Help to reduce shopping costs

Aeries

Hi All, I'm feeling the pinch money wise lately and am looking for tips to reduce my shopping cost, but I already feel like I've got it down to the bare bones.

We are a family of five, two teenage children 1 5 year old. Our weekly shopping is usually around £130 - but I always end up topping it up by about £20 during the week and hubby is hooked on takeaways so I have trouble finding tasty suppers to keep him on the straight and narrow (he's a big fella).

My kids have just swapped from packed lunches to school dinners so that's costing me £22 a week but I'm happy to pay that if I can reduce normal weekly costs.

I usually shop online with Tesco and I buy many of the value brands - I'm thinking about swapping to Aldi but every time I've been there I feel I can't get a full weeks shopping. I'm happy to cook everything from scratch but I just don't feel inspired when I walk around aldi. I always plan what I'm buying in advance to manage the money better so I'm reluctant to walk around a supermarket in case I overspend.

I also considered going round all the pound shops or B&M and see what I can pick up then just going to supermarket for meat and veg - what would work out cheaper?

Finally, can anyone give me some filling and cheap meat or fish based recipes - I have a slow cooker and I'm at home full time so plenty of time to cook and prepare food

Towser

Budget Shopping List - Can you show me a more frugal way?

Fresh, frozen & chilled
Chicken breast pieces
White fish fillets
Bacon
Chicken wings/thighs/legs (depending on preference and price)
625g cheddar cheese
2 x 1% fat/semi skimmed milk 4pts
8 Pork sausages
Sunflower spread
2 x 6 pack fromage frais
Vanilla ice cream
Frozen mixed veg
Coleslaw

Dried goods
1 kg rice
Pizza base mix
Cornflakes
Porridge oats
Variety pack biscuits (remove from list and bake your own if you have biscuit ingredients at home)
12 pack crisps
Jelly

Tins, cartons & bottles
500g dried pasta
Tin of sweetcorn
Creamed tomatoes/passata
Tomato puree
Tin of red kidney beans
Tin of green lentils
2 x tins of baked beans
Tin of haricot beans
2 x tins chopped tomatoes
2 x bottles high juice squash
4 x 1 litre cartons pure fruit juice
1 tin tuna

Bakery
1 large baguette
2 x 8 pack crumpets
3 x sliced wholemeal/white loaves
2 x 6 pack pitta bread
12 pack scones (remove from list and bake your own if you have scone ingredients at home)

Fresh Fruit & Vegetables
Bag of of mixed peppers
Bag of onions
Bag potatoes
Broccoli (for fish pie)
2 leeks
Bag of carrots
Garlic
Bag of apples
Basics bananas
Basics pears
Mushrooms
2 x lemons

Eliza_2

Aldi is great. You don't need to 'feel inspired' when you walk round a supermarket. You go with your list, which you've put together from your meal plan (having checked what you've already got in), you pick up what's on the list, pay and walk out. It's utilitarian, basic, - these supermarkets just want us to believe they are a destination in themselves, a social event, somewhere nice to go. They're there just to fulfil a basic function. Nothing wrong with going to another shop though if Aldi doesn't have all you want. It does me though, I'd rather have less choice rather than more, otherwise it just takes too long out of my day to shop.

If you want to 'feel inspired', go and look at some lovely scenery or an art gallery! I wonder when shopping became a leisure activity in itself, rather than a means to an end?

HappyMJ

Aeries wrote: »

Hi All, I'm feeling the pinch money wise lately and am looking for tips to reduce my shopping cost, but I already feel like I've got it down to the bare bones.

We are a family of five, two teenage children 1 5 year old. Our weekly shopping is usually around £130 - but I always end up topping it up by about £20 during the week and hubby is hooked on takeaways so I have trouble finding tasty suppers to keep him on the straight and narrow (he's a big fella).

My kids have just swapped from packed lunches to school dinners so that's costing me £22 a week but I'm happy to pay that if I can reduce normal weekly costs.

I usually shop online with Tesco and I buy many of the value brands - I'm thinking about swapping to Aldi but every time I've been there I feel I can't get a full weeks shopping. I'm happy to cook everything from scratch but I just don't feel inspired when I walk around aldi. I always plan what I'm buying in advance to manage the money better so I'm reluctant to walk around a supermarket in case I overspend.

I also considered going round all the pound shops or B&M and see what I can pick up then just going to supermarket for meat and veg - what would work out cheaper?

Finally, can anyone give me some filling and cheap meat or fish based recipes - I have a slow cooker and I'm at home full time so plenty of time to cook and prepare food

What sort of takeaways does he like?

Can you make them in advance and put them in the takeaway containers and put them in the freezer?

School dinners are more expensive than paying an extra £5 a week per child on the grocery bill and sending them with a packed lunch. I'd stop those.

Even by Aldi's own admission you can get 90% of your weekly shopping done there. You still need to visit other shops. If what you buy from Tesco is mostly the value items it's unlikely to save you a lot....and if you're like me you see all these new different things you must try so end up spending more than Tesco.

dlusman

Towser wrote: »

Budget Shopping List - Can you show me a more frugal way?

