M&S food. Rip off or bargain?

[SapphosRock]

I posted last week about doing our weekly food shop in M&S.

http://www.mumsnet.com/Talk/_chat/3952990-how-much-would-you-pay-for-this-shopping

I love the quality of food but DP thinks M&S is a rip off. I think it’s a bargain. Today’s weekly shop came to £74.26 - every meal for a family of 2 adults, 1 DC (age 5) and 1 baby (just started weaning).

A few bits were reduced.

Pics show breakfast, lunch and dinner.

So was I ripped off or is this good value?

Looks ok to me

I like M&S food.
Fruit and vegetables always very fresh and prepared meals tasty and good value for money.
So looks good value to me Sapphos.

Some of it is good value, some is very expensive compared to other supermarkets, eg fruit, deli items and sliced meat. But they do have good reductions. Depending on what you buy, it can be OK, or a lot for what it is.

But you don't always have to buy the same things from the same supermarket each week and many things last well over a week or can be frozen, so you could alternate with Aldi and stock up on the things that cost a lot more in M&S, where you can concentrate on the things where the price difference isn't as much, plus look for some good reductions.

Thanks I thought so too. Seeing as Sainsbury's did a 'feed your family for £50 a week' years ago and the meals were a bit joyless, spending £15 extra on M&S and having wine seems great to me.

Are you posting because your other half doesn't want you to shop there? Can you afford to shop there and spend that money?
I really don't understand why you've posted twice about the same thing.
What's the problem?

I think you can taste the difference in quality, and if you can afford to buy it then there isn't a problem. Even the fruit and veg taste a million times nicer than aldi etc.

I can’t get our shopping to less than 100 at Tesco and we are smaller family than you. Looks lovely and fresh. I love M and S as a treat!

It may seem cheap now while you have small children but wait u til the are tweens/teens. You won’t be able to spend so little!!
Looking at your food (but we do have an extra child) a loaf of bread wouldn’t last us the week. We use for 2 adults, and. 13, 11 and 9 year old - 1 load of white bread, 1/2 load of brown seeded, pack of wraps, pack of bagels as standard.
You packs of meat would need to be double!! That would instantly increase your spend greatly.

I think the quality of their meat and fresh fruit and veg makes it worthwhile. Also, mine is a really nice calm shopping experience compared to the bigger supermarkets at the moment and my local staff are great.

I shop with Ocado so I hope that marks will have as good a selection as Waitrose come September. Bit nervous but as Ocado has been brilliant throughout the last few months I’ll never leave them now

I seem to spend a fortune fannying about between Aldi, Tesco and Morrisons. Think I might just do M&S this week and see how that goes..

Are you going to post your shopping every week?

It doesn't look overly healthy - processed hams, quiches, falafels, croquettes, chicken teddies - will be high in fat and salt unless they're 'reduced' salt versions. What is your 7 day meal plan? I think by the time you've added cleaning materials, toilet rolls,milk etc it would be £90+ at M and S. Equivalent at Aldi would be about £65. I agree that some of those items at Marks would taste nicer than the Aldi equivalent but only a very few and not worth it for the extra £35 a week bill in my opinion.

I much prefer M&S food. Good quality and fresh.
You get what you pay for- I buy fruit from the bigger supermarkets and it lasts a day.

I've just got back from a weekend away in a remote cottage. As a special treat to myself I bought almost £70 of M&S food, mostly cooked chicken/salmon/salad type stuff to make life easy. I don't usually buy M&S & this has reminded me why. It ranged from inedible (slimy BBQ chicken legs) to meh (gluey lemon meringue pie) even my 2 teens picked around some of the stuff & they are food hoovers. Only thing that got an enthusiastic thumbs up were the cantina tortilla chips & the tin of chocolate biscuits. I'll stick to Aldi & Lidl for easy treat food in future.

In lockdown I have been going to M&S because it’s closest - it also tends not to be very busy. I think a lot of stuff is pretty equal to Sainsbury’s, which is where we get our main shop from, but with much better reductions. I tend to go about 3pm and always pick up a couple of yellow sticker things for the freezer.

