Realistically can I feed 5 for £150pw?

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Switching to Lidl/Aldi tomorrow (they are on same retail park) and would like to spend a maximum of £150 per week is this possible? Currently spending nearly double that at a major supermarket I no longer want to dip into savings each month to feed us. No alcohol but will need to include toiletries and cleaning supplies, any items I should give a miss and anything worth buying? We are a non fussy household but no fish/shellfish due to an allergy, I am happy to go into to both shops as they share a car park.

Yes, of course!

Less meat, eat the offers and seasonal stuff.
You'll need to think about it - especially if you are needing to half your bill. But we don't really budget, and aren't far off your intended budget for 4 of us (2 adults, 2 teens).

Of course.
Do you meal plan / write a list? If not, start now!

We manage £100 a week for family of 4. We do a mix of aldi and lidl and once a month we go to asda and stock up on some yellow labelled bits x

Definitely doable but I’d recommend doing a meal plan for the week beforehand and be tactical about what you make for meals.

E.g. A big pack of mince meat could do you 2x meals, bolognese & then mince and dumplings maybe.

Pack of sausages could do you a sausage dinner for everyone.

If you’re going to have chicken, get chicken breast & season yourself rather than buying seasoned chicken breast from Aldi to save ££

What are you buying at the moment?

I've got a Tesco order coming tomorrow for the week and it's £125 which is an expensive week for me.

Yes.

There are 4 of us (plus 2 cats!) and we spend nowhere near that. Quite honestly, you’ll get used to buying what’s there. We do occasionally go to other supermarkets if there’s anything Aldi don’t sell (I don’t like their washing powder, for example).

I reckon we’ve saved thousands. When we do shop elsewhere we spend nowhere near £150 though. There’s one less of us but even so.

We feed our family of five for about £120 max per week from Aldi. that includes some extra snacky treats that we could cut back if we needed to, plus nappies etc
Meal plan before you go and it should be fairly easy.

Easily my parents shop in lidl, do the weekly shop for them 2, my 32yo bro (piglet) and nan for 70-110pw

Yes, you need to work out why you're currently spending so much. Aldi and Lidl are cheaper but not half price so you must have some pretty spendy habits for such a large bill.

Are you online of those Mumsnetters who thinks a punnet of berries per person per day and a bottle of shower gel per person per week is normal basic shopping?

Lots of meat?
Endless soft drinks or snacks?
Lots of waste?

Cleaning products, toiletries etc are a red herring a that's 5/10% of the bill at most.

Easily doable if you consider what you buy, use offers and meal plan. I budget £500/month for my family of 5.

Hungry teens? Or young children?

We do a family of four for about £70-80 a week from Sainsbury’s. But DD are 6 & 3, DD1 still gets free school lunches for another year, and DD2 eats lunch at nursery 3 days a week, so that takes out of what I need to buy.

I used to do £85 a week for 3 of us using M&S and Waitrose and Amazon for 6 monthly top ups of loo roll, cleaning stuff , dishwasher and washing tabs - but I did used to meal plan , freeze a load of yellow sticker things and buy £15 a week of fruit and veg from the farm shop - it does help if you meal plan and restrict snacks to fruit, yoghurt, toast and crumpets. I also found the more instantly grabbable choices you had in, the more some people will graze/snack for the sake of it .

Aldi is much cheaper. I'm always suprised how much I get for little money. Lidl will have more unusual stuff in their world food features Greek/ Chinese/ American etc. Watch out for branded stuff being more expensive than other supermarkets.

We are 5. Frozen fish, chips and baked beans is cheap and easy. I also make a chorizo and polish smoked sausage dish with tinned beans/ pepper/courgette/aubergine, v cheap and healthy and tasty. The polish sausage comes from Lidl in a pack of 5 I think and I only use a couple plus half a chorizo. Large greek yoghurt pot (bucket!) in Lidl is great. Nuts good value. Frozen fruit. Salt n pepper chips and skin on fries.

We shop at both and feed 5 for 120-150 weekly. I do go to savers for some cleaning bits. Meal plan, it stops wastage and we use leftovers for lunches.

Of course it is. What are you spending almost £300 per week on? Once you've worked that out you can look for very easy savings.

Yes, it's doable. But you wi have to plan.

If you buy lots of branded foods or cleaning products or toiletries , stop that as much as you can. With the brands, a large part of the overall cost is to pay for advertising and fancier packaging.

Look at bulk buying online. Bit of a niche example - but there is a particular type of herbal tea I like. I can buy 4 boxes of it on Amazon for about the cost of 2 in the supermarket.

Up your consumption of pulses. They tend to be very very cheap, especially actually in foreign food shops. They are also incredibly nutritious and tasty.

Consider having more cheaper veg like cabbage a carrots. Both are very underrated IMHO. Also very good for you.

Check the frozen food aisle. A lot of frozen fruit, veg and fish in particular is cheaper than fresh.

Less meat as PPs have said.

Accept that it might take you a while because radically changing your diet overnight is difficult and not a lot of fun.

I would think so. I feed two of us for around £60. Mostly Sainsbury's but one trip to Lidl every few weeks.

You can’t halve your grocery bill simply by switching to Aldi / Lidl, no.

Some things aren’t even cheaper.

But lots are: their own brand cereal, jam, cleaning products etc .

What do you spend most on?

I shop at Aldi spending about £50 every ten days for two adults and a small child, with an occasional trip to Tesco or Sainsbury for things we can't get there.

I'm disciplined with a shopping list: I pretty much just get exactly what's on the list and nothing else.

(Unlike other posters, I don't meal plan, I just cook whatever's oldest in fridge on any given day. We rarely have to chuck anything.)

I couldn’t do it anyway. I’m amazed at how little some people are getting away with spending on food. I’m a disgrace.

Cleaning products - elbow grease goes a long way

toiletries - how many are really needed ? Loo roll , bars of soap are better value , try to get out of habit of washing and conditioner on hair every day ( or every time you wash it ) if your hair is dry skipping (edit) shampoo sometimes is better for it

vegetarian in the main

Porridge for breakfast with cheaper fruit like apples or frozen fruit

simple sandwiches for lunch - peanut butter, marmite , jam, eggs - don’t buy the protein hype

egg chips and homemade coleslaw ( carrots cabbage and onions are cheap)

or add cheese ( a little) and walnuts to the slaw on jacket potatoes. Cook up apple crumble at the same time to make efficient use of oven

homemade chill - tin baked beans, tin or two of tomatoes, tin another bean type, carrots, onions garlic and chilli

couscous with a block of feta and some frozen broad beans and salad bits. Half a jar or olives or sun dried tomorrow.Use paprika or a herb mix in the couscous

hamlomi burghers with mushrooms

it’s about £20 per day for food or £4 per person so it will be tight but keep the breakfast and lunch cheap to make diner more exciting

and sit down with your meal plan and cost out every meal you are making

Absolutely. I am feed 6 adults for less than that. I shop at Tesco and Aldi

Are you currently buying a lot of branded products? £300 a week is a lot. We are a family of 5, 3 older teens. We spend around £10 per week, but that includes alcohol.

Ours is about £120 a week for 4, but we have big portions and lots leftover. We vaguely meal plan (have some ideas, but with flexibility) and buy what we fancy. Unless I'm buying alcohol (which I don't), I'm struggling to see how we could spend £300 (what you're currently spending). We have a lot of meat, lots of soft fruit, branded snacks. I just don't get it tbh.

Yes, I feed two adults for £60 so £30 each, which is the same allowance per person.

It's no problem at all, although I don't buy alcohol