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?

Aldi toothpaste is 49p, trixie. Not sure it's the same as sensodyne but it's a perfectly serviceable minty flouride toothpaste.

And if you were local to me and you spent £8 on milk in Aldi, you would get 32 pints, rainyday...

Aldi is quite simply cheaper than the competition in my area.

85p for 2 litres in Aldi. I buy 4 jugs and pop back for a couple more mid week. Ds's swimming is next to Aldi so makes sense. Our corner shop charges 1.45 for the same milk.

A lot of the cheaper toothpastes have higher flouride content.

The only cleaning items we buy are wipes, the tesco own brand, dishwasher tabs which are bought when they are half price and stored, bleach, washing up liquid and laundry liquid, no fabric conditioner or other weird antibacterial sprays, no horrible room smelly things or things that go in the rim of the loo. There is some bathroom cleaner knocking about but it doesn't need replacing very often.

We are obviously a bit grim but hand on heart the only time we get dodgy tummy is when we are abroad and I can count the number if times thendc have been sick or had runny poo on one hand so it's clearly not terrible not to furiously antibacterial everything, we don't have animals though.

And rather embarrassingly my dc think melon is a massive treat, fruit is always seasonal here ahem. And they aren't allowed to just eat it as they want.

We do have quite a fixed routine, just because of work and school and clubs and the like, are we unusual?

Yes i do buy that much!!!! Two preschoolers though and osteoperotic in the house.
Milk bloody monsters here.

A lot of wine i could have for that money. Sounds unbelievable i know, sadly not.

Well you really really need to get to Aldi in that case, rainy!

StressedHEmummy can we please have your savoury bread and butter pudding recipie.... Sounds Yum! And I need to try and get us eating more veggie meals and as DH loves b and b pudding this might be a good start?

Just on the toiletry/bathroom front with two teenagers we go through this - every month:

Two tubes toothpaste (their bathroom)
Three shwr gels
At least 2/3 bottles shampoo and 1/2 of conditioner
At least one anti-perspirant
Clearasil (buckets of the stuff - well about 4 items)
Hair mousse
Hairspray (yes the 17 yr old boy
Listerine - at least a bottle - we think he's snogging
At least one bottle of bleach
One spray cleaner for the bath/shower
12 loo rolls

And DS is sporty and I do at least 9 washes a week - and DS and DH are allergicy so only Persil non bio will do.

It's the sheer volume - it seems "industrial" now they are growing up. Takingiteasy - your shepherds pie wouldn't touch the sides here - they would be complaining about seconds and hungry again in an hour. They are hungry again in a hour anyway.

whispers

Dosen't sound sound too much to me OP.I would buy cheaper cleaning things etc but not meat or eggs.

My weekly shop has gone up from £60 to £80 -90 in the last eighteen months. I have hardly changed what I buy - have stopped buying nappies and buy a bit more Quorn and/or fish. Stuff has gone up massively. There are 4 of us.

I have tried Aldi/Lidl but came out as a similar price to Tesco. Have been using Sainsburys as they have given me £10 off vouchers but will be back to Tesco now they have run out.

I do shop at aldi!!

I love aldi. The only way to cut my milk bill would be to steal from the neighbours!!

And before anyone says get a cow, i keep hens and they cost more than eggs if you really factor the true costs in.

Re toothpaste. Never been to an Aldi but HomeBargains stock all of the colgate types for less than a £1 and they also do pearldrops for less than a £1 which is about £4 in Tesco.

married just out of interest- do your teenage DCs earn anything or receive pocket money?

I expected mine to buy their own toiletries- eg shower gels and spot creams etc- if they were able to.

Having said that you can get shower gels as cheap as chips so it's not a big dlea- but mine used to get so much for birthdays and Xmas that it didn't figure in my weekly shop.

Sorry, rainyday! Quite a busy thread and I didn't clock that you're already an aldifan.:)

I found Aldi toothpaste very wierd - my teeth felt furry
My teenagers have weekend jobs and pay for all their own smellies and enjoy doing so ~ leaving me in a cloud of Lynx
I do do the odd top up shop at Aldi- very good value but I couldnt do my whole weekly shop there .

Oh yes I fully expect my boys to eat me out of house and home as teens! Just now ones happy with half portions and the other with a boob!

It's really worth looking out for offers- I got 3 Colgate pumps worth £3 each @ 3 for £3 with a Tesco offer a while back.

I always look at the special offers- recent buys are extra virgin olive oil at half price- I buy even if we don't need it now.

I don't skimp on meat- if we have shepherds pie then it's low fat lamb mince or Aberdeen Angus minced steak- - no point buying cheaper fatty mince as you end up throwing half of it down the drain when you brown it and the fat runs off.

I used to be like that teapig but as time's went on I've used more and more from Aldi and now dread setting foot in Tesco. When I was pregnant I started avoiding it due to the sheer size of it! Now the choice actually overwhelms me and don't get me started on the infuriating price changes. Its no wonder people's shopping varies wildly when the price of one thing can double overnight.

Takeieasy- have you thought of doing an online Tesco shop? I'm a recent convert. I pay £3 for delivery but save more than that compared to shopping at Waitrose and an 8 mile round trip to get there. I'd never set foot in tesco but online is great.

assuming you have 1 or 2 kids rather than 6... yes you could cut down from over 100 a week.

I'd be surprised if a veg box and meat box saved you money - UNLESS you are already buying premium priced meat/ veg.

I've just done a large shop at Lidl - 75 quid. for the previous 2 weeks its been in the region of 30 quid, next week I would expect in the region of 30 quid, but this week I needed to stock up on tins and flour and BBQ stuff. Admittedly I have a garden that is now supplying most of our salads.

DH leaves me to do the shop, every now and again he HAS to do it and he hates it with a passion, so I get on with it in peace and he has the boy.

The thing is though now I just don't like Tesco. For what I spend on things in Aldi I'd be buying the value equivalent in Tesco and the difference in quality is huge. Aldi stuff is priced like the value but, to me, resembles the store or brand products.

I dont do tesco - total rip off !
Totally agree on their price changes.
I have veg/fruit box, meat from local butcher and top up at sainsburys.
I did go to local Co-op for milk and wine tonight and got gorgeous Irresistible range steak and red wine pies reduced fom £2.78 to ...70p each.
Also got 2 tarts not quiches they are those big posh goats cheese,olive and red onion ones reduced down to £1 - now in the freezer .

Agree taking and Tesco are totally unethical in the way they treat their suppliers.
Aldi is like shopping when you go on holiday and then you get all the fab random stuff in the middle ! DH loves it and I have to drag him away

Also overwhelmed by big supermarkets. I do not need to choose from 50 bottles of olive oil for example

I recall using a calculator to determine the best deal on wheatabix once. There were about 4 different options on the branded ones alone! Stupid.