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?

I know you can - it was still more expensive! I would much prefer to do it online, really, but not at those prices.

£120 is not completely ridiculous when you are feeding 4 - two of which are teenagers and have hollow legs and eat man sized portions.

Some of you on here only have little ones and that's fair enough but when you have pack-ups to do for 4 five x a week when the boys have as much as everyone else then the shopping bill is going to be higher.

Mine on average (without wine/beer as we buy this in bulk) is around £150 per week.

Youbroke. Computer, toys, medical equipment.

I wonder about portion control as well, my sister thinks I starve my family but I stick to the recommended portions mostly, like with pasta etc

Bold. How can it be more expensive if its the same offers?

BIWI - I love love love shin beef - makes the most amazing stews and it is fab for making a meat pie - really tender meat.

Fair enough poopoo, I must admit then whenever the batteries run out in toys they don't get replaced, by then they have normally grown out of them anyway. They are generally Things That Make Noise too.

I spend less online because I'm not putting random items into the trolley. I go through 'my usuals' and then add whatever extra stuff I need which is usually only 2 or 3 things.

We spend about #50 a week for 3 people and a small dog but its hard work as it does mean going to different shops and running to the Morrisons 5 minutes walk away at the end of the day when they reduce lots of things to 19p including bread then freezing it. We got some Morrisons Finest Ravioli with mushrooms reduced from 2.49 to 19p the other day and there's enough in each bag for 2 people so they went in the freezer.

We do a meat free day each week this Mondays will be Felafel with pitta, salad and wedges. It'll cost around 1.20 per person. We make our own everything as well as much as I can. I have a cookbook called the takeaway secret which has recipes for pretty much anything you might grab as a takeout at around 1/3 of the cost of a take out.

It can be done but it takes dedication.

I find if I buy at Lidl I can do a weekly shop for about 70.

At Sainsbo or Tesco it would be 135

At waitrose 150

shocking but true.

Youbroke. Mine have a few noisy toys they are obsessed with!

Aldi is much better cost wise and it doesn't mean you have to eat processed food, especially if you go to a proper supermarket once every couple of weeks to stock up on things like herbs, proper cheese, or whatever.

Our last shopping trip to aldi cost £38 and did not include nappies, which we buy in the huge boxes for £20 approximately once every 3 or 4 weeks.

[shivers at the memory of the phonics bus]

I spend about £80 a week in total on food and toiletries, including 4 school dinners. There are 4 of us - 2 adults plus Dds 13 and 10. I shop mostly in Sainsbury and don't meal plan. It varies a bit but approx £50 weekly Sainsbury shop, £10 school dinners, £20 top-up shops at Sainsbury or Tesco.

Someone up above (forgive that I forget) mentioned a lack of ethnic shops for spices etc. May I commend, to those of you that have a Chinese supermarket nearby, the huge variety of Chinese packet noodles (less than 40p for many of them, taste like a whole different world to the British noodles you get in British supermarkets, take less than 3 minutes to prepare and are perfect for a quick and tasty snack for hungry teenagers.)

Also the Chinese cooking pastes - Lee Kum Kee in particular who do a brilliant jar of chilli and garlic paste (two tablespoons in a saucepan with a tin of Basic kidney beans and some of my famous tomato sauce and you have gorgeous vegetarian chilli in two minutes. (Their Black Bean and Garlic sauce is much the same - keep the jar in the fridge and add 2 tbsps to some green peppers and whatever meat you found on the cheap counter - meat and black bean in 3 minutes.)

And anything else you fancy on the shelves.

For those who don't have a Chinese supermarket on the doorstep, you can buy the stuff at the same prices online just paying for shipping. My favourite ships 25kg for about £8.50 to mainland UK - which is one heck of a lot of produce so works out extremely reasonable. And they accept Paypal so you can sell a few things online and use the proceeds to stock up.

I'm going to try ASDA or Lidl one of these weeks to see if it works out cheaper. Usually it's Sainsbury for the weekly shop as I have an hour to kill right next door to it on Sat mornings while dd2 is at an activity.

I don't spend £120 for a family of 6, 3 cats 1 dog and 8 guinea pigs!
We are veggie though so no expensive meat, and luckily everyone loves pasta so that's a good cheap meal 2-3 evenings a week.

cozietoesie We have a big Asian supermarket by us which I assumed was only for trade people (looks like a cash and carry). My friend has informed me that their veg is dirt cheap as well their meat. That may be worth a try. Parking at it is awful though!

It probably goes to show that there are bargains if you instead of being brainwashed into getting it all from the supermarket.

Oh I think you'll find they'll allow you to buy - give it a try. If it's an Indian supermarket they'll carry slightly different stock but you might still find the noodles and sauces I talked about above (there's some overlap) and they'll also have good non-Chinese stuff.

People need to start considering Aldi! I went last week and got a trolly full for £52.

Their fresh fruit and veg, meat and cheese is all excellent quality.
their chocolate digestive bics are as good as mcvities

Amazed at the amounts some people manage to live very well on, I will look up some lentil recipes. I am a big noodle fan and kids love ginger garlic and onion with noodles, I often add peppers and prawns or chicken which puts cost up, I think they'd be happy with noodles tbh. DD2 won't eat mince and DD1 has dairy intolerance so I make everything from scratch including bread and haven't found it keeps bills down at all. I do get yoghurts, alpro soya deserts, organix goody bars, fruit stars etc which puts the price up a lot.

I always buy british meat from Waitrose or Morrisons, going slightly off topic I couldn't put Holland reared pork chops from Tesco in my trolley the other day as I have a vague idea animal welfare is better in the UK - I may be mistaken and it's just awful everywhere :(. What is the meat at Aldi, Lidl etc like? I do buy meat on offer and freeze.

I've also marvelled at the range and price of speciality cheese in Waitrose, the fact they stock it means someone must buy it.

The problem that I found with Lidl/Aldi is that I couldn't get everything I needed in there so then ended up in asda for the rest and only ended up saving about £5. Still a saving but not a massive one. If I'm having to faff around with different shops I want to be saving at least £10 to £20.

cureall The meat in Aldi/Lidl is very good quality but didn't find it hugely cheaper than asda though.

Recently switched to Aldi for most things and the savings are huge - cereal and biscuits just as good as branded and half the price. Ditto with washing powder and Nappies. They are still a bit limited with fresh produce so we do our shop then pop to Sainsburys after for anything we can't get. Also - farm shop for veg, and I mean proper farm shop on a farm not a posh farm shop / deli.

Cure all, I won't buy non free range pork nor non organic chicken, this is the reason we don't eat much meat but I do buy non organic lamb mince and
liver as long admit is ukbased as there isn't that much they can do to sheep.