Neither.

I think it is expensive but very good quality. I don’t do a big shop there but often pop in for little bits. The things I buy there are often more expensive convenience items like pasta or fruit salad for work and ready meals from the Balanced for you/Count in us range so not the cheapest items wherever you shop.

I like the meat from there and the Dine In deals and the breaded chicken fillets which taste like KFC.

Have never really considered M&S for the general weekly shop. Tend to pop in when I can’t be arsed cooking and want something easy like some deli bits and prepared salads or one of their dine in meal deals.

In lockdown I’ve used the local one a bit more for essentials, but it’s a simply food connected to a garage so doesn’t have much range and always seems extra expensive. What you’ve bought for the money seems ok to me and comparable to when we shop at Sainsbury’s.

I generally like the quality but the last ‘easy tea’ I got from there was a pizza deal with 2 pizzas and a side/salad and I have to say they were some of the nastiest pizzas I’ve ever had. Won’t be doing that again.

What a depressing amount of packaging

I do like M and S food but wouldn’t do a weekly shop there. Is that really all you eat in a week? Mind you I do have a teenage boy who would eat that all on his own

I'm struggling to see how that's a weeks shop for 4. I know your children are little, but even so...

2 salmon fillets between 4 of you?
12 meatballs between 4 of you, so 3 each?
2 pork cutlets between 4 of you?
One loaf for a whole week for 4 of you?
One small tub of yoghurt between 4 of you for a whole week?
One 2 serving packet of pre-filled pasta between 4 of you?
A decent selection/range of fruit and veg, but still not enough for 5 (or even the desired 10) portions per person per day.

No milk, no tea, no coffee, no juice or squash. No cleaning products, toiletries, toilet roll, kitchen roll. No herbs or spices or condiments. No nappies or baby wipes or formula.

I'd love to see your meal plan. Personally, I think there's about 4-5 days worth there (and you'd cover your 5 a day off if it was to last 4-5 days), and it looks like you're planning meals for 2 adults only.

There's a lot more processed food there than I'd buy (I'd make falafel/quiche and I wouldn't buy stuff like the teddies or the croquettes).

It's hard to assess someone else's shopping tbh, but I spend a similar amount in Morrisons each week to feed 2 adults and 2 teens, and I have a much bigger selection, loads more fruit and veg plus all household items and toiletries too. I have more "whole" meat e.g. whole chicken/gammon joint and far less processed/packaged food. And just more volume in general. So I don't personally think its good value. But if you can afford it, and want to shop there, why not? Ultimately, what other people on the internet think of your shopping is neither here nor there. And if your DH doesn't like it, he can do the shopping himself.

My regular shop is M&S with lacto top up at Tesco

Some things in M&S are expensive- prepared foods etc, but others are an absolute bargain

Jams, Marmalade’s, table sauces are WAY better than branded equivalents, and a fraction of the price. The eggs? Delicious and so well cared for that sometimes when I’m elsewhere have to remind myself to check them for breaks! M&S eggs are good! They do - hands down- the best gluten free bread there is. One of my gripes is that they put milk in a lot of their soups etc, cream or butter in all of their pâtés

Meat is good, fruit and veg is also very high quality - their frozen food like pizzas and fish etc is delicious and reasonably priced

If you pay attention to the prices it’s possible to shop well and eat really well

I wish the range was wider, I wish lacto was half as good as Tesco, or even as good as Waitrose the. I wouldn’t have to go to more than one supermarket

@Lightsabre I agree. That is not a weekly shop. What about tp, cleaning supplies, toiletries, milk/tea/coffee, all the other daft bits that you don’t need to buy all the time but adds up with every shop? We’re 2 adults, 2 children plus a toddler. We do an Aldi shop every 3 weeks and spend £160, but that includes EVERYTHING. So just over £50 a week for all of us (and I’m buying the nice stuff, loads of fish/steaks/fruit/veg). I’ve also shopped at m&s and the slightly better quality on a very limited number of products doesn’t justify the price.

Actually noticing what other people have replied, that’s not even enough food for a week for 3 basic meals a day