Has anyone just gone “fuck it” now when it comes to the weekly food bill?

[tiredandstripey]

usual disclaimer of saying I know we are in a fortunate position to have this choice.

For so so long now I have used the weekly food shop as an exercise in budgeting. I’m very strict and never spend more than £80 a week (me, DH, two DDs age 1 and 3) including nappies etc and have been doing everything I can to try to avoid spending more each week as the prices continue to climb despite the fact that me and Dd2 have allergies (= more expensive “alternative” products) and DD1 is autistic and fairly limited in her diet (and still in nappies).

I currently shop at Asda and I have been dropping down a product level, buying a lot of their essentials range, and cutting out extras/treats or opting for cheaper alternatives. For example DH and I used to enjoy a nice pudding once a week - a roulade with cream, or a sticky toffee pudding etc - but now I just get a block of chocolate to share instead as that’s £1 instead of £4 odd.

But I’ve got to the point where I’m thoroughly fed up with it. The food is increasingly shit quality - mouldy fruit and veg, crap dates on stuff, boring cheap meals all week long. We never go out to eat in the evenings (we have no one who can have our DDs) and I’m so fed up of never having anything “nice” to eat.

if we wanted to we could afford to spend an extra £100 or so on our food shop a month. Has anyone else finally just accepted the price rises and stopped trying to budget? I mean - obviously we would still have a limit, we’re not made of money (and I’ve just dropped my hours at work so will be earning less from next month anyway). But I’d really like to just allow myself to not choose the cheapest option of almost everything for once. There’s some cheaper products that I really don’t mind but some stuff is definitely worth paying extra for (I’m looking at you, Essentials rice pudding - like eating soapy bath water). And I’d happily forego my twice a month takeaway treat in exchange.

Slightly prepared to be flamed because I know some people don’t have this choice at all. But up until now I never allowed myself to buy the “nice apples” etc and now I’m just thinking bugger it.

Could you buy a ready pizza base and just add mozzarella and passata yourself maybe? Both will keep for another meal and the base can be cut into four and frozen.

There are plenty of places I’m economising in, food is one that I refuse to. Family of 3 adults, 1 teen and 1 autistic child I can’t spend less than £250 a week at the moment.

Don't switch to ocado. It's not that good quality. I've just stopped shopping there due to poor quality veg that goes within seconds of arriving, and I've found that just by going back out and choosing items myself in the shop rather than randomly jabbing at buttons I'm saving about £50 a week on the usual family food shop. I also have 2DDs with multiple IGE allergies to cater for.

Being back the puddings! Roulade sounds amazing.

I need to! I'm going to make a conscious effort to go this week as I feel like asda food quality has gone downhill. Might just me me though.

I feel this way about Lidl this weekend. Fruit I have bought has been mouldy and I've had to throw half the pack away. I'd rather buy in Coops reduced section for the same price as it's invariably better quality.I do mona about the Coop but today I have got lots of bargains that are still fine for the freezer. I'm a long time shopper at Lidl but prices have really gone up and quality gone down, even the cheese no longer seems to taste the same.

@tiredandstripey look up Becky Excel (Excell?) on Instagram. She’s also written a GF cookery book. She’s had some cracking GF slow cooker recipes recently.

Yes I also find going out to physically shop makes me spend way less than online. I just find it easier to see what things go together, how much I'm putting in the trolley, etc.

I actually prefer Aldi to Asda - their moser roth chocolate is lovely and not overly expensive

Sainsburys and Tesco are now cheaper than morrisons which never used to be the case
I tend to go for the lowest acceptable level. So butter is butter, I'll eat any block butter which is a saving. But marmite has to be the XO one for me! Crisps, there are some Aldi ones I really like so I get those

Basically pick the lowest acceptable of each product so if you try a value product and it's fine, stick with it, if not then don't. Always buy none perishable stuff if it's on offer and you use it and have room to put it. Even if you don't need it that week, get it at the lowest price for when you do

Ocado's own brand veg and meat are good and the prices are reasonable (cheaper than Waitrose and M&S but I find the quality is as good, if not better).

It's a false economy to buy crap veg from a cheaper supermarket. I recently did a Tesco shop and most of the bags of fruit/veg had bits starting to go off already.

Ocado also stock a huge range of products from smaller producers and foreign producers. It's brilliant for helping to navigate allergies.

So firstly congrats and hugs on what you are already doing and juggling - 2 very young kids with special needs with 2 full time professional jobs and zero help is a lot 😊 impressive you are still standing !
EVeryone has things they care most about when times are hard - and am definitely in the you need to relax it camp. Food matters anyway and it clearly matters to you both (same here!) if you relax a bit but still be sensible (loads of great tips here) you won’t run out of money but life will be less miserable and less likely to end up with a bird feeder !
two things - could you decide to convert one of the takeaways into nicer made lunches for you and your husband - you can probably get a lot of decent fillings for lunch sarnies for price of one takeaway (and keep the other)
And am now in a very fortunate position for which I am grateful but please don’t stress the fish fingers - perfectly fine once a week - suspect I am a lot older and most people or mums ate this once a week (now of course you can call them family fish goujons!)
good luck and also to say aside from the horrible inflation it will get easier - two very young kids is very full on and doesn’t give much space for anything including budgetrinf

@YukoandHiro I agree it would probably save money to shop in person but I don’t have the time every week unfortunately. Going on the weekend takes the best part of two hours and if I’m going to get two hours to myself on a Saturday (rare due kids needs) I’m definitely not spending it in the supermarket!

any recommendations for the best place to do online shop? I was using Ocado as I am always happy with M&S stuff 😋 but maybe should try Waitrose or sainsburys? I have an irrational dislike of tescos for reasons I don’t fully understand but have never even considered shopping there. Is it any better than Asda? Oh and I agree with a pp that Asda food quality has totally plummeted recently.

