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?

Part of it is that we have a small kitchen, not much storage space to store bulk or even much more than the food for 7 days.

We’re fortunate that we can buy the food we like at the moment but almost everything we eat is organic and I wouldn’t want to eat non organic meat in particular.

We often have 5 adults or more when DC and partners stay for a while. I try and mix it up with very cheap dinners (pasta, frittata, risotto, roast chicken) alternated with more expensive fish and meat.

In an ideal world yes. As I said in a previous post, money always buys choice/options so I would be thankful that you have that privilege.

I may be there in the future when there will just be DH and I to feed but right now circumstances are different.

Those meals sound great. It sounds like you are having a good variety of home cooked meals from scratch. You don't necessarily need more choice in the supermarkets when you cook from scratch, maybe just more inspiration for different meals.

What can you not buy at Aldi?

i go to Tesco for their diluting juice and some dairy free yogurts/ snacks. Occasionally Doritos or branded chocolates, but pretty much everything else I can get at Aldi or Lidl.

But you can make all those with Aldi ingredients?

What magical range of every day ingredients does your Sainsbury's have that bAldi doesn't?

I'm so confused

IME the only thing the bigger supermarkets have that Aldi doesn't is organic meats.

But not many people buy that,so fair enough.

Otherwise, raw chicken for example, aldi sell chicken wings, thighs, breasts, legs, skin in/skin off/sliced/diced, whole chickens plain, cornfed, seasoned, bake in bag, various sizes etc

What more choice do you need?

We are 5 adults and then dp’s 2 teens every other weekend plus 1 dog. We spend about £50 a week to buy British farmer fruit and veg and then probably £150 ish on top at Sainsbury’s. Sometimes do the shop at M and S instead if we have offers. We generally get the meat from Sainsbury’s and buy special deals from m and s (like their pizza deal or curry deal). We’ve completely stopped takeaways and don’t miss them one bit - we all now prefer a m and s curry special or the pizza deal with the chicken sides!

You don't just send them off, they need to meal plan, probably with you, and cost things our.

Or you tell them they have X amount to spend then let them plan.

Four adults. £130ish a week.

I think the trick is to buy the staples from Aldi and shop elsewhere if you don't like what they provide or you want something more "exotic". If you're happy with Aldi pasta, for example, then there is no advantage in going to a shop that stocks 20 different varieties rather than 2. If you don't like the fruit and veg, then work out what is ok and what is not, and buy the things that are fine at Aldi there and the other things somewhere else.

it sounds like you cook from scratch, so there isn't a great deal of difference about basic ingredients between shops.

there are a varying number of us here, dh ds and I are the staples and then sometimes both dds and their boyfriends.
our own ds is 14 and will eat a giant butchers steak and then finish the other half of mine without breaking a sweat. He had a bacon baguette this morning with 5 rashers of bacon and a fruit salad, then as soon as he got back from his cricket match was famished for lunch, demolished lunch and then has just been to make himself toast and will be ready for roast chicken this evening.
Our food shop comprises of £150ish from ocado, £100 at the butchers and top ups from Sainsbury’s/m&S - a ridiculous amount but we are picky about what we eat and could get it down if we needed.

Aldi sells all the normal food, I suggest looking up new recipes. I shop in Lidl and they do have the themed weeks if you are looking for prepared meals.

I used to do Aldi but I can’t get everything there so then I’d go to Tesco and I found going to 2 shops cost more!!!’

I have 2 adult, 1 teen, a 10’year old and a 7 year old
we spend about £150 a week in Tesco and I have a monthly Iceland delivery with the 10 for £10 and some other bits for about £60 (free delivery too) so about £165 a week

Two adults (one an endlessly hungry 18yo boy) I spend £60-£65 a week in Tesco. I don't buy alcohol and I cook from scratch.

For that we get a good mix of meat, fish, fruit & veg, dairy, dry goods, tins, and biscuits for ds.

If I get bored, I buy a book. The latest is 100 Salads and I'm busy working my way through that. Sometimes it isn't the shop, it's getting into a rut or lack of ideas.

I mean its not that hard. Yes if I wanted to eat those meals every week then sure.

But I want variety! Bigger supermarkets have much more variety- even if its different toppings on pizza or different flavours of juice or soup or sandwich fillings.

Boredom beaters…

We had a cream tea last week. Bought from the supermarket but more than we’d usually spend though less than a take away. Bought all the nice nibbles, clotted cream, all butter scones, posh salad…
We enjoyed it so much it’s going on the rota.

Take turns. Someone else cook a meal a week, maybe using spice kits like SimplyCook boxes. That increases the chances of something edible in my house!

Print recipes and give them out.

If everyone does a new recipe every month, life will get more interesting. Just don’t remake the same thing better, as that’s demotivating for them!

Sorry, i dont know if i missing something but whats the point on 5 people doing different bits of a food shop when one person can go and get it in one go?

We are all pretty busy so it doesnt make sense unless i'm missing something magical?

£300 per week! That does include all toiletries plus cat food and alcohol. Does not include the dog food. It’s ridiculous. They all eat so much. It mainly covers lunches though as people are either eating at home or taking lunch so nobody is spending £5 a day on a sandwich etc.

I do spend about £250 a week and sometimes more - three adults (including a 19 year old still in education) and another 5ft 10 teenager home all the time and two other adults sporadically. I would add that DH works from home and the two offspring who live full-time at home and I take lunch with us, so our grocery shopping is pretty much everything we eat - nobody gets school lunches or buys lunch out.

I still shop mostly at Aldi but with top ups elsewhere for things Aldi doesn't sell. I shop in store on my way home from work so sometimes I'm tired and extras slip in... I'm not especially careful of the budget any more, but we don't buy alcohol (do buy good quality meat though). It's not too many years since I honed my mental arithmetic skills adding up what I was spending to the penny, always choosing the most cost effective option. I'm glad to feel a bit freer when I shop now, but it could definitely be done cheaper.

Cereals, juices, soups, quiches, ice creams; snacks, yoghurt, sauces.... even cleaning products and toiletries there is generally only one of each to choose from.

I'm not the poster you are replying to, but I assume the point is that each person plans their own meal and works out what they need, and someone combines all the ingredients, works out where they are only going to use half a pack of something that doesn't last and tweaks the menu accordingly and then someone (who may or may not be the same as the first someone) goes and gets everything.

That's how we do it in our house anyway. The 3 adults who are not me, plan 4-5 meals between them and tell me what they want/need; I do a stock take of what we have, what we will need, plan the last meals to make sure things are used up (if applicable), left overs are accounted for, and the menu isn't very samey and then someone (DH or DS usually) goes off to the shop with a list.

Your biggest issue can be solved by just… shopping somewhere else?!
why don’t you do a meal plan for the week (if that’s what you do, we don’t meal plan but seems a lot of people say it’s a more cost effective way to shop) and then add it all to an online basket at Sainsbury’s or wherever if it’s the cost you’re most worried about?

Perhaps some of it is that we need to be nore organised then! We are a busy house and i can't imagine having time to all sit down together and do that.

We generally have a list on the fridge for special requests/ things that have run out and people bob stuff on as and when.

Yes that's what my solution was but feared we couldn't afford it. The thread got derailed by people telling me to make the others cook and to name things Aldi doesn't sell 🙃