what would be the cheapest solution

winniepooh

Hi MS,

Im on a money saving mission, in the last 6 weeks me and hubby have stopped smoking :j last week I've saved £300 per year on building and contents cover, just about to do the boiler cover this afternoon.

However my food mission isn't going to plan.

I cook from scratch and meal plan but I spend £100 a week on food that doing it on line at Tesco, sainsburys, ocado or asda. Now this £100 covers 3 breakfasts, 3 lunches and three evening meals. This also includes hm sunday dessert.
This does not include the dog food or sunday roast ingredients (hubby cooks on a sunday and prefers do to the shopping which can cost another£20).

Now for the last two weeks ive shopped at Aldi and saved around £50 per week and this is not cutting back on ingredients HOWEVER! hubby has pretty much not liked most of the food from there. Well its more that he doesn't like the filter coffee,beans, sausage rolls (only brought these because im working full time this week and haven't had chance to make any), cakes, cooked meats (for lunches), fruit and veg haven't latsest long and quite tasteless. and the cereals hes just thrown in the bin.

Now I know your not going to get super super quality but the only item ive not liked was the garlic and herb whole chicken, it was very dry but that might have been my cooking.

The week before I started shopping at aldi I tried to shop for the staples from tescos and then them butchers and the markets for meat and fruit and veg. Started going great until I had to draw cash out of the cash point for the meat and veg .........I ending up spending loads because I literally cant have cash in my purse

I want to cut back but hubby is a food snob and I'm not going to get away with swapping packaging lol I have tried.....didn't go down well.

Please help

sisbod

This is going to sound unsupportive but it isn't - what are you actually eating if it costs you £100 a week to buy 9 meals for 2 people? :eek:
Do you think it was a little too 'enthusiastic' with the change? how about perhaps picking 1 item/ingredient and trying that a couple of times - get that taste sorted before something else or just go down a brand level.
TBH it sounds like he went into panic mode and just disliked for the sake of it!!! Although I know where he is coming from re the cereals but the coffee and the cooked meats are good quality! perhaps the strength wasn't right for the coffee!:huh:

Ilona

As sisbod says, was it a case of too many changes at the same time. Try dropping a brand, substituting one or two items a week. Saying, let's try this for a change. Maybe one or two Value items. Sometimes the cheaper versions are fine, I like Value bran flakes at 88p, just as good as 'K' I am not a fan of Aldi, only buy one or two items there. Their plain yogurt is 10p more expensive than Tes&co, but their garlic soft cheese is 10 p cheaper. Swings and roundabouts. You can only find out by trial and error.

People get set in their ways, suggest changes and they panic. Do it gently.
Ilona

winniepooh

I do tend to buy value range if I can.

maman

sisbod wrote: »

This is going to sound unsupportive but it isn't - what are you actually eating if it costs you £100 a week to buy 9 meals for 2 people? :eek:
Do you think it was a little too 'enthusiastic' with the change? how about perhaps picking 1 item/ingredient and trying that a couple of times - get that taste sorted before something else or just go down a brand level.
TBH it sounds like he went into panic mode and just disliked for the sake of it!!! Although I know where he is coming from re the cereals but the coffee and the cooked meats are good quality! perhaps the strength wasn't right for the coffee!:huh:

Is that correct or did you mean 3 people for every meal except Sunday lunch?

Even if it's 3 people I reckon you could cut it back quite a bit. If it really is 9 meals then I'm amazed!:eek:

I shop at Aldi with a top up at Sainsbury's for the brands I like to stick to. I've noticed over time that the amount of Aldi stuff I buy has crept up as I've experimented. I do a bit of extra shopping for bargains in other stores/greengrocers when I can but that's mainly storecupboard stuff when I notice an offer. I shop for two people, 3 meals a day and I reckon (minus alcohol) including basic toiletries and cleaning materials I spend about £50 maximum a week. It's hard to be precise as I 'shop' from my freezer/cupboard/fridge first when I do my weekly plan so I rarely have to buy ingredients for complete meals.

It really would help to know the sort of things you buy. If it helps my Aldi staples are:
pain au lait
70% dark chocolate
fruit &veg (you have to be choosy but I think it's worth the saving)
pasta
passata
tomatoes
tomato puree
antipasti (jars)
red beans
mushy peas
FR chicken
gammon joints
gammon steaks
diced pork
diced beef
cooked meats (amazed your DH didn't like these the Torchon ham is as good as in France
frankfurters)
common herbs & spices
ginger nuts
copies of caramel wafers
washing up liquid
bleach
mouthwash
moisturiser (face and body)
camembert
crème fraiche
cream
milk
orange juice
frozen Thai fishcakes
anchovies
FR eggs
cornflour
frozen peas
lemonade
flowers

I think you need to sit down with DH and tell him (in the nicest possible way;)) that being a 'food snob' is an expensive hobby.

Linda32

Hi, You could point out that Aldi save money in ways which have nothing to do with the food they sell.

