Realistically can I feed 5 for £150pw?

[PinkPinkPinkBlue]

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.

Are you lucky enough to have a local greengrocers? We have one where I live, currently they have the following deals: 5 hass avocados £1, blackberries 50p for 250g or 3 for £1, strawberries £1 for 450g, whole honeydew melon £2, pomelo 50p each, plum punnet £1.50. Might be a way to reduce the fruit bill, the offers change with the seasons but we spend £14 a week there and eat a lot of fruit and veg (family of 3 with 4 extra adults for food every Sunday)

Have you tried looking at ordering online with Ocado? We find them reasonably priced and fruit/veg last.

We’ve just done this and we’ve saved an absolute fortune! Other than a bit of watering they need no attention at all.

We shop at Waitrose and have noticed over the summer that our shopping bill has gone to a ridiculous level. I do think they’ve pushed their prices up over the last few months because we’re really not changing what we eat, plus we’ve grown all our own fruit.

Im going to be going to Asda once a month to buy all branded stuff. I’m staying at Waitrose because I like it too much but am going in with a list, I’ll be buying whole chickens rather than breasts and having at least two meals a week which are “basic” and cheap:- pasta vegetable bake, frittata, (eggs, onions and eggs)

This.
We will go through endless punnets of berries, a pack of prepared mango per day etc.
We also have chicken breast or steak 2 meals a day.

If I needed to cut back, I know how to - mince based meals in the place of chicken and steak, in season cheaper fruits etc.

As others have said, Aldi is far cheaper but not 50% cheaper, so you also need to look at where you’re wasting money in addition to switching supermarkets.

Personally I’ve noticed Aldi is nowhere near as cheap as it used to be.
Definitely meal plan, we are a family of 4 (2 teen boys) constantly snacking. I spend approx £140 a week, shop in Tesco, buy yellow sticker meat and freeze. I also pop in M&S weekly as they always seem to have lots reduced throughout the day.

@PinkPinkPinkBlue I haven't read the whole thread, but could you go veggie on 2-3 days to start with.. Meat is your biggest expense besides the fruit.

I accept you will probably have to learn to cook with pulses and beans, but it's relatively cheap and very nutritious.

Also with fruit & veg try and shop seasonal, that also saves a few quid. But you'll have less variety from week to week, especially in the winter months

Also try and re introduce the frozen berries, maybe a breakfast snooty will make them more palatable?

Absolutely doable. We have managed £400 a month for family of 6. It can vary month to month but no more than 500 a month.
No teens though. We have a stocked up pantry and meal plan. We grow a lot of fruit and veg. And Freeze a lot.

Meal planning will definitely help.

We've actually stuck with tescos as the clubcard points are really worth it to us. We didn't find aldi or lidl worked out cheaper but the same as tesco for what we buy. We get delivery's too so avoids any of the I'll just pick up this or that looks tasty extras

Yeah sorry OP you're not serious at all. Not even trying to shop to a budget whatsoever.

Pricey cuts of meat, individual greek yoghurts, mini cucumbers and punnets of apricots, nectarines AND peaches? This isn't a food list of anyone who is thinking about cutting down.

Maybe try buying cheaper options first in Waitrose before heading to Lidl? You'd prob cut £50 off easily.

Buy allergy friendly single pots for the child that needs it and a large tub of Greek for the rest of you. Yes frozen berries are mushy but you could use them to make a smoothie (with oats and nut butter if appropriate) to help fill them up. I’d also start baking snacks so there were some grab and go options rather than a never ending fruit bowl.

Generally speaking I save around 15-20% if I shop at Aldi instead of Tesco, so if you want to half your food budget you’ll need to make some changes to what you eat.

I always tend to think that if I spend £80-£100 in Lidl, the same shop from Sainsbury’s would be £185 - £200+. For me, cereals used to cost a huge amount.. at times the Kelloggs or Jordans etc were over £4 in Sainsbury’s, but you can buy own brand for around £1 in Lidl. So when stocking up, it would be around £23 on cereal at Sainsbury’s compared to maybe £5-£6 in Lidl. Cartons of juice also very different in price, and we also like raw unsalted nuts (almonds, cashews, pecans etc), hugely expensive from Sainsbury’s, maybe a third or less the price from Lidl. In terms of cleaning products, one way to save money is to use zoflora, and dilute it into empty spray bottles (as per instructions) to make an anti/bac cleaner that costs pennies rather than pounds. If you go to Aldi / Lidl, and stick to own brands, you might find you can save up to £100 easily :)
ps - I have 3 dc, and they get through a lot of cereal!

