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!

do you make a list and stick to it when you shop?
i agree mealplan (at least roughly)
use the freezer
shop more seasonally (no strawberries now!)
cheaper shops, I find sainsburys expensive.

I make a list, go to aldi first. tesco to finish off. saves ££

Yes our Sainsbury's suddenly seems super expensive.

Also OP make sure you aren't buying stuff from convenience shops eg garages. They are extortionate.

also look at labels, £ per kilo or whatever. does it HAVE to be childs farm?? thats ££

do you cook fromscratch? or convienience?
do you buy ready sliced onions etc? or just an onion? convienience you pay more.

whats the waste like in the house?

Things from Tescos/Morrisons/Sainsburys at a push:
Maris Piper potatoes (lidl and aldi are always full of black)
Nescafe espresso instant coffee
Esoteric baking stuff when needed ie proper vanilla paste
Sainsburys ready made pizzas (the only ones my dcs will eat)

Get everything else from Lidl.

OP has just stated upthread this page:
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.

Gone over to aldi too. I was using Ocado because I’d had reliability problems with other supermarket deliveries but it was mounting up for just basic stuff like you say.

I have to plan the time to go to Aldi but it’s better than halved the bill.

Order online with Asda and have it delivered. Or even just go on and put your usual shop into an online page and see what the total comes to.

Sainsbury's is way too expensive for us.

Sainsbury's is expensive.

We're 2 adults and a toddler and spend £50 per week in Aldi. We eat spag bol, chilli, fish, chicken as dinners. Lunches are sandwiches, wraps or pittas. Breakfast is museli or eggs.

Meal plan and only buy exactly what you will eat.

...sorry her statement now previous page! Slow typing here...

How much are you using of things like toiletries and cleaning products?

We don't seem to spend much on those and they last ages but I read on here about people buying multiple shower gels, bleach, cleaning sprays etc etc each week and I wonder what on earth they are doing with them?

Also is there a cheaper own brand product similar to Child's Farm that's suitable?

Ouch - Sainsbury's!! What can you not get in Aldi that you can get in Sainsbury's? There might be alternatives that you can try.

Also, agree with QforCucumber. Buy 9 toilet rolls if you're buying 2 packs of 4, there's a small saving. And then every 9 weeks you would have the bonus of not needing toilet rolls because you've had one left over each week.

PP mentioned bar soap as well - brilliant saving. I have a pump dispenser of liquid antibacterial soap in both the kitchen and bathroom, but for general washing and handwashing I've switched to bar soap.

Another thought - check you're using the right amount of product in your washing machine for the load size. You can also do this with household cleaning products, and limit your general chemical use. Washing up liquid is pretty multipurpose, so for instance you shouldn't need a degreaser as well. Use sprays or bar soap with colour coded cloths instead of disposable wipes.

Also thinking about cereal - these can be expensive for very little nutrition and can lead to extra snacking. We generally alternate between porridge and Weetabix with banana or apple. I change the porridge up between plain, a dash of vanilla essence, a sprinkle of cinnamon, a teaspoon of chocolate powder, a drizzle of honey or a teaspoon of jam for a treat. Still contains far less sugar than most cereals and makes it a bit more interesting.

What snacks are you buying? Flapjack with raisins in is pretty cheap to make, goes a long way and is delicious. Far more nutritious than shop bought if you choose your recipe carefully, and takes minutes. Similarly, muffins are a great choice and you can pack them with fruit - perfect for using up fruit past it's best - or even veg. Flour, butter, a teaspoon of paprika with a small handful of mature cheese or a squirt of tomato puree with basil make lovely savoury biscuits. 5 minutes prep and 15 minutes in the oven.

Post your receipt on here?

We have a similar meal plan.. Inc meat every day with maybe 1 freezer type dinner
Lunches.. Pasties etc for dh..and he has a very sweet tooth.. I won't say how many cakes and choc he eats a week but you'd be shocked.
We buy lots of brands and it's never more than 80 a week in tesco
£10 of that is fruit alone

When I can be arsed to do Aldi it's around 55.

Something else to look at if you stick with Sainsburys OP is making the best use of your nectar points.

I think if you look in the app, you can get a lot of extra points by opting in to special offers. You can then double up during the November offer, or at least use them to get money off your bill.

Of course a much bigger saving would be gained by changing to a cheaper supermarket and/or reviewing what you buy.

