Bringing down cost of our weekly shop.

[Mrsmch123]

Hi, we are a family of three. 2a and one 5yr old.
we are currently £100 a week for our weekly shop.
one adult doesn't have bfast, lunch and dinner two days a week.
the other adult doesn't have breakfast two days a week.
child has breakfast club x2 week, packed lunch 5x week.
In addition to this we all have a takeaway on a Friday not included in this £100, and another £20 halfway through the week for top up of fruit ect.

is this the average for a family of three?
how much do others spend?

if you don't want to waste fruit or veg do what we have done and get some guinea pigs!

Look and see if you have any food waste clubs nearby

These are NOT food banks, you pay a fee (£3.60 at ours) and get a big box of food, but you never know what, as it is whatever the supermarkets send. I’ve had some lovely stuff in there though!
I get that on Thursday then amend my Friday shopping order depending what’s in it

£120 across three people doesn't seem too bad.
You asked what others spend - we spend approximately £30 per person a week on food and snacks. (Plus extra on alcohol and toiletries from the same shops, but I've taken them out for a more direct comparison).
So not wildly different
We tend not to throw things out after three days though and do try and move foods about to expire into a meal or a smoothie. So maybe if you want to cut back somewhere it would be at the wasting food stage. But otherwise quite normal I think.

Try cutting down on some meat. I made a lentil chilli the other day which was lovely.

A ham joint roasted in the slow cooker will be one dinnner and left overs can be used to make pasta cabonara type dish.

I know you said you dont generally like veggies, but is there any you do like? Its going to be difficult to cut down otherwise. Im trying to rack my brains for healthy low meat/low veg meals...

Cheese potato pie/beans (add some sweet potato into the mash)
Home made pizza (the base is easy to make, dont buy ready made)
Home made chicken fried rice (do you like peas?)

Reducing meat could reduce the cost a bit but if you eat no veg that could be tricky. Do you eat eggs? When you say you don’t eat veg, do you mean as a side or do you mean as an ingredient eg in a curry, pasta bake, soup?
To be honest I think £100 is pretty good, particularly when you factor in the mountain of fruit.

The problem is I don't really like anything else. Dislike eggs, fish, any meat that's on a bone. I can tolerate veg if it's purred down but not actual bits. Think I will try to cut down the fruit as I do bin a bit of it.

Yeh think I will look at buying less fruit. TBH I only eat it as it's already open and I know that it's going in the bin.

Sometimes you can buy portions of watermelon or baby ones that don't last as long. Or if you want watermelon, make that your only fruit until its used up. Then buy something different.

Also make sure partly used fruit is well wrapped so there's no reason to think it's 'off'. Instead of binning the whole leftovers portion, you could cut really thin slices off and eat the rest that is freshly exposed.

But it sounds like you are self sabotaging with a limited diet and being funny about normal things like food being open for a couple of days, so something to look at overcoming?

The burgers and meatballs, are they home made or bought as they are. The same with the pie.

It doesn't always save you money but making your own you know exactly what is in them.

The fruit you are buying is all soft fruit, that tends to be more expensive as it is usually imported. I'm not saying don't buy them but substitute a few apples and pears.

It can also be worth a trip to an asian supermarket if you have one near.

How much is your Friday take away? I had a hankering for a Chinese the other day, it was too early for the take away so I used Uber eats to get a delivery from Iceland, two chicken dishes and rice including delivery was under £10.

I know you would need more than that for a family but supermarket 'fake aways' are quite good these days.

We are 2 adults, 2 teens, 1 DC and a dog. We spend about £170 a week and even then I don't feel like the fridge is ever properly full!
I have mostly stopped buying berries and most exotic fruits as they only last minutes in our house. We stick to apples, pears, bananas, strawberries when they're in season and melon. Make as a much as we can from scratch and eat a lot of veg.
I'd love to cut my bill by even £50 a month, but the teens have hollow legs!

Are you an ok cook? Not asking in order to criticise, but to establish the reason for ready meals over home made, ie is it a time issue, or ability?

I understand the solid veggies vs. puree as we had that issue with DS. I make a multi veg sauce that can be used for pasta, meatballs, lasagne base if you can make yourself, etc:

1 onion, peeled; 1 red pepper, deseeded; 1 courgette, peeled (so it doesn't discolour the sauce); 3 carrots; 1 beetroot; 1 sweet potato. Doesn't have to be all of them, just any veg that are neutral/sweet and pale/orange/red and will soften easily!
Chop them all into small pieces, add to a big pan with a glass of water, tin of tomatoes, salt, pepper and some mixed herbs if you have them, put the lid on and cook for half an hour (or until soft) then blend.
If you don't have a blender then either exclude veg that won't mash with a fork (onion and pepper) or cut them into tiny pieces if you would be happy to eat them.

It's a great way to bulk out the sauces, increase your veg cheaply (no waste as leftovers are frozen) and make future meals just as easy as a jar of sauce.

We are 2 adults - spend more some weeks, less others: averages out at about £75/week. However, we batch cook and use the freezer a lot, eat mostly vegetarian food and rarely snack. Your significant food issues are going to be your biggest barrier to reducing your food bill, so you are kind of stuck with it.

I think for you, it's working out how much you really need to cut back. If you're really struggling to pay the bills, then you'll have to make adjustments whether you like it or not.

You absolutely do not need to waste food. If you don't like to keep it after it's been opened 2-3 days, then open it knowing how you can use it two days in a row. You can buy cheaper options of fruit, look for those on weekly offers - but generally apples and bananas tend to be good value. If you really need to cut back branded food will have to go.

I absolutely get you don't like some veg, I absolutely refused everything but salad until I was early 30s. I had DD then and decided I needed to be the adult and set a better example if I wanted her to eat them and stick at it. I'm glad I changed my diet due to the fact that as I alongside my friends have all had to change our diet to some extent due to health issues - much easier to do some things while you're young. Vegetables can easily to broken down in a homemade tomato sauce, to which you can add chilli, herbs or garlic for different flavours - buy cheap canned tomatoes, they will be good enough.