@PinkPinkPinkBlue

I actually love the amount of fruit you feed your family although I know it's not cheap unfortunately. They must have glowing skin. I just wish everyone had the funds to eat this way. We run on sugar and so many essential vitamins in fruit.

There will be some cuts to be had by upping the bananas by quite a bit and maybe shopping more seasonally with the fruit. Raspberries are great defrosted from frozen to eat as is. My other frozen berries I blend into smoothies with banana frozen mango pineapple etc and some greens.

Otherwise, subbing lentils and mushrooms for mince in spaghetti Bolognese shepherds pie etc are my suggestions.

I love the idea of a ‘breakfast snooty’!!!

We are a non fussy household but no fish/shellfish due to an allergy,

Except for

dairy,
cereal,
most e numbers
Processed snacks
Squash

With life threatening allergies including to various cleaning products.

Bit of a drip going there.

Have you had a change in your financial circumstances that’s led to this? Have they always eaten this way?

If something has changed financially, you need to explain this to them, and you need to buy what you can afford. I am horrified by our food bill and I keep trying to make changes, but my daughter is so used to just eating as she eats and we can afford it so my attempts are not supported by my husband. He thinks it’s on principle and therefore not justifiable when we are all happy with our diets (it is, he’s right). If we needed to significantly change things, I know I would have to spell it out as she’s so used to eating what she fancies - I would have to say we cannot afford X, Y, Z and we are going to limit quantities, replace with A, B, C etc. She would understand that. Do you need to do similar maybe - just tell them straight you can’t afford it, this is what you can afford and it needs to last the week? If they’re hungry, they’ll eat.

I spent £145 this week feeding 4 adults (3 men).
Shop at Tesco but make sure you have a clubcard and buy whatever is in season.

This week!

I bought 2 chickens, roasted them at the same time because if I'm putting the oven on for 2 hours, I make the most of that.
Ate one chicken as a roast dinner and stripped the meat off the second for chicken and leek pie the next day. I'm not into everlasting Mumsnet chickens though!
Bought two huge steaks that should have been £12 each but we're reduced to £4 each and sliced those up for Chipotle steak and new potato salad.
Lamb mince, made moussaka.
2 pouches of lentil Bolognese made Spag Bol.
One night was halloumi and veg kebabs with pitta bread and houmous.

We also eat lots of rice based meals like special fried rice, jollof rice, biryani etc.

Breakfasts are yoghurt and fruit with muesli on top (I buy lidls muesli as it's the nicest we've had). Or toast and jam/egg/marmite/cheese and salami.

Lunches are jacket potatoes (made the night before and reheated at work), sandwiches, roasted Mediterranean veg couscous with feta, rolls/ wraps etc. No one has a cooked lunch.

Puddings, I maybe make one crumble a week and a couple of fruit based cakes (apple cake popular at present as we have a Bramley tree).

There is always pizza in the freezer and bacon/ sausages in the fridge. Cereal and fruit for snacks.

I only buy basic biscuits as no one likes them 😁.

Yes, we started keeping a track of what we spend at the supermarket 2 and a half years ago. Recently added each monthly total up for an average and discovered that we've been spending between £120-125 a week on average, this is for 4 adults, two of whom are always bulking up and includes all food and alcohol.
We always buy reductions and keep them in the freezer eg turkeys reduced after Christmas, we have eaten like royalty at times with luxury food that has been reduced, we prepare from scratch and never have processed meals, so we've become healthier as a bonus. All the best, it's really satisfying 😁

Ps, 3 of the 4 adults are men

I think that you’re getting through a massive amount of fruit and you eat a lot of meat.

