Weekly food shop is £100 per week. Can I get this down?

[Jarjarblinks]

We have me, DH, DD and DSD.

DD is 1 and needs breakfast and dinner during the week and all meals at the weekend.
Depending on the week, DSDs needs are different but the maximum is 3 breakfasts, 2 packed lunches and 2 dinners during the week and all weekend meals.
DH and I need all meals (packed lunches for work)

A typical breakfast for any of us would be toast, cereal, or beans on toast. Typical lunch would be a chicken wrap, yoghurt, fruit and crisps. Typically dinner would be cottage pie, curry, spag bol, jacket potatoes.

Does £100 per week sound ok if it includes washing powder, dishwasher tablets, toilet roll etc when needed? Is it worth trying to get this down? We live near a massive Tesco and anywhere else would really not be worth the extra petrol and time.

How old are the children - adult or child portions?

Sounds reasonable is that’s nappies, toiletries, cleaning products. If you’re struggling financially you could get it down by eating more vegetarian meals, and you’ll have people telling you it’s outrageous because they feed 8 people, a cow and 6 dogs on £27.30 a week, but I reckon that’s pretty reasonable.

One tip is to start a wastage diary. I know I surprised myself by the number of times I miscalculated portions or bought stuff on a whim that didn't get used!

Best place for cleaning products has to be a Poundshop. Same brands but so so much cheaper.

Only buy meat on offer, ie Tesco 3 for £10. Similarly buy their big joints when on offer and cut to the size you use and freeze.

Try some generic brands instead of well known. For example I tried Stockwell marmalade and it's some of the nicest I have ever had and only 27p a jar! You won't like all of them, but they are definitely worth a try.

£60 a week would be much more realistic. £100 a week is an awful lot for a family of four especially with such young children.

Do you meal plan? This could save a lot of money, agree with pp the amount of waste can go unrecognised until you actually look at it.

Do you have access to Wilkinsons, Home Bargains or similar. Sometimes things like cleaning and laundry products and toilet roll can be cheaper there.

Do you buy these things on offer, or when you need them? If you buy big branded dishwasher tablets, they can cost about 40 pence each, but if you look out for a big pack on a good offer, or get them from Aldi, they are more like 10 pence each, so a quarter of the price.

I know you normally shop at Tesco, but if you go there once a week and buy what you need for the week, rather than stocking up on offers, that's an expensive way to shop.

How far away are the other supermarkets? You could do a 15 mile round trip for a couple of quid, so is definitely worth a bit of petrol money if you can get to a cheaper supermarket - Tesco is probably more expensive than Aldi, Lidl, Morrisons and Asda. You don't even need to go to the same supermarket each week, you can rotate around them to get what's cheapest or what you like best from different ones.

It sounds reasonable but the best thing is to track expenses, every penny and also keep note of food thrown away. There's always ways of reducing in the short term but it is not particularly high now. Batch cooking and effective use of leftovers is the best option to reduce.

Under £100 is very achievable, you could bring it down if you need to.

Much depends on stuff you haven't mentioned. Fairly obviously, buying strawberries and raspberries all year round is vastly more expensive than buying whatever's in season, and asparagus and mini corn on the cob costs a lot more than carrots.

It sounds a lot to me but you are eating well and not extravagantly. Can you switch to own brand/value products?

Also try some meat free dishes. Eggs are inexpensive and very satisfying and a pasta dish with a cheese based sauce can be delicious. And what sort of fruit do you eat? Bananas and apples are much cheaper than berries or grapes?

It sounds ok, but rather than trying to trim to the bone I would have a minimum spend week every month - use up what's in the cupboards, eat lentils a lot, go at reduced time (7ish usually). I do this and the kids appreciate that we're not having 'luxuries' that week to make things better in the other weeks. It's also a bit more fun if you do it as a weekly challenge rather than constantly cost-cutting (although there are lots of ways to do that too.)
That way, presuming you spend only £25 that week, you'll effectively trim £25 of the other 3 weeks each month, cutting your spend to £75 and not living hand to mouth those weeks.

