Reducing weekly shopping costs?

Popperwell

MarilynMonroe wrote: »

I've cut down only buying Tesco value range and then just topping up bits and pieces at Lidls.
I've tried stuff I never dreamed I would and am now a convert to the cheapy range!

I have gone down this route but sometimes you still sometimes seem to get so little and still costs too much, it probably isn't but when income is low(paid/state help)and it is likely to get worse.

Even if shopping in person you can have a look at offers and get an idea what is good value on a couple of sites...

http://www.supermarketownbrandguide.co.uk/index.php

http://www.mysupermarket.co.uk/

pinkmami wrote: »

I did a sum earlier on line for packs of mince, packs of diced beef, packs of chicken breasts & 1 whole chicken and it came up to £28.21 in Aldi & a whopping £34.80 in Tesco. In my butcher I dread to think how much it would be.

I buy lots of Value stuff. Kids like orange juice & Lidl do 1.5l box for 89p. Value is 60p+ for 1L. hovis bread is also cheaper in Lidl & Farm Foods. These things I buy & know where they're cheaper locally.

I have found that all meat seems expensive now so there is a lot of time spent deciding if I should buy any but if I do I stretch it out over a number of meals and put more vegetables in to bulk things out.

Liz3yy wrote: »

I guess it depends on how fussy your family are and what they will eat? There is just me and OH in our house, and we spend between £30 and £40 per week and eat pretty well on that, I bake cakes at the weekend and I always make use the of the 3 for £10 offers on meat and fish at Tesco. The only time we buy meat from the butcher is at Xmas, as we like to splurge on a joint of beef to share with the in-laws.

You need to take time to check out all the shops to see what offers they have, it's time consuming but worth it if you can make big savings. For instance I saw today that Iceland have packs of breaded fish fillets for just 75p (normally they're about £3)

That can be my problem even as a single person and I seem to get so little for what I spend, when as is likely my income reduces further as I expect thanks to welfare cuts, I do wonder if I am struggling now just how much worse it is going to be. I don't want to wish my life away but if I was older I may be left alone and not have so many changes to worry about.

If I do spend I try to stretch it out what I buy and get a few meals out of it.

Sadly many shops that sell value goods seem to be out of town so you need transport, a friend willing to take you or use public transport which restricts how much you can bring home with you and of course you have to add the bus/train/taxi fare.

Luckily in a few weeks we have an Aldi's opening and there is a Heron's otherwise our SM is a Tesco's.

Yet five miles away one town has an Aldi's, a Lidl's, Sainsbury's, Tesco's. Morrisons, ASDA, Wilkinsons, Poundland, Heron, Iceland and that area/town doesn't seem any more busy or large as here...Even with that choice you need one important thing...Money!

So even if Aldi's have bargains I will still be watching what I spend.

valk_scot

That's still £85 a week on food. How old are the kids? Three huge teenagers and I could understand £85, three tots and I think it's a bit much tbh.

I do venture into Iceland now and again and from what I remember there's not exactly a huge range of ingredient foods but lots of pre-prepped and processed items, which make feeding a family more expensive. Do you do much cooking from scratch and if so, have you tried costing out your weekly shopping list from another supermarket such as Lidl or Aldi?

falko89

valk_scot wrote: »

That's still £85 a week on food. How old are the kids? Three huge teenagers and I could understand £85, three tots and I think it's a bit much tbh.

I do venture into Iceland now and again and from what I remember there's not exactly a huge range of ingredient foods but lots of pre-prepped and processed items, which make feeding a family more expensive. Do you do much cooking from scratch and if so, have you tried costing out your weekly shopping list from another supermarket such as Lidl or Aldi?

No the £85 includes things like nappies, toiletries, cleaning products etc. Kids are 2,6,8.

We are all very plain eaters, fish fingers, chicken strips that kind of thing, our dinners most nights consist of spuds, I take veg no one else likes it and say something mentioned above. We don't have Aldi near us but Lidl is quite expensive got we've found, certainly not as cheap as it once was, with our discount from Iceland it kind of ties us there, the 10% does make a difference, before the discount I guess there wouldn't be alot of difference between Lidl, Iceland and even Tesco's to a point but with the 10% it does make Iceland the cheapest, I am the first to admit though a lot of the food is garbage, the meat I wouldn't feed to our dog, its tough and rotten, the fruit is constantly bruised and has a limited selection.

lindsaygalaxy

I think eating fish fingers, chicken strips etc is probably part of the cost. I used to think Iceland was cheaper, but actually by the time you buy a box of fish fingers for one nights meal, then potatoes and beans, it adds up and doesn't have hude nutritional value, though is easy. Some mince, an onion, packet or pasata and pasta will go a lot further. Its people on here that have taught me that! I can now make a whole chicken last for sunday lunch, pie on monday, and use the carcass for stock for a soup. (Though still keep the fish fingers in the freezer for emergency quick dinner for the kids!)

