£1,000 at the supermarket every month!

[Sainsburysaddict]

So - have just gone through our finances and we’re spending £1,000 at the supermarket every month.

DH says this is average for a family of 4 and is rather alarmed that I’d like to budget. Spending less can’t be done apparently, without a life of boring meals.

We desperately need to save money.

Thoughts? Tips? How much do you spend?

What on earth are you buying to cost that?

You mention shopping at the butchers - what sort of cuts do you buy?

What sort of meals do you make with these cuts?

Why the weekly roast?

Do you buy much fresh fruit (berries, etc, but also clementines, pineapples)?

Similar to us - we’re at about £650 a month for 2 - both here for all meals as work from home

We do approx 150 a week Inc all toiletries, treats etc no alcohol though .
I could easily do for more but that's the amount I feel is OK.

Either dinner or requests for something run out (it’s a super store opposite my work so. very convenient).

Or a specific trip for stuff I can’t buy in Aldi.

Honestly I actually think Sainsbury’s is more expensive than m and s. It’s literally the worst.

About £850 to £900 a month, which I'm horrified by. Two adults, two older teenagers and a 4 year old. 4 year old is still in nappies but even with that it's a shocking amount. We shop at Aldi and Iceland but even they have put prices up a lot. Top up shops from Asda probably once a week but that's included in the budget.
No ideas on how to bring it down while still making decent meals.

The supermarkets are making a massive profit but their overheads have risen enormously.

Friend has a tea room does simple lunches. Her energy bill was 2k during the cold weather last winter pcm. That's just for cooking and heating.

We're using the air fryer now it's just the two of us. It's been marvellous.

We could easily spend that amount! But I do think you've got room to cut back if you want to save more. Be wary of posters on here who tell you they can feed their family of 4 for £20 a week or similar. I've seen it on previous threads and when asked to provide meal plans or shopping list it turns out they are lying or eating plain pasta etc.

We to get most of our meat from the butchers. We don't eat massive portions but go for quality over quantity. I do a Sunday roast and then use the leftovers for a meal on the monday. Some weeks I might do toad in the hole instead of a full roast which works out cheaper.

We have a meat slicer. So we will get a gammon joint and have some for a meals then slice the rest into ham. This works out far cheaper than the expensive ham I used to buy.

During the winter we have jacket potatoes most weeks. We also love soups, curries and homemade pizza which are all cheap to make. If we have soup I will normally make a sponge and custard because they don't tend too be high in calories. Old fashioned meals like cottage pie, stews etc tend to be cheaper too.

We use lots of leftovers up at lunch. Otherwise it will be something basic like a sandwich, ryvitas or an omelette.

Breakfast is always own brand weetabix or porridge. We always have plenty of fruit in but tend to eat it as snacks.

Baking is ridiculously expensive now. I tend to pick 1 thing a week to make. I might have missed you saying how old your DCs are but maybe you could try to cook some frugal bakes and include some history. I love this website and have made a few of the biscuits and cakes before https://the1940sexperiment.com/100-wartime-recipes/

Do you buy fresh/ refrigerated pasta as opposed to dried/ boxed/ packets?

Small bags of rice?

Exotic cheeses/ fancy crackers/ juices from a juice bar/ organic free range eggs/ top of the line bottled juice or fizzy water or mineral water?

holy crap that is a lot of animal!

Do you buy a lot of sliced deli meats or sliced cheese or shredded cheese?

Yep but their body is a temple and they're not paying for it. I baulked at paying for the creatine and vitamins though.

There are use by dates and there are best before dates. The latter simply indicate that the producer thinks the quality will not be as good after that date, but they will be usually be perfectly safe. A lot of people throw away perfectly safe, edible food and then buy more to replace it. Use by dates are calculated very cautiously. I wouldn't exceed them for raw fish and meat, but I ignore them for eggs and yoghourt.

