Where is the cheapest place to buy food?

MiddyMum

I will be a student in september, so I need to get into good habits now. There is just me, my partner and my 2 year old daughter. I don't want to spend anymore than £50 a week. At the moment, I shop at Sainsburys but after last week's shopping bill I won't be doing so again, I simply cant afford it there anymore.

So where do you all buy food and is it possible to stay under £50 a week for a family of 3? My partner is now veggie and I try to eat less meat, because it just makes cooking meals easier.

Thanks
x

Josslette

I'd try Lidl and Aldi They're great and lidl has weekend deals where selected products are half price

Meal planning is always a good idea to keep your budget in check, if you don't already

FairyPrincessk

Hi!

My partner and I are both mature students (I think we're making a career out of it:rotfl:). We do a weekly shop in Aldi and top it up with thrice yearly supermarket orders from which ever SM has the best money off voucher (there are a few staple items we use that Aldi doesn't stock). Obviously if Aldi isn't near you, then it may not be the "cheapest option".

Neither of us drives, so a weekly shop is necessary, plus the walk gives us time for a nice chat. I usually do the menu while I have my breakfast on Sunday and then we head out armed with a list. If we had a car, I might try to cut it down to once every two weeks with a stop off for milk, bread and fruit.

I think £50 a week is a fairly reasonable budget if it is just food, cleaning products and toiletries but I'm not sure about if that would cover nappies/baby food etc.

FairyPrincessk

Oh, forgot to mention-the one drawback to our Sunday outing is that Aldi change their supersix on a Sunday which means every other week I have to guess what will be on. Usually I can find it somewhere online although this week it was all wrong so I had to rejig things on the spot! OH likes Aldi because the shop is smaller and he says it feels less hectic than the big 5, we even made sure there was an Aldi in walking distance when we moved house.

Popperwell

MiddyM,
The difference here is that I do live alone(not through choice)and today I spent £14 and thought I can't keep doing that and that I hadn't much for the money. However, sitting down and thinking about I can stretch what I have over two-three weeks and suddenly it doesn't seem so bad.

That brings it down to nearer £1 a day...I use lots of vegetables, cereals etc...meat is often added but as a small portion. And I do take advantage of offers, own brands and look for items that are reduced.

As adding bus fares would mean less to spend on food I have to use the shops on the town so I work between Tesco's, Aldi's and freezer shop called Heron's...make a lot of use of items I have stored in cupboards, a pantry and a kind of store room I have built up over many months.

Fresh items are in the fridge freezer. And this allows some weeks to avoid shopping altogether.

WantToBeSE

If you check out the many Grocery Budget threads, you could pick up some great ways to spend less on food.

I spend £55 a week for myself and my 2 children (13 year old and 8 year old, both eat like full grown men, lol) and i shop in Lidl.

i actually think that Asda is cheapest if you buy their 'smartprice' stuff- but a lot of it isnt the quality i'd like (and i'm not a food snob).
I shop at Lidl and they do low prices and really great quality stuff.

MiddyMum

Thank you for the replies, I thought aldi might be the best bet. We still need nappies, as I am currently potty training my daughter so maybe £55 a week would be better? We don't have a car at the moment no, so it would require a weekly shop..

FairyPrincessk

Your best bet is probably to give it a go! If you're currently spending quite a bit more than that, then it might take you a few months to get a system that works. You might find the grocery challenge helpful. We keep quite a lot of food in our kitchen on hand, but based on a rough calculation of our average weekly spend and our annual SM order spend I'd say we spend about £45/week not including wine. We do eat meat about 2-3 times/week but we don't have any children so our budgets may not be comparable.

You're definitely headed in the right direction by trying to get a system in place now! It can be tough to focus on things like grocery budgets when other things are changing.

Toonie

If you have any ethnic shops near you, check them out for staples you can buy in bulk. I don't drive but when I want to stock up on lentils, barley and bulgher wheat I walk to my local Turkish supermarket and buy several kilos at the same time as it's far cheaper.

I will do a an online shop every 8-10 weeks too for other bulk items (tins of things which are too heavy to carry home) and I often use Ocado as their quality is fantastic and they are always sending me "we've not seen you for ages, here's 15% off" vouchers so they can be great value. Then I use Tesco/Sainsbury/Lidl for the rest. I work 2 jobs and am studying at present, so it takes a bit of organising but it's doable.

[Deleted User]

I find the best thing is not to do the whole shop in one place, find the time each shop does its reductions and be flexible about the weeks food plan if you find a bargain. I find lots of things in the 99p or £1 shops here usually the same branded ones as in the SMs and take advantage of these too. A local greengrocer is always going to be cheaper than a supermarket and ours has things that are better quality for much less money. I know we have the time to do this as we are both retired, and time is a bit of a luxury for most folks, but it really does help keep the cost down if you can manage to shop this way. Hope this helps, Cheers Lyn x.

Popperwell

Actually when I said my latest shopping trip was £14 for one person(me)and I could stretch it over two weeks(so £7 per week)in a way your spending £50 per week for three people(and considering nappies are in there)it is quite comparable and my £14 x 3 is about what you are spending so it seems reasonable.

But that does depend on the income coming in and what essentials come to such as rent, heating, council tax, trevelling expenses etc...