Shopping List

You may find this the most boring post ever, in which case, feel free to move on ...

Lucy of Our Very Own Little House posted her itemised shopping bill for a week as a snapshot in time record and inspired me to do the same. Mine breaks down into three: meat (bought monthly), organic fruit and vegetable box (delivered weekly) and a weekly run round the supermarket. I usually shop on Thursday evenings, so this is my grocery list for the week beginning Thursday July 3rd.

Conversions - 1 kg is around 2 pounds, 1 litre a bit less than 2 pints, and the exchange rate is roughly $2 to £1.

Meat
I buy and freeze meat once a month from Waitrose. It is more expensive than Tesco, but better quality and I believe their animal welfare standards are higher. I came to the conclusion that organic meat, particularly chicken, is simply beyond my budget so this is a good compromise. This is the meat I expect us to eat this week ...

1 large chicken - £3.90 (1/3 off as I bought it on the sell by date and froze it)
1 x 500g minced beef - £1.75 (2 for £3.50 offer)
2 x packs of 8 chicken drumsticks - £3 (another multibuy offer)
lamb and redcurrant sausages - £2.99

Total cost = £11.64

Organic Produce
I have a medium size organic vegetable box and an organic fruit box delivered weekly, paying £21.10 for the two. This week the contents were:

Bag of new potatoes (1.5 kg)
Bag of carrots
4 onions
2 green peppers
1 red pepper
3 courgettes
Red cabbage
Broccoli
Mushrooms
Lettuce
Bunch of wet garlic
6 large apples
4 nectarines
Small punnet of strawberries
10 plums
5 bananas

This is not enough for us for a week so I top up at the supermarket, usually with non-organic produce - trying to balance ethical shopping and budget here!

Groceries (from Morrisons)
I didn't buy much last week, so this was a slightly larger than average trolley load. I usually aim to spend between £50 and £60. I am very much a bargain hunter and will shop partly to my menu plan and partly according to what is on offer - particularly for snacks and things to throw into lunch boxes.

4 packs granary rolls @ 19p - 76p
pack of 6 teacakes - 25p
pack of 3 eccles cakes - 29p
4 cheese twists - 50p
1 x wholemeal loaf - 29p
(all these were heavily discounted as they were on their sell by date)
6 tortilla wraps - £1.09
1 x white sliced loaf - 65p
5 chocolate eclairs - £1.24 (for Angel's French picnic at school)
Small pick and mix salad tray - £1.39 (late dinner for Angel)
300g medium cheddar cheese - £1.71
2 x 250g butter - £1.80 (multibuy offer)
300g houmous - 87p
2 small sticks garlic bread - 58p
4 pints organic semi-skimmed milk - £1.65
2 x 4 Dairylea Dunkers @ £1 - £2 (special offer)
Muller "One" Yogurts 4 pack - £1.10 (special offer)
Egg mayonnaise sandwich filler 400g - £1.09
12 medium organic eggs - £2.61 (special offer)
Strawberry Crisp cereal (store brand) - £1.28
Cookie Crisp cereal - £1.65
Pack of egg noodles - 79p
500g bag 'value' pasta - 19p
500g bag wholemeal pasta - 78p
3 pack tins sweetcorn - £1.08
1 tin Campbells condensed tomato soup - 52p (for making BBQ sauce)
1 kg sugar - 84p
Dried yeast - 99p
Box 480 teabags (store brand) - £2.48
Bisto gravy browning - 91p
750g jar mayonnaise (store brand) - £1.35
Small bottle brown sauce - 31p
2 cans baked beans (store brand) @ 31p - 62p
12 pack French Fries
+ 12 pack Walkers Squares (both = potato chips) - £1.98 (BOGOF offer)
2 x Jacobs Hi Fibre Cream Crackers - £1 (multibuy offer)
2 x 5 Hob-Nobs Flapjacks - £1.25 (BOGOF offer)
2 x 5 caramel Rocky biscuits - 92p (BOGOF offer)
2 x Elkes Cow Biscuits - 69p (BOGOF offer)
3 x 1 litre cartons fresh orange juice @ 65p - £1.95 (special offer)
2 x 1 litre cartons cranberry juice @ 69p - £1.38
2 x 3 packs individual orange juice @ 62p - £1.24
4 x Muller "One" smoothies - £2 (BOGOF offer)
2 x 2 litre cola max + 2 litre lemonade - £1.09 (multibuy offer)
2 packs of 4 cod fishcakes - £1.50 (multibuy offer)
1 bag frozen sprouts - 58p
1 bag McCain oven chips (= fries) - £2.19
2 boxes of 6 vegetarian sausage rolls @ £1.29 - £2.58
2 cheese and tomato pizzas - £2 (multibuy offer)
490g parsnips - £1.12
2 x cucumbers @ 72p - £1.44
6 tomatoes - 69p
Bag small apples - £1
10 bananas - 99p
500g carrots - 45p
Honeydew melon - £1
2.5kg bag potatoes - £1.39
1 pack 6 rolls 'value' kitchen towel - £1.58
Eco-friendly washing-up liquid - 89p

Total cost = £66.67

My budget is £400 for the month and my total spend for the week was £99.41. We also get 4 litres of milk delivered by the milkman each week, which costs £3.02.