advertisement


Shopping on a tight budget...

G

GruntPuppy

pfm Member
I'm conscious of the fact that in order to afford dog/hifi I need to tighten my belt somewhat, and have started looking at price comparison sites again. I'm starting to lose faith and hope in the internet!

Does anyone have any recommendations FROM EXPERIENCE of either websites or android apps that make it reasonably easy to do price comparisons between supermarkets? I don't need information from a google search, thanks - been there, done that, and been significantly disappointed by the results...
 
We usually manage to find things like 25% off wine deals from individual supermarket sites.

Afaik there is nowhere you can get info about yellow sticker deals and that is where the biggest savings are to be had.

OH works in a few supermarkets and usually comes home with ridiculously cheap food.

We get dog food from an equestrian centre that does a sideline in horse and pet food, about half the cost of supermarket stuff.

Farm Foods is really cheap for frozen veg and a few other lines, tinned dog food, tins of fizzy drinks if you don't want to die with teeth.
 
Just shop at Aldi or Lidl, whichever is nearer. Walk or cycle there. Buy normal stuff and cook it yourself. There's no point worrying about whether Ariel Ultra is on promo this week when Aldi wash powder is cheaper all year round.

Likewise the Mr Kipling promo in one of the links above. Even with Killing on promo the Aldi stuff is cheaper. It's also better, in this instance, butter biscuit. I know, I used to make it. Or at least work in that factory.

Buy mostly basic foods at Aldi, do a fair bit of cooking for yourself, and you can eat *for nothing* these days without having to live on crap.
 
What you buy probably makes a lot more difference than where you buy it from, within reason of course. So if you want to spend a lot less on food, change your diet in favour of self prepared food from cheaper ingredients. For household stuff, can you use a lot less or none of whatever you use? When my mother had live in carers I was shocked at the amount of stuff they used (that of course they didn't have to pay for) and wasted. If you can manage cashflow and buy in bulk, buy stuff in bulk online. If there's a cash and carry near you (Booker, Makro, Costco) try that.

Then there's all the other stuff - energy and telecoms suppliers. Money supermarket are good for telecoms, ofgem for the list of energy switch comparison sites.

Re comparison sites, I've often found shoe leather works best but that of course is time dependent. Supermarket online prices aren't always the same as in store.
 
stevec67 said:
Just shop at Aldi or Lidl, whichever is nearer. Walk or cycle there. Buy normal stuff and cook it yourself. There's no point worrying about whether Ariel Ultra is on promo this week when Aldi wash powder is cheaper all year round.

Likewise the Mr Kipling promo in one of the links above. Even with Killing on promo the Aldi stuff is cheaper. It's also better, in this instance, butter biscuit. I know, I used to make it. Or at least work in that factory.

Buy mostly basic foods at Aldi, do a fair bit of cooking for yourself, and you can eat *for nothing* these days without having to live on crap.
Click to expand...
Yep, some genuinely excellent quality produce in either… Lidl’s multigrain loaf is to die for!
 
We use Aldi most of the time. We top up from other supermarkets for stuff they don’t have or if we don’t like their own brand.
We never buy in bulk, plan meals around deals or offers and buy for those meals a week in advance.
We never buy any pre prepared meals, always cooking from first principles.
 
As above, Aldi or Lidl but fresh fruit can be a little hit or miss. Their wine is generally excellent & many people now shop at discounters by choice rather than need. Who needs 10 different brands of ketchup?

We tend to do our main shop at Aldi with top ups at Sainsbury’s or Co-Op.
 
The only snag with Aldi is that they drop excellent products when the manufacturer s are no longer prepared to supply them for nothing. Most recently, a really good canned tomato and basil soup. That and the fact that they never pay for development but just ride in on the coattails of the other retailers. You make meat pies for Asda? Good enough, we want a near identical pie for half the price. The line's already set up, ingredients in, what's it going to cost you?
 
stevec67 said:
Just shop at Aldi or Lidl, whichever is nearer. Walk or cycle there. Buy normal stuff and cook it yourself. There's no point worrying about whether Ariel Ultra is on promo this week when Aldi wash powder is cheaper all year round.

Likewise the Mr Kipling promo in one of the links above. Even with Killing on promo the Aldi stuff is cheaper. It's also better, in this instance, butter biscuit. I know, I used to make it. Or at least work in that factory.

Buy mostly basic foods at Aldi, do a fair bit of cooking for yourself, and you can eat *for nothing* these days without having to live on crap.
Click to expand...

It's a shame, but at the moment the quality of fresh fruit and vegetables at Lidl and Aldi is not acceptable to me. Asda is about at the borderline quality I will accept.

What I'd ideally do is have a way of checking (without having to wade through lots of irrelevant search results) prices so I could put together a shopping list for different places. Flatmate can go and get what Asda don't deliver (and at a pound for a delivery, that's something I'm prepared to spend). We're both disabled, so travel is to be minimised where possible.

I scratch cook our meals anyway - it is much cheaper. What I really, really need is a comparison tool that works without faff and bullshit results, which the ones I've tried so far are very good at providing.
 
Agree with the Aldi & Lidl comments; we shop there a lot, but we still have to use Sainsburys & Waitrose to buy stuff like Almond milk (wife's dairy intolerant and sticks to Alpro or Blue Diamond milks) and cordial (we don't do anything with sweeteners in) etc

We try and buy our veg from a local farm shop (bar the stuff I grow for us) and I get our eggs from my pal or try and buy them locally too. So much better & cheaper than ANY supermarket too; so I'd highly recommend this avenue if you can
 
Fruit and veg quality is store dependent. Most I use are good. They are better than the Asda I have near work. However the Aldi nearest my house is very poor. It also happens to be in a bloody horrible area and filled with people you really, really want to avoid, so it's best swerved.
 
Balance the cost of getting to and from supermarkets, versus ‘saving made from going to that supermarket.’
No point spending a fiver on fuel to save 50p on whatever.

We have a shiny new Aldi and a Morrisons within about a mile, so that does most of our shopping.
An occasional jaunt 4-5 miles to Sainsbury’s, but infrequent as the standard has dropped.
Very rarely, Waitrose - usually if we have to go Newark way. They stock some stuff that the others do not. Maybe once every 3 months.
Also we use an excellent local butchers and sometimes go to a Polish vegetable wholesale place - not that often.
Hopefully you know what you buy on a regular basis and have an idea of the cost.
Make a list and stick to it.

Note: we don’t shop at Asda or Tesco as we don’t like the stores.
Now and again we use the Co-op as they do excellent bread and their own brand mouthwash is my favourite (and good value :))

Apologies as I have never used a comparison site for weekly/daily shopping, never really had the need.
I have been very poor though, for years, so know how to budget shopping.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.


advertisement


Back
Top