Lidl

lil.smartie

Stop buying jars of baby food! Seriously if they eat food they can eat food not mush! Kievs & ready made will cost more per kg than real food too.
3 adults (inc 19yr old boy) and a 4yr old here and I spend £40-50 with Ocado, £10 farm shop meat per week. Maybe a £10 top-up from Tesco/Morrisons every other week.
I cook from scratch most nights though.

Kate

katie1812

I think the general conception of shops like lidl and aldi have changed recently! I tend to do most of my shopping in tesco but things like cleaning products and some food items I will get in either of these or pound land!

geekgirl

I buy quite a lot of things from Aldi, but as a vegetarian I still find I have to do my online Tesco shop as well.

trolleyrun

Aldi has new porridge oats They used to only sell the "readybrek" style but now do the proper oats. My local one has fresh ginger as well

To the OP - are you buying branded stuff? Maybe try a brand lower? (I always try the cheapest and work my way up, but I'm weird like that). The baby wipes in Aldi are about 89p a pack (iirc), not sure how many wipes you use per change? The other possibility is using muslins or similar that can be washed - it just depends on how much time/space you have available.

Is there a possibility you could write down everything you bought in your last weekly shop, and we'll have a look at it for you

Cutting costs can be done, but sometimes it's difficult to see the wood for the trees. Oh, and I prefer Aldi to Lidl as the store is cleaner and their fruit/veg is better quality. Just my opinion, of course, you might find it different. Good luck - you'll get there

WantToBeSE

I buy 90% of my food shopping from Lidl.
but instead of writing down a list of what i want/need, i wait until a Tuesday when the Lidl leaflet is posted through my door, and then make up my weeks meal plan from the best offers on that.
so, this weeks offers were diced beef,, diced chicken breast, and gammon steaks.

So, we will be having beef and ale stew twice (once as a stew, once as a hotpot), chicken curry once, chicken stir-fry once, and then gammon, egg and chips another night.
That's already 5 nights meals, and the meat only comes to about £8 because of the deals.

So, work with what Lidl/Aldi has, instead of writing down what you want and then seeing if they have it.

Lunar_Eclipse

Lalaladybird wrote: »

Does anything in that list jump out as expensive/luxurious to anyone? If I am missing any obvious savings I could make that someone can spot from that description it would be really helpful xx

The areas that jump out to me for potential savings are:

Baby food: blend or mash the family meal. I bet you wouldn't need to cook more, so could save the whole £12

Baby wipes: use value tissues followed by (dark) wet flannels for nappy changes & separate (light coloured) wet flannels for face and hand cleaning. Rinse before adding to normal laundry to again save £4 (are you sure about this, it's a lot of wipes!)

Snacks: depending on how expensive the milkshakes are (Tesco powder is cheap), consider eliminating them. Try value range juice, biscuits and other items (all good in my experience.) Nuts and flapjacks are also filling and relatively cheap per portion.

Meals: salmon is expensive! Yoghurt is cheap and easy to make. Ensure you buy other items, such as crisps and laundry/household items only when they're on offer and stock up.

Value bread is fine for packed lunches.

We are a family of 4 that typically spend £400/month on groceries, which includes all our food (ie packed lunches & snacks for everyone.) I've cut it to £250 this month which is going well. It just means I meal plan and strictly shop to my list (whilst also stocking up as I can on deals.)