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.

Hmmm ok so I’ve pondered and perused further (who knew I could fill an entire Sunday evening fannying about on various supermarket websites!). A pp is correct about sainsburys - their substitutions piss me off too much and there is no way to request a refund other than phoning them. So although I’m happy to nip in there every now and again in person, and they probably stock the best overall range of products for our needs/tastes (lots of veggie and gluten or dairy-free options, eco washing and cleaning products), I don’t really want to do online shops with them regularly.

Aldi seems most affordable for a lot of stuff, even more so than Asda, but I had continued with Asda because Aldi don’t really stock any gluten or dairy free products. I also find aldi too unreliable in terms of what is or isn’t in stock and there’s often no alternatives (eg not uncommon to turn up at our local one and find they have an entire category of food completely out of stock like rice, pasta etc which just doesn’t happen elsewhere).

Asda is now IMO generally shite as already discussed BUT it does have the most affordable range of GF food.

but of course the whole point of this is to have some nicer stuff and also fruit and veg that doesn’t look like it’s just spent a week sat on a warm lorry stuck at an EU border somewhere.

So I’m thinking I might try:
Once a month stock up at Aldi for store cupboard basics, crisps, nuts, dried fruit, tinned fish etc basically on products that I know we like and that you don’t really taste the difference on quality. Note to self, must avoid bird feeders and other middle aisle tat in order for this to be cost effective.

Then the rest of the time shop online at Ocado or potentially Waitrose.

Only thing tempting me back to Asda are the wide range of (relatively) affordable free-from products. Waitrose and Ocado are actually not great in terms of GF food unless you happen to have small pots of gold dotted around your house to help out for them.

If you have the option and ability, yes but I genuinely fear for many at the very bottom who are already eating the poorest foods.

There needs to be some sort of financial help, not just food banks.
These people need a payment of at least £100.00 top up per week if they have children, just for food, with all the other rises going on how can they possibly survive.

Where it comes from, Lord know, maybe cancel the TV license and convert it to helping the poorest in society.

It's going to be very bleak.
I feel sorry for the children in these households and the resulting effects of poverty.

I would pay a monthly food tax, to help the poorest, I would want a reputable person to be in charge to front this, preferably not a polititian.
Mary Berry would do.

We could asses the situation in a few years if the markets stabalise, but I can't see things going down, every price hike I've known over the years resulted in prices remaining the same after a recession.

But there needs to be some emergency measures put in place.

I feel ya, OP.

Our £100 weekly shop is now easily £125.

I've come to the same realisation as you, and several PP's...

A few nice meals a week.
A few cheap ones (beans on toast, pasta and sauce, etc.).
Buying tins and basics in bulk.
Less meat. More beans.

We do an ocado shop once a week (me) and a top up (my husband) once a month from Lidl or Aldi for things like long life oat milk, pasta, etc., that are cheaper there. I find ocado generally gets cheaper as you use it more because you set up things like the lists and favourites as well as getting used to sorting by price per then scrolling through the various sections. They also have an offers section, tell you if you've missed deals, and generally have things like the £5 fridge that mean you can generally pick the decent value and decent quality stuff. I've found allowing myself a few treats makes me less likely to spend on things like the meal deals.

Like you I didn't want to like ocado as perceived it as more expensive but the middle of Lidl is my downfall so ocado is cheaper so far and far easier. Hence my husband doing the top up shops as apparently the weirdo is not tempted by things like random GBBO cookbooks that would be the perfect Christmas present for the relative we don't exchange gifts with 🤣

Ocado prices are often more expensive than the same item in an M&S bricks and mortar shop.

OP mentions buying dried fruit and nuts (expensive) but surely children aged 1 and 3 aren't eating nuts. I buy both those items, usually walnuts almonds apricots and dates and they're around the £4-5 mark. Crisps are unnecessary and have no nutritional value.
I'm wondering why so many people nowadays have allergies and issues which preclude them from eating certain foods. This never came up years ago. You ate what was on the table or went hungry or had toast if a parent had a mind to make it.

This is going to sounds so snobby. But we've recently moved to Ocado and/or Waitrose and buy their essential range.

