To think it's really hard to spend less than £100 per week on groceries

[Myplateiswhite]

I have a family of 4 (one in nappies). I have shopped around at all the major super markets and cannot ever bring our weekly grocery bill in under £100. We are all veggie although do eat fish and this cost covers 3 meals a day plus cleaning products, toiletries etc.
I don't think we eat anything particularly extravagant, maybe fish twice a week plus some prawns or salmon for lunch a couple of times a week. Rest of the time it's veggie meals mainly from scratch.

Genuinely don't know where I'm going wrong. I'm interested in what you spend and also what meals you make?

Those of you buying coconut milk should try the block creamed coconut.

Costs less than a pound for a block that is equivalent to four tins of coconut milk. Just mix with boiling water and you can also make coconut cream by adding less water.

If you can't get to Aldi or Lidl, you can save a lot by stocking up on offers on non perishables so that you never pay full price. Works well for things like laundry detergent, coffee, toilet rolls, tinned food, tea bags. Just watch the offers on the things you buy. Be flexible with brands etc - don't just buy 'your' brand - choose the cheapest/best offer as you see them.

I think YABU on the OP mainly because the cost of food is so cheap on the UK Mainland. Here in Jersey one of our cheapest supermarkets is waitrose and the manager of our 'Tesco' (franchise) has whacked loads on the price of even tesco value stuff.

Out of interest does anyone use frozen berries? My DC love berries but they add ££££ to my shop and while I cook with frozen veg I've been hesitant to try frozen fruit as I imagine it goes soft and soggy to eat raw?

Out of interest does anyone use frozen berries?

depends on what you use them for.

in baked goods (DP likes to make muffins with berries), they are fine. in smoothies they are fine. But I imagine if you want to eat them like normal fruit they wouldn't be. when they reach room temp they are soft.

My dc eat defrosted frozen berries, but they have more the consistency of tinned fruit because they have juice.They like them with thick natural yoghurt like Langley Farm and toasted almonds. Or good in smoothies, muffins etc.

Can you get frozen berries without strawberries? (Sorry if that's a daft q)

That's what i thought they like them fresh. Ah well!

We shop at Lidl and our weekly spend there is about €100, or £75. But we top up during the week too, which probably gets us close to £100 most weeks. We couldn't reduce this easily without being very frugal.

This is for 2 adults and 2 teens (but not of the perpetually ravenous variety) eating most meals at home (DH and I both telework). DD is veggie but what we save in meat we probably spend on her various healthy eating obsessions ;)

So I don't think £100 a week is unreasonable really, unless your income absolutely requires you to make savings.

This is not meant to sound unachievable or braggy but I feed 2 adults, 2 14 year old girls and 3 toddlers for around £70 a week. All 3 toddlers are in nappies (1 only nights). I don't have any magic chickens!! I do meal plan and shop at waitrose and lidl. We don't have snacks, and have sandwiches and fruit for lunch and a big dinner with pudding. Wine roughly once a week. I think you could prob cut your bill a bit.

I bought a soup maker the other week. I don't have time to do the 'proper' soup route.

I love my meat but do enjoy vegetables very much. I do chicken amd mushroom which tastes better than the stuff I buy ready made. And make a lot of vegetable soups. Each 'pot' of soup can provide me with 4 or 5 meals. Very filling and tasty and the cost is low.

My kids have got very fussy and I have a lovely home made cake here probably going to be binned. I have food issues - can't bare the thought of them being hungry, using food as anything other than the fuel it should be, I had a bad food situation as a child, and I'm now feeling resentful. They would love meat very day, have all decided they don't like fish anymore, dd won't eat pasta other than spaghetti and I'm so tired I can't think straight. Should start a thread really.

I use frozen berries. I put them in muffins, blend for a milk shake type drink with milk, bananas and yogurt or they eat them semi/totally defrosted.

I was just about to mention the chickens! You can use the carcass to make soup after you have fed the street with it for 4 days

This still comes down to all value range, or all own brands or all branded goods. We could all eat for 12p a week if using value, no meat and no alcohol.

Since I've started shopping at Waitrose I spend less. Their essential range is very good, it's not the equivalent to 'value' lines, much better quality but reasonably cheap. Always offers on e.g. Packs of mince half-price at £2.59 and the same Lurpak/Flora deals as Tesco. Six free-range eggs £1. Fruit and veg last longer and taste better. I've cut down buying desserts, they were working out expensive - trifles, yoghurts, tiramisus etc. I only ever buy laundry products and paper goods on offer and if Waitrose don't have them and I'm desperate I go to Home Bargains. We are quite boring in our diet so I can imagine 'exotic' items ramp the weekly cost up.