I popped. In sainsburys yesterday.
Something for. Lunch.. A cake treat (child free day to chill) some Bleach and loo Roll and a couple of other bits.. £27! It was a basket..
It's so expensive

Canned soup is expensive. Buy a soup maker and make your own. Eh. Cook a few lentils then chop half a small onion throw in soup maker with lentils and a tin of plum tomatoes and water and it will cook and blend for you. Cost about £0.80 to make soup for 5 or 6. Also 1 potatoe and 1 leek and 1 carrot, also makes lovely soup. Add a few dried herbs for extra flavour. We have with a French stick for lunch in winter. It is nutritional and filling. Cost £0.75 feeds 5 or 6.

Another cheap meal is a cheese and tomato pasta bake. 2 tins of plum tomatoes and chop up 2 motzarella balls. Cook pasta, add to large baking dish then add bread crumbs on top and bake for 40 mins. Cheap but delicious. You could make this for everyone for less than cost of bag of chicken strips. Add frozen mixed veg. Cost £2

Macaroni cheese is another very cheap meal. Make cheese sauce them cook macaroni mix in large oven dish. Add breadcrumbs to top and bake. Add frozen peas. Cost £2

Cut back on snacks like crisps and choc biscuits with little nutritional value and high cost instead offer child carrot sticks and sultanas.

And aldis toiletries are great. Between dh and ds they use a shower gel in 2 days.. Dh hadms a very dirty job so uses lots. It's 50p apposed to. Min £1 a bottle.
They use aldi version of head and shoulders.. Its huge and I think around 70p? I can't remember as about once a month a do a massive stock of it.

What are the items you can't get from Aldi or Lidl?

Some people's absolute basics are other people's luxuries.

For example I'd regard liquid soap, shower gel and bubble bath as unnecessary. There is this old-fashioned thing called soap, which comes in cakes.

We were skint when my daughter was small and used terry nappies. Disposables were only for outings/holidays. This saved a small fortune.

I shop mainly at Lidl - there is very little need to do a top-up shop as all essentials are there. Meat and veg are much cheaper than at more upmarket places and the quality is fine. There are also plenty of special offers.

It can also work well to go to street markets, greengrocers and independent butchers. We often buy boned out shoulder of lamb from the butchers, divide it up and put it in the freezer.

Cooking from scratch is always cheaper - and more nutritious than buying convenience food. There are plenty of books and YouTube videos about easy meals that are quick to cook.

Some people like to eat meat every day, but it saves a lot of money if you eat some vegetarian meals. Pulses are particularly cheap.

Agree with meal plan and shop online. On the rare occasion I do a shop in store, it costs a bloody fortune as I just chuck stuff we don't really need in. We've just overhauled our food budget as we were spending in excess of £100 a week plus several visits to the local convenience shop. We are now down to £80 a week for a family of three and no visits to local shop, which I'm happier with. Plenty of fruit and veg and home cooked meals most of the time (we do have a pizza at weekends ) In fact, our meals are quite similar to yours - we tend to have stuff like spaghetti bolognaise, tuna pasta bake, fish cakes, fajitas.

If you do it online, you can keep a much tighter control over the cost and also easily see cheaper alternatives and own brand stuff. ) And if you're popping to local stores to top up during the week then stop. I instituted a Co-Op ban when I realised how much we were spending on crap.

What on earth do you eat that costs £170 a week?!?

lol I feed 6 people on 60/70 a week purely because that’s all I have. It wouldn’t go far in Tesco or Sainsbury’s Aldi has been amazing and I can buy much more. I just think people waste a lot of money. I buy 4 toilet rolls a week the only thing I buy elsewhere is washing powder a massive box £11 lasts a month. And we eat well and healthy - my boys have packed lunches and I have lunch stuff in for me to take to work or have when I’m at home. So you could spend a bit more and buy nappies in bulk to save you going to Sainsbury’s so often.

1. Fruit is expensive, especially out of season! Have a look at a seasonal eating website and try to meal plan around that.

1. Meat is expensive -- try to aim for a couple meat-free days a week. It's also one of the best things we can do as individuals environment-wise.

1. I also wonder if your non-food shopping is a big part of your bill. It may be cheaper to get all this somewhere else.

Also have a look at My Supermarket. It'll show you how much your shop will cost with the various supermarkets for the same stuff. Sainsbury's is always a good £15-20 higher than Tesco or ASDA when I check it.

Are you buying brands - like Yeo Valley yogurts etc? Those things are extortionate, and Sainsbury’s is expensive at the best of times.