Does anyone manage not to do endless top up shops?

[Redlorryyellowduck]

With the rising cost of absolutely everything I'm trying to reign the food shop in a bit.

I've got an Asda mid week pass, so try to use that or go to Aldi. Inevitably Asda miss something, or Aldi don't have something. We run out of lunchbox things too soon as there is seemingly another person living her I've never met who eats all the snack things.

I'm going sometimes twice a week to top up, and it'd costing a fortune.

If you manage not to do top ups share your wisdom, what day do you shop, where, how do you get through the week?

I'm happy to buy bread and milk of course from the little corner shop, but its the £25 top up I'm keen to avoid.

I split the weekly shop in half and have 2 roughly equal-sized online deliveries every week. I have an anytime delivery pass and it means only 3-4 days of meal planning at a time and we don't have to pop out for fresh stuff mid week. If we do run out of something it's not too long to do without before the next delivery.

I shop 3 times a week, more if the kids are home from university, I can't be dealing with remembering a whole weeks worth!

@gogohm

I shop 3 times a week, more if the kids are home from university, I can't be dealing with remembering a whole weeks worth!

You know you can write it down

If you live right by a shop and/or have enough time to go many times it's fine but for me it means a special trip in the car as there aren't any shops anywhere near me or where I work and my commute is mostly on a motorway so nowhere to stop off except a very expense spar type shop where can't bring myself to buy anything as it's so expensive

Not shopping for extras could depend on whether you have a store cupboard and a freezer I guess but I never shop in between main shops.

DC know that if they choose to scoff the treats/snacks in three days then they have got to wait until the next time. There's always fruit/dried fruit/oatcakes if the snacks they really like have gone!

I hate food shopping, always did it online pre Covid but haven't managed to get back in the swing of it since.

If I need to shop but can't be bothered I can guarantee that I'll have a bag of prawns in the freezer - pea and prawn risotto, or make a lentil curry or an omelette.

I always have a couple of pints of long life milk and oat milk, a bread maker and a couple of packets of butter in the freezer in case I really can't be arsed to shop.

I've been stretching a shop out to ten days recently as I needed to save some cash.

So I shop on Saturdays and plan a "top up shop" on Tuesday or Wednesday, usually fruit we run out of. When times were tighter (2009-12) I would even meal plan after school snacks and bake at least weekly (hm cheese scones/flap jacks/ muffins are really cheap).

Frozen berries help, also I hide a bag of apples at the back of the fridge for the end of the week.

I shop every day. I don't see how this can be more expensive.

I think it is better because there is less food waste.

I'm reading with interest.
We try and meal plan for day 4 or 5 meals and do a shop for that. But then we forever need extras.

1)I have a big fridge and lots of freezer space, but I constantly need stuff. As soon as we do a shop, within a day there's 3 things on the shopping list. Most not urgent, eg yellow mustard.

2)I can't find what I want in any one supermarket. We use sainsburys and Aldi. There are certain things that we prefer the Tesco version. Lots of washing powder and cleaning things, kitchen roll we like from Iceland. This makes it all a nightmare. We go to Costco regularly aswell.

But we need bread and milk every couple of days. How do you manage? I like it to be fresh. My 2 teens eat a lot and what with bacon sandwiches of a weekend for all of us, or toast and soup, suddenly I need bread and milk yet again.

I've discovered home made cheese scones for easy take to school snacks. Easy to make, super cheap, kids love them. I vary them with a bit of whatever I have lying around... courgette, sweetcorn, sun dried tomato. Chuck them in the freezer and get out as needed.

I did in lockdown and I’m annoyed with myself for sliding back into a bad habit.

I was going to suggest the solution you have hit on - I was constantly doing 'top-up' shops that were almost as much as my main shop, until I realised that I was just making life difficult for myself and doing two shops a week was much more practical.

I means that I can meal plan more easily, I can actually SEE what's in the fridge, we can adapt our shops to our actual situation (if someone is unexpectedly in, out, ill or fancies something specific) and I'm not constantly wondering how on earth I am spending so much and still running out of things half way through the week.

I no longer panic buy fresh things in the hope that they will last because I know that I will just order more when I need them, and I upgraded by delivery pass to include all the slots because it was a lot less stressful than trying to squeeze everything into a midweek delivery and then finding we had no bread over the weekend! Now, when I click on a £7 weekend slot I feel smug about the money I'm saving rather than stressing that my lack of organisation is costing money!

Yes, like others, more frequent shops are better. For us, it was things like yoghurt, berries etc - we didn't have space (yoghurt) and they don't last a week (berries) so we were always topping up but at the local shop, that's at least much much more expensive than buying it from even somewhere like Ocado. So now I tend to do a shop every 4 or 5 days and that works much much better for me.

I hate meal planning but do do it. And I have started sort of writing down 10 days worth of meals based on roughly what I have in the freezer or might be ordering. But because I'm shopping more frequently, it's must less onerous as I don't have to spend ages working out what meals must be eaten when based on use by dates etc.

