To think that DH is being totally unrealistic about the weekly food bill!

[goingeversoslowlymad]

Am getting a bit stressed out about my DH and the grocery shop. Our weekly bill is usually between £80 to £100, we would do a top-up shop of about £20 midweek, so max £120 all in for a family of 4. We do not use nappies, this includes everything including toiletries and cleaning products.

Money is pretty tight at the moment and I can appreciate he wants to try to cut down a bit but I seriously can't seem to get it much lower than this, there are no luxuries in this either i.e wine, magazines etc. Everyone I talk to in our situation seems to spend a similar amount but DH seems to think it excessive.

I'm going to give a veg box and meat pack delivery a try. Also going to order online to avoid being seduced by the offers instore. I don't see it being much cheaper but hopefully he'll stop moaning if I prove he's being unrealistic! What does everyone else spend?

Oh and some days I barely ate.

Out, I have adult kids who are out at uni/college/band practice/societies and a DH who leaves the house at 7am and doesn't get back till after 8, sometimes 10pm. In here, you eat what's put in front of you or you don't eat.

The older kids eat after the younger ones because they get in later. I just keep their food warm. If they have eaten while out, it goes in the fridge for someone to have for lunch the next day. DH the same, I heat his up for him later on, unless I know he will refuse to eat what I've made, then I make him something simple like cheesy beans on toast.

I think that you need to take a bit of a harder line, tbh.

MSE Grocery challenge for support group for people trying to get their groceries down.

Meal plan website which has incredibly balanced meals with close costing, but I think the portion size would be sneered at in this house.

Out to lunch - I am having the same problem, compounded with my own health problems. I am taking the 'have something ready to cook in the freezer' approach, picking up stuff like fish fingers etc that can cook quickly from frozen and bought when on offer. I have also picked up tinned meat when on offer, pasta on offer etc and I am researching recipes that can be cooked quickly from stuff in store. Not the healthiest, but healthier than the takeaways that we are getting, and a lot less expensive.

btw - Approved Food is a useful resource, but watch the postage costs and some offers, eg the recent offer with bottles of Fairy washing up liquid (my weakness) at 99p per bottle can sometimes be matched by supermarkets

mysupermarket mysupermarket is good for comparing like for like, but you can also use to compare items within a store.

Is your husband keen on 'getting organised'? Could you try and get him to track the costs of everything. Also save receipts for evidence. I think you should try saving receipts for a while and track it. And try linking him to any stories about food inflation on bbc - given the weather, I can't see food prices falling much.

hth

Sweet potato quesadillas? Please tell! :)

Aldi aldi aldi, its fab.

We spend £80 ish p wek, we eat well, lots of fruit, veg , some wine and beer. ( my basket overflows)

I'm going to agree with your husband, if you can shave £40 a week off your shop thats over £2000 p year.

They need to eat whats offered and i cook from scratch. We could eat for way less but our diet would be less good. We could spend way more...its all choices.

I'm always amazed - and incredibly envious - when people mention buying reduced stuff at 50 to 90% off. On another thread I read recently someone mentioned getting ready meals for 20p each for example. The only 2 supermarkets in my small town ... of which one is only realistically within walking distance, the other is 2 miles (do-able, but obviously not with a huge amount of shopping) .... usually only ever take about 10% off. There seems to be no rhyme nor reason to it as it's never exactly 10% but it really infuriates me and TBH I find it quite insulting when it's obviously to their advantage too to get rid of food which legally they can't sell tomorrow at any price rather than not at all Typically ..... a pack of meat for £7, might have 80p taken off, or a single pie which was £2.79 will have 35p deducted. I can't help but think someone instore has made a cynical decision based on the fact they know so many people are so desperate ATM that sooner or later someone will buy the (stingily) reduced stuff even when the savings are pretty crap.

The best reductions I've found are towards the end of the day, especially on Saturdays, at outdoor markets ... again, if you're lucky enough to live near a decent one. Fruit and veg go for a song, but you do have to accept you might not get a lot of choice.

I've been pretty impressed with Lidl's fruit and veg whenever we've bought any, and their cleaning/laundry stuff too. Aldi is great for deli meats, cheese, chocolate, biscuits and tampons! (about 49p for a box of 16 IIRC) but unfortunately the nearest branches to me are both a 24 mile round trip - in opposite directions - so it's really hard to shop around when you also need to factor in both the cost of extra petrol and time as well.

sweet potato quesadillas - peel 1kg of sweet potatoes and boil until just tender. Mash and set aside. Fry a couple of chopped onions with some garlic, cumin and chilli flakes. Mix into sweet potatoes and season with salt and pepper. Spread some of the mix onto one half of a tortilla wrap and sprinkle with grated cheese. Fold over the other half. Repeat until all the wraps and sweet potatoes are finished (should make between 6 and 8), Toast quesadillas until crisp and beginning to brown on each side. Serve with salad leaves and salsa(if you like it)

Much loved in here but without the salsa usually - only one of them likes it.

fuzzpig I Googled it to ahead of posting, in case I'd misremembered the meaning and it actually meant "fireproof" or something

to = too. Obviously.