Chicken breast pieces

Chicken wings/thighs/legs (depending on preference and price)
Tin of green lentils

Much better to buy a whole chicken. Cheaper and you can use the carcass for a good stock / soup.
Why would you buy tinned lentils ? Dry packs of lentils and other pulses I would have thought are much cheaper ( and good for bulking out meat dishes )

Aeries

HappyMJ wrote: »

What sort of takeaways does he like?

Can you make them in advance and put them in the takeaway containers and put them in the freezer?

School dinners are more expensive than paying an extra £5 a week per child on the grocery bill and sending them with a packed lunch. I'd stop those.

Even by Aldi's own admission you can get 90% of your weekly shopping done there. You still need to visit other shops. If what you buy from Tesco is mostly the value items it's unlikely to save you a lot....and if you're like me you see all these new different things you must try so end up spending more than Tesco.

-
Hi - he's a kebab man, we've tried doing our own but sometimes it ends up more expensive - we tried buying frozen donner meat and seek kebabs etc but by the time you've bought all the salad ans made your own naan or chapatti its expensive

I must admit there have been times when we've relied on takeaways a lot as I have several debilitating illnesses, I don't get out a lot - I started doing the food shopping online as I can never tell when I'm going to be well enough to go - I'm just attempting to use the "mysupermarket" website at the moment but its very slow and laggy

HappyMJ

Aeries wrote: »

-
Hi - he's a kebab man, we've tried doing our own but sometimes it ends up more expensive - we tried buying frozen donner meat and seek kebabs etc but by the time you've bought all the salad ans made your own naan or chapatti its expensive

I must admit there have been times when we've relied on takeaways a lot as I have several debilitating illnesses, I don't get out a lot - I started doing the food shopping online as I can never tell when I'm going to be well enough to go - I'm just attempting to use the "mysupermarket" website at the moment but its very slow and laggy

Naan's are 2 for 50p i.e 25p each from Aldi or Tesco and 17.5p at Asda. There's no need to make them from scratch.

If you did make your own 10kg of chapatti flour is only £3 and that'll make a lot of chapatti. Once you've made a batch you can freeze them and when you want to eat them you can finish them off in the oven whilst the doner meat is microwaving and you're assembling the salad.

The salad is cheap. Cabbage, onion, a slice of tomato and sometimes a bit of cucumber. They are all cheap ingredients and only take a few minutes to chop.

Aeries

HappyMJ wrote: »

Naan's are 2 for 50p i.e 25p each from Aldi or Tesco and 17.5p at Asda. There's no need to make them from scratch.

If you did make your own 10kg of chapatti flour is only £3 and that'll make a lot of chapatti. Once you've made a batch you can freeze them and when you want to eat them you can finish them off in the oven whilst the doner meat is microwaving and you're assembling the salad.

The salad is cheap. Cabbage, onion, a slice of tomato and sometimes a bit of cucumber. They are all cheap ingredients and only take a few minutes to chop.

I'm not always well enough to do it, and frankly he is lazy - I'm going to allow him 1 per month, if he doesn't like that he needs to learn to cook - personally I wouldn't have any takeaways at all, esp when there are other more important things we need to be buying and he needs to lose about 8 stone anyhow so I'm going to get tough

just re read that and I do sound like a right old moo, but facts are facts

just done a comparison on mysupermarket and I can get £30 knocked off a weeks shoppoing if I go to aldi and just plan my menus around what they sell. that price includes plenty of meat, fish, fresh fruit veg and cheeses and absolutely loads of snacks for the bottomless pits I have to feed during the school holidays. It covers breakfast, lunches, teas and suppers. Here is hoping for a takeaway free week!

System

Do you have a farmfoods nearby ? I find its much cheaper to buy my meat from there you can also get money off coupons if you sign up for their newsletter.

VfM4meplse

Aeries wrote: »

I'm happy to cook everything from scratch but I just don't feel inspired when I walk around aldi.

Strangely enough, I feel exactly the same way about Waitrose. Nothing, but nothing, jumps out of the shelf at me screaming "buy me".

Give Aldi a try, you will get used to it. In the process you will get used to buying more of what you need than unnecessary items the family may want. When these are missing from the supermarket trolley, you may find your family shows a sudden interest in trying own-brand goodies....

maman

I'm another with a vote for Aldi and I've found that increasingly I'm getting more and more of my shop there and less need to top up elsewhere. They really have increased the range.


If you have the time then it is worth going to £ shop, Home Bargains, Farmfoods and anywhere else when you're passing. I often buy things for the storecupboard from these sort of shops.


I'd definitely get your DH to rein in his spending on take aways. You'll really only manage to save if he (and the teenagers) are with you. Make it a family project because if he's spending on kebabs and anyone's moaning, wasting food or eating ingredients without asking then you're fighting a losing battle on your own.