To be struggling to budget my food shopping

[Toomuchtooyoung01]

We are spending a crazy amount on food shopping each week and its not sustainable. We don't eat anything extravagant, are both teetotal at home so not spending anything on alcohol, toiletries wise we only buy the absolute necessary basics (shampoo/conditioner, shower gel, handwash etc) so its not like I'm filling the trolley with a £10 pot of this or a £10 tube of that, its really frustrating as we easily spend £150-£170 a week and I feel for that money we should either have alot more than we do or we should be spending alot less for the very normal, non flashy food/products etc we are buying.
The only brands we buy are Pampers nappies (large pack a week) and every few weeks I'll stock up on Childs Farm bubble bath etc when its on special offer! All food is own brand.
Breakfast is cereal or toast with fruit sometimes pancakes or brioche for DD or sometimes mini bacon sandwich. Usual meals are a roast, sausages with veg and mash, fishcakes with veg, one or 2 nights might have oven food (9 months with baby 2 so not doing as much cooking as would usually). Lunches are usually sandwich/tin of soup/DD has things like chicken gougons if not eating the same as me.
Typical food shop - fresh fruit (apples/bananas/strawberries/raspberries/ oranges) fresh veg (brocolli/carrots/potatoes), miscellaneous staples like houmous, yoghurts etc as well as meat mentioned when listing typical meals. I do often make a chilli/a large tuna pasta bake etc which theoretically should see us through for a few days but never quite does, as OH often comes home for lunch so will heat up a portion of this etc
Please can anyone offer advice on where I'm going wrong & how to make some savings?! Thanks!

There's no way you're shopping at Lidl or Aldi You'd get 3 huge shopping trolleys full for that!

I spend around £70 a week, food from Aldi, cleaning & cosmetics from HB or B&M, me and two primary aged constantly hungry little boys. I'm cutting THIS down to save for a holiday! (we really bloody need one this year!)

I shop for toiletries at b and m or somewhere similar. Fresh fruit and veg from aldi or lidl anything not used that week gets chipped and frozen. Frozen food tends to get bought from Asda where we do the rest of the shop or farm foods where I can use money off vouchers. I spend around £70 a week for a family of four although our kids are little but sometimes it can be as little as £30. We do a separate meat shop once every few month from the butchers and this is frozen and pulled out when needed. We are lucky to have the choice of a lot of different supermarkets all within a short distance of each other. I sometimes do the shop online at Asda and do a meal plan before I buy. The aim is to always make use of what I already have in. I also only do one shop a week, if you nip to the shops more than once a week you will inevitably spend more.

I agree with PP above.

My typical weekly shop is £100 for me, DH, DD(5), DS(18 months). Me and DS are both dairy, peanut and nut free, so that includes £30 of specialised products for us from Tesco - everything else from Lidl, a pack of nappies, all meals cooked from scratch (because of the allergies). Typical week of meals would be a roast, chilli/spag bol, a pasta bake, curry, fish cakes, burgers, sausages. Daily packed lunches for DH and DD. Lots of fresh fruit and veg - includes avocado as a staple for DS.

Your problems are likely:

1. Where you shop - choose Lidl or Aldi. My weekly shop for the four of us from Lidl without the allergies would be £65 tops.

1. Out of season products. Strawberries and raspberries are for spring/summer. Freeze or buy frozen berries at the end of summer to see you through winter months.

1. Not bulking meals with useful ingredients. A good handful of lentils in a mince dish or curry etc, chickpeas in a curry. Lentils, chickpeas, beans etc count as 1 of 5 per day (only 1 portion per day counts) are a good source of protein and fibre, and are cheap.

1. Portion control. Is anyone having seconds that they don't actually need (I have a habit of just having a bit more even though I'm full), or are you serving a little more than necessary and scraping it into the bin?

1. Food waste and meal planning. Are you throwing anything without using it - even a couple of apples here and there can add up? If yes, find a way to extend it's life. Eggs on the way out - hard boil them and they'll keep a couple more days. Bananas past their best - slice onto a baking tray and freeze, then pop them in a Tupperware or bag and they can be used from frozen for smoothies, or defrosted in a few minutes for baking. Are you planning your meals to incorporate things that need using up or to maximise the amount of food you get? For example, roast chicken, curry, a chicken sandwich or salad? You don't need to go full MN and do the roast, the curry, the casserole, the sandwiches, the stock - but spending a £1 or two more for a larger piece of meat can gain you an extra meal or two with careful planning.

Thanks for your replies! Shop at sainsburys,mainly as it's the closest supermarket to me, Aldi and Lidl are an extra half an hour away and after trying Aldi although I was impressed with the quality of food, I found I had to then go to a bigger supermarket as well to stock up on the things I couldn't buy in Aldi.
Sorry I should have been clearer, the £150-£170 is across two weekly food shops. So I would spend roughly £70-£80-£90 on each food shop. I go twice to get fresh fruit/veg/snacks/more toilet rolls etc, we just seem to run out of food so quickly!!!!

There is your answer, Sainsburys is expensive.

Sainsburys is expensive, but more toilet rolls? so a pack of 4 twice a week? It is things like that which bulk it up, a single pack of 9 once a week would be cheaper.

How much are you throwing away? Freeze bits, like half and onion chhopped up, left over celery. Put it together with wonky veg from the fridge to make a soup at the weekends.

