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.

Ok, so my answer changes to yes of course you can but only if you make sensible food choices and don’t ship a crate of fruit halfway across the world to feed little Johnny. Eat more like a 1950s family and you’ll be fine. Max 1-2 pieces fruit pppd, only British seasonal produce. Dinner based on meat (whole chicken or pork shoulder for e.g.) & seasonal only veg. A homemade cake if more snack needed.
Yoghurt in large pots, essential range is fine. No individual portions of anything, they’re always £££.

So it’s obviously doable based on the amount of people who post and do it for less but i couldn’t. I average £300 a week sometimes £260 sometimes £350 depending on what we need. Theres 5 of us, not much alcohol but all cleaning and toiletries and lunches and snacks. i also buy a lot of fruit and veg and fresh salad bits and if i had to i could buy less but i don’t want to when i hear how some people are suggesting eating.

i’m would be genuinely curious to see what a typical few days eating is like for some of the families spending less than half what i do? Maybe there are “cheaper” meals we’d have but i also buy things like cheeses (my husband eats a lot) or branded soft drinks (me not the kids) & if i wanted a “quick” dinner i might go in and buy a quiche to have with cous cous and salad or something - i know i could make a quiche cheaper or pick up something else like a packet of baked potatos or something but i don’t. Packets of the filled fresh pasta we like those too - plain pasta & a tomato sauce isn’t the same. So i think it’s being realistic with what what you want to spend v how you eat. I could do it cheaper if i made changes & a good bit cheaper if i completely changed what we buy and eat and if things keep rising i’ll likely have to but things like stew etc my husband doesn’t like & he classes a punnet of berries a day (mentioned by someone up thread) as completely normal but if anyone wants to share meal plans / shopping lists i’m genuinely interested.

sorry op bit of track but i just mean making compromises might save you some money but it’s the level of those compromises you need to make

Yes, absolutely. I shop at Tesco with top ups at Waitrose and Co op and we definitely do not spend £150 per week. We are 2 adults and 2 children (one a teen, one in primary school). 3 meals a day plus snacks, coffee drinks for Dh and I and everything but lunch for dc during term time.

My weekly Tesco order is under £100 usually. That includes toiletries and cleaning supplies. Very rarely alcohol (I don’t drink, but dh does and sometimes we have people over). Top ups maybe £50, but that’s usually stuff I want to buy. We don’t have a budget and I could very easily feed us all for £100 a week if I needed to. But we have the money to spend so I don’t limit it.

You have to cook from scratch with basic ingredients. Use things you buy in multiple meals (2 nights of chilli, 2 nights of chickpea wraps) because it’s cheaper to scale up ingredients than buy 2 different sets of things. Meat maybe 3-4 days a week at most. Whole foods rather than processed ones, apples and almonds instead of a packet of crisps as a snack.

Also do not rely on Lidl and Aldi as an across the board cheaper option. They aren’t. I once did a shop at Lidl and then priced it up at Tesco. The Lidl shop was cheaper, but the quantities were smaller. By weight/volume, most things were actually cheaper at Tesco.

Do you need a huge variety of fruit though? If you're saving money I'd go for the vitamins and lose the expensive stuff. We pick blackberries for free and buy soft fruit cheaply in season, then make compote and freeze it, which is lovely for breakfast. Saves us a ridiculous amount of money. Bananas are cheap most supermarkets, about 13p each from M&S. Buy a big bag of apples at Aldi. You're done.

your list is approx 150 portions of fruit that is more than 4 per day per person, I think cutting to 3 per day max, mostly apples oranges and bananas with either berries or tropical but not both. Shop in season weare just about to start prime british apple pear plum season so they will be cheaper just now, bananas and poranges are generally fairly cheap but I think the avocados and expensive berries need to go if you need to save your kids need to be told that economies have to be made and hence limitations on fruit, it is apples banans and oranges for snacks berries are only for breakfast, with maybe a pineapple shared as pudding once a week.
incidentally being under 8st at 5'8 is clinically underweight as BMI of 17, they need less fruit and more toast etc that fills them up double the potato, rice or pasta portion instead

@Digdongdoo its not restricted just can’t have highly processed foods and I did say I buy what most people would class as excess fruit for snacks and I don’t buy cereal, biscuits, crisps etc. I think I’ll just stick with what I’m buying and except it costs what it costs.

definitely can with that amount. we are a family of 5 (kids 9/12/17) and spend roughly £80 per week. the weeks i need cleaning suppliers and toiletries it’s about £100. I maybe spend a further £20 a week topping up bread and milk.

Just about if you meal plan and maybe cook dishes like mac & cheese a couple of times a week.

To ensure you have enough for lunches etc I’d recommend baking treats rather than buying them all

If they continue to eat like this, then eventually they will gain weight. This amount of fruit is not good because of sugar. I don’t know how easy will it to change the habits now but if you want to reduce weekly cost from £317 to £150 which is more than half you need to do some big changes.
Can you just buy apples and frozen berries or grapes for a week?

Your DC needs to take some responsibility for their allergies, they're old enough. Buy the DC who needs single dairy free pots enough for them, and then everyone else shares the large pot of normal yoghurt.

The amount of fruit you buy is crazy. You need to have alternative options that are high protein and keep them full, not fruit.

