Englishmum

Aldi's profits have risen by 200% in the UK:

http://uk.finance.yahoo.com/news/dis...090417573.html

I'm moving to Switzerland (spouse is already there) and on the outskirts of town there is an Aldi, and in the other direction there is a Lidl store (which I much prefer). The beer and wine is much cheaper than anywhere else, yet the quality is fine.

WEBlue

Yes, this happens to me too. I have to ruthlessly limit the number of times I do food shopping in order to stay within budget. Lately I'm trying to limit us to only two shops per week. Doesn't work some weeks, but I try.

As for nipping out for a pint of milk, I've found that the longlife cartons of milk sold on the shelves will tide me over if we run out of fresh milk, so I keep a couple of the cartons in my pantry. They only need refrigerating once they're opened & even my fussy husband can't tell the difference in the taste.

This is a great tip! My mum did this for years & years when we were growing up, & I need to do it too. When I'm planning ahead well, I tend do this mentally, sketching out all the week's meals ahead in my mind, but it's much better to do it on paper & hang the menu on the fridge so I don't forget.

WEBlue

Wait what? Which non-food stuff do females use more of? Are you talking about toiletries or cosmetics? I use very few cosmetics (only a bit of mascara which lasts me a year), no special shampoos or soaps or body lotion & sunblock (share all those with the OH), same toothpaste as the OH. In fact, I think he spends more on mouthwash, which I detest, & disposable razors than I spend on toiletries for me. Interesting to think about, but I would dispute that.

Unless you're perhaps referring to monthly female-type supplies? I will give you that as a continuing expense, but that it does end eventually. Thank goodness I'm long over that need.

Leslie

Ways to eat for $1 per meal per person - HEALTHY.

Buy in bulk:

Legumes
Whole grain pasta
Brown and basmati rice.

Buy day old bread from the bakery. Most of them will have a place (somewhere in the store far away from the actual bakery) where they mark bread down by at least half. This bread is usually better than the mass produced (read that as cardboard) stuff anyway. You can usually find nutty/whole grain bread half the price of a loaf of cardboard bread.

Find marked-down for quick sale meat and eggs - 30-50% off.

Find dented and close out items - but only buy stuff that you know you'll use like tinned tomatoes, etc.

Shop ethnic. Mercado, Indian, Asian markets have some high quality inexpensive stuff on offer. These are the places to stock up on spices.

Don't buy massive amounts of fresh produce at a time unless you know for sure you'll be using it all in a certain recipe.

Cut out/down expensive stuff that you're body doesn't really need anyway like meat, cheese, milk, butter. Increase cheap things that your body does need like eggs, oatmeal, brown rice, legumes.

Anian

Toilet rolls, tissues, special shampoos, lotions, razor blades, women seem to use far more of it. And that's before you add the absurdly priced make-up. Very pleased that my wife rarely uses make-up. It might be just the women in my family and my wife's family (none of whom are the kind to bother significantly with their appearances) but I'm guessing you just aren't a typical woman. Not that there is anything wrong with that, in fact I'd prefer my wife to be more like you!

Bink

We've started doing this. I go down to the grocery store early Sunday morning and check out their clearance items (especially meat) and then spend the afternoon cooking up a variety of different things. Tend to buy whole or chicken legs and make stock, shred the cooked chicken and freeze some stock and use the rest to make soup (carrot & Corriander, leek and potato, vegetable etc). It's a very effective way of using the clearance items, I cook up a weeks worth of meals and then either put them in the fridge or freeze them. We still cook from scratch during the week but it saves us from going out when we've both had long days and neither of us has the energy to cook from scratch.

Orangepants

I must be a complete bimbo- love all that kind of stuff - lotions, potions, creams, cologne, make-up - got a whole vanity full of the stuff, also have to take into account the amount of money I spend on mani/pedis/facials etcc...could probably afford to put a pool in with the amount I spend on personal grooming a year

Leslie

and stuff like that transports well for lunches too.

WEBlue

Women use more toilet rolls per week, haha yes I suppose I must concede that. But you're saying men don't use as many tissues as women do? I'd say that depends on how allergy or cold-prone either partner is.
Yes, I'd be lying if I tried to say I'm a typical woman in spending on toiletries. I'm fanatically frugal, first of all, and very suspicious of commercial hype & propaganda (especially when it's got a "gender" type of agenda). Plus I've always had skin that can't take all the usual perfumes & additives in those ridiculously "girly" cosmetics. For years & years my moisturizer has been ordinary extra virgin olive oil from the supermarket & I use baby shampoo on my hair, which my husband is happy enough to share with me. He's not fussy toiletry-wise either, thank goodness.

