A friend of mine Niamh Ronan feeds a family of 5 every week on €70-€80! When I heard this I was astounded and intrigued as to how she does it (?). She started doing it out of necessity, but then then continued as her old ways seemed so wasteful and she’d ‘rather have my cash for the fun stuff for myself and my family!‘. It all seems so practical as she says herself – ‘You don’t order more meals than you’ll eat in a restaurant, so why buy more than you’ll eat in a week in the shop?’
She’s someone who is ‘Shopping on a budget’ week in- week out, so I thought I’d ask the lady herself to share her wisdom with you..

How many people in your family?
5 – 2 adults and 3 children aged 6, 4 and 1.

Where do you shop?
99% Aldi but I use Tesco for dairy free products as Aldi don’t have these available unfortunately.

How much do you spend per week?
€70.00 – €80.00

How do you budget?
I gave up work to be a stay at home Mum 4 years ago and back then a strict budget was a necessity in order to have money for all the bills and enough disposable income for the “fun stuff”. I made a list of our incomings versus our outgoings and decided how much of our net I wanted to be spending per week on groceries. It took a bit of tweaking to get the amount right, but I eventually settled in or around a weekly spend of €70.00 – €80.00. I found this was tight, but I could absolutely get everything necessary for all of us for one week. Now that I’m back at work full time I haven’t changed my budget at all because 4 years of shopping on a strict budget made me realise that a large weekly spend just wasn’t necessary. I’d rather have my cash for the fun stuff for myself and my family!

How do you plan your weekly shop?
I plan using a spreadsheet (see link below) which contains prices of all my usual items. I built this up gradually by taking prices off my receipts of the stuff I buy every week. It didn’t take very long to put together. Then I plan what I need to buy for daily meals, school lunches/ work lunches and enter the quantities into the spreadsheet which tots up what I’ll be spending as I go along.  I print it off and buy exactly what’s on the list when I get there. This way I know what I’ll be spending before I go to the shop.

What do you pay attention to and what are you most wary of when shopping?
I don’t shop when hungry as I’ll just throw extra things in. If I haven’t had time to do my list any week then I’ll tot up using my mobile phone as I go around to be sure I’m on track budget wise. I always buy the fruit and veg that are on the Super 6 shelf even if they’re not on my list – I just substitute for something I planned to buy in the fruit and veg section. I don’t tend to get drawn in by special offers as I think often they just make you buy something you probably don’t need. If there is a special on something I use all the time I will stock up but otherwise special offers don’t entice me too much.

What advice would you give someone looking to do a household budget?
Planning is everything. You need to have a spreadsheet or a notebook or whatever way you want to do it with all your bills and outgoings listed against your incomings so that you can see a real representation of your disposable income, not just what is on your payslip. As for budget shopping the greatest reason for overspending is not making and sticking to a list before shopping. I would also recommend that people start trying to let go of what I consider a real ‘Irishism’ whereby we feel the need to pack our cupboards. More than 6 million tonnes of food is thrown out by Irish households every year. Empty shelves the day before shopping day means you have planned to perfection! You don’t order more meals than you’ll eat in a restaurant so why buy more than you’ll eat in a week in the shop? Also rotate the weeks that you buy household cleaning products and toiletries. If you buy dishwasher tablets, shampoo and conditioner, washing powder, nappies etc all in the same week your shop will cost loads so try to rotate the weeks where you buy household products even if you don’t need them that particular week.

What pitfalls may they encounter?
Obviously the biggest pitfalls are the one off events such as birthdays or family barbeques but if you know something like this is coming up you can buy a little each week coming up to the event rather than splashing out 50 extra euro in one week. When Halloween is approaching for example I buy a multi bag of crisps or a bumper bag of jellies each week for 4 weeks in the run up rather than pile a load of things into the trolley on the 30th of October.

Did you ever ‘fall off the wagon’ and splurge?
Yes absolutely. I recently spent over €160 on an Aldi shop but in my defence I bought quite a few camping items which were on special. I do genuinely feel though that budgeting is something to be aimed for on a weekly basis in order that you CAN splurge on the odd occasion!

What is your biggest extravagance in your weekly shop?
My biggest extravagance I suppose are the speciality dairy free items I have to buy for my eldest son who is allergic to dairy and eggs.  Obviously I don’t mind at all as he needs them but buying 4 soya yoghurts for €3.00 does kind of gall me when I can get 6 dairy yoghurts for 99c in Aldi. These types of dietary specialist items are amazingly pricey and it’s difficult because there is no choice but to buy them when you have specialist dietary needs in your family. Therefore milk and yoghurts for my eldest son cost about one eighth of my weekly shop which relatively speaking is a lot. As regards the biggest extravagance which isn’t necessary; well that would be wine for Mum and Dad and Haribo packs for the kids.. absolutely not necessary but what’s life without a few treats!

Impressed??? So was I. Niamh also kindly shared the budget spreadsheet she uses. You can save it and modify it to suit your budget or create your own. Click here to view the spreadsheet.

If you have any tips you would like to share, please leave a comment, I would be delighted to hear from you!- Value Vera