Oh indeed jenai, I'm quite fireproof with food myself :o

That recipe sounds gorgeous thanks.

There are some great ideas on this thread, and it is nice to see only the occasional barbed comment about extravagance etc.

OP - if you are looking for a good option for ham, I buy a piece of free range gammon and soak it to get a lot of the salt out before boiling it. It is brilliant for sandwiches, or sometimes I do it as the Sunday roast and then we have the cold leftovers for another meal and/or sandwiches.

HEmum that sounds lovely.

Sorry to hijack but I asked a question earlier and it quite understandably got lost in this fast moving thread. Have posted the question (meal plan related) here - would really appreciate any ideas

cats back when ds was tiny and I was either on mat leave or v.part-time, I visited the market, Waitrose and Safeway (as was) and passed a butcher and a fishmonger almost every day. Sometimes I bought nothing, sometimes I picked up half a kilo of Aberdeen Angus steak for £2.

My point being it was relatively easy to eat quite well because I had shedloads of time and lived within a stone's throw of naice suppliers.

Time and access is worth £££s.

I love the shopping threads - really I do. But I am always at the variations. A lot depends on the shops available withing walking distance, cost of parking, bus fares, petrol etc., when one gets there and how much time one has to shop, ie, if it's possible to shop daily.

We are two teenagers and two adults here and I reckon we spend about £800pcm on food, toiletries and cleaning stuffs; perhaps more if we are entertaining.

I do one big shop and a few top ups during the week and we don't stint or have very much conenience food. I work full time and there is no way I would contemplate the potentially two hour (depending on the traffic) return journey to the nearest Lidl/Aldi. Therefore most of the shopping is done at Sainsbury's with top ups from Waitrose.

After reading these threads and some of the stories on here, I will also add that I never take from the reduced trolleys nowadays - unless the items are numerous and there aren't other women (usually is women) hovering and I like a bargain.

A much fairer comparison would be to give a list of 20 standard items and send a sample off to shop and see what amounts they have spent and compare the prices between posters who claim to spend £40pw, £70pw, £100, £120pw, £150pw and see what they come back with when everyone is trying to source the same items within their individual daily/weekly routines.

I think as well everyone has a different idea of what their own staples are, ie we might have just apple juice but others might want apple and orange juice permanently in the house iyswim. We just have ginger biscuits but other people might like a choice. I dunno.

Stressedmum what do you do if they don't eat though.I think that's what I find so demoralising ,I put all this effort into planning ,shopping and cooking and then they don't eat it ,it's wasteful and I hate the endless plates of leftovers in the fridge plus as none of my children have a job at the moment I am paying for them to "cook
Their own stuff" or in fact not eat regular meals which I find difficult to cope with.It annoys me when people say they will be in to eat but then either aren't or say they are not hungry ,because I am wasting food and effort in a meal that no one eats.You can't force feed an 18 year old,especially one who would like nothing better than for me to leave him to live on caesar salad,cheese and toast!!

Bah ,I have abdicated from cooking before because of this but it just descends into chaos and our food bill went trough the roof.I really take my hat off to you all who
manage it ,I just seem to live from day to day.

@ married's noblesse oblige at the reduced trolley.

I've done similar btw. Unless it's clearly being raided by caterers (I see this often) or obsessively penny-pinching men in cords (my fil).

I'm not lying about spending under £50 a week on shopping, just to be clear. In fact some weeks it's closer to £40. I honestly don't know what I'd spend £120 a week on but that's probably because I never have.

I don't feel we eat like skinflints. Maybe our meals aren't as exotic as some but they are to our taste.

I don't feel we go overboard either . Today - not much - spring risotto and kidney bean salad so far. Fridge full at present though. Teenagers do eat a lot though and we do have lots of fruit and a couple of beers and bottle of wine a week. I spent £127 yesterday and I know it will be gone by Thursday.

But taking, what do you buy ?

Apols for the bold but we are nosey need to know!

Taking can you tell us what an evening meal would be please?

Yep taking am very curious too.

And me