Trying to get the grocery bill down

I think it's because we do all our eating at home. Before lockdown we often enjoyed having a meal/snack outside wherever we were for the day. We save the money we usually spent on eating out.

There are 3 of us in my house - me, husband, eldest son. And a cat . We're getting through a ridiculous amount of food because the husband and son are having breakfast, lunch, snack, beer, as well as the evening meal. (husband is furloughed, son working from home).

My bill has gone down. There is just me and I got into the habit of buying food from Marks and Spencer as passed there regularly and just bought one or two days worth of food.

Now I have been having Iceland deliveries and it is so much cheaper. My habits will have changed now.

We seem to be spending much more but it's because I have to provide 3 meals a day. The associated extras eg the amount of tea and coffee and biscuits we're going through is incredible.
On the day of my big shop we eat like kings but by the end of the week we're down to far less exciting stuff - from the freezer bottom or things past near their use by dates.

I too have been eating the good stuff Jane but now getting down to the wood i.e. canned, dried and freezer. I've got a few batch-cooked fish pies and meatballs in the freezer but had them in the past week so want something new and scrumptious right now.

I must stop dropping in to the local fancy deli where things are much more expensive but oh, so appealing!

My problem is online shopping - often the cheaper things just aren't available and it's a case of getting what there is or going without. My bill is much bigger but the shopping usually lasts a fortnight instead of a week, so I suppose that balances it out a bit.

Our credit card bill came today and it’s half what it usually is I also manage to get through about £100 in cash every couple of weeks but the last cash I took from the ATM about a month ago is still untouched in my purse. Normally this would be spent on meals out, the odd magazine or in charity shops. However once lockdown is over our expenditures will probably increase again and that’s a good thing for the economy which is going to need us all to spend.

We're having deliveries from Sainsbury's rather than going to Aldi for the weekly shop so I think we're spending about 30% more but it doesn't matter because we're not spending on anything else. We must have already saved about £200 on petrol because we've been self-isolating for six weeks now.

I've been buying seeds and plug plants for the veg garden but I'm more or less up to date now and as I can't indulge my garden centre habit that's another saving.

I could halve my shopping bill.......lose the food but keep the wine and gin

@GrannyGravy13. Love your reasoning. ?

My shopping bill is considerably more but we are eating three meals a day and I’m buying more expensive stuff for that reason.
There may come a time when I’ll be dusting off the tins but not yet. I’m working my way through the freezer though.

Before the lockdown I shopped around mainly between Sainsburys, Waitrose and a few things at Marks, often looking for bargains. Now I do my once a week at our nearby Marks, tomorrow, 8 am, it's for over 70s, I'm not there yet! but husband who is, stands in the queue with me to verify to whoever's on the door that I'm shopping for the both of us while he waits in car. Quite honestly I'm not looking at prices anymore, just glad to get all my stuff in one place, like everyone else, our life is on hold, the meals out, cinema trips, holidays all not happening, gym membership frozen and apart from a few necessities on line, food is the main outlay.

Waitrose have strong white bread flour
Allinsons £2 for 1.5kg
Essential £1.20
Duchy £1.85
I have bought 2 of each (Allinsons and Duchy from Godalming store) Well, my OH did as I've had my day's outing.
Try online although no delivery slots until August, believe it or not, in my area.

I wonder if Aldi and Lidl are kicking themselves for not offering online groceries with delivery? All the big boys Tesco, Morrison’s, Asda, Sainsbury’s must be seeing a huge rise in
their profits. I shop weekly online with Sainsburys and there are very few items with offers.

Well, before all this kicked off I was spending £100+ every couple of weeks in Asda alone, just me and the cats.

Within about 8 weeks I've saved nearly £700 !! How the dickens could I ever justify having spent so much in the past ? It's disgusting.
I haven't skimped on meals or gone without anything these last few weeks , neither have the cats as I've only been buying what I need/want to last me 2 or 3 days and not a ton of stuff to-- throw away-- feed an army.
After all these years I've learned how to save If nothing else this lockdown has shaken off the shopaholic in me.

( freezer's not far off empty, though )

At Asda prices you must have bought the whole shop with £100.

We are probably spending more on food now but I have had £100 cash in my purse for 5 weeks now so that's a saving as I would normally spend that in 2 weeks. We haven't put petrol in either car for a month nor have we eaten out so I think we are quids in!

That's my weekly flower bill.

----dammit, the strikethrough didn't work !

GabriellaG54, I'll ignore that remark !!

A family member posted the following on FB:

Lockdown Monthly Budget
Petrol £0
Going to the pub after work £0
Dry cleaning business clothes £0
Meals out £0
Cinema and theatre £0
Food shopping £2379.

I added ‘then there’s the wine to include...’. ?

Norsat are our families related ?

We're spending, on average, £130 a week. It DOES include cat food and litter for 2 cats AND nappies. But still.

I think about £10 a week is on non groceries. E.g. this week I needed a new padlock for the shed and a new potato peeler.

So I guess really, it's about £110 a week. That seems an AWFUL lot on food to me for 2 adults and a picky toddler.

The flower bill was a joke.