Can you do a full monthly shop and Aldi and Lidl

Lisaberry

I spend far less at Asda than if I go to Lidl/Aldi. Pretty much everything I buy is in the value range (bar things like tea and coffee) and Aldi/Lidl always seem more expensive. Perhaps it's because the ones near me are smallish but I also find the choice pretty slim!

I'm not sure I could cook a whole meal just by going to them, let alone do a whole shop!

pacobabe

Hi all,
We spend £200 a month (2 adults & 2 kids) this includes food, toiletries and alcohol. I take out £50 a week in cash, its so much easier to budget than using cards. I shop in Morrisons, always use the same shop, going to new shops means you pick up more. Take a list with you and try to stick to it.

UnderPressure

pacobabe wrote: »

Hi all,
We spend £200 a month (2 adults & 2 kids) this includes food, toiletries and alcohol. I take out £50 a week in cash, its so much easier to budget than using cards. I shop in Morrisons, always use the same shop, going to new shops means you pick up more. Take a list with you and try to stick to it.

Im sorry but £50 a week and that is feeding "properly" 2 adults and 2 children and providing you with cleaning products, toiletries and alcohol I just do not see how that is possibel :eek:

Especially in Morrisons of all places that is no longer as heap as it used to be, Im not doubting you but there is no way this is a "healthy" lifestyle.

OrkneyStar

UnderPressure wrote: »

Im sorry but £50 a week and that is feeding "properly" 2 adults and 2 children and providing you with cleaning products, toiletries and alcohol I just do not see how that is possibel :eek:

Especially in Morrisons of all places that is no longer as heap as it used to be, Im not doubting you but there is no way this is a "healthy" lifestyle.

Many people on the old style board claim to feed their families healthily for that amount or less....check it out. Don't agree with all the tips but apparently it can be done!

tattycath

UnderPressure wrote: »

Hi TUS

I apologise if I did come across as being harsh or indeed judgemental my post was not intended that way.

I appreciate it is all about living withing your means, and believe me I know money can be tight, we dont have lots of money in fact nowhere near but with 3 young children I am great believer that you only get out of you body and mind what you put in it. I dont think it is unreasonable to feed your children on fresh fruit and vegetables and good quality meats and fish in fact I think it should be a priority.

It is a shame that we have to pay a premium for that standard of living our parents and grandparents enjoyed as the norm, in their day there was a buthcer, a green grocer, a baker and a fish monger all selling high quality fare at reasonable prices, we have the supermarkets to balme for our lack of quality food really along with the birth of the microwave and messed with processed foods.

Its all very sad but me personally would rather eat a loaf of home made bread and a decent free range egg or 2 than any processed garbage found in a freezers in supermarkets.

Good old egg on toast all of the goodness and none of the nastiness added the processed food brigade.

I firmly believe it is one of the reasons why we have so many children in societty today running amock and causing so many problems, a decent diet provides a lot more than just pleasant tastes.

Anyway, we spend so much because of "other" things, such as me and coffee cant stand instant has to be decent quality ground or beans, decent tea bags etc etc never seen the point of bying the cheaper washing products nine times out of ten they dont work, fruit costs an arm and a leg now and vegetables, it all mounts up we by no means live an extravagent lifestyle wow I wish we did

Anyhow peace out

We buy decent tea bags, decent coffe, cleaning materials etc, but we stock up on them when they are on offer-so as to save money. We normally do all our shopping at one supermarket and local shops for inbetween shopping. We are currently looking into purchasing fresh meat and veg from a local market-to see if we can save money there.

katskorner

sarah1972 wrote: »

£300 for 2 adults and 2 children is doing things cheaply already, I spend £400 a month for 2 of us.

I spend £250 per month and FIVE of us an two cats and I think that I could cut it down.

I spread my shop over several supermarkets. I like Morrisons the best and I use Lidl and sometimes Aldi. I go to tesco for milk or the cash and carry. I get catfood from tesco and the cat biscuits from B&M bargains when i can. Alcohol is included in our budget but once in a while I will stock up on wine pushing the budget up that month to last for about 3-4 months. I prefer shopping around and buy things on offer or the basic version if the nutritional content is as good as the more pricy brands. It might take a bit more time but it is worth it. I get nappies on offer at baby events and also use washables which are far cheaper if less convienient (ie you have to actually wash them). I get washing powder in bulk on offers and keep it in the shed or I buy a box from netto when they have offers. I grow my own veg or get most it it from Lidl when my own is not in season. I don't grow everything but my yield of potatoes and onions menas i don't buy them most of the year.

