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?

Mine above includes EVERYTHING! Including all top up bits and pieces and toiletries, cleaning etc.

It doesn't include kids lunches though as they have school meals at £20pw for the 2 of them. I know packed lunches are cheaper and I go through phases but hate making them.

The reason it looks unattractive is because they dont spend a fortune on marketing experts to tempt you to spend more, like they do in Asda!

The labels are not any you will recognise but for the basics they are usually around the same price as the own brand/value brand stuff but much better quality. I just bit the bullet one week and went for it, it was fantastic!

Their free range chickens for example are massively cheeper than at Asda et al

Zukiecat, I very occasionally do lidl and it is not a pleasant experience. I hate the way they shove your shopping at you at the end and find it quite stressful. These are not places for an enjoyable experience, they are places to save money.

We have no asda within 18 miles eithe otherwise I'd go there, it is big Tesco, small waitrose or very small lidl. Tesco is the only one where you can get everything you need.

Thank you -- that looks really easy.

Just back from Aldi and Sainsbury's (1hr 45mins of shopping) and £115 poorer. I think I saved about £10 by shopping in Aldi. £2 of that was mint and pea soup DH asked for (when I said buying stuff like that put the shopping bill up he said he would never eat pea and mint soup again then. Mature.)

A lot of the stuff I thought about not buying (orange squash and rocket lollies(20 for £2) was actually to feed passing children who end up in my kitchen.

I forgot green veg. But that was because the Aldi veg was, um, elderly.

I still go to tesco for somethings that you cant get at Aldi, but the main shop of bread, meat, veg, fruit, lunch stuff, cereal, tins, dairy (not milk, tesco does have the edge there!), cleaning stuff, toiletries bog roll and wine (!) all comes from there and saves a fortune.

I go to tesco for light bulbs, medicines, herbs and spices, any food stuffs that are a bit more specialist or unusual, birthday cakes, and my fruit juice as they dont sell pink grapefruit at Aldi!

Lynette why do men do that? I said that a particular thing that H likes was very expensive (alot more than £2!) and we couldnt really afford to buy it all the time and he said the same "oh dont bother then, I will just never have it again.....moan moan, mutter whinge whine...." bloody child.

So I took him at his word and have never bought it since! :o

I actually dont mind not packing at the till in aldi, I dont have to stand in the que for ages and if I've only got a couple of items people often offer to let me go in front of them. That never happens in sains or asda.

DH told mil aldi beans are better than heinz, she wont have it though. I ran out of them ages ago and he had heinz, then said these are shit dont run out of beans again.

Lidl do the best orange shower gel.

Oh, are you not supposed to pack at the till at Aldi? So that is what the people faffing near the exit are doing, and why the checkout lady chucked everything in my trolley?

Yep, that would be it Lynette :o

They have minimal till staff so they have to work fast to keep the queue moving and they charge for bags. Its all designed to keep costs to a minimum.

I agree the Aldi beans are better!

We spend about £50 a week for a family of 4. We cook from scratch a lot and don't expect to eat meat at every meal or not very much of it if we do.

bogeyface I think my problem is I buy organic (and sustainably caught wild fish rather than anything farmed or netted). I need to get over it! Also the animals only eat the stupidly priced IAMS stuff. And we don't drink tap water as we have a lead mains pipe.

It's about £150 a week for the basic organic delivery (meat, eggs, milk and veg - we eat steak once a week, and wild salmon once a week so those come in at some expense), then about £100 top up from Waitrose for washing powders, shampoos (ah, they are a fortune), animal food, smoothies, Perrier, jams, pates and salamis, sauces (mayo, ketchup, bearnaise), loo roll, crisps, cereal, chocolates, light bulbs, batteries etc And about £50 a week on breads, cheeses and fresh fruit from local stores. It just comes to a lot! It used to be £350 a week so i was proud of my economies until I came on this thread....

The stupid thing is that we are all a bit thin so I obviously don't buy enough. I admire anyone who can shop on £120 a week so, OP, YANBU

Its special because the quality is very good but the price is value cheap.

A friend ( food buyer) told me that the quality is exceptional for the price.