I'll admit it, I spend more than that a week for 4 people. Don't waste anything though, am obsessed with cooking and definitely buy stuff that is fancier than it needs to be!

Sounds like you're doing OK to me!

Also, always bulk out your spag bols and shepherds pies with grated veg (carrots are cheapest, courgettes if you grow them), and a handful of lentils. Healthy, cheap, makes meat go further and more or less undetectable.

We were nearly that when we shopped at Tesco nearer 60 now we shop at lidl. Getting nappies from amazon and cleaning fluids from Poundland saves a bit.

Depends if you want to get it lower to be honest. We saved about £30+/week shopping at Lidl. There's way less choice so less tempting to fill a trolley with extra bits. Online shopping can also help with this, we've found Morrisons to be very good for this but I don't think they cover the whole country for home delivery. They were cheaper for us than Tesco.

I also get cleaning products etc in bulk via Amazon Subscribe & Save. I check the prices compared to supermarkets but it's often cheaper to buy in bigger packets if you can store them. I do this for laundry detergent, washing up, cleaning wipes. I also buy cat food in bulk online too, which is cheaper per tin/packet than the supermarket.

We now also measure out rice, pasta and frozen veg. I use some measuring cups for this and have it written up on the wall. It's really reduced food waste and we get more portions out of a packet, which also saves money. We don't scrimp on portions but DH would just pour a 1/4 of a packet of peas into the steamer!!

Agree with @Twillow, we bulk our curries with potatoes and vegetables and cook in bulk using the slow cooker.

Only worth it if you need

£100 a week very reasonable I think

You can bring it down by having one or two really thrifty days per week, while maintaining your current plans for the other 5.
But: if you can afford it and as it includes all lunches and everything, it isn't unreasonable.

Meat and alcohol are expensive. Don't throw anything away, use leftovers. You are not being thrifty or extravagant. You could get it down if you need to. Tuna is cheap, cook pulses and lentils. Cheaper cuts of meat (but need more cooking).

Batch cooking will help.

If you use mince for a spag bol/cottage pie, halve it and use lentils or another pulse to bulk up. Freeze other half to use in something else. Use loads more veg than you think you'll need. Maybe go meat free half the week.

Buy big packs of washing powder, liquid, nappies etc from lidl/aldi/home bargains. Keep an eye for multi buy offers and avoid brands.

Look at price per weight rather than unit on labelling. Split and freeze packs of things.

Make your own muesli - oats, nuts, seeds, bran, dried fruit etc. Healthier and cheaper than cereal. Also quick to do and a big mix will keep and last ages.

We are a family of five and my main shop used to cost about £80 a week in Tesco and another £15 on top up shops. I still spend about £15 on top up shops but my main shop is now about £45 /50 a week in Aldi.

If you can't get to Aldi / Lidl every week it would still be worth going once a month to stock up on pasta, rice, tins, cereals etc.

£100 a week is about the same as us (also me, DH and 2 DDs) - that includes all toiletries, cleaning products and nappies etc. I think it's about average really.

I find meal planning helps, especially if I can plan to 'split' a main meal item (i.e, plan to buy a big pack of mince - usually cheaper than two separate small packs - and plan to use half in a spag bol and half in a cottage pie; or buy a bigger pack of chicken and use half in a curry and half in a stir fry).

Make your own muesli - oats, nuts, seeds, bran, dried fruit etc. Healthier and cheaper than cereal. Also quick to do and a big mix will keep and last ages.

Is that really cheaper and/or healthier than buying a big bag of oats and making porridge or a box of weetabix?

£100 a week is about the same as us (also me, DH and 2 DDs) - that includes all toiletries, cleaning products and nappies etc. I think it's about average really.
It’s actually £58.80, at least in 2018 according to Money advice service.

On eat well for less the other night they said that the average family of 4 spend £90 a week so I don’t think you are doing bad at all.
I have started adding a few cheap (sometimes) veggie meals in to reduce costs like carbonara or Dhal.
I think you could get down to £80 depending on what you have for lunches.

I don't think £100 is unreasonable if you want to eat well and don't want to drive around different supermarkets.