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.

@TomTraubertsBlues i agree that CDM isn’t quite as nice as it used to be but it’s a damn sight better than the 33p shit 😂

I think I’m going to go all out this week and order myself a bar of green and blacks 😯

I tried to outrun inflation with shopping around and changing things around with brands and foods and it turns out that took far more time and energy than I was willing to spend. So we resumed our usual shopping and eating habits, which I realise is not an option available to everyone, but the familiarity, speed and reduced effort is worth the expense in our house of fussy eaters and dietary limitations.

I think rotating Aldi with other shops is a good idea OP. These days it's our main shop and we get bits from Asda plus sometimes meat from the butcher, but years ago I used to alternate between the two every week. Asda can be good for branded stuff, and obv with autistic DC you may have more need for that than most, but far too much of their own brand stuff is just shit.

For us, what we've tended to do is more of the cheap dishes with decent ingredients still, if that makes sense? So I'm happy to eat more home made soup, meals that involve stretching a chicken etc and would do that in preference to downgrading to Asda own brand chocolate (which is really shit!). However I realise that your options for this are limited given DC neurodiversity. I do have an ND one as as well but a bit less fussy. I would agree with other posters that batch cooking and freezing what DD eats will make life easier. I do that with mine. Nothing wrong with her having the same tomato pasta sauce several times a week if it's nutritious in itself.

I'm fortunate that I can buy pretty much what I want, but the weekly price increases are getting silly now.

I did draw the line last week though. It was cold and dark, and I was trying to find something fast and comforting for dinner and I thought 'pie and mash!'
A 'free from' single-serve meat pie, for one of us who needs to be gluten free, was £4.80.
I was speechless. We had sausages and mash.

It's hard being on a tight budget, and really horrible if you do need to buy special stuff.

If you need gluten or dairy free for the children as well, I recommend batch making pancakes, waffles, scotch pancakes. You can make a huge batch cheaply, make healthier, and then a quick reheat when fussy child hungry.

We’ve done this OP but we started back during covid when you couldn’t eat out or get takeaways. We’ve always been thrifty with food but found the quality of some things seemed to be going down. We still don’t bother with takeaway and don’t eat out much. We got fed up with constantly eating low quality stuff. We have an Ocado delivery now and I do still go to Aldi and Tesco for bits from there that are cheaper than Ocado. We’re lucky that we can but I have to say it’s a nice luxury.

I've really enjoyed reading this thread and taken some tips away - just wondered if anyone had any tips for pasta dishes without tomato based sauce - I would love to find some cheap easy healthy "passatta " that wasn't passatta 😂😂😂😂 50 p a carton , pour it on , add what you like it's perfect .. but I hate tomato based sauce altogether

Closest I did was a can of chicken soup but would love any other ideas , thanks all ❤️

How about a pot of creme fraiche?
It makes a good instant creamy sauce and won't curdle when you heat it.
You can add a little mustard or something like smoked paprika and it's lovely with chicken left-over bits or a tin of tuna, or with some nuts of seeds sprinkled on for a bit of crunch with any veggies.
Cheese will melt into it well, too.

I have found quite a few interesting items at the local food pantry / community shop e.g. local organic sourdough bread, kefir, quinoa, unusual fruit and veg. I was quite surprised. They also have nice curry kits with herbs and spices. Well worth a look

@VeronicaBeccabunga thank you so much ! That is a brilliant idea ❤️

I'm not sure if anyone else is the same but in general I don't find Waitrose food to be worth the difference in price from say, Tesco.

We tend to do a Tesco online shop for our usuals, and then top ups from elsewhere but I was shocked at the price of fish, meat, antipasti etc last time I went into Waitrose (a lot of items have gone up more than 50%) and honestly can't see that much difference in taste or quality.

M&S however I can tell the food is just generally nicer so if we are having something "nice" I'll get it from there.

Similar to others we are just reducing the take away / eating out budget to make up the good shop budget..

I don’t agree, I find Tesco to be nowhere near as good as Waitrose, especially fruit and veg. I’m still shopping at Waitrose and prices have gone up so I’ve switched what I buy and start red cheaper meals once or twice a week, eg jacket potatoes or a beans on toast night. That way we can still have our expensive meals, just fewer of them

I much prefer Waitrose to Tesco, and generally find the quality better.
If I go to Waitrose, I tend to do a smaller shop and buy items that I can only get there, but buy the general stuff in Lidl/Aldi or Tesco.
I miss having a local M&S.

I saw a recipe for veg chilli that was tinned beans and rather than the usual chopped tomatoes it was a tin of pumpkin. Thought it sounded good but I haven’t tried it!

I refuse to buy chocolates, sweets, crisps, biscuits, fizzy drinks for my grocery shopping because all those bits add up and its trash food anyways. I bought treats for Halloween and I will buy treats for Christmas and New Years but that's it.

I find Waitrose quality better and their Essentials range is good value as well

Try Garlic and Herb Philadelphia (or own brand equivalent) with some pasta water to loosen and Parmesan. We use 2 tubs to feed 4 of us and add in whatever's in the fridge- leftover chicken/ham/bacon/broccoli/ leeks. One of favourites and so quick and easy.

Thank you @ivenoidea and @Moltenpink

Definitely worth a try

We upped our budget too.

We do not drink, smoke, rarely have time to socialise while we have DD2, dont spend money on new clothes etc. I used to love a payday splurge in Superdrug but even that has shot up in price.

But food? I cant stand being miserly with food. I grew up poor and nothing makes me feel happier than a full fridge and cupboard. I honestly get a high walking out of the shops with a carrier bag filled with lovely things to eat. Its one of lifes great joys.

Like many others on here we are having two or three very cheap meals a week so that we don't have to compromise the rest of the time. Things like soup, jacket potatoes, beans on toast, pasta and pesto etc and the bonus is they're really easy to make so I don't spend all evening in the kitchen after work and the school/nursery run.

Takeaways used to be a weekly treat but we were spending £20-30 a time. So now it's a "nice" meal from the supermarket instead and to hell with it, it's still cheaper and life's too short.

Oh and to the PP asking about non-tomato sauces with pasta we often do garlic fried in butter and pasta tossed through that as a sauce with whatever veg we have and it's really nice. Also garlic, olive oil and chilli flakes works well too.

Or the flavoured Philadelphia style cheese spreads warmed through with a bit of milk to make them go further work well as a creamy sauce for pasta.

Interesting on Waitrose, clearly just me!

Maybe it's a blip.. or I'm reeling over how much certain items have gone up (salmon, the oven meat boxes, minted lamb rump 😢).. we have one round the corner so they will still be getting my business due to laziness if nothing else 😃

Jacket potatoes are lovely, we're earing more of those lately

@DietCokeExtraIce i do think Waitrose stuff tastes nicer but I’m with you on the price increase. Some stuff is shockingly expensive now

@Donepaying my favourite pasta dish is literally just 4 ingredients, spaghetti, olive oil, garlic & chilli.
it’s call aglio e olio and I just make up a big bottle of the garlic chilli oil so that I can do a quick dish whenever by literally boiling some pasta, heating some garlic chilli oil and drizzling it on the pasta!

www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/spaghetti-aglio-e-olio