If you only spend like £50 on your weekly shop

[mindutopia]

Can you tell me what sort of meals your family has (breakfast/lunch/dinner)?

We spend a lot more than that, but I don't think it's because we buy a lot of fancy foods (though that does include alcohol, cleaning supplies, toilet roll, etc.). We eat what I think is pretty normal food, but we also don't really buy food out (we pack breakfast & lunch every day for work, don't even get a coffee out, we both take our own coffee to work).

I'd like to get some ideas for how to reduce the cost of our weekly shop (family of 4, dh & I and 2 dc, who mostly eat school lunch except during the holidays one has a packed lunch), and I want to see what everyone else is making that isn't too expensive. Is there some magical trick I don't know about?

What do you have for breakfast, lunch, dinner? What snacks do you buy?

Planning is key. I plan meals for the week depending often on what I already have in the cupboard/freezer go to Aldi or Lidl and only buy what’s on the shopping list. It’s boring but it’s the way I stick to a budget.

@Grasspigeons I agree £50 is very low. But it is possible. Although anyone seriously budgeting at this level is not using a canteen for lunch or buying take aways.

@Grasspigeons yes 20% more so imo more doable it does mean you have to spend that of course but it gives more leeway I suppose.

*Doesn’t

There isn’t a chance we could do this.
Me, fiancé, and 2 teenagers. We spend about £100 a week.

£50 for 4 is very tight. Doable but difficult.

You’ll need to spend time with Tesco online and a spreadsheet and recipes working out cost per g, how much of everything. You’ll use, how to use the remainders, cost per meal etc

it helps to buy frozen food and just defrost what you need, and save the rest. I'm working on getting costs down too so following for tips :)

Buy when on offer dont be afraid to go value, a lot of it is good but some things are worth spending more on, eg weetabix rather than value which tastes like cardboard. Its just making sure you aren't buying loads of treats and using what you already have in your cupboards. I used to be awful for adding pasta and rice to my shop without checking If we had it already and having loads when it arrived. now I roughly meal plan to make sure I'm not having to chuck unused food and buy more. I've gone back to basic sandwiches for lunch, it's not fancy but it saves money.

Snack on Tesco brand flakes and toast daily and don't buy crisps/chocolate.

Bulk everything out with cheap veggies-reduce your meat consumption. Swap your olive oil for a big horrible bottle of cheap vegetable oil.

Lots of curries and rice/pasta. Tesco do a 30p curry sauce- add a heap of five spice to it and you have a lovely Chinese curry sauce. Ditto canned tomatoes/cheap sauce instead of Dolmios. The cheap Tesco sauces are lovely with some spices chucked in.

I find being a vegetarian helps too, I don’t spend money on meat and with meat substitutes they can be frozen so you only defrost and use what you need.

Maybe have a couple of meat free days per week or buy packs of frozen meat/fish which tend to be cheaper. Pasta is also a staple in our house, you just need to be creative.

I have one meal a week based around pulses, things like chickpea curry, dahl, green lentil bolognese, home made beanburgers or butter bean stew.

Do you have access to Costco, Farm Foods, Wilkinsons, Home Bargains at all?

They can be cheaper for non foods like cleaning products. Try Nicky toilet paper, it's much cheaper than big brands and quite good if you can't get to Costco.

Agree about not using kitchen roll. If it costs you more than a few pence a week, either stop using it or cut down. We probably use one or two rolls of the value stuff a month. There was a woman on here who was buying the expensive stuff and using a couple of packs a week, which is insane.

If you are a long way from shops you might have to have a trip out to cheaper shops every few weeks or make a point of dropping in when you're out that way anyway. None of these shops near your's or DH work that you can use?

I used to spend loads, probably £200 plus a week but now only spend £50

I know you say you don't have time to shop and need it delivered but Aldi is open to 10pm and I stop there once a week on the way home from work, it takes about 30 minutes as the store is smaller than Tesco's or Sainsburys and they're not forever changing the layout.

I fill a trolley to the brim and it still only costs £50, it's so so cheap compared to the other supermarkets.

If you are buying alcohol unless you’re literally just picking up a single bottle of wine or 1/2 cans that will make it very expensive

Yes, OP, I think what you have to remember is that it's not always about what you buy, but how you buy it, although obviously a diet full of pulses and cheaper/seasonal fruit and veg will be much cheaper than organic fish, asparagus and blueberries.

The people who spend that little, and it is below average for a family of 4, will be doing things that you aren't doing such as shopping at Aldi/Lidl or making good use of the reduced counter, neither of which is an option when you online shop from Tesco.

Do you buy the value brands and/or Tesco's cheap brands that they introduced a year or two to compete with Aldi and Lidl?

Is Tesco the only supermarket that delivers - Morrisons and Asda are probably cheaper and if you rotate round the shops, they often send discount vouchers if you don't use them for a few weeks.

Also none of your posts mention your DHs role in shopping, cooking or childcare - does he go near cheaper shops when he works that he could do the shop?

I manage it online I just have to be incredibly strict and if it wasnt for being so skint at the moment I wouldn't choose to live on this budget.