A large family can be difficult to shop for. No matter what you do, you can end up with a massive bill that creeps up and up if you are not careful. Here are some of the things you can do to try to keep those family food bills down.
Learn to Cook
One of the first things you should always learn is actually how to cook. You might be shocked at how cheap it is cook from scratch in the long term. For example, if you were to buy enough ready-made lasagne to feed your whole family, you might end up with a bigger final bill than you might like. However, if you bought the ingredients to make your own, the price might be less or comparable. You will also have leftover ingredients like the lasagne sheets, herbs, and tomato paste so you don’t have to buy them again.
There are so many resources that you can pull on if you want to learn to cook better. Why not teach your children so you can learn together? Even very young children can begin to pick up important skills in the kitchen that will serve them well for the rest of their lives.
Buy Online
There are some real gems available if you want to find the cheapest online food shopping available. Low Price Foods, for instance, are one of the best short-dated food suppliers in the UK and with their range of products, you can find many of your staples at a fraction of what they might usually cost.
When buying cheap food online, there can always be a question as to the quality of the food. However, you might be pleasantly surprised at what you are able to find. Many of your favourite foods can be bought online for a fraction of what they might cost in your local supermarket. Looking at these sorts of sites can be a great move to help you find the best deals on things that you know your family goes through quickly.
Buy in Bulk
Though buying in bulk can be a more expensive purchase at first, it will be more cost-effective over time. For example, if you have the choice between a 4-pack or a 16-pack of something, you need to take a closer look at the prices. You might find that the 16-pack is worth a lot less than four of the 4-packs. Learning to shop like this is important for grabbing savings where you can.
There are speciality shops and supermarkets like Costco where you can really put this into action, but you can also do it in your own local supermarket with the right focus. Next time you head in, try looking at the prices and comparing things as you buy them. There are some amazing savings to be made when buying in bulk.
Try Growing Your Own
Want to have a go at gardening? One of the best ways to get fruits and vegetables for cheap (and fresher than anything from a supermarket) is to grow them yourselves. If you are looking for another great family activity, this could be one that suits a family that loves to spend time outside.
Caring for fruits and vegetables takes a lot of time, but it can be worth all your hard work when you tuck into that first meal knowing that you grew half the plate. Start with something that can be on the easier side to grow, that you also know that your family goes through a lot of. Potatoes, tomatoes, and lettuce are great options that are easy to buy from garden centres or specialist shops. From there, you can expand and learn more about how to successfully cultivate your garden!
Why not even look into the cost of buying chickens if your family eats a lot of eggs? Though you have to spend money to get them a good hut and all the feed, compared to the money you might be spending on eggs each week, you might be making quite the savings!
Track Your Spending
One of the most important things you need to do when trying to save money on your shops is to track your spending. Try to limit the number of times you go food shopping each week. Why not aim for a one-month stock-up at the cheapest online supermarket you can find for bulk-buying, and then a weekly shop to buy the more perishable items?
Before you know it, you could be the savviest of shoppers – able to provide delicious home-cooked meals for your children no matter how many mouths are around the table. Take this as the perfect chance to teach yourself more about food and how we engage with it. You could pick up some new hobbies and end up eating a better diet than you did before, all while saving money that could be put towards something more worthwhile for the family.
my hubby has an allotment and he grows for us (when time) but we are also fans of buying in bulk! But not too crazily right now!!
Allotments are a great way to keep the costs down aren’t they?
These are great tips – I really want to start growing our own vegetables this year 🙂
It gives you a great sense of achievement and delicious meals too 🙂
This is great advice! I love to cook so that does keep costs lower. We do try to avoid eating out and I try to plan ahead as much as possible.
Bulk cooking is a great money saver .. Unless you have a partner like mine that just helps himself to extra servings before I have chance to freeze it!!
Lol now that sounds very familiar x
I think now is a great time to learn to cook. so many exciting dishes to cook up and enjoy with your household bubble xx
It certainly has become more of family activity, I love seeing everyone’s pictures on social media x
Lots of great tips. I love growing a few veggies like tomatoes and we’re lucky as we also have a few fruit tress in the garden.
I used to love my Grandparents garden, they had a huge allotment and loads of fruit trees 🙂
These are great tips. I wish we had space to grow our own vegetables.
I have often considered an allotment myself, I just wish my kids would eat more fruit and veg.
These are such great tips for keeping the budget in control! The gardening idea is the best. My uncle saves a lot of money because he never buys vegetables, fruits and fish from the market! At our ancestral property, we have ponds, huge veg gardens ?
Oh wow that sounds amazing.