Food is expensive

[goldenorbspider]

Went to aldi got few bits for the week and not a big shop for me and one infant. Spent £40 and it's not even a big shop. What do people do to save money on food? I can't imagine spending much less. I know it would cost waay more at other supermarkets.

We shop at Lidl or ALDI and if we try and keep the shop cheap by sticking to veggie meals etc our shopping is about £55, if we're not penny pinching it can be £75.

We're two adults, a toddler and a 13 year old who's with us not quite half the week.

Jesus, some of you would die at our food shopping bill.
After our mortgage, food is our next biggest expense, as it should be (IMO).
I was fed crap as a child, I’m still alive of course but I sacrifice things so we can all eat well, this means good quality meat not a chicken for £2 - what kind of life has that animal lead for it to be profitable for a farmer (factory basically) at £2?
There are some people who genuinely can’t afford to have the same morals and principles and I do understand. My mum can’t believe that I won’t buy the cheapest of everything like she does saying she can’t afford it when she has 5 holidays a year - she prioritises where she spends her money and food isn’t it.
But for us it’s a big priority and we make the time and effort to cook from scratch every day unless we are going out to dinner.
We eat largely a meat based diet 5 dinners a week and then veggie or fish the other 2 nights.

I always look out for the reduced stuff - anything I can put in the freezer for a meal later in the week is great. Find out when the food stores reduce their stuff. On Sunday I got some reduced chicken which I know I will use for a curry.

Ps. The Smart Recipes app has some really nice veggie recipes which are cheaper and yummy. I’m a huge fan of the lentil and dumpling veg casserole and it’s ideal for using up leftover veg.

(1) that seems quite a bit of decent food for £40 OP

(2) I have most definitely bought both frozen ready meals and jar sauces in supermarkets in Spain!!

Sainos was the cheapest supermarket of the big 4, which I was unsure about, but tbh I find it better for us than Aldi (don’t have Lidl locally) as I have allergies to cater for and aldi free from is Tiny or inconsistent and expensive and fine too many other bits filled with fillers (kids yog etc) and was surprised sainos wasn’t any more expensive and had a bigger frozen section which made veg way more effieceint for us aswell as more fairtrade and less plastic

@Boredbumhead I’d say that unless you’re feeding a family of 10 you’re buying way too much food for a week, that could last a fortnight in which case you’ve already halved the cost :) am I right in thinking a lot of that food doesn’t get eaten and is still in the freezer : cupboard after Sunday? If so your total isn’t for a weeks food but for more. Also if that’s the case don’t do that every single week, you’ll end up with an empty bank account and lots of untouched food at home xx

I usually end up spending quite abit on 'junk' food when shopping instore as I have a habit of picking up anything and everything I see (0 self control) so found this website online which has cheap food:

www.cutpricebarrys.co.uk

most of the crisps/biscuits/sweets/chocolates/drinks are ordered online so my weekly supermarket only consists of the essentials - fruit/veg/meat/dairy items etc which has cut down my weekly costs huuugely!