5 adults in the household and the cost of food shopping

[GeorgieTheGorgeousGoat]

How much do you spend on your food shop per week?

We are about £120 at Aldi and a £40 Sainsbury's top up but are getting bored. I'd like to do it all at Sainsbury's but fear it would be closer to £300 / week.

Would be interesting to see what other all adult households spend?

I’ve been binge watching the Batch Lady on C4, I am fascinated. It’s about organising and cooking to a budget. Loads of great recipes, she has her own website too. Could be worth a look?

5 adults. Shop exclusively in Tesco. Average weekly shop is under £200. That figure is larger than need be because dh buys alcohol but also smaller than it could be because some of the adults buy their own lunches.

Edit to add: that figure also includes pet food for 3 cats.

What kind of stuff is available in Sainsbury's that isn't generally available in Aldi?

They sell the same meats, fish, veggies etc?

Exactly. Sainsbury or any other supermarket might look as if they have more choice than Aldi or Lidl but is it just mostly more choice of the same stuff? 6 brands of cornflakes but still,cornflakes.

We put £850 a month in the shopping account but I always end up topping it up. There’s two adults and two teens at home and we feed adult DC a few times a week too.
I shop everywhere from M&S to B&M.
Not really sure what you mean about being bored. Surely that’s what you cook not where you shop. They all sell ingredients.

I could easily feed the whole family on £200 a week

We get Tesco delivery and it’s only been over World Cup that bill is £200/210 and that is because it has included snacks (expensive ones Pringles type things) plus alcohol plus non alcoholic fizzy cans for us and various guests round

if you make food from scratch, have a couple of vegetarian evenings, cut out snacks, anything that involves additional labour pushes up the price

there are 4 adults
so curry night
packet of chicken breasts (will only buy free range meat)
onion, garlic, fresh ginger, spices, fresh tomatoes, bit of natural yogurt, stock cube, heated frozen parathas, brown rice, lentils,
full plate of chicken curry, dal, rice and paratha for £16 easy £4 a head

veggie bean chilli with rice - even cheaper less than £5 whole lot

I don’t cook roasts in the summer but an autumn Sunday roast
£12 chicken from butcher (worth it)
bag of organic potatoes (I don’t buy all veg organic but insist on potatoes and carrots) £1.80 (max I am trying to make it for 5 adults)
carrots, half a swede, cabbage, broccoli, and onion for gravy £2.50 tops
eggs/milk/flour - Yorkshire puddings £2
onion gravy 40p
under £20 - £4 per head for a full plate of Sunday roast

This exactly.

I tried to cut costs by buying vegetables in home bargains recently, carrots, onions and leeks for soup. It all went off on the second day. Binned it. What a waste of money.

Two adults and we spend about £120 and probably do a £40 top up. Mostly from Tesco. We don't go mad. Sometimes there seems hardly anything there when we have a delivery. Food is expensive.

I cannot think of what amazing different foodstuff Sainbury is going to have that could not be found anywhere else.

Batch cook. It's cheaper so then you can shop at Sains and stop running around supermarkets. Spag bowl, pizza & salad, stews, veg curries or chillies. All big plates of food and goes a long way.
It's not the supermarket imo, it's what you buy mostly. We get all our branded & heavy stuff to carry from Ocado, it's the same price as supermarkets (often on offer), and then go out for fresh food.

I ended up swapping Asda for Tesco too, we were getting loads of unavailable items and it was just starting to get annoying. I don’t drive so my options on that front are a bit limited.

We do about £100/week for 3 adults but this months we slowed it down to empty the freezer, so realistically it probably comes up to less than £100 on average.

Surely even the size of the shops tell you that sainsburys will have more choice than Aldi?

The meat aisles, sainsburys have about 3 full aisles, aldi have 4 fridges. Fruit goes off quickly and just doesn't taste as flavoursome. They don't have such a large range of extra ingredients (i needed semolina the other day) even things like deodorant there only one or two brands.

Money buys choice in all walks of life, this is no exception.