There are obviously lots of over heads to running a store other than buying in stock to sell.

For instance, we have a choice of three Aldi stores in our town. None of which are in the smart high rent areas such as out of town shopping centres or in the centre of town.

They do not give away free carrier bags, you have to pay. Tesco's, Sainsburys etc. I'm sure don't give them away either, they just stick a penny on everything.

The trolleys are coin operated so they don't pay staff to collect them up. You do it for them.

In England they don't take credit cards so don't have to pay 2% or there about merchant fee's. Everywhere else can take the hit, they just add more onto the cost of food.

They don't have staff on checkouts waiting for customers to appear like other supermarkets do. So they employ less people.

The stores are a lot smaller so less heating and electric overheads. They only sell one type of beans/peas etc rather than the 13 or so that Tesco's sell. So less store room space.

The medium and large gloves/food bags etc are all in the same display box rather than two separate boxes taking up more room. So less space needed and less transport costs.

So, maybe put it to your OH that there are lots of ways that they save money which has nothing to do with the quality of the food.

winniepooh

maman wrote: »

Is that correct or did you mean 3 people for every meal except Sunday lunch?

Even if it's 3 people I reckon you could cut it back quite a bit. If it really is 9 meals then I'm amazed!:eek:

I shop at Aldi with a top up at Sainsbury's for the brands I like to stick to. I've noticed over time that the amount of Aldi stuff I buy has crept up as I've experimented. I do a bit of extra shopping for bargains in other stores/greengrocers when I can but that's mainly storecupboard stuff when I notice an offer. I shop for two people, 3 meals a day and I reckon (minus alcohol) including basic toiletries and cleaning materials I spend about £50 maximum a week. It's hard to be precise as I 'shop' from my freezer/cupboard/fridge first when I do my weekly plan so I rarely have to buy ingredients for complete meals.

It really would help to know the sort of things you buy. If it helps my Aldi staples are:
pain au lait
70% dark chocolate
fruit &veg (you have to be choosy but I think it's worth the saving)
pasta
passata
tomatoes
tomato puree
antipasti (jars)
red beans
mushy peas
FR chicken
gammon joints
gammon steaks
diced pork
diced beef
cooked meats (amazed your DH didn't like these the Torchon ham is as good as in France
frankfurters)
common herbs & spices
ginger nuts
copies of caramel wafers
washing up liquid
bleach
mouthwash
moisturiser (face and body)
camembert
crème fraiche
cream
milk
orange juice
frozen Thai fishcakes
anchovies
FR eggs
cornflour
frozen peas
lemonade
flowers

I think you need to sit down with DH and tell him (in the nicest possible way;)) that being a 'food snob' is an expensive hobby.

Hi Maman,

thanks for your reply, I would buy all those above you've mentined as well as fruit juice and squash cause they can be quite expensive in Tesco. I thought about getting the beans and cereal from b&m buy the cheap filter coffee and hide the packaging and see if I can get meat from the butchers....on saying that tho hubby preferred the aldi sausage and bacon.

Im in two minds about the fruit and veg, I love there bananas but they don't last long do they. and I ve just tried a golden delicious apple.......didn't taste of anything.

maman

winniepooh wrote: »

Im in two minds about the fruit and veg, I love there bananas but they don't last long do they. and I ve just tried a golden delicious apple.......didn't taste of anything.

IMO Golden Delicious never taste of anything wherever you buy them!:rotfl:I've been buying the Royal Gala lately.

The bananas depend on whether there are any green ones available. But bananas are cheap most places.

We don't have a B&M but I've heard you can get good bargains there.

Valli

Thank you Linda32 - excellent explanation of how Aldi (and Lidl) cut their costs.

As for their food - I have done 'blind' consumer taste tests and Aldi has almost always been well received - not by everyone but by enough to show their stuff is good; their mayonnaise, for instance I really loved - actually preferred it to Hellmans!

As others have said , too much too soon. I try one or two cheaper items at a time; never more.

Also do a meal plan - double up on some cooking, too - and have some HM frozen ready meals ready.

And is your portion control 'generous'?

Also, if you have just given up smoking then your taste buds are probably adjusting (recovering) and is it possible you're eating more?

maman

Valli wrote: »

Thank you Linda32 - excellent explanation of how Aldi (and Lidl) cut their costs.

As for their food - I have done 'blind' consumer taste tests and Aldi has almost always been well received - not by everyone but by enough to show their stuff is good; their mayonnaise, for instance I really loved - actually preferred it to Hellmans!

As others have said , too much too soon. I try one or two cheaper items at a time; never more.

Also do a meal plan - double up on some cooking, too - and have some HM frozen ready meals ready.

And is your portion control 'generous'?

Also, if you have just given up smoking then your taste buds are probably adjusting (recovering) and is it possible you're eating more?

That would help get around the 'food snob' problem too. DH wouldn't necessarily be aware that the ingredients in the dishes came from Aldi. Unless he checks the bins for packaging!;)

winniepooh

lol aren't we sneaky