weekly shop getting too expensive is aldi good

[pramsgalore4]

hi, i shop weekly at tesco for a family of 6 and i spend between £100 and £150 a week i just can not afford to keep spending this amount on my weekly shop we have no spare cash for anything else, so i was wondering if anyone does a full shop at aldi and what there stuff was like and has anyone swapped from big supermarket and saved, we have a aldi local and have bought the odd thing from them but never done a full shop, we dont buy loads of junk food. i really need help to cut down my shopping bill!!!! please help

[GypsyMoth]

i would stick with tesco!

aldi dont sell everything,so you would have to do a top up shop elsewhere anyway.and you could just downgrade to next brand down

plus,at aldi,you dont get clubpoints!

[GypsyMoth]

and look at what you are actually buying and using....i have 5 dc and only spend half that amount,if that!

[pramsgalore4]

i already buy the cheapy brands, food shopping is so expensive,

[pramsgalore4]

i do cook everything my self maybe this is where i am going wrong buying everything fresh, might have to be chicken dippers and fishfingers from now on, i dont buy cakes, biscuits, sweets etc so really dont know where i am going wrong

[GypsyMoth]

alcohol??

cut down on meat? more veggie stuff?

[pramsgalore4]

i dont drink or smoke, we do eat alot of meat!! will have to look into some veggi options, we do eat things like omlette and pasta with sauce but do have some form of meat about 4 times a week

[DamselInDisarray]

I was spending £100-150 a week in sainsbos until recently. Then I decided that it would be far better to try the local butcher and the market (or local green grocer). It's shocking how much I save. The last couple of weeks I've spent c. £75 doing this and I honestly haven't skimped at all. In fact, my local butcher is all free-range, local, grass-fed, rare-breed (etc) stuff so it's actually better than sainsbos (particularly the pork), and we get lovely stuff from the delis and bakery in the market as well as a better variety of fruit and veg. I still grab some stuff in sainsbos on the way home (pre-packaged stuff mostly) but don't need to do that every week.

It is more effort to do, but we just make it more of an activity. We use some of the money we save to have lunch and/or cakes in a cafe in the market and let the kids investigate the various stalls. It also feels a bit nicer to not have a significant chunk of our income going to a bloody supermarket.

[pramsgalore4]

where i live we do have a 2 local butchers and a green grocer and aldi, waitrose and sainsburys so i could shop at the butchers, green grocer and then the other things from aldi, i will give it ago on monday instead of going to tesco, will still have to stop at sainsburys to get the basic range eg squash as i don't think you can get cheaper, but i have the time while the kids are at school. you just get used to going to one place and buying everything you need from there

[DamselInDisarray]

Yeah, you do. And they so use that to utterly rip you off.

It also helps to really meal plan and only buy exactly what you need. It's very tempting to just pick stuff up in the supermarket and chuck it in your trolley.

[EggyAllenPoe]

i would say try Asda, rather than Tesco's if you have one near you.

and stop eating meat at all
don't buy snack foods (so, no crisps, no biscuits - they don't cover meals)
shop on mondays or tuesdays (more reductions)

Aldi i find - shockingly bad service, range doesn't cover what i like, slightly odd offers ...

[wednesday13]

Aldi is fine IME, I used to do nearly my entire shop there when on ML, and top up at the Co-op for things like particular ingredients. A visit to Wilko every month or so is good for cleaning and toiletries, if you want certain brands. I cook from scratch quite a bit.

You do have to go with what they have though, they have all the basics but you might have to adjust your menu to suit their range. I wouldn't call the service shocking but it's definitely no-frills. (In case of doubt you are meant to repack your shopping into your trolley because they will scan at lightning speed, and then use the packing table to bag it up. This is normal in Aldi/Lidl/Netto).

Asda are cheap though, that's where I shop now because I have it delivered.

[teta]

I try to shop in Aldi as i have 4 dc's who eat a lot.My kids like a lot of cheese and salami etc. so it is much cheaper than our only local supermarket which is a really expensive co-op.Its really good for baking ingredients,vegs and fruit[not salad],pasta and the strawberry crunch cereal is nice.We buy the free-range chicken and the sirloin steak.Some of the frozen food is pretty horrible [duck - but salmon en croute is ok as are the lollies and the maris piper chips].The clothes powder and conditioner are good but toilet roll is dodgy.The special offers are bizarre but seem so cheap that my dh invariably ends up getting it[tyre blowing-up kit?].Wine and spirits are very good .Finally the frozen more expensive pizzas are better than the fresh ones,the ready-made meals are horrible,the croissants are ok and the wholemeal bread is very leaden [as are the jams].As you can tell we are real foodies hence shopping at Aldi for us is a way to eat well on a budget.