Butterfly_Brain

Do the oldest have school dinners and are you entitled to free school meals? Check to make sure that you are getting the benefits that you are entitled too
(Before this scabby lot in power grab it for their rich mates :mad:)

You have to shop around to keep costs low:
Check all the supermarket web sites for current offers

Wilkinson's currently have:
Pampers baby wipes at 50p
Robinsons juice 50p
Huggies nappies £4.50
2 pack kitchen roll 50p
Parazone 50p

Aldi have toilet rolls 9 for £1.99
Soap powder is £2.99
Concentrated softener 99p
Bread 47p

pinkypig

I am really new to this but I have found the advice and ideas on this forum very helpful.
We are a family of four with a much loved cat. Our average monthly spend is around £220 -£250. This includes everything (cleaning, laundry, toiletries and catfood).
I find that I do an approved foods shop about every 7 -8 weeks and really stock up on dried and tinned goods. This offers great savings but you need to be disciplined or you end up with a load of junk food and not much else.
I then shop weekly at Morrisons and Aldi. I have a quick look at the offers on line before I go and then do my meal plan and shopping list which I try my very best to stick to.
Meal planning is the best piece of advice I have ever had. It takes the stress out of your evenings when you seem to have so much to do when you are juggling work and kids. It also cuts food waste to next to nothing. We have also found that we have nice, varied meals whereas before we seemed to eat the same stuff day in day out.

I also make sure I have HM soup, cake and bread rolls in the freezer so that we do not have to buy our lunches.

Do you like cooking? if you do you it will really help as you can make great food really cheaply with a bit of forward planning.
We also try and have at least two meat free meals a week (pasta bake, HM pizza, Mac cheese, spicy veg tortillas, Quiche etc). This reduces your weekly food bill enormously. When we do have meat we really try and stretch it out. For instance if we have roast pork on Sunday we will pad out the left overs with veg to get a curry and sweet and sour for later in the week. Risotto is another really good way of making left over meat go a long way.
We also found that the kids slowly but surely came around to new foods and now eat pretty much anything!

I am trying the Grocery Challenge for the first time this month and have found it really focuses the mind.
Best of luck and I hope some of this helps.

PPx

nuttybabe

Hiya

I shop for 5 of us on £50 a week. The kids are 8, 6 and 5. We tend to eat traditional meals ie spag bol, cottage pie, roasts or meat with pots and veg/salad.

I do a monthly meat shop to an out of town butcher and buy in bulk. Get a 25kg sack of spuds for £5 - £8 depending on time of year from either butcher or local pet shop. I buy our fruit/veg/tinned stuff from aldi or lidl or local markets if I am there. I tend to buy asda smart price stuff once a month as well ie tom sauce, vinegar.

This weeks meal plan is:

Today - roast chicken with carrots, broccoli, cauli, roasties & yorkshire pudding
Mon - leftover chicken in hm bbq sauce with salad and hm chips
tuesday - cheesy pasta with salad
wednesday - toad in hole with spuds, carrots, cabbage and broccoli
thursday - gammon with salad and wedges
friday - homemade pizza
saturday - burgers & chips with salad (chinese pork burgers from butchers - lovely)

i also make all the snacks ie cakes and biscuits and make yogurt. included in the £50 is packed lunches and the kids, they have sandwich or wrap, fruit, cucumber or tomato, yogurt or jelly and hm cake or biscuit.

i shop around and find the best offers and could not be without my butcher. a bacon shank is 99p and gives a huge amount of meat. i buy a huge piece of pork for £6 and cut it into 3 for sunday roasts and always have leftovers.

i batch cook and bulk out meals with lentils and veg. And love lidl's half price weekend offers.

you need to shop around and try and find a butchers like mine!

Popperwell

I don't think my freezer is large enough to bulk buy meat:(
Then again meat does not take up a lot of space so perhaps I could use one drawer exclusively for meat!

I thought of buying in bulk but we don't seem to have a butchers on the town that does that(I think we had one on the ind. estate)but when I looked into it they seem to have gone out of business just when they are needed the most.

I did find a company that does bulk quality meats at reasonable prices on the internet and delivers. I would even look into using cuts of meat that are perfectly fine if cooked for longer and used more in stews etc...like neck of lamb but it seems difficult to find even in a proper butchers rather than a supermarket.

And again some of the butchers that look suitable quaity wise need to be travelled to and without transport you add to the cost by using a bus or taxi.

nuttybabe

Popperwell wrote: »

I don't think my freezer is large enough to bulk buy meat:(
Then again meat does not take up a lot of space so perhaps I could use one drawer exclusively for meat!

I thought of buying in bulk but we don't seem to have a butchers on the town that does that(I think we had one on the ind. estate)but when I looked into it they seem to have gone out of business just when they are needed the most.

I did find a company that does bulk quality meats at reasonable prices on the internet and delivers. I would even look into using cuts of meat that are perfectly fine if cooked for longer and used more in stews etc...like neck of lamb but it seems difficult to find even in a proper butchers rather than a supermarket.

And again some of the butchers that look suitable quaity wise need to be travelled to and without transport you add to the cost by using a bus or taxi.

do you know someone with a car that you can contribute towards fuel.

i give my friend a lift and she contributes £5 towards the diesel. (costs about £10 to get there)

Popperwell

Nuttybabe,
Its a great idea. I wish that I did. May have to look into seeing if anyone would be willing to do such a gesture. A return bus trip of approx 5-7 miles is around £5-£8 and a taxi one way is £12. And this is not a city area.