Can you do a full monthly shop and Aldi and Lidl

UnderPressure

spongebabs wrote: »

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

I dont mean to be negative I am truly amazed really.............

I just dont understand how you all manage it, I have been thinking bout this all morning now lol and the only thing I can think is that we do not entertain anything that is processed at all in any way, even all our pizzas are completely home made bases then either home made sauce or a decent one from Mr t bla bla bla, hardly anything come in our house that is frozen, we freeze lots and lots of fresh foods but hardly ever buy anything that is frozen.

Our philosophy is a decent breakfast, a healthy packed lunch for the kids at school then every night a family meal made with either fresh meat or fish, along with the 5 a day for everybody as well this is what I dont get if you were to try and live the way we do (not saying we live the right way and you dont not at all) there is no way on this earth you could feed your family with fresh produce every day for 50 quid a week.

Might enlighten me a bit more if some of share with me what you actually DO eat, truthfully of course dont be telling me your eating 3 course dinners every day when you clearly cannot be! I may understand a bit better then.

Maybe you eat a lot of processed stuff that could account for it but I dont class processed rubbish with chips as a healthy meal for the kids or me come to think about, but I an see this is a "cheap" way to live foodwise, I do look in the freezers at the supermarkets now and again and the offers are great but when I look at the ingredient list I just cant bring myself to buy it let let alon eat it lol.

ANyhow dont mean to negative as said, genuinely interested how you manage to feed yourself and your family so cheaply, and in some case with booze as well!!!!!!!!!!

spongebabs

UnderPressure wrote: »

I dont mean to be negative I am truly amazed really.............

I just dont understand how you all manage it, I have been thinking bout this all morning now lol and the only thing I can think is that we do not entertain anything that is processed at all in any way, even all our pizzas are completely home made bases then either home made sauce or a decent one from Mr t bla bla bla, hardly anything come in our house that is frozen, we freeze lots and lots of fresh foods but hardly ever buy anything that is frozen.

Our philosophy is a decent breakfast, a healthy packed lunch for the kids at school then every night a family meal made with either fresh meat or fish, along with the 5 a day for everybody as well this is what I dont get if you were to try and live the way we do (not saying we live the right way and you dont not at all) there is no way on this earth you could feed your family with fresh produce every day for 50 quid a week.

Might enlighten me a bit more if some of share with me what you actually DO eat, truthfully of course dont be telling me your eating 3 course dinners every day when you clearly cannot be! I may understand a bit better then.

Maybe you eat a lot of processed stuff that could account for it but I dont class processed rubbish with chips as a healthy meal for the kids or me come to think about, but I an see this is a "cheap" way to live foodwise, I do look in the freezers at the supermarkets now and again and the offers are great but when I look at the ingredient list I just cant bring myself to buy it let let alon eat it lol.

ANyhow dont mean to negative as said, genuinely interested how you manage to feed yourself and your family so cheaply, and in some case with booze as well!!!!!!!!!!

We certainly don't eat processed food in this house, the only exception would be quorn pieces/fillets for my OH who is a vegetarian, myself and the children eat meat and fish and I never buy things like turkey twizzlers or anything like that, we buy fresh meat and fish and freeze in portions. I also do packed lunches everyday for at least two of us and included in the lunches are AT LEAST three of our five a day.

spongebabs

Oh just realised Underpressure asked for examples for what we eat, sorry! I'll use yesterday as an example, breakfast was cereal, toast and fresh juice for all of us, for lunch there was ham/cheese/salad sandwiches with yoghurt grapes and a banana (and soup for OH) and for tea we had falafel with cous cous, cheese and salad in pitta bread

UnderPressure

spongebabs wrote: »

Oh just realised Underpressure asked for examples for what we eat, sorry! I'll use yesterday as an example, breakfast was cereal, toast and fresh juice for all of us, for lunch there was ham/cheese/salad sandwiches with yoghurt grapes and a banana (and soup for OH) and for tea we had falafel with cous cous, cheese and salad in pitta bread

Well fair play to you, that sound like a lovely menu mmmmmmmmmmm falafel yummy, I dont know where we go wrong then TBH we can spend 50 quid a week between dog food, baby stuff ie nappies wipes et and cleaning products and toiletries without even thinking about food.

Oh well must read more of the budgeting threads on here it really annoys me the amount of money we spend every month some months when the children were younger it felt like I was going into Tesco and turning my wallet over to them lol dont know where we go wrong??

spongebabs

To be fair, we don't need nappy's now and cat food isn't expensive, £2.56 for a weeks worth of kitekate if i remember rightly. Where do you mainly shop? And what sort of stuff do you eat for your main meals?

TUS

The biggest tip I can give anyone is drop brands. We spend 96p per week on cat food by buying Asda's own one. She loves it just as much as whiskers, etc. (she will only eat dry food which is good for us :-))

We've also cut out a few foods which cost more. The only fish we eat is smoked cod once or twice a month which I make into a homepage fish pie. We never buy tinned tuna as its so expensive for what it yields IMO.

Pasta dishes are a big £ saver.

**skinnyminny**

In response to the original post i think it would be doable to do a months shop at lidl, but i would prob only be able to do it if i had a strict and basic meal plan for the month, and i stuck to it without fail, i know that my local lidl is getting more and more things on the shelves now so it is more likely i will shop there more often but at the moment i tend to only go there for the excellent prices for fruit and veg and also any real good deals that i can stock up on, i use mysupermarket each week, find out which supermarket is doing the best price on the things i need and only pick up what is on my list when i go there so in a week, i could go to 4 different supermarkets and spend half the price i would if i just stuck to the one, but also they are very close to where i live so it works well for me, i could imagine it would not be ideal if you had to spend an arm and a leg on petrol just to travel to get the bargains.

If you do try and do it, i would love to know how you get on:) good luck

jimbms

We tend to spend on average £250 per month for two of us and virtualy none of that is in any supermarket, it is all fresh from local butchers, fishmongers, farmers etc using supermarkets only for tea, coffee, sugar stc and for spices to make our own sauces. Pre made and packaged food/sauces is false economy, spend a couple of hours one sunday a month making your own and freezing, far tastier, cheaper and healthier, also if you have kids they will love helping you.

Kavajo

Good advice, to which I would add - look for reduced items. Often these can be frozen or cooked and frozen and set aside. Some supermarkets are better than others for this, also time of day is a factor. I find that popping in the supermarket on the way home is worthwhile. Don't be afraid of sell-by dates, mostly they are meaningless- another tool supermarkets use to make you throw away food and buy more.

littlechezza

May have to b a change of plan, think after reading everything Asda or Morrisons may be the best option, it's not just about saving the money (which is important) but also about saving time and getting everything over and done with in one go, I don't suppose filling the cupboards and freezer and then getting a veg delivery each week is something that anybody does, not sure how that works out price wise.

I also need to plan, got mince out of freezer this morning to make cottage pie and a lasagne and forgot carrots, onions etc., so now have to pop back out to shop and having jacket tatties for tea again!!! I don't mind but the kids are bored of them.