It is clear from your posts that, however good you think the nutrition you provide is (I'm not so sure), your family urgently requires education in the trade-offs between wants-not-needs, available budget, and the meaning of the word No.

I struggle with a family of 5 for £150 a week but I haven’t been to Aldi in years !! Has it got more expensive these days ?

I accept your apology but you did hit on the wrong poster! One of my own children had food intolerances (not actual allergies) but I used to cook 3 different meals a day (all variations on something) for me, them and the rest of the family.

I still stand by the fact they do not need exotic fruit every day in such an amount, regardless of what they can't eat.

If you're dipping into savings to buy food, that is not good budgeting but if you're happy doing that, fine.

I don’t understand point of this thread then.

Your title was misleading. What you want is to get the same food items you are buying now at half the price you are paying, which is not possible.

Lidl and Aldi food is sheer poop. I actually find Waitrose followed by Sainsbury’s is the cheapest

it's just myself and DD (16) we budget about £320 per month this includes food drinks including alcoghol all toiletries laundry sanitary stuff cleaning products plus school lunches ( it doesn't include make up skin care ) this works out at £5.33 per day if i take 33p for all toiletries etc that is £5 per day per person so equivalent for 5 people in 30 day month would be 750 ie £175 per week ( as 4.3 weeks per month)

typically i eat 2 slices wholemeal granary toast for breakfast with mamrmalade and coffee DD rarely eats breakfast
for me as WFH lunch is generally homemade chunky soup or a salad with eggs and cheese or perhaps tinned sardines followed by yogurt and fruit DD generally has meal deal type of stuff for lunch, sandwich fruit and drink
dinner vary but we have meat most days
typical week
spaghetti carbonara with bacon and peas or meatballs tomato sauce and pasta
sausages with mash, onions carrots gravy braised red cabbage
roast chicken with trimming
some of rest of chicken made into curry with rice and veg
rest of chicken made into a chicken salad with garlic bread
pork chops marinated with wedges red cabbage sweetcorn
chilli and rice
tacos with spicy beef
chicken fajitas
fish with potaotes and veg or chips
beef stroganoff
all diiners include good quality protein if not meat or fish would be cheese at least 2 portions of veg, pudding maybe fruit or baking at the weekend it maybe icecream or something like crumble
I think we eat well on that I could cut it a bit

DD snacks on fruit on coming home from school maybe some baking
DD loves baking so normally 2 lots per week as snacks or to take to school and share something like chocolate chip cookies then brownies or a gingerbread cake etc
snacks I buy a 6 bag of crisps about every 2 weeks and chocolate or sweets enough for small portion per day I like the 20g Moser Roth from Aldi; DD would get the equivalent of a can of Fanta cola etc per day ( buy in packs of 8 or 12) probably a couple of packs of nice biscuits too
for weekend lunches we buy something like salami nice cheese, coleslaw probably alcohol 1 bottle of wine and maybe a bottle of cider 2 bottles of bottlegreen diluting juice per month and coffee of course

Currently spending £80 is a week for 3 adults….sometimes closer to £100 depending on what we need that week. I think £150 is doable if you meal plan. I find it harder to budget going to the supermarket, so I often do a online shop sp I just buy what I need, but if you are good at not picking up random stuff lidl/Aldi will save you money (stay away from the middle).

Yes, we get all our food for our family of 5 for £145 per week from Sainsbury's. It's definitely possible.

it will mean standing for hours cooking, minimal meat, and you certainly can’t do it if you have IBS

I think you could substitute the more expensive fruit for more apples and bananas and save some money.

I womder if the kids eat it because it’s there? I don’t eat any white carbs, and have Fage yoghurt with berries every day, but rarely snack. If there was a fruit bowl with peaches, nectarines, apples and bananas, I would eat them as well. Perhaps reduce the quantity by a third without mentioning it, and see how much is left, or if they ask for more by the end of the week.

Easily. We spend less than £100 per week with 4 and a dog.

Try some different frozen fruit like pineapple or mango- not mushy. Or tinned fruit in juice. Definitely don’t need a full Green grocer selection of tropical fruit each week. Vary it so a melon one week and peaches the next in addition to apples and pears . I like the berries heated ( and mushy) and stirred through yoghurt like a coulis.

I think this is your best course of action.

I'm sure you're not a stupid person, you know as well as anyone that you could buy less expensive fruit and replace it with more veg/cheaper fruit. If you don't want to and can afford not to then carry on as you are! It sounds very tasty!

I'm most impressed with how strong everyone's bowels must be. We'd all be shitting through a needle if we ate that much fruit in a week.

Fruit is often cheaper at a market if you have one nearby. It doesn't last as long but I can't see that being a concern at your house. My only other suggestion would be to up the protein based snack available. Fruit is tasty, but not filling (particularly the berries and melon etc). They'd probably eat less if they had more protein to snack on. But again, if everyone is healthy and happy and finances are good then crack on!

I would try it next week and make your own judgment. I always shop at Lidl and use the Lidl plus app....once you hit £250 spent in a month the next shop is 10%off. I agree that some of the fruit and veg doesn't last as long as I would like but I pass the shop on my way home from work so I can nip in and top up whenever we need.

Or buy thighs, cheaper and tastier than breast which I find can be very dry. If the OP is slow cooking pork then shoulder is good value and certainly not £14, even for a large piece.