You need new recipes
instagram/websites - don’t go bacon my heart, jades bites, bored of lunch

I find I spend less in Tesco than I do in Aldi/ Lidl just because I do an online shop. I can control what goes into the trolley and if it's higher than I thought I can go back, or check for cheaper versions. I can also add things later rather than going shopping again and risking buying a load of incidentals. It might be the same in Sainsbury's

It sounds like an inspiration thing not a money thing. I find Aldi great for lots of basics, you just need some new recipes with simple ingredient lists. We can all get into a rut, at any budget.

I use Simply Cook sometimes to introduce some variety with minimal thinking. I usually add extra veg.

Loads of stuff when you compare it to Aldi! Much wider variety of ethnic foodstuffs, spices etc.

But most of the extra size is more varieties of similar things, also more non food items, a cafe and just a more spacious environment.

Granted there are a few things that you can't get in Aldi, but at least 80/90% of what people need you can get there.

Plus you've got a healthy budget so you can afford to shop in Sainsburys. You seem to be implying you could spend £200/250 pw in Sainsburys, so why don't you? You could do an online shop so you'll see the price before committing and can edit down if you go over budget. You can also vary where you shop and have 3 Sainsburys weeks plus a more frugal Aldi week every so often to rein the spending in a bit.

Yes but the reason I like Aldi is that sainburies have choice as in twenty different types of white pasta which all taste the same anyway

the have expensive baked beans , very expensive baked beans and cheap baked beans rather than just cheap baked beans

there are things I like which I can’t buy at either store here and only get if I go to the next town or even into the big city

i do use a greengrocer for my fruit as it does taste so much better

There are three adults and I think we spend about £150 on weekly shopping. It’s hard to be accurate as we are always doing top ups - plus my DS is away most weekends so only eats here 4 days a week.

Mine does include toiletries/washing powder etc.

We are a family of 5, kids are primary age but lots of sports, they eat loads and love fresh fruit plus we have 2 cats, I feel lucky if I can keep to £250 per week 😪

I have been unwell for a while and relying on convenience foods, lots of fresh fruit, prepared protein and high quality ready meals, and my budget has skyrocketed, its not sustainable.

Am swapping to doing Aldi from next month and a set budget for tesco to try and put a dent in it.

Two adults and three dogs here, and cook all meals (for humans) from scratch. We’re paying a bit over £250 for human food and £100 for dog food each week. With extras for holidays, the total was over £19k last year! I buy all fruit, veg, meat, dairy, and fresh bread at M&S, because the quality and freshness is so much better than anywhere else near me. We buy cupboard stuff at Tesco. I’d say the price of our weekly shop has risen at least 50% in the last few years?

Yes,there might be a few speciality items that you cannot find in Aldi/Lidl but on the whole,it's just more choice and variation of the same stuff. 3 full aisles of meat is still meat that you have to do something with in order to turn it into a meal.

I will never understand these people. I bet she spends money on alcohol, beauty treatments, hair, and other things. So many people seem obsessed by how little money they can spend on feeding their family. (I'm not talking about peoole genuinely struggling, they arent making a packet on social media from it). Surely sharing good quality food with your family should be a priority, not some kind of race to the bottom.

If I was you I would look at your local butchers for a meat pack - you can buy a weekly one or a huge monthly one

Then I would buy those spice kits - you get the first 4 free (almost) for 99p then you only need the pasta/veg and meat

Also I would recommend a trip to markies once a month - you can get large lasagnes for less than £10 and have that with a side of slaw and new potatoes (quite cheap)

Also Iceland sometimes do great deals £10 for ten things - so you can bulk buy your favourites

There are good deals to be had but you need to shop around

Just eat do weekly 60% off for fruit and veg and you can get a heap of stuff from the coop delivered

that aside I do agree doesn’t it get boring eating the same stuff!

I don’t think you are spending quite enough, £200 would be the absolute minimum for five adults in my book.

I agree with PP it sounds like you are bored and lacking inspiration. Isn’t Tesco broadly cheaper than Sainsbury’s? Get a delivery maybe if it’s not local enough?