It's really good quality but cheaper than buying own brand (for the most of it) at Asda.

Then forty years later your spine collapsed from the osteoporosis resulting from an inability to absorb nutrients caused by coeliac disease too quiet to be diagnosed by 1970s medicine.

We're not just making it up, you know.

Gluten free & lacto free household here.
l shop across a range of online supermarkets to bulk buy the GF/LF products that are consistently edible. Morrisons at the moment does a good Schar baguette in individual pouches & a staggeringly good GF DF chocolate coated truffle bar which makes for an affordable treat.

Food that is tasteless or poor quality is a waste no matter how cheap. We had to kiss a few culinary frogs during lockdown to find cheaper substitutes for what we’d usually get before deliveries petered out. Cheap tinned carrots - never again.

To save money, I keep a careful eye on prices as the big 3 supermarkets are in a walkable cluster or check online, & I have time to do this. Not everybody can or wants to do this, it gives me a semblance of control & quashes the gloom of maybe missing a bargain when all prices are going up. A small victory!

So more really nice stuff on toast - quality baked beans, really fresh FR eggs, lashings of LF butter - rather than cobbling together a lacklustre medieval pottage. 😁

I found it demoralising to put effort into shopping, preparing & cooking dishes from scratch that did not satisfy. I used to plug away at this with diminishing returns. I’ve had a toastal epiphany, we now have a short easy absolutely tasty toastfest several times a week, saving money, time & effort.

Slow cooked shin of beef with pastry top is a great pie, far better than using stewing steak.

Heck are good for GF sausages & these are vegan: www.heckfood.co.uk/pages/vegan-italia
Dunno if any good & possibly too ‘flavoured’?

Yup @FurryDandelionSeekingMissile gone are the glory days of slowing wasting away from malnutrition…

‘If you have the option and ability, yes but I genuinely fear for many at the very bottom who are already eating the poorest foods.’

Despite the scarcity of food during WW2, many poor people ate far better due to food rationing, which was a controlled & consistent distribution of essential food stuffs to meet daily nutrition & energy needs.

The health of many conscripted during WW2 improved due to regular nutritious meals.

Do not be surprised, given the forthcoming food shortages (due to fertiliser & fuel costs) if the UK has a similar scheme sometime soon to ensure that nutritious quality food is made directly available rather than handing over extra cash as benefit or tax relief.

School meals of my childhood were free at the counter, tasty (enough) & filling, & all children sat together to eat irrespective of family income. Hungry children could go up for seconds & dinner ladies soon spotted those who needed that bit more because there wasn’t much at home or rapidly growing.

I still buy the quality food I used buy before and I now shop in Tesco with the club card discount

I wonder if you can slightly change how you approach cooking so it’s not a huge chore cooking two meals (which totally sucks!). Our meal plan this week is (all from scratch):

ragu + pasta (really nice sauce), makes enough for 3 dinners so two go in freezer
Chicken meatball soup: only uses 1/2lb of chicken for 3 portions, rest basically veg, I make double the meatballs, goes in the freezer
Sole mueniere, mash, green beans
Tacos (pulled pork from the freezer from a few weeks ago
spaghetti and meatballs (freezer)
Friday I am going all out and cooking a bunch of Korean food which will take about an hour

so of 6 meals, 2 are from freezer, 2 generated future freezer meals and one is a quick fish dish. I nearly always follow this plan to have at least two meals come from the freezer and at least 2, sometimes 3 go into the freezer. So I only end up really cooking a couple of weeknights then do a bit more on the weekends.

I was thinking just yesterday as I ate my toasted Schar loaf end and half a can of Essentials beans how reminiscent it all is of my impoverished student days 40 years ago, and how delighted I ought to be feeling with the chance for such quality reminiscences.

