after running upstairs to bed,milk frozen out of top of bottle,quite Dickensian the 70's lol but we survived as we surely will again The sick, elderly and children don’t have that option.
TCX said:
This,only two rooms with coal fires n,to save coal,frozen,on the inside windows in the morning,hot water bottles after running upstairs to bed,milk frozen out of top of bottle,quite Dickensian the 70's lol but we survived as we surely will again
And breaking the ice when you go for a wee in the middle of the night 
loskie said:
"Bag of salad" ? Savings to be made there surely.
Depends on how many people you're buying for. I buy a box of Tesco salad for about a quid, and by the time I've finished it, it's just starting to get a bit soggy. If I bought the individual bits and made my own, I think I'd end up throwing more away. Also, in Tesco, a full size cucumber is 50p, but a half-size one that I might get through before it's gone bad is a quid, so it doesn't pay to buy smaller ingredients.droopsnoot said:
Depends on how many people you're buying for. I buy a box of Tesco salad for about a quid, and by the time I've finished it, it's just starting to get a bit soggy. If I bought the individual bits and made my own, I think I'd end up throwing more away. Also, in Tesco, a full size cucumber is 50p, but a half-size one that I might get through before it's gone bad is a quid, so it doesn't pay to buy smaller ingredients.
I've found that buying the ingredients to make a salad not only works out cheaper, but the fresh cabbage/lettuce etc keeps longer. I typically buy 1 X red cabbage, 1 x green cabbage, 1 x lettuce, 1 x cucumber, and that'll do my girlfriend and me for 2 weeks. I'll add onion, peppers, sweetcorn, cherry tomatoes, along with grilled halloumi or some chicken breast. Total cost, about £10 for 20 lunches
RoadToad84 said:
droopsnoot said:
Depends on how many people you're buying for. I buy a box of Tesco salad for about a quid, and by the time I've finished it, it's just starting to get a bit soggy. If I bought the individual bits and made my own, I think I'd end up throwing more away. Also, in Tesco, a full size cucumber is 50p, but a half-size one that I might get through before it's gone bad is a quid, so it doesn't pay to buy smaller ingredients.
I've found that buying the ingredients to make a salad not only works out cheaper, but the fresh cabbage/lettuce etc keeps longer. I typically buy 1 X red cabbage, 1 x green cabbage, 1 x lettuce, 1 x cucumber, and that'll do my girlfriend and me for 2 weeks. I'll add onion, peppers, sweetcorn, cherry tomatoes, along with grilled halloumi or some chicken breast. Total cost, about £10 for 20 lunches
We do buy 'salad components' fairly often.
I don't think our food bill is huge, but in general we don't worry about what we spend on veg or staple foods.
If anything, we tend to buy a bit more expensive on things like meat, but maybe buy less of it.
A lot of our veg comes from a farm shop, a lot from Aldi.
We made an effort to improve what we eat at home during the pandemic, spend a bit more on food at home as we are eating out less.
The thing with Aldi and Lidl is you generally have just one option for something.
Aldi are slipping a bit as there's a baked beans buy-four-tins offer at the moment, but for the other 99% of items it's one price, one choice, no special offers, different brands or sizes to confuse or tempt.
You may still end up walking out with a pack of led plantpots, some caravan cleaner spray and an arc welder, but if you can stay away from the aisle of dreams the food is cheap and decent quality.
Most importantly it's priced honestly and transparently - the exact opposite of Tesco.
Aldi are slipping a bit as there's a baked beans buy-four-tins offer at the moment, but for the other 99% of items it's one price, one choice, no special offers, different brands or sizes to confuse or tempt.
You may still end up walking out with a pack of led plantpots, some caravan cleaner spray and an arc welder, but if you can stay away from the aisle of dreams the food is cheap and decent quality.
Most importantly it's priced honestly and transparently - the exact opposite of Tesco.
OutInTheShed said:
If I was looking for savings, I'd probably start with the more expensive items rather than a 90p bag of salad.