Have a cheap meal once a week - jackets, or egg beans and chips.

Have a use it up night - where it's freezer lucky dip etc.

Freeze any left over portions to use up for lunches.

And yes, meal plan. I do it roughly. So if I buy brocolli and potatoes then I'm thinking what that will go with. If I know I've got prawns in the freezer I'll think of curry and what veg to go with it and then use the rest of it up in something else the next day.

A plan really really helps.

And fresh fruit can be really expensive depending on the time of year.

Regardless of how many times you shop spending that amount is ridiculous. Am I reading it right that it's for 2 adults and a small child? If so that's crazy, please do as you've been asked and post photos of some receipts

That seems a beyond bonkers amount of money.

It’s just me and DH and we spend between £40 and £50 a week. Whatever we have for dinner midweek we make enough for four and each take a lunch the next day which saves time and waste.

Agree with PP that meal planning is important and reducing meat. Can you have a jacket potato night? We do once a week and is cheap as chips - £1 for a bag of big potatoes and 23p each for a tin of Tesco baked beans. Easy as well as they just go in the oven on low for a few hours. Curries can be really cheap to make if you bulk them out with lentils , chickpeas and beans.

We always used to stock up on meat from the reduced section, freeze it all when we got home then incorporate it into next weeks meal plan.

And tell DH to batch cook his own chilli lunches for the week!

Do a big shop at Aldi/ lidl then buy what you cant ger there at sainsburys.

150 a week is what I spend on four of us, it actually doesn't go that far if you count 3 meals a day, fruit, snacks, toiletries and cleaning stuff.

I'm surprised at all the posters who are shocked.
I too find it easy to spend that amount. Shopping at Aldi. And a few bits from Sainsbury's. I meal plan and batch cook. Two ds's who eat an awful lot because of high intensity sports. I throw barely anything away. Rarely leftovers, but if there is I take it to work for lunch the next day.

Same here oblomov

Can't understand hew people could feed growing teens and two active adults for 50 a week!!

Meal plan
Shop on line
Buy in season fruit and veg, cheaper and saves on airmiles plus berries etc never taste good at this time of year.

Two adults, two kids here, kids and DH take packed lunch and we spend around £90-100 a week in Sainsburys and we eat really well. Certainly don't scrimp. That doesn't include alcohol as have a seperate delivery for that.

But the OP doesn't have two sons who eat a lot because of high intensity sports what an odd post.

@Toomuchtooyoung01

Can you clarify - you're spending £150 - £170 every fortnight. not every week? That's good, I doubt you'll get lower than that without serious compromise.

Its not in the slightest bit odd. Just as odd as anyone saying anything that is a tad different to the OPs situation!

Buying Pampers at Sainsbury's can't be cheap? I used to bulk order nappies from Boots - they'd deliver.

As others have said...
Simplify meals, and bulk them up with cheaper ingredients [Middle Eastern/Lebanese dishes are cheap, healthy and delicious - as is Indian vegetarian cuisine]
Meal plan based on what's in your cupboard and freezer
Eat less meat and fish
Forget about out of season produce
Separate toiletry spending from food

I’m not surprised at how much the OP spends Oblomov20, I’m just surprised at how much she spends for what seems like fairly basic, cheap food. We spend a similar amount (a bit less) but from the OP’s description I think we eat more ‘luxuriously’... lots of things like steak, sea bass, salmon, loads of fresh fruit and veg, we buy wine within our shop etc.

Buy Cooking on a bootstrap - Jack Monroe - really good tips in there. Also meal planning, eat more veggie meals as soooo much cheaper than meat/fish and try not to buy expensive out of season fresh fruits.
Also you don’t say where you shop but Aldi and Lidl could potentially save you a fortune!

What snacks and how much are they adding to your bill?

Unless you have no storage space whatsoever, toilet rolls are much cheaper in bulk, probably half the price if you see a bulk pack on a good offer. I don't think I've ever ran out of toilet roll or had to buy a small expensive pack of toilet rolls, because we always make sure we stock up on big packs and stash them under the bed etc.

Sainsburys is quite expensive for fresh food IME. No Asda or Morrisons near you if Aldi and Lidl are too far away? Have you tried home delivery if you can't get to cheaper supermarkets?

Way would you post to say I spend the same as the OP but my family is totally different to hers? That's got no bearing on the situation at all, of course someone with older and/or more children will spend more money.

There can't be many, if any, people who think that over £150 per week for 2 adults and one young child isn't way over the average spend.

National average for a family that size is probably around £70-80 pw, based on what Eat Well for Less say at the beginning of their programmes.

I think it's gone off air at the moment, which is the shame for the OP, as there's sometimes a few episodes on iplayer that she could watch to see if there's any clues as to where she's spending the extra.

I posted to say I could feed four hungry almost adults for the same amount, so the OP must be able to make some savings somewhere.

I am a very canny shopper though and an excellent meal planner.

Hold on - there's two adults and a baby? And you get through 8 loo rolls a WEEK?

sainsburys is an absolute rip off...dont know what happened to them but they lost me to aldi and I spend £70- a week as opposed to £130 a week.

There are maybe 3 items I need to get at sainsburys that I will pick up, and other things Ive learnt to adapt and go with Aldi.