We are a family of 6 and two pets and we are really struggling to get our shop to come in at under £140 a week.
It doesn't help that we have three very picky eaters either. I cook from scratch and batch cook on weekends which does help but there is always one or more child that won't eat whatever it us so has to have an alternative (usually basic pasta). They basically have to suck it up now-which is probably not a bad thing really as they need to learn to stop being so faddy.
Dh is a stickler for 'quality' meat etc-but even he has had to accept that we are eating Value range now.
We also both work FT in decent jobs but our mortgage has recently give up £400, energy, fuel all up and we are now over budget every month. Really dreading Christmas :(

@LoisLane66 i think you have missed the point of my post… I’m looking to spend more on my shopping, not less. Also on the one hand you’re criticising me for buying dried fruit and nuts - which are healthy and nutritious (and DD1 does eat raisins and dried apricots) and yet simultaneously saying that crisps offer no nutritional value (which is obvious to anyone who is not very stupid, I didn’t think that pickled onion monster munch counted as one of my five a day).

Genuine food allergies are serious - I did not particularly enjoy the years I spent as an undiagnosed coeliac during which I had to endure joint pain, migraines, various other neurological symptoms that were at one point mistaken for MS, as well as the standard “IBS”. Thankfully now I’m on a gluten-free diet I am free from those symptoms and hopefully will now avoid the terminal bowel cancer that previously ran in my family 👍

Some parents won't have a choice.

@Happyhappyday thanks for the tips, yes I definitely think I need to make more use of the freezer and maybe think about using basic sauces for different meals eg tomato sauce as a base for veggie lasagne/spaghetti Bol/chilli

@ViolinPin

I don't think you have to be well off to eat well , I think the problem is a lot of people can't / won't cook and rely on ready meals or processed foods of varying quality to feed kids . My parents had nothing when we were young but mum always put nutritious meals out , hearty veg soups , eggs mornay, stews bulked with veg , a Sunday chicken would have the carcass stripped for stir fry or soup etc . I'm not convinced all of us paying extra taxes would help feed children better the extra money could just go on bills etc . Most people in poverty are juggling price rises everywhere .

It’s just DH and I in my household, and we’re very fortunate to have not yet had to cut anything from our supermarket shop, even though the price at the checkout keeps rising. If costs keep increasing we’ll soon have to though.

Food is just another way this country keeps poorer people down. I teach in an inner city school of mixed affluence. You can tell from looking around the classroom which children regularly have good, nutritious food. It effects everything - growth, academic performance, athletic performance, energy, attention, self esteem.

For all of Jamie Oliver’s campaigning, school dinners are still pretty poor in many schools (where I live, it depends very much on the local authority and individual school). I was reading some ‘budget family recipes’ with dismay the other day. Yes, they were hearty and filling for the cost and had some frozen or tinned veg and a bit of protein. They weren’t super nutritious, but children are unlikely to become malnourished eating them. But, there’s a level of expectation there that parents can access this information, budget for the week, and have the fuel, equipment and motivation required to actually cook and prepare it. The reality is that many poorer families struggle with this and were already existing off of fairly insubstantial food…what now?

@Goatinthegarden thats a good point. As I said we are fortunate to be able to budget a little bit extra towards food and just spend less on luxuries like takeaways.

We had very little money growing up, my parents struggled financially, but my mum was obsessed with us eating “something substantial”. Me and my siblings even have it as a saying to each other now if we see one of us eating some “rubbishy snack” as my mum used to call them (like a cereal bar or bag of crisps) and say “oooh that’s not very substantial now is it!” It’s important for kids and I want to make sure that they eat properly. Although my DD1 has a limited list of foods she does fortunately eat decent amount of veg and a couple of “substantial” meals like veggie chilli and pasta bolognese.

You mentioned the smart price chocolate 33p bars. Truly a low point in my life

I am just buying what I would normally buy but the quality has decreased in my opinion,I shop at aldi,the fruit/veg is going off more quickly,the chicken breast’s have bones still in them,products have got smaller.

It's useful to economise and swap branded for budget-range if the taste and quality are comparable but, if you have the means to spend more on food, I wouldn't self-impose some sort of austerity where you strip out all of the things you enjoy. When you have young kids, sometimes a pudding at the end of the day is something to look forward to and keep you sane!

Get the food you want, OP! You won't be saving much on food shopping - it's things like turning on the heating less that will save you more money

We've always just bought the same things