UnderPressure

katskorner wrote: »

I grow my own veg or get most it it from Lidl when my own is not in season. I don't grow everything but my yield of potatoes and onions menas i don't buy them most of the year.

Thats a great idea and one I have been toying with for a while, we have just had a load of work done in our gardens and have a nice corner available now for growing veg, want to get a few fruit trees and bushes dotted around as well, this is the ideal way to do it, not only do you know for sure where it has been sourced and what has been used to aid its growth but the saving aspect could be potentially huge.

I used to grow some veg a few years ago and it is an awful lot of effort, definately not just a case of throwing plants in the ground and ignoring them, but even then I found the results more than satisfying for the effort involved.

I was thinking of getting an allotment and could have had one last year but it was around 10 miles away from home and very overgrown this would have required lots of effort just to get it to a stage ready for growing anything, it has worked out well for me as we have a big front and back garden so with a little imagination I can grow all sorts all around the garden, why fill borders with pretty flowers that will just die, get some lettue and raddish and herbs going, herbs are great they look lovely provide some great smells and always useable in 1 way or another.

We tried last year growing some tomaotes outside, they did actually work I was surprised, I did not give them and attention at all it was a pure experiment literally planted them out and once a month tied them to trellis that was behind them and fed them, no weeding nothing, the yield was around 3lb of toms per plant, this year I am going to do the same but now care for them a bit more regular weeding, watering feeding etc so yield should increase quite well.

Anyhow enough waffling from me I just wanted to applaud you for home growing

katskorner

UnderPressure wrote: »

Anyhow enough waffling from me I just wanted to applaud you for home growing

It does require work and a bit of know how but you can learn as you go along - I am lucky to have had a good grounding from my dad and grandad so i have been groing since I was little. Potatoes are easy - you plant them, earth them up and leave them to it. It is the harvesting of them that involves the work! But they taste soooo good.

I am very aware of what i spend as I used to make brilliant savings with coupons but that is practically gone now the supermarkets have got really strict so i have to really watch it. I don't like to waste food but I like to have choice and lots of fresh food too. I like the odd steak, I love king prawns and chicken breasts. I just buy them when they are on offer, reduced or in bulk and freeze them. We make our own bread or buy it reduced. I just try to be savvy. There are always more ways to save money if you really really try, without massive compromises along the way.

We don't get take out very often - we get a curry from Asda (quite often at great prices - this weekend we got a meal for 4 for just £5 so that is TWO takeout nights for us for just £2.50 each!). For chinese we buy WanChi Ferry kits when they are on offer and cook one of those and make our own prawn crackers (really easy) from a big box. Pizza, well we never get takeout pizza - far too expensive - supermarket Chicago Town is EXCELLENT.

UnderPressure

katskorner wrote: »

We make our own bread or buy it reduced.

We too make all our own bread and muffins, now and again we will buy a loaf but not very often anymore, making bread has saved us loads of money even having to pay for yeast from MR T still a decent saving, but again when we did used to buy bread it was always premium we would never buy the cheap bread just look the at the ingredients :eek: crikey

Hate waste as well, we have 2 extra freezers in the garage 1 for bulk buy reduced stuff and them one purely full of leftovers that have been made into other things, suh as pies, homemade ravioli it is amazing what you can mix with pasta lol, soups all sorts, we dont throw anything even if we cant make another meal from it the dogs eat it lol.

I love the redued sections in supermarkets, especially if you have freezer space, I find Morrisons a bit tight on the amount they knock off so dont even bother looking in their reduced fridges anymore but have had some great bargains from tesco, somerfield and a local litlle independant supermarket near us called CK's. I have got a bit OCD with it all now I spotted a full tray of 8 pints of double cream reduced last week, should have been 1.68 a pint got it for 60p a pint took it home threw it in the kenwood chef a pint at a time and made butter with it loads of butter now in the freezer, I then froze the buttermil to make scone and soda bread with lol.

I get genuinely excited over what you can do with food and great ways of improving the quality of the things you eat sad I know

spongebabs

UnderPressure wrote: »

Im sorry but £50 a week and that is feeding "properly" 2 adults and 2 children and providing you with cleaning products, toiletries and alcohol I just do not see how that is possibel :eek:

Especially in Morrisons of all places that is no longer as heap as it used to be, Im not doubting you but there is no way this is a "healthy" lifestyle.

Underpressure, why are you being so negative with everyone?? I think we can assume we all know how to feed our families on the budget we have!

Anyway, I spend between £40 and £50 per week for an Ocado delivery and then probably another £10-£20 per week on bread/milk or anything we've run out of and that's for 2 adults, 2 children and a cat