We shop with Tesco, Ocado and Waitrose. No one place has everything I want

Never Sainsbury's as they don't price match their substitutions and they ALWAYS send something that's more expensive - they pissed me off completely over that so many times that I ditched them.

Aw thank you @Happypanda22 thats such a kind post 😊 I often feel I am surrounded by other mums who work part time and have cleaners and lots of family help who cook everything from scratch and don’t let their kids have sugar, I also have several vegan friends and some who only feed their kids unprocessed stuff etc. Meanwhile mine are over here dipping crisps into their baked beans 😂 but I definitely want to prioritise food a bit more, I’m finding it such a daily downer.

I was eating some Lidl Chocolate Buttons and realised they are not a patch on Cadbury's. They used to be a good alternative, but the recipe changed a few years ago. I had forgotten this in my quest to save money. The buttons made me miserable, so I'll return to Cadbury.

Like others, I'm cutting back on meals out, cinema, gigs etc. My focus is now on having nice evenings in.

My main issue is two ravenous 16 year old boys, who eat everything! All meals are bulked out with bread, potatoes and beans/pulses. They also like like crisps and sweets and I struggle to cut back. One also likes smoothies, but even frozen fruit has gone up.

We've moved to oats though instead of sugary cereals - much cheaper, and I buy huge bags of pasta, lentils and rice. Big blocks of cheese. Frozen garlic bread is cheap and can bulk out meals.

I do miss the old prices though. This rise has come at a time where my sons appear to be at peak appetite!

Completely agree OP! We rarely go out to eat or get takeaway due to where we live, I tend to use Lidl for fresh meat and bulk buy and freeze, I also bulk buy veg prep and freeze and I am used to cooking for a large family which we no longer are so still cook the same but freeze any leftovers into tubs and then once a month we have a mixed tea! (Guess the tubs!! 🤣) But I am in a lucky position that I have a large freezer and I work for myself and have the time to bulk cook/cook from scratch which I know is not possible for everyone. We only do a 'big shop' about once a month but tbh the smaller ones tend to cost more so I try to get as much as I can in the bigger shop, nearly everything can be frozen (if you have space) and things like tinned tomatoes, pasta, tinned potatoes, cheap ham and cheap mozzarella can make many meals, breads and wraps are really quick and easy to make and tinned meats and hotdogs can bulk out meals. Can't do veggie as DH refuses point blank to eat any substitutes ( have even tried using it and he notices!) So I do have to uses meat pretty much every meal! Xx

If you want a dessert that feels famcy, I love this one.

scrummylane.com/5-minute-chocolate-pots-only-4-ingredients/#recipe

I don't use vanilla or add whipping cream to serve, so it's just water, dark chocolate and double cream. I usually make it with morrisons economy dark chocolate and it comes out great. Sometimes use half cheap chocolate and half posher caramel or orange chocolate.

I’m in camp fuck it. Before the rises I took great pride in being able to feed my family healthy meals for practically nothing. Then I found my family eating the same value shite for a lot more money no matter what I did and oh boy did we cut out the fresh fruit and veg. (Wasted money really as the cheap stuff always went off really quickly and didn’t taste of much.) Now I haven’t completely thrown caution to the wind but I don’t think I’ll be eating sausage pasta 4 times next week.

I don’t think you deserve to be flamed; you know you’re lucky / fairly privileged and it’s really hard with kids with allergies and restricted diets.

It is exhausting always scrimping and sometimes wasteful (eg fruit / veg going off straight away). My approach - and we’re fortunate too - has been to cut out takeaways, no more Pret/ Leon lunches at work, soup for three meals a week, pasta, pesto, peas/ beans on toast and other cheaper meals like that with no meat. And I’m about to potty train my son early so no more nappy costs (wish me luck).

But because I’m lucky, I also donate to the Trussell trust each month. Appalling how much food banks are needed in the UK in 2022. It shouldn’t be like this.

I love Aldi their fruit and veg seems fine, all supermarkets have ‘crap’, tho I do love Aldi chocolate and frozen veggie/ veg, if I want something ‘posh’ I go elsewhere, and insist on my cleaning/ dishwasher stuff being eco, which I buy online

Do you have the Clubcard Plus subscription? It costs £7.99 per month but you can save 10% on two shops per month of up to £200 a time. It also gives you 10% off Tesco brands at anytime during the month.
I do two very big shops a month to make full use of it - stocking up on meat, which I freeze, wine, coffee and other store cupboard items, making the best of any offers. Then I just do top up shops for milk, fruit and veg in between. I easily save over £30 per month after paying for the subscription!

For an easy pudding, I recommend squirting Squirty cream directly into your mouth while hiding standing behind the fridge door. I usually follow it with "sorry kids, there's hardly any cream left."

I have a couple of cheap nights a week, baked potato(done in air fryer) beans and cheese , sausage beans chips, then one maybe two nights really nice dinners fillet steak , new potatoes, asparagus and pepper sauce. Or maybe beef fajitas, then the rest normal dinners. Sometimes I just do a home made soup with nice bread then a crumble. I love food and really don’t want to cut back much more do most my shopping in Aldi or Lidl. It’s bad enough the the heating is now only set to 18 I’m not going to stop eating a nice tea every day.