But as for razors & blades: unless you have a beard, don't you actually spend more on these than your wife does?? Even the 'girliest' girls don't shave every day the way many/most men do....
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I have to laugh, because this thread is starting to remind me of one of my poor girlfriends long ago. She had a young daughter from a previous relationship & when they first moved in with her present husband, who had been a long-time bachelor, he was aghast at how much toilet roll "his girls" went through every week. He said they used more loo paper in one week than he used in six months! My friend got quite embarrassed, & asked me how much loo roll I used, he used to make her so paranoid....

WEBlue

Great tips! I do most of them, actually. I'm all over day old bread & bagels (half-price) & whip them into the freezer for a rainy day. Same with the checking the discounted meat & tins. I've never seen egg mark-downs though. I also check the produce markdowns every day--just wish they wouldn't bind them so tight in cling-film that they squash some of the fruit & veg!

Hmm, $1 per meal pp translates to $27 pp pw. That beats Poppygirl's $35-$40 and Bob's $16-$17 pp pw. (And for two, it would be $54 pp pw.) Good goal, but not sure I can cut it that low. We'll see....

Well...we've cut way down on meat over the years, but just cannot give up milk, cheese & lean dairy like yogurt & cottage cheese. We love our dairy products too much! (The crappy quality of cheese here notwithstanding!) We both developed a dreadful weakness for American ice cream this summer, for which I blame the stupid heatwave. We tried desperately to wean ourselves away from the ice cream onto the italian ice cups, but I'm not sure we managed.

Bob

Big time! We can get a decent rub of paprika, curry, etc from either a local Indian or Brazilian grocery store for a buck v $4 at the local regular grocery store.

We also get "utility" seconds for apples at the local apple orchard, these are odd sized apples or they have scars on them. There was a massive hail storm earlier in the summer, so there are loads of apples at the moment, so means we can get a half bushel for $9.50 instead of $25.

Sliced and diced, bagged in the freezer ready to make apple pies, also canned a huge amount of apple sauce that we've got a years supply.

Same for the tomatoes, got a bunch of seconds, so huge tray for $9 instead of $20 and we've got a years supply of pasta sauce canned away.

We've also made a years supply of pepper and chilly jams, strawberry and raspberry jams using a mix of picked and seconds, or stuff from the garden....and a years supply of pickled gerkins. We just tried pickled onions, turned out really well, so we'll make more of those, as those onions are pretty cheap come thanks giving time, but the jar we made cost us 50c in supplies, we already had mason jars, so bargain compared to the $4.50 a jar in the store, though it's cheaper if you go to a Brazilian grocery store, but don't quite taste the same to what we're used to.

Bob

I don't know about most people, but I use double edged razor blade and can get 35 blade count on Amazon for $2.50 if I time it right to get free shipping, or it's $4. That's a years supply for me as they're good for a week each, as I dont' shave every day.

One saving the missus has is using cheap shampoo instead of shaving gel as it goes further, much cheaper and works better than that Skintimate stuff she used to use.

SpoogleDrummer

I aim for about $50 per person but it tends to be more along the lines of $75. I've got a wife who doesn't cook and 2 toddlers that don't eat but like to have an all day buffet constantly refreshed. Suffice to say take out gets added on top of that just to get some kind of nourishment in to them.

WEBlue

Oops wow, my math was all out of whack here! $1 per meal actually translates to $21 pp pw, not $27. That beats Poppygirl's total but NOT Bob's. And for two it should be only $42 pw.

Spoogledrummer, you say your wife doesn't cook? Do you cook at all then? Trying to imagine how I could keep our bills to $50 pp pw if I didn't cook--some days it seems like I cook ALL THE TIME!

Leslie

For me, and Bob obviously , the most important thing is to take the time to invest in your pantry and freezer. Don't let yourself run out of staples and basic ingredients. Most recipes I use, or new ones I want to try, I'll already have most of what I need on hand. Some weeks all I'll have to buy is a little produce because I have everything else. This makes a big difference when times are tight or if you've had an unexpected expense come up.