We do buy 'salad components' fairly often.
I don't think our food bill is huge, but in general we don't worry about what we spend on veg or staple foods.
If anything, we tend to buy a bit more expensive on things like meat, but maybe buy less of it.
A lot of our veg comes from a farm shop, a lot from Aldi.
We made an effort to improve what we eat at home during the pandemic, spend a bit more on food at home as we are eating out less.
When I was living alone, I managed to get by on £15 a week. Much yellow sticker hunting, admittedly. We do buy 'salad components' fairly often.
I don't think our food bill is huge, but in general we don't worry about what we spend on veg or staple foods.
If anything, we tend to buy a bit more expensive on things like meat, but maybe buy less of it.
A lot of our veg comes from a farm shop, a lot from Aldi.
We made an effort to improve what we eat at home during the pandemic, spend a bit more on food at home as we are eating out less.
Now, with my (vegetarian) girlfriend, we're at around £30-£40 a week. She buys a lot of pre-made veggie stuff, whereas I'd tend to cook from scratch. But she's home before me most of the time and has dinner ready for me, so who am I to complain?!
I'd say we eat pretty well though. I'm naturally quite frugal and hate waste.
The downside to that, is that I don't really have any further savings to make!
RoadToad84 said:
When I was living alone, I managed to get by on £15 a week. Much yellow sticker hunting, admittedly.
Now, with my (vegetarian) girlfriend, we're at around £30-£40 a week. She buys a lot of pre-made veggie stuff, whereas I'd tend to cook from scratch. But she's home before me most of the time and has dinner ready for me, so who am I to complain?!
I'd say we eat pretty well though. I'm naturally quite frugal and hate waste.
The downside to that, is that I don't really have any further savings to make!
Well done you . I also hate food waste with a passion and I’m constantly drumming it into the kids and telling the wife we need to cook smaller meals. Now, with my (vegetarian) girlfriend, we're at around £30-£40 a week. She buys a lot of pre-made veggie stuff, whereas I'd tend to cook from scratch. But she's home before me most of the time and has dinner ready for me, so who am I to complain?!
I'd say we eat pretty well though. I'm naturally quite frugal and hate waste.
The downside to that, is that I don't really have any further savings to make!
No harm in hunting out food bargains . There won’t be anything wrong with it as it’s sill in date. I happily do the same
Puzzles said:
How much are people paying for food and for how many people? We are paying around £500 a month for two of us.
If we're being sensible can probably make a week's worth of dinners for £20 for two plus stuff that's already in the cupboards.Not buying meat saves a fortune. I'm planning a batch cook of chilli, spaghetti bolognese and a few other bits this weekend and
I reckon £50 should fill both freezers if I'm sensible
Puzzles said:
How much are people paying for food and for how many people? We are paying around £500 a month for two of us.
£400 a month for 2 adults.I play rugby so eat a fair amount of food, the £400 doesn't include cleaning products, etc for the house. Often end up buying a bottle of gin or two off amazon separately to the above.
Don't eat takeaways and this includes all meals as prepare food for lunch etc. Eat meat with all lunches / dinners generally.
Puzzles said:
How much are people paying for food and for how many people? We are paying around £500 a month for two of us.
Right now our monthly bill is about £260, for 2 adults (???) and a medium sized dog. This is for all meals, and cleaning products. We don't buy lunches at work or take away's and very rarely eat out. It used to be £210 when I started recording it in preparation for retirement, about 8 years ago. so not a great increase.
Puzzles said:
How much are people paying for food and for how many people? We are paying around £500 a month for two of us.
We are spending about £140 per week, for four people, a cat and a dog. This include all toiletries, cleaning products, pet food and a bottle of wine from Tesco normally. Not too extravagant in terms of the products. This includes all three meals each day as we don't often eat out anyway. Kids will also have school lunch each day during term time....Considering swapping to Aldi, but we have home delivery too. I like the convenience of not spending an hour on the weekend food shopping with kids in tow though.
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