[happybubblebrain]

I think Aldis is great, but you can't buy everything there. I buy most fresh stuff from Aldis, Asda mostly for frozen and Sainsburys/Tescos for everything else (special offers, discount lines). You can save lots of money by shopping around. Every week I go to Adlis for my basics and then one of the other supermarkets for whatever else I'm low on. I think my food bill is pretty low. And we eat really well.

[bacon]

Its limited but savings on fruit and veg can be made. I find I can do a mini shop but have to pop over to sainsbos for certain stuff.

I dont buy crisps, magazines, pies, cakes, pasties, pop (only squash). I keep to basic cleaning products and use wisely.

I cant skimp on quality coffee, t-bags, jam,meat, fish, bread. I find cheaper doesnt mean good value. I mainly use cheaper cuts of meat in week so mince, stewing, lamb shoulder, chicken thighs etc. I try to portion control and freeze as many left overs as possible before it gets picked. I can sometimes have enough frozen meals that I dont have to cook every night!

I meal plan, eat healthy and do a good variation. I bake my own cakes and some bread. However I still struggle to keep below £100 with 2 adults and 2 young children. But dont forget if you eat in every night and have full packed lunches then the cost looks high but is better value. So many people omit to say they have dinners/lunches out etc.

Family of 6 still very good £100 - £14 per day = £2.38 each so really it aint bad at all!

[pramsgalore4]

after looking at what everyone is saying and other threads i have just done an order on line with tesco i spent £63 including £3 delivery got my cheese and cereals from sainsburys so spent in total £70 i have only bought meals and the basics, i have planed everymeal and have asked around what people cook for dinners some of the meals ie a large chicken will do two meals as i will make a pie with the left over chicken, other meals include baked potatoe, egg and chips, roast chicken dinner, pasta with a homemade bacon and tom sauce, this way i will not be tempted with offers i dont really need and if my shopping bill is too high i can go back and amend to keep within a budget, i am setting my budget at no more than £70 but things like i bought cheese 2 for £4 from sainburys (£4.49 for 1 or 2 for £4) means i will not have to buy cheese next week so will buy my wash liqiud instead. i have allowed tesco to subsitute on some items as they say they wont charge me any extra if the item cost more and most of these items are from the value range, i will however be carefully checking my bill just in case!!! thanks for all your replies. hope i have done the right thing, only time will tell!!!

[gemmummy]

have you got a 99p shop near you? a lot of cleaning products and toiletries and randomly, cereal and kitchen roll and stuff like that can be found in there. I do my shopping at the 99p shop, lidl and then top up at the coop or sainsburys. I too have started trying to cut back on shopping and I estimate that by using 99p shop and lidl I have saved about 7 quid this month. I have a green grocer near me too so I can top up on fruit and veg there. I feel your pain though, it really is getting pricey isn't it. I have gone down a brand on nearly everything. Coop have got a good offer on chicken at the minute, 3 chickens for a tenner. That's 2 meals from each chicken plus sandwiches for lunch.

[pramsgalore4]

i dont drive and would cost me nearly a fiver in bus fares to get to a pound shop, i buy alot from the tesco value range, but have to buy branded cereals but have only bought 1 box for the kids when its gone its gone but it is a large box, i am baking my own little cakes instead of buying them for their packed lunch, i am being very tight with cleaning products and use a multi purpose cleaner for almost everything, i have even managed to squeeze in some biscuits (value of course) for the empty biscuit tin as a treat for the kids cost me £1 but the cupboards will be bare, but at least they will have 3 meals a day!!!! and we will have more money to be able to go out as a family oh and on the bonus side i will loose weight so win win lol

[maypole1]

Have you tried Costco or macro when you have a large family it works out really cheap.


Also shopping on a Friday night and shopping in the reduced section


Now when you say you cook from scratch what are you cooking you need to make meal plan try to do it around what you already have in the cupboard

Also left over what are you doing with them any left overs in my go into the freezer then at the end of the week we have five tubes of left overs and that it's self is one meal

Because you are bound to have a least one serving of left over from every meal


Down shit all brands also do not go shopping with kids and even oh if possible I find they distract and often try and get you to buy things YOU DON'T NEED

[maypole1]

Make sure your freezing veg so it dose not go off I was wasting loads of money with mouldy veg then I stated freezing it also somtimes it's cheaper to buy frozen veg don't always need to buy fresh veg


Things like garlic bread you can make yourself much cheaper to buy a 40p burette crush some garlic into some butter then spread you can get about two meals worth and otoh can freeze it after its been buttered