How often do you shop?

I shop fortnightly to coincide with payday. I havn't run out of anything and always make sure there are some vege in the freezer jic the fresh stuff has gone off within that time.

When we move and I go on maternity leave we will continue to shop fortnightly for our main supermarket shop, however I will be buying fruit and vege from the dozens of fruit and vege suppliers only metres from where we'll be living. They're a lot cheaper than the supermarket and in walking distance - I'm thinking the savings on gas will afford me to shop for fresh fruit and vege more frequently.

I went through a stage of being quite organised but I'm getting a bit out of hand again so might try doing a shop for fresh things weekly and canned / toiletries / cleaning stuff monthly.

Instead of menu planning I'm trying having a list of the meals I tend to have ingredients on hand for on the pantry door.  That way if I run out of steam I can just look at the list and choose something from that. - I'm hoping that it might stop random trips to the supermarket too!

we have just changed from shoping weekly to 2 smaller shops twice a week we were throwing out far to much stuff it seems to be working. and i go to the butcher locally for meat weekly .. usally get 5 different ones as we have takeaways or go out or something simple the otehr 2 nights. not sure if butcher works out cheaper but its better as you can get smaller cuts of meat.

We shop weekly (on a Tuesday) for everything... and usually spend no more than $200 for the 5 of us.

Normally on a Sunday I'll have to grab another loaf of bread and milk..

We do a big shop twice a month. Then every 3 days we buy fresh fruit and veg. We never really go over our food budget limit as such.

But I must say if I quickly go into a shop for one or two things I never seem to leave with just that and before you know it, it is an extra $81 worth of stuff that you wonder where and what did you actually get.

So now I just buy another one of longlife milk to have in the house so if Grant and McKayla runs out of milk then there is that and I dont have to quickly go in.

I do combination shopping. So sometimes I buy a whole lamb cut up the way that we want. Buy free range chickens when on special (and stock up for 3 or so months worth). Same with all other meat specials.

Busy setting up a garden so we can have our organic produce right here. (garden will be eventually about 40 square metres so pretty big)

We have mesclun in the ground that we can start picking in the next two weeks.

What is difficult is as really thinking of moving completely or as much as we can go to the organic side. But to buy local stuff not brought in from overseas.

Our budget for food is $1000 a month. But in saying that it includes everything. Nappies, birthday gifts, toys if I want to buy through the month. And I normally just take $200 and put in another account. According to my spreadsheet we spent between $500 and 800 at the moment with an average of 734 for the last 12 months. (including all the take aways or food bought while out)

Linzy wrote: peachy wrote: We do a big shop once a month at the supermarket and butchers and once a week I pop into the green grocers for fruit, vege, milk and bread. I also buy the meat in big packs and break it down into meal sized portions so we don't over eat. The reason I shop this way is because I hate food shopping with a passion! I could have written this post, we are same here. I think shopping monthly is actually cheaper for us. There is less chance for impulse shopping. I plan a month's worth of dinners, lunches, backing etc and only buy the things I need, I no longer have cans of food sitting in the pantry for months on end. I buy from the local butcher and he is more expensive than the supermarket/Mad Butcher specials but I can get the exactly quantities I want and the quality is much better, mince is just meat rather than full of water and fat. I tend to use smaller quantities per meal as it is better quality Due to my dislike for supermarket shoppping and my desire to reduce my bill even further I am actually investigating bulk buying for a 6mth period with the help of Babe's blog

I so hear you on the mince front! Mince from our local butcher is delicious and I only use half what I would if I bought it from the supermarket!

I also think we spend less shopping monthly. As we get towards shopping time I have to get really creative with meals though!

im with you calijack i love the supermarket too!

caliandjack wrote: I must be weird then cause I love food shopping.

me too, but I love food and cooking so maybe that is the difference?

We shop on a Tuesday but I can go to the supermarket at any time to get things we have forgotten.

We tend to spend about $150-$180 a week on food.

My first 2 weekly shops went really well.  In fact I came in 10% under budget this week despite the GST price rise (and some price rises that are far too high be GST related) and I haven't had to throw out any perishables so I'm pretty pleased with myself.

I used to love shopping too and I still like seeing what's new at the supermarket but I must admit having 2 kids with me makes it less relaxed than it used to be.  I still love cooking though.