We are a family of 4, 2 older teens, 1 is a boy, we spend about £1,000 in the supermarket too. We’re not buying wine but do buy lagers and a bottle of vodka as someone always has party to go to. I don’t feel like we’re overly extravagant but neither do we budget.

Magnum of Veuve Clicquot? A few prime steaks? I can't think what else you could fit into a single carrier bag that would cost over £100.

It would take us years and years to get through that amount of meat. My husband would be perfectly happy never to eat meat again, my son is similar, and I enjoy it occasionally but don't want it often. It can't be healthy eating all that meat, surely, even for a professional athlete?

Do you need to bake so much?

It sounds as if you all may be eating too much!

I rarely bake now as ingredients are so expensive.
I'm fussy and only bake with best butter, free range eggs etc, so it's actually cheaper to buy cakes but I don't as they are often full of processed crap.

I started shopping online at Ocado. I spend less than on a Tesco online shop. Because I buy much less "filler". I noticed that as I've shopped online for 20 years at Tesco, my "favourites" list has got a whole load of extras in ... bourbon biscuits, jaffa cakes, sour cream dip, hula hoops etc. My ocado favourites are still just proper "food". Since I just buy food for meals plus any cleaning stuff it takes a third off .. so our bill (3 adults, occasionally 4) is more £100-120 rather than £150-180 a week

It's not possible, they're in fantasy land.

£30 a week for four people is £1.07 each a day.

You must be personally responsible for global warming with all that consumption of meat.

Good grief!
We'd not get through that in a year.

Seriously, are you not at all worried about the risks linked to processed meat?

Just DH and I. Neither of us eat breakfast, DH eats lunch out the house, I take leftovers to work. We probably eat five evening meals a week in the house, plus two more out. I cook and bake almost everything we eat from scratch. We’re veggie, so no meat, but we do buy lots of whole foods, fruit and veg. Our Sainsbo’s bill is about £500 a month and we get top ups in a little deli down the road (mostly coffee beans and beer) so I can see how it would be easy enough to spend £1000 on a family of four.

But we could definitely live off of an awful lot less if we had to.

I thought that seemed alot OP so I just did a quick count up on our CC bill and ours is the same if not higher 🤔

We go through an absolute tonne of fruit and veg. Chicken several times a week, plus salmon, king prawns, occasionally steak. Expensive things like pine nuts, EVOO, plus a fair bit of booze - mostly wine and prosecco. We also eat out a few times a month and get the odd take away on top of this so we could easily be spending £1500 a month on food and drink!

We are in a fortunate position where we don't have to budget but I'm quite shocked it's so much, especially seeing some of the other comments on here 😬

Threads like this always brings out these unrealistic posters who claim to spend so little.

OP you need to embrace vegetarianism for some meals.

Chick peas, lentils, all kinds of beans (canned) can be made into lovely meals with some vegetables.

Or make main meals with eggs.

I suspect you're all eating snacks as well if you're always baking.

Stick to 3 meals a day, no snacks, no tins full of homemade cakes, eat mainly plants 3 days a week, and your bill will come down.

Presently im cooking for 4 adults and have to supply pudding with every meal but don't do week day lunches.

Ive spent £280 over 4 weeks and this includes loo roll, coffee, squash but no alcohol or pets

we eat stuff like croissants each morning, toast, sausage sandwiches or bacon sarnies for breakfast.

Supper this weeks had been burger in brooch buns with chips and salad, taming twins enchiladas in the slow cooker but I put the wraps in the air fryer cut up to make crisps with them instead of ending the recipe as she put them int he dish and they are soggy to my mind, sausages and mash with peas and gravy, beef bourgeon from pinch of nom recipes with mash potato and tender stem broccoli, pesto pasta, bacon and cream cheese with peas, butter chicken curry with rice, poppadoms and pitta bread

puddings are meringues with peaches and yogurt or ice cream, fake cornets from Aldi, rice pudding, lemon greek yogurt, chocolate mouse