How do they do it?
Less overheads, less choice, they only sell the top three of each product. They usually just have a good, better and best for each line. Your not paying for shelf space that is not working hard.
Less staff, but they pay well.
Good margin mix, less brands =higher margin.

God i don't work for them btw, just think they are a great offering in the stupid ( rip off) supermarket world.

Thats aldi btw, lidl i fell is grubby :-(

Bottled still water is 99p for 8 litres at Aldi is that a good price for you Little? i only know as I bought some my office the other day!

I could take you through your list and give you 3 figures of savings right now! But......can you afford the amount you spend? And are you happy with what you eat?

If so, then stick with it. If not, then maybe put up your average shop on here and let the skinflints experts give you some ideas :)

Oh, meant to say, are you eating enough carbs? There seems to be alot of protein in your diet and veg, but you dont mention spuds, rice, pasta, couscous etc. That may be why you are all on the skinnier side of healthy. Maybe have a couple of meat/fish free meals a week but with bigger portions of carbs?

Rainyday put it brilliantly.

And I agree that Lidl feels grubby. I cant say why, it just does :o

I spend £70-£80 per week for 2 adults and 2 children (who eat loads)

Usually online at sainsburys but am finding waitrose much cheaper and get more for my money. Plus their value range is good and they price match with tesco Et al.

I usually go to 99p stores once per month and stock up on things like lunchbox fillers such as fruit stars or fruit hearts, mini packets of puff crisps (20 per pack), croissants, any toiletries, cleaning stuff and bog roll. Usually spend around £20-25. This is deducted from the above.

I still can't grasp how people manage on £50 per week, obviously I understand in needs must situations but is that before or after the recent price increases.

We spend about £175 per week with occasional top up like a bag of rocket, but rarely anything over a fiver. This doesn't include any toiletries.

We hardly eat meat, I normally buy 1 chicken per week, just for dh and he gets 2-3 meals out of that. Also possibly some turkey bacon but that's it. We also nearly always cook from scratch. It's only really things I buy for lunch boxes and the dcs friends which are processed.

We might buy a pack of beer, dh likes red stripe classy but that's dirt cheap and 1 maybe 2 bottles of wine. A magazine or 2, I do like branded products like cillit bang and dettol but I spread them out so it's not all at once.

I think it must just be the sheer quantity, we're a family of 5 (inc 2 teens) but there are always extras at our table so I do tend to buy for about 7 or 8 people. But we rarely throw stuff away.

I just can't get over the £50.

We spend about £70/month total for two adults including toiletries but not alcohol (we buy this extra if we want some). This month I did splash out though and buy myself some posh shampoo instead of the usual cheap stuff as well.

I buy meat, cheese, yogurts, tins, snacks, etc...in Lidl ( prefer the quality of the meat there) and then veg from a local shop as and when we need it. We usually top up occasionally with other stuff throughout the month from Tesco Express or one of the local shops. Toiletries and household stuff is branded but from Poundland.

The types of dinners we cook are chicken/salmon/ paneer (homemade from milk) curries, chicken or chorizo stew/tagine, sausage casserole, potato curries, pasta with sausage or chorizo or chicken, chick stir fry, homemade pizza (DP does this this from scratch), salads, potato bakes.

We also take lunch to work most days which will be a sandwich with either ham and mustard, salmon and cream cheese or salami and rocket, plus a bag of crisps. I sometimes make flapjack or cakes (when I'm not feeling lazy). I sometimes will have leftovers instead of a packed lunch for lunch.

I'm not sure how we do it to be honest. This is our 'paying off debt' budget for food. In a couple of months we will up it to £100 which will mean we will have. Few more snacks things like peanuts in e cupboard, bit more fish, greater variety of cheese.

Lidl wine is lovely
forgot to say I do an approved foods order every 3 months - bloody brilliant .DH loves it and gets miffed if it arrives when he is at work !
Last order spent £80 for about £190 worth of stuff !

But if you only had £50 then you would learn to manage. You wouldnt bother with cleaning products, just a bottle of bleach and some washing up liquid, you dont actually need a "streak free shine"

And for £50 a week you could have porridge for breakfast, pasta or rice salad for lunch and baked potatoes with beans, or veggie shepherds pie etc for dinner.

Do you not find homemade paneer expensive to make for what you get Green?