I hear ya, SideOrder, I'm in Guernsey and friends in the UK can't believe I switched to Waitrose to save money, even with the inflated prices in the Channel Island stores.

Jack Monroe has been a god send to me, we have carrot and kidney bean burgers once a week. She did however work out that thw cost of the basic ingredients have gone up by 10% since she first published the recipe. Thats a lot on a weekly shop.

You must have better willpower than me then Doc .

We have a Waitrose and Aldi opposite each other and I've lost count of the times I have gone in Aldi and spent 30 quid on a trolley full of basics, followed by spending another 30 quid on a carrier bag of nice stuff from Waitrose.

You are right about the essential range being very good, but that mince at half price is more expensive than the equivalent best steak mince that I buy from the local naice farm shop.

I know the OP isn't buying meat, but farm shops and butchers can work out cheaper than supermarkets and is usually much better quality.

You can often get the cheaper cuts that are not always available in supermarkets or if you have a big freezer, buy in bulk - eg we have another farm shop that does rump steak at 2.50 a pound if you buy 10 pounds of the stuff. They have similar offers on chops, mince, chicken breasts and sausages. If you buy ten pounds in weight of anything, you save about a third on the already cheap 'per pound' price.

money saving tip for meat eaters, I buy chicken thighs now rather than breasts, much cheaper and just as tasty in casseroles etc

Frozen own brand veggies (stir into or steam over rice) comes at less than a quid for a kilo.

Own brand pulses, beans and chickpeas - sometimes 30 p a tin. Bulks out chillies and make great protein additions to salads.

Own brand chopped tomatoes comes at 20 p a tin even. Use for pastas and curries.

Bulk buy spices from Indian grocery stores once a year. Great curries, for a fraction of supermarket spice prices in fancy glass jars.

Own brand rice, lentils, onions, garlic, broccoli, courgettes, lemons, cooking oils, aubergines, bananas, any fruit which has a peel.

Own brand frozen white fish are perfectly okay.

If you've got a window sill - stick a box with compost in to grow mustard greens and cress all year round to top salads made with canned beans, rice, chickpeas.

We do all this. The only things I "splurge" on is organic meat which isn't eaten more than twice a week. And organic dairy which is a glass a day for each of us. Al rest is largely own brand, and cooked from scratch.

I'd have a hell of a job to spend £100 a week, every week unless I was filling the trolley with crap, just me and 2 teenage boys at home (who probably wish I was buying crap)

Try having a few nights a week when you do a cheap dinner. Omelette and salad / jacket spuds and beans / scrambled eggs on toast.

Oh also -

Online shopping done after dinner one day a week. Best prices, offers, do it on a full tummy with a meal plan in hand

Get whole large fruits like melons, pineapples, bananas etc from weekly market in the weekends. Also veg like aubergines cheaper there.

Chicken thighs not breasts, also contain more iron than breat meat, and much more flavoursome for curries, or for oven based dishes or casseroles. Dries out much less. In fact I find breast meat quite useless unless recipe specifically calls for it.

Have a cabbage handy to shred for stir fries.

Eggs, eggs, eggs. They are a complete protein. Get six free range eggs for a quid. Great to make hearty tasty meals - Spanish omlettes which will feed dinners and generate leftovers. Egg curries (boil eggs and treat as you would any meat for curries). We have egg based dinners twice a week.

Some standard dinners from focus focus kitchen-

Chilli bulked out with beans - very good for you makes four portions
Spanish omlette with loads of veg and potatoes - protein costs a quid for two portions and 1 lunch
Egg curry- two eggs each, great Indian dinner, bulk out with carrots and tatties
Piri piri chicken and wedges - giant tatty for wedges and 2 chicken legs. Awesome.
Fish delishy - can of tuna, 1 grilled salmon fillet, garlic, chilli oil all flaked and mixed into white rice. Serve up steaming hot in bowls. Go off to sleep shortly after.

Always have bags of frozen veg to steam or micro generously beside any of these meals. Glas of orange juice. Simples!

Don't people find with online shopping that there are always annoying substitutes and all your meat, fish, dairy, etc only has one day left until it goes off? I'm not one to really fuss about sell by (or even use by ) dates but when I'm in the supermarket I am free to rummage at the back of shelves for the fresher stuff

I prefer not to buy fruit and veg from the supermarket - there are so many stalls/markets (in London anyway) with so much stuff that is both better quality and vastly cheaper.