Meal plan. Put everything into the freezer (meat, bread etc) and bring out in the mornings to defrost for tea. Snacks are bought once - they either last for the whole week or they don't - those who snack are now aware of this! Every 4-6 weeks we run out of milk a day or two before I go shopping- I just pop into the local shop and buy milk, and milk only.

We don't have much in the way of food waste nor do we end up topping up every 3-4 days at £20 a go, but you do have to make the rules clear, that if someone eats it then they don't get it in their lunch the next day! And you also need to check your cupboards when you meal plan to make sure you have all the components in stock, and you have enough eg cat food pouches to get you through a week.

I shop once a week on a Thursday night. Family of 5. Meal plan, Friday night is salad and cooked meat and nice bread, use simply cook on a sat night, Sunday is a roast or salmon and homemade pudding rest of week is pizza, chili, fish,omelette type meals. Use wraps for lunchboxes as they have longer sell by dates on than bread so not popping to buy that. Make a cake in the week have a box of cheese biscuits for snacks and yogurts and fruit.

We just have berries at the beginning of the week and other stuff later in the week.

@CraftyGin it depends if you go in with a list and only buy what’s on the list - otherwise the more times you go in, the more likely you are to impulse buy. Also we plan our meals around using stuff up eg buy a cabbage and that will be used over multiple days. Larger packs of stuff are generally better value.

@Oblomov22 we always keep a loaf in the freezer. We don’t get through much milk so don’t tend to run out but you can also freeze that (not in glass bottles). Actually writing that reminded me of milk delivery services. We had milk & more for a while, they will deliver 3x a week in our area and they also have stuff like bread, breakfast stuff, fruit, juice. Could be an option - slightly more expensive but cost effective if it stops unplanned purchases in the supermarket. And you might prefer stuff from a certain supermarket, but is it so much better that it’s worth your time and effort to go there specifically? Or really is the Aldi version good enough? If stuff isn’t urgent, then don’t go to the shop for it, just build up the list over the course of the week and get it all in one go. We eat a lot of carrots and didn’t have any for the latter half of last week. We survived

We just have berries at the beginning of the week and other stuff later in the week.

Assume this was to me? Theoretically, sure. Realistically - less so (in THIS house) . Also, berries were just an example. If and when I get a big enough fridge, I'll be able to buy a lot more things and probably could mostly last a week. But a week's worth of food including vegetables, berries, yoghurt, milk, cheese, juice does not fit in my fridge. I did a shop on Sunday and my fridge has very little space for anything else. Even though this is only about 5 days worth.

Been feeling off with eyes, so either a friend takes me Aldi, or local Lidl .
Top ups or smaller shops, normally fruit and bread

I portion out all the meatand then freeze. I defrost meat every day. Mostly to get around the sell by date.

Meal plan, always freeze leftovers and general laziness, noone ever wants to go to the supermarket. DC have school dinners, I don't think I could make pack lunch stuff last a week. I might go and get a pizza for Friday night tea. Asda deliver on Tuesday evening and admittedly tonight we are scrabbling around for something that can be considered a meal but we won't starve!

@CraftyGin

I shop every day. I don't see how this can be more expensive.

I think it is better because there is less food waste.

Well obviously it depends on what you buy but there's nowhere that sells 1 pint of milk for 1/4 the price of a 4 pint carton for example.

Unless the supermarket has got their pricing wrong a bigger pack of something is always cheaper per unit that a smaller one. If it works for you that's great but I can't see many people saving money like that

Why do you assume that's there's less waste, I buy what I know I'll use in the week, I throw very little away and I can't be the only one who does that

If you've got a large-ish family then you will need a fairly large fridge (and freezer?) to not top up. We have an American style fridge freezer, plus a small fridge in utility for drinks. Also agree with those who said they eat stuff that doesn't keep well at start of week (fish, berries, bagged salad leaves...) and cupboard/freezer/robust fruit and veg at end. Bread goes in the freezer. Only milk is delivered mid-week. I don't find it very hard, but it's automatic for me as it's the way I've always shopped/cooked. As did my mum.

I have a weekly Ocado delivery and rarely need a top up but I do live alone so appreciate it's much easier! My issue is mostly planning so far in advance - some days I just don't fancy what I had planned to have and that's when I end up buying lunch when I'm out or ordering a take away. But if I'm strict with myself then I try to always keep cupboard staples like porridge, pasta, rice, tins of tomatoes, beans etc. in, as well as frozen veg (onion, peas, sweetcorn) and frozen fruit (berries or banana usually) so would always have food, just not always the food I want just then.

Here's what to do hide the snacks in the boot of the car I do this other they will all be gone in 1 day

I used to manage by simply not going to the shops and if we ran out tough. Now one of my children has anorexia and I can’t do that anymore because I have to feed them three meals and three snacks a day and can’t just hand them a carrot if all the biscuits have gone. There are certain things I buy that are meant to be for them but everyone else gets food envy and eats that too

I have a relatively fail safe system.

• As soon as we run out of something or I remember something I ask Alexa to add it to the shopping list

• I meal plan very methodically

• I use that meal plan and the Alexa list to do an online shop

• I have a milk man

That way we only go to the shop to top up maybe once a fortnight for bread and wine usually