I know with my kids if I have “interesting” snacks in the fridge/ cupboard they will eat them. If you want to save money I would consider:

• halving the amount of fruit you buy and getting frozen berries/ mango;
• ditto exciting snacks, instead ask one of the kids to make a big bowl of veg soup/ veg chilli which can be frozen and defrosted for in-between meals;
• you could also get some crackers and cheese for snacks but only a few and once they are gone, they are gone;
• try eating veggi for a week and, after that, try to have 2-3 days a week veggi food;
• reduce branded marinades and pre-made stuff (like the chicken), just get a few jars of spices and some basic juices/ oils and use them;
• try meal planning- we do a 2 week rotation in term time.

In terms of what I don’t buy, ever, I don’t buy branded items unless I can really taste the difference. I also don’t buy ready meals (l do get freezer food like fish pieces), fabric softener, branded washing detergent or pods (we use non-bio powder), lots of different cleaning products, sweets, biscuits, fizzy drinks (sometimes we do get sparkling water), individual yoghurts, and branded loo roll. I also buy cloth dish-cloths which can be re-used and get a veg box from a local business and milk/ butter from the milkman.

i think people were at first sympathetic, we all know food costs are astronomical at the moment.
but unfortunately op, you don’t actually seem to want any advise on how to reduce your food costs.
I also have children with numerous allergies, and we certainly don’t eat like sparrows in our house, but like a lot of people in this country we don’t have the luxury/choice of spending so much on food as you do.
We just don’t have that money.
So you're now rubbing people up the wrong way with your updates; despite what you say, there ARE ways to reduce your bill if you actually wanted/needed to. You just don’t want to do that- which is fine if you can afford to!
my children with allergies would love to eat like you say your children do; but if you didn’t physically have the money to make that happen you have to find lower budget alternatives and make it work. Surprisingly they don’t go anywhere near hungry, have healthy balanced diets, are still growing like weeds, and they know some food is treat food that they can’t have just because they want it everyday or because they just prefer a fancier version than what I’m willing to pay for.

Buy a big pot of Greek yoghurt (the supermarket brand) and frozen berries. Just get the required portion of berries out the previous night. The kids can use bowls rather than having their individual pot of yoghurt. Or half a banana each and some seeds plus yoghurt with a spoonful of honey is nice.

If nobody has mentioned it before - we use the ‘Trolley’ website for comparison of online supermarket prices. Lidl isn’t represented because online they only identify certain offers. We generally shop in Aldi/Lidl now but ‘Trolley’ can identify offers and potential savings without having to trawl the supermarket websites.

We are a family of 6, with allergies, and we are just emerging from a 5 year period of being really skint, after years of not really having a food budget.
You can save by switching brands/supermarkets but overwhelmingly the savings are from completely changing the way you shop, cook and eat.
Everything you buy has to be worth it, either socially (popcorn with a movie, pizza with the football) or nutritionally. No crap cereal (I know you don’t anyway), porridge or eggs for breakfast - porridge with dried fruits rather than fresh, or overnight oats with carrot and cinnamon. Salad for lunch with cous cous and chickpeas. Fruit from the super 6 - not picking up punnets of soft fruit and berries because they look nice. Frozen fruit is only any good if blitzed into a smoothie - this is for a meal, not alongside a meal. Meat is pork shoulder, chicken legs, minced beef or sausages - no joints of beef or duck, venison, lamb etc. You need more veggie food.
Snacks are off the table or if you must, a banana, cucumber or a chicken drumstick.
You have to really cook from scratch and maximise what you buy - a bunch of spring onions or packet of coriander for one meal should be tied to something else a day or so later so you don’t waste what’s leftover. It’s exhausting trying to do all that and still aim for 5 a day and 30 a week, accommodate allergies and preferences.
I spend less than your target budget in Aldi/lidl, but I would probably not spend much more in Waitrose either. Your supermarket isn’t the reason you spend a lot. You are shopping like you have a £350 budget - you need to shop like you have a £150 budget if you want your budget to be £150.

I feed a family of 4 for around £120 per week. I honestly don't find a massive difference costwise between Sainsbury's and Lidl/Aldi - maybe around £10 less overall. But I order a £1.50 home delivery and decided that the 2 hrs of my time saved is worth that price difference!

I disagree re frozen fruit only being good for smoothies.
Poach it gently with a spoonful of sugar then slightly thicken with a tiny bit of cornflour dissolved in water and this makes a sauce